The release of Ghostland Yard is fast approaching, the game is slowly gaining visibility (besides, a big thank you to all the people who wishlist and who talk about the game around them, you help us a lot!) and people are increasingly interested in the project.
It is important for us to tell you how this project started, and why we are working on this game. This post -which is normally the first of a series- will explain all this in detail.
1) You are not prepared
Everything started in January 2020. I (Thibault), left a Producer job with the desire to create my video game studio. With the help of Emeric, a fellow student and friend, we teamed up to start working on a prototype, a top-down 3D action game in line with the old Zeldas, especially Links Awakening.
With Emeric in programming and me in design, we worked on this project for almost 8 months, from January to September 2020 - in the middle of Covid. Pierre, a former colleague and other friend, helped us with the artistic direction of this project.
Looking back, I think we took a list of all the things not to do for a first game, and we did everything on that list:
No deep research on the concept, we just started prototyping a game to please us
No precise definition of the scope at the beginning of the project, so no limits to our creative madness, so no end date of the project
No skills check-up, and it turned out we didn’t have all the skills to make such a big game with only 2 or 3 people
No market analysis (a little game with similarities named Tunic was also in development at that time…)
A programmer and a producer / designer to make a top down adventure action game zelda-like type in 3D without money, what could go wrong?
Long story short, we killled this project or at least put it in a closet and who knows, maybe one day we’ll pull it out.
I found a management job in the fall of 2020 and my available time to continue working on this development studio project became very limited…
…but we didn't want to give up the idea of creating our own studio.
2) The second project much more conceivable
So we went out with Emeric looking for our next project, and he happened to have something on his computer. A few years ago, Emeric prototyped on mobile a 2D platformer without virtual stick, the pitch of this prototype being very simple: it’s super meat boy on mobile, without virtual stick. And it worked pretty well!
A platformer with simple gameplay, in 2D, on mobile: it seemed much more feasible than the first project!
Pierre agreed to partner with us and produce the game’s visuals, Emeric for the programming and I for the design and management, it seemed playable. The three founding partners of Obelisk Studio were ready!
Ghostland Yard was born around December 2020. The first six months, Emeric was alone full-time on the project, I joined him full-time (after leaving my management position) in June 2021, and Pierre joined us full-time (after he also left his position) in January 2022.
The first year of production of Ghostland Yard, we focused exclusively on the game feel: how to control the character, the operation of the camera, the game mechanics, but we will get into the details in other devlogs!
Very early in the production and thanks to the help of a close friend (who is called Thibaud, it is definitely a very common first name in France), we abandoned the idea of making this game on mobile to focus on a PC and Consoles version.
3) Why this game?
There are three main reasons:
Emeric really liked Super Meat Boy and wanted to make a game to honour it
We did a skills check, and we knew we were capable of such a game
Nos ressources étaient très limitées, et nous devions développer une stratégie d'entreprise
I will expand on this last point:
First of all, our resources were limited: we had little money set aside and nothing to pay for.
The France is an excellent country to start a business, because if you have contributed enough (so worked some time), you are entitled to about 60% of your old salary for up to 24 months (18 now, thanks Macron). So we had at the beginning of Ghostland Yard less than 24 months of compensation, so maximum two years to release the game without being in a delicate financial situation.
Add to that a financial helping hand from our loved ones (against a % of the company’s shares, we are not beasts), and we had enough to pay some bills.
We have therefore corrected one of the problems encountered during our first prototype: we have a defined framework linked to our available resources, maximum two years to release the game.
The market is not very lenient with precision platformer: there are many on Steam, the main reason being that the concept is easy to understand and that it is a very good gateway for independent developers -hearing that it is “easy” to do. (it’s never easy to make a video game)
It was unthinkable for us to base our entire strategy on the immediate profitability of Ghostland Yard -even if we don’t doubt that the game will eventually pay off over time-so we went in a different direction.
Our strategy is simple: release a first game certainly classic, but well done, in order to prove to the financial actors that yes, we are able to realize a good game in conditions not optimal, so imagine what we could do in better conditions!
Ghostland Yard’s goal is therefore above all to be a critical success: we want the players who play our game to be completely satisfied, which is why we do our best to bring a special attention to detail and offer the most polish game possible, within the limits of our skills and resources available.
Because this first game for our studio will be our business card for the rest of our adventures. It is true that the concept is not original and one can think that there is no risk taking.
The truth is that developing this video game, starting a business, spending our savings, asking our loved ones for help, applying for grants, applying for loans from banks, these are the main risks!
For this first title, we want to lay a solid foundation for our future adventures. It’s not a one-shot game: we take it out, we take the money, and we disappear to return to our respective lives. We are here to stay, and the experience with Ghostland Yard is invaluable to us:
We created a company, we managed:
The legal aspect with lawyers
The accounting aspect with ... accountants
The social aspect of hiring an employee
We have (almost) completed a game from start to finish, which implies:
Programming
The realization of 2D assets
Integration of 2D assets
2D animations (rig, skin, anim)
VFX (visual effects)
The game design
The level design
The integration of sounds and music (managed by the incredible studio Le Refuge)
Project Management
Budget management
The QA
Implementation of the Steam API (with analytics, leaderboard, success)
Putting the steam page online
And others I forget
We have learned so much and made so many mistakes that we are convinced that our next game will be able to be more innovative, with a bigger scope and madness that were unthinkable for us two years back.
