Paper Trail - June / July 2023 Development Update
Author: Excoundrel,
published 1 year ago,
Hey everyone - we’ve been hard at work unfolding and refolding levels in Paper Trail as we absorb community feedback from playtesting - as a result, these updates are likely to become a little further apart. Fear not, you will still get regular updates…. just maybe not monthly… lets maybe call this the Paper Trail 6-7 weekly update?
This past month has been extremely busy - we’ve updated our game demos on Steam and PS5 (feel free to check them out!) and have been busy localising the entire game into 13 different languages. We’ve integrated Steam Deck support and introduced a BRAND NEW mechanic for our Ocean level which needed a bit of a revamp following community playtest feedback (we really do listen!). We’ve also hit 50, 000 Steam wishlists and are continuing to see more of our little game on influencer streams and in the press.
You can also find us on [url=https://twitter.com/NewfangledGames]Twitter (or do we call it X now?) [/url]where we post behind-the-scenes development content and keep everyone updated on our progress!
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/a6819ab6ca39682508d425c2f650641d0bb50071.png[/img]
[h1]Development[/h1]
[h2]New Steam Demo![/h2]
The demo we've had available on Steam has long been out of date, so we decided to coincide a new demo launch with the Future Game Show feature! This was much closer to our showcase demo and includes 4 worlds, brand new characters to interact with, Steam Deck and gamepad support, full localisation into 13 languages, and countless bug fixes and quality of life improvements.
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/d86bc7c8d80304f069c65b87b0fd67a0dff3e1cb.png[/img]
[h2]New PS5 Demo![/h2]
Sony requested a PS5 demo for them to showcase at Bitsummit! We'd previously provided a very old demo, so decided to update the PS5 demo for parity with the new Steam demo. PlayStation have updated their Unity version requirements, so we had to increase Unity version for the whole project, which always creates some issues. In terms of controls, we needed to add gamepad support for new mechanics, the PlayStation touchpad needed reimplementing, and after the update we were having some pretty persistent crashes due to graphics jobs. We fixed everything though, and passed Sony's 'showcase cert' process first-time with no issues raised! We've also nearly finished the PS4 port, but more on that next month!
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/0fbe44538b4dbc654d788e3af6c607b742939062.gif[/img]
[h2]Steam Deck Support[/h2]
We added support for a big new platform this month - the Steam Deck! This involved a lot more work than expected - we ported across the wobbly cursor from the console, added trackpad support, added Steamworks, as well as customising all our menu options and making lots of improvements to the game feel for handheld consoles.
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/8d6e430d9d4b7f579e15c4aa987ed4bdcf645801.gif[/img]
[h2]Improved Gamepad Support[/h2]
As the Steam Deck is basically a controller, it made sense for us to also ship the new demo with controller support. This was new functionality outside of PS5, so was a sizable task, and included some nice new features like D-pad movement, improved menu navigation, better UI element support like dropdowns and sliders, as well as detecting and switching between different controller types and updating UI and tutorials accordingly. We did just buy an obscure Logitech controller though, and that doesn't work, so still more work to be done!
[h2]New Lightbeam Mechanic[/h2]
So you thought we were finished with mechanics! Think again! After our playtesting sessions with Indium, and our internal frustrations building levels for the Ocean environment, we realised we were lacking a 'wow' mechanic for Ocean that could carry through to the end of the game. One thing which surprised us was the powerlines mechanic in Cathedral was universally everyone's favourite, so we decided to build on the strengths of that and create a lightbeam/mirror mechanic. It may be a bit of a puzzle cliche, but it works really well with folding, so we don't care!
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/cbf444809047423d031d38676cc94ef9f35e1ad3.gif[/img]
[h2]Demo Localised Into 13 Languages[/h2]
Having submitted and passed our localisation demo with Netflix, we rolled out the localisation to our PS5 and Steam demos. This allows us to showcase the demo with Sony at Bitsummit in Japanese, and also to get feedback from players on Steam in regards to the translation. We already have lots of comments from our international community on Discord so we’re looking forward to taking those comments on board and improving further where we can!
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/a766eb8b1170c3af0dc5990a1b62494073a38946.gif[/img]
[h2]Accessibility Kick-Off[/h2]
Ensuring our games are as accessible as possible to those with disabilities has always been very important to the founders. Despite the great reception for the accessibility features we added to our previous game Hue, there were still things we missed, and we want to bring in a professional this time around. Enter Cameron Akitt.
Cameron has been an accessibility consultant for 4 years, worked on numerous AAA games, and spearheaded the inclusion of sign language in Forza Horizon 5 - the first notable game to do so! Cameron has put together a high-level proposal of accessibility features for Paper Trail, and we'll be working closely with him over the next month to wireframe, prototype, implement and test the most important features for launch!
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/a6819ab6ca39682508d425c2f650641d0bb50071.png[/img]
[h1]Design[/h1]
[h2]Cutscene Changes[/h2]
Having implemented the first five cutscenes, it's become clear that some parts work really well, but other parts are either very obscure or not very satisfying. This is usually because we sent off designs without properly testing fold solutions - which at the time made sense as we hadn't implemented cutscene tech! Now that we have all the tech implemented, we'll ensure we test sketched up ideas first before sending them off for final art. On the plus side, changes are relatively easy and can be mostly done by repurposing existing art. Below are some examples of changes:
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/492593f19982bb4c39f8bd6eeaa67608541071f5.png[/img]
[h2]Ocean Levels[/h2]
Based on feedback from our testing sessions with Indium, our ocean environment required a significant rethink. We came up with a new lightbeam mechanic, prism reflectors to redirect light, statues with shields that also redirect light, and light-activated switches which raise/lower platforms. This sounds like a lot, but it was mostly just beams/reflectors, the rest were repurposed or combined mechanics. These mechanics are all working brilliantly, but it meant we had to effectively do a full redesign of the ocean environment. We won’t spoil the actual level design for you - but we look forward to you experiencing it for the first time.
