Kia ora everyone! Our new dev blog is out - for all the juicy details, please hop over to our website read it. For those of you who want a summary (and believe me it is a summary), read on:

Crafting the UI

With city builders and other simulation games, the UI can often be a "make or break'' moment for them. MJ, Sam, and Tom have been working *very* hard for quite a while now to make it as slick and intuitive as possible. There's also been a massive effort put towards making the tutorial UI flow well, too. No screenshots yet, sorry ????

Writing the Tutorial

Wondering why I've been so quiet? Well, it's because I've been writing the tutorial for the game! I'm up to my third revision right now, and I'm writing it with all the feedback from BWL's tutorial in mind. It's challenging work, but it'll be very worth it in the end.

Making Kewa Shine

Tom, Isaac, and Rafał (our 3D artist in Poland), have been working their butts off to make Kewa look absolutely incredible. Since Kewa is so big, Tom has been putting a lot of thought into scaling the textures correctly. Isaac has also been working on developer tools to make Kewa aesthetically pleasing, too.

Pathfinding

Speaking of Isaac, he’s been working on Peep pathfinding too! Please note that he’s doing all of this while dealing with the exhaustion of being a new dad a second time around. What a legend.

Testing, One Two Three

- Nina has been making headway on playtesting Beyond These Stars with our friends and family, and assessing the data from those sessions. Some trends are starting to emerge, and I think I speak for the whole team when I say we’re VERY excited to learn her findings.

Planning and Performing

- Behind the scenes, Sarah has been the hardworking navigator of the BMG ship, tracking, planning, and steering us away from risky shores. She’s also been very active on TikTok, tracking trends and making content to bring people joy and information about us and our Very Cool New Game.

FINS

- We’re also attending the inaugural Festival of Interactive Narrative & Storytelling in Dunedin! I'm one of the speakers; hopefully the talk will be recorded so I can share it with you all. Thank you for reading! I’ll be back soon with another chonky news update for you all ❤ - Emily Community Manager