Ghostland Yard is , we hope, the first game in a long series for Obelisk Studio. We put all our heart into its development, we hope it will please you.
And if you like the game, wait to see what we offer you in the next few years!
From left to right: Emeric, Thibault & Pierre
Take care of yourself,
Thibault
Steam Next Fest & New demo
Greatings everyone!
It’s been a while since we posted anything here but rest assured, the development is ongoing! We have entered the final phase of the production and the game has gone to BETA, which means that all the features and almost all the content are integrated into the game, it remains only to refine all this: remove bugs, balance and improve some details.
Let’s start with some good news: we will be participating in the Steam Next Fest with a brand new version of the demo! On the program:
Relifted menus
Slightly modified levels
A brand new boss
The friends ranking system
The replay system (yours, and those of your friends!)
The demo has been updated very recently and we have removed saves and saved times for this new version. This is (normally) the first and last time, we promise. And the demo will remain online after the end of the next steam fest: you can continue to test the game, even after its release!
Let’s talk about the future, the release of Ghostland Yard on PC and after.
Sadly, we have not only good news, we are behind schedule, and the game will be released between the end of February and the end of March 2023 on PC, rather than mid-February as originally planned. We will use this extra time wisely, and it will allow us to offer you the best possible experience.
Now some additional informations:
We plan to set the price at $12.99, with a 25% discount for the release of the game, bringing it down to $9.99 for the release!
We want to bring the game on Nintendo Switch! We have not officially started the steps with Nintendo, but we anticipated the release on their console, and the porting will not be too time consuming or too complex (on paper, but we’ll see how things go). We can expect a release on Switch between mid-summer and mid-autumn 2023!
We have in the boxes additional levels, which are alternative levels to those existing, like the Dark Mode of Super Meat Boy or the B and C side of Celeste. We intend to integrate them for release on Switch, and add them to the PC version - for free. You will have free additional content for Ghostland Yard in the months following the release!
Know that we are very attentive to the feedback from the community. We build this game for you -the players-, we want your experience to be as pleasant as possible. Do not hesitate to contact us if you want to send us anything, you can reache us via steam forums, our discord, twitter or by email at contact@obelisk-studio.com
We look forward to offering you the final version of the game, by then, take care of yourself !
Talk to you soon,
Thibault
First major update of the demo
We heard you!
Hello everyone,
First of all, we want to thank you for your interest in Ghostland Yard, you are almost more than 400 to have downloaded and played the demo in the last four weeks, and many of you have shared with us different feedback and these are overwhelmingly very positive!
It is nevertheless very important for us to satisfy most of our players, and if the positive feedback reassures us about the quality of the game we produce, it is in priority the negative feedback that we have treated in this first update.
The three main black spots identified were:
The boss is very unbalanced
Menu is … functional but ugly
Character is not reactive enough in the air
We have therefore addressed these three elements in recent weeks, and are very proud to offer you this new version of the demo which, we hope, will please you and show you that we take our players' feedback very seriously! Here is the list of changes:
The Boss (WIP):
Not far from 40% of players fail to reach the end of the first boss, and although we want to have a demanding game, it was much too difficult! The navigation in the arena should be much better and the difficulty of the boss much less.
Survival phases on the sides have been removed
Phases duration are shorter
Arena has been expanded on the sides
Platforms positions have been adjusted
The interface (WIP):
If the menus had the merit of existing, we were told that they were particularly ugly. We offer a greatly improved version, it takes a little polish before reaching the final version, but we are getting closer to the final rendering!
Total rework of the level selection menu. There is now a unique theme per world panel
Added friend leaderboard feature: you can now compare yourself to the time of your steam friends, yeah!
Rework of the end-level interface
Add in-game timer and medals indicator (this option will eventually be in the final game, can be enabled or deactivated)
Movements: We were very proud of our little ghost and the way we can move it: the controls were rather pleasant and the handling at the rendezvous, at least for the majority of the players. But a minority of players continued to find that something was wrong with the way the character was moving, especially in the air. So, after some adjustments and refinements, we arrived at a satisfactory (best game ever made) result that improves the maneuverability of the character without fundamentally changing its functioning, avoiding having to go back to the levels already built.
The acceleration of the character (the time needed to go from 0% to 100% speed while running) has been doubled.
The visual of the running character was very slightly out of sync with his collisions, which could create a sense of injustice with some dangers, so we reduced the “bounce” effect on the character.
To keep this cartoon effect, we increased the bounce effect for the character’s eyes (purely visual)
The descent speed when the player is “glued” to a wall has been halved from 3 meter/sec to 1.5 meter/sec. This should facilitate ascents and descents!