[h2]Cathedral Levels[/h2]
The Cathedral levels weren't in nearly as bad a state as Ocean, in fact, many players said it was their favourite environment, but we were able to identify lots of areas for improvement. These are now fully implemented, and ready for testing! Again, we don’t want to spoil any of the changes - especially if you’ve played through the levels already in playtesting - so feel free to check them out next time you get the chance!
[h2]Character Profiles[/h2]
As we start to hone in on character dialogue and localisation, it was important for us to define character names, profiles, relationships and other personality quirks and mannerisms. This has now been completed for all characters in the game!
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/291b6ace27073eca87eb4dd0fe1ec802ca0f4d6f.png[/img]
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/a6819ab6ca39682508d425c2f650641d0bb50071.png[/img]
[h1]Art[/h1]
[h2]Ocean[/h2]
The Ocean environment has been a real challenge creatively, as we've struggled with the stair mechanic adding lots of inconsistent height planes, and the water creating lots of visual noise. Below you can see the many different directions we tried to take it in:
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/d04e0c97864391cfabb9c5d6f252db5d798dad99.png[/img]
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/e643502627148f64fd1a071230b73d6f00970b7b.png[/img]
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/4841548adc51ff62b88c421847be181d5f59a3c8.png[/img]
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/b94ae987f2fee0f13c434690af73a2912565d6ff.png[/img]
Ultimately we settled on what feels like a Middle-Eastern Atlantis - an ancient city of Islamic architecture that crumbled into the ocean. Remnants of forgotten technology still lurk below the water, with strange levers activating bright lights, and shifting platforms connected to worn electrical cables, buzzing ominously from the depths below.
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/206855ca39058f00e8164cfcc2995f4ba539c772.png[/img]
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/a6819ab6ca39682508d425c2f650641d0bb50071.png[/img]
[h1]News & Events[/h1]
[h2]50,000 Wishlists![/h2]
In June alone we had over 15,000 wishlists, bringing our total to over 50,000! There's been a ton of different factors, but the most notable have been Future Game Show, Hue cross-promotion, advertising campaigns, a Chinese marketing campaign, storefront localisation, a #1 post on r/SteamDeck subreddit and some NextFest coverage (despite not being in this NextFest!).
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/c72143d10491f4f85ba69e42ef8cd222b6e0f901.png[/img]
[h2]Press[/h2]
This was a huge month for press! Netflix did a big PR blast to coincide with Summer Game Fest which got featured in some huge outlets including TechCrunch, VentureBeat, The Verge, GameSpot and PocketGamer!
We did our own PR blast to coincide with the Future Game Show and new demo launch, which also got some fantastic coverage across GamesRadar, NintendoLife, PocketGamer, GoNintendo and more for a total of 39 articles with a total reach of 78 million views in accordance with SimilarWeb.
Below you can see some snippets!
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/e16888429c444944b4cb817efdaf022c3896013e.png[/img]
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/112e8289090eabc27f129aaff35adda595e9fcd8.png[/img]
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/0584d60cc2b833d79124393bd8baede486a94fda.png[/img]
[h2]Future Game Show[/h2]
It's been a huge month of gaming news due to Summer Game Fest and all the events around that, so we've been super fortunate to secure a major spot in Future Game Show despite all the noise of big AAA announcements. We put a ton of work into coinciding our new demo launch with the event, and were still up at 5am the day before fixing Steam Deck bugs ahead of the big announcement! Everything went smoothly though, and we had our second biggest day ever in Steam wishlists thanks to the push - so it was totally worth it!
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/52082deb1612a50d72a26eef8aa6215b94a42652.png[/img]
[h2]Summer Game Fest with Netflix[/h2]
Whilst we've been locked away finishing the demo in rainy Norfolk, Netflix has been showing Paper Trail to press and influencers in LA for Summer Game Fest! This has helped generate huge amounts of press coverage and some very positive coverage on YouTube.
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/cf9deafd75178a2e5bb1af33e30e23476b9783c0.png[/img]
[h2]Netflix Tudum Event in Brazil[/h2]
The world tour also extends to São Paulo, Brazil, where Paper Trail was also being showcased by Netflix for Tudum: a global pop culture event that covers their original films, television series and games!
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/2d6692351e6d32cbaab8cd98a2887dea758e6ad3.png[/img]
[h2]Awards[/h2]
We're delighted to say that we won the Rising Star Award in the IndieCup UK Awards, as well as getting nominations for Critics' Choice and Most Anticipated game! There were some fantastic games in the finalists, and we're super pleased our friends at Bonsai Collective won the Most Anticipated Game.
[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42245982/66ac0188eae30bac808152179252d1c1140575b3.png[/img]
As always, thanks for taking the time to read our update and if you haven’t already - you can wishlist Paper Trail and check out the free demo below!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1889740/Paper_Trail/