Welcome back, buds!
April has been one of those important months where things start clicking into place. We’ve settled deeper into our workflow for building the vertical slice, and with that, we’re seeing real progress in both level design, game performance, and how we approach the storytelling.
It’s one of those months where you start to feel: this is actually becoming a real game.
Sickness… but Still Progress
We might sound like a broken record at this point, but sickness is still widely apparent. This month our programmer was out for 10 days, which, in a two-person studio, is quite big.
That said… we’re still making solid progress.
Over the past month, we’ve worked on a range of improvements, both big and small:
- We’ve fixed a large number of bugs, including issues with Elevator Blocks in Metalworks and issues regarding the player movement and the use of abilities.
- Steps now has a working loading screen!!
- The camera controls have been improved so that the rotations can be continued mid-movement
- New ladder assets have been introduced that better communicate their purpose (so they’re hopefully no longer mistaken for fences!)
These may seem like small changes, but together they make the game feel more responsive, readable, and polished.
Making the World More Intuitive
We’ve also made some important changes to how players interact with the world.
Water blocks can now be entered freely. Without swimming abilities, the player will drown and respawn. This opens up more room for trial and error for the player, making swimming abilities feel more rewarding when unlocked later in the region.
Similarly, slopes have also been reworked. Previously, players would only slide down slopes without understanding why they couldn’t get on top of it. Now, both water and slopes clearly communicate their limitations through a visual “X” indicator and an animation that pauses the game, making it immediately clearer what’s possible and what’s not.
These changes are all about one core idea: to let the world show the rules, instead of telling the player directly.
A Huge Performance Boost
One of the biggest technical improvements in all of our development has been in performance this month.
Each level in Steps is built from a large number of block objects, and each one has carried its own code logic. By optimizing how these systems run (and removing unnecessary background processes), we’ve achieved a performance improvement of over 60%.
This is huge!
It means we now can:
- Reduce lag significantly, especially on older computers
- Build larger and denser levels
- Push the visual and mechanical complexity further
It’s one of those behind-the-scenes changes that players might not notice directly, but will absolutely feel.
Level Design Is Finally Ramping Up
After spending a long time refining systems and working within the Rivergreen biome, we’re now finally expanding properly into other regions.
So far, we’ve reached:
- A vertical slice level in both the Rivergreen and Sandlands biomes
- Two new levels in the Frostfield biome
- The first level in the Firevein Mountain biome
It’s taken time to get here. It takes time to figure out how a new biome functions with all its unique mechanics, but now we’re starting to see real momentum. And for the first time this period, we can actually glimpse the finish line.
Rethinking the Tutorial
This month also brought a major shift in how we will approach the tutorial of the game.
Our core idea has always been that every region could be selectable from the start, with each Level 1 acting as a tutorial for the game. It sounded great in theory, but in practice, it has limited us quite heavily.
For this idea to work, each “first level” of each region had to avoid introducing region-specific mechanics, because it might be the player’s first experience where only the core aspects of the game should be explored. That made level design restrictive and less interesting, where all “first levels” became kind of “reskins” of each other.
So we made the call to stop pursuing this idea and decided that Steps will only have one dedicated tutorial level at the start of the game.
This has resulted in that:
- Each region’s first level becomes a semi-tutorial, introducing the region’s unique mechanics instead.
- Levels now reflect their biome and identity at a much deeper level.
- The overall progression feels more natural and rewarding throughout each region.
It might sound obvious in hindsight, but we had to learn why “only one tutorial level” is the industry standard by trying to pursue something else first.
With this change, something even more exciting happened: the overall story started to fall into place! We won’t spoil too much, but the tutorial level may not be a “one-and-done” experience. There might be more to it than meets the eye…
Let’s just say that we’re very excited about where this is going!
Something Sounds… Different
Another big milestone this month is that we now have a complete set of custom sounds for Steps.
Working with our sound designer, Lisette Amago (check out her portfolio),has been an amazing experience, and we’re incredibly excited to start integrating these into the game. Sound plays a huge role in how a world feels, so this will bring Steps to life in a whole new way.
Lisette, thank you for being part of this journey!
We’re also planning to create a new trailer at the end of this project period, featuring the updated sound image. Can’t wait to share that with you!
Until Next Time
April has been one of those months where everything moves slightly faster forward than how it feels in the moment. Systems improve, ideas evolve, and the bigger picture becomes clearer.
With May, we’re now approaching the end of this project period. And now we’re starting to see our full vision of Steps coming together.
If you’re interested in testing the game, give your feedback or contact us in any shape or form, you can download a folder with the current build here. We’d love to hear what you think! You can also connect through our Discord server.
Thanks for being part of the journey so far. Seed you next month, buds!