Acceleration speed in the air has been doubled, allowing for much better control of his character in the air. This should facilitate trajectory corrections and navigation in levels with fans!
We hope to have solved most of the problems present in the game and met the different expectations of the players! We take feedback very seriously because we are committed to providing the best experience possible. Do not hesitate to write us on discord, twitter or steam in order to communicate your feedback, whether positive or negative! After all, as long as there are negative returns, there are things to correct!
Known issues:
Race and boss end level screens do not have medal information
The controller icons do not yet match the controller plugged in, they are for the moment those of an Xbox controller, but we think of the other controllers and new icons are coming soon!
There may be issues with the friends leaderboard display
The leaderboard is not displayed instantly, it takes a few seconds to recover the data from Steam. A loading icon will be integrated soon to avoid this “lag” effect
Transitions may be missing when the player moves from a scene to the main menu, they will be integrated soon to avoid aswell this “lag” effect
There is a critical bug that can happen at the end of the boss, resulting in a total freeze of the menu, it will be fixed in the next small update coming this week, sorry!
The game comes out in about 16 weeks, we still have a thousand things to do, but each day brings us closer to the final build, and we look forward to offering you the full experience in February 2023!
Talk to you soon, Thibault
Try the game right now
The DEMO is LIVE!
Greatings everyone! We are very proud to share with you today the demo of our game Ghostland Yard!
We hope that you will try the demo and that you will have a good time while playing our game. Note that the game is still in pre-alpha, meaning that:
Some assets are placeholders and not finals (graphicals assets, animations, sounds etc..)
You may encounter some bugs (if so do not hesitate to report them on the steam forum, our twitter or discord)
The game is not finished, and so the balancing is not fully done. You may encounter difficulty spikes, specially during the demo as not every levels are present
As it is still in development, the options are not implemented in this build. You cannot rebind your keys or change the graphicals settings, sorry
For this demo, we unlocked every levels present in the build, so if you have troubles reaching the end of a level, do not hesitate to skip it!
We hope that you will like your experience, if so do not hesitate to wishlist the game!
Talk to you soon, Thibault
Game announcement
We have a trailer!
Greatings everyone and welcome to the Ghostland Yard steam page! We finally announced our very first game, Ghostland Yard, a 2D precision platformer!
We hope that you will enjoy the trailer, we put our heart in this video: we really wanted to showcase the mood of the game without spoiling too much.
About the game:
Ghostland Yard is a precision platformer 2D inspired by one title who shaped this genre for the last decade, Super Meat Boy. You play as Poe, a little ghost who begins his journey as a Ghostland Yard investigator, but everything went wrong on your first day...
The controls are simple and accessible - move left, right, jump and that's it! Almost instant respawns and smooth character controller keep you running through the world in your quest for the thuth.
What makes the game different from the other platformers out there ?
This is a tricky question: as it is our first game, we wanted to start with a very basic concept, and the 2D platformer seemed obvious to us, but it's not an easy task as there is a lot of indie developers making platformers games. We chose to focus our efforts on two pillars: the game feel and the content
The game feel
Making sure that the player has the best possible experience while playing our game is our top priority, so we dedicated a lot of resources into the character: the movement, the jumps, the animations, adding some juice and other small elements to help the player enjoy moving accross the levels. We are making a difficult game, but the players shouldn't blame anything else than themselves for their (possible) failures: the controls have to be perfect and the player has to feel 100% in control of his avatar.
The second focus of ours is the render of the game. When we started working on Ghostland Yard, we took a look at the other titles in our category and observed something: more than half of the 2D platformers titles have a pixel-art direction, the other half is mostly minimalist/flat vector art. And this is perfectly understandable as pixel art is one of the most accessible art style for small teams, but we have the chance to count in our members a talented 2D artist, so we opted to try to have an original look, and went for an hand-painted art style.
So we took the challenge: make the game as pleasant as possible to play and to watch!
The content
For our first title, we didn't want to go full crazy on the scope: we wanted to avoid a development hell, so we had to implement very strict limits. One of those limits was: no additionals features on the character. You can jump and you can run and that's the end of it. So we had to be smart to propose a pleasant experience and to keep the player engaged through the game, to that end we introduce some cool gameplay elements in each new world.
We wanted to make a difficult game, but an accessible one, so we created different ways to enjoy the game with different objectives:
Reach the end of the stage: this is the way to unlock new stages and to reach the end of the game
Collect each soul per stage: there is one soul to collect in each stage, and you might unlock some hidden stuff if you collect enough of them!
Earn every badges per stage: if you are fast enough to reach the end, you'll earn one of three badges
Complete the bonus stages: there is one bonus stage per world... if not more!
And there is more in the backstage, but we won't communicate too much about that for now as it is not cooked enough!
FAQ
When the game will be released? We plan to release the game mid-february 2023
How much the game will cost? We are not 100% certain yet, but it will range between 10$USD to 15$USD, we will adjust the price regarding the content (in hours of playtime) and the level of polish we can put into the game
Will the price be adjusted per country? Yes. We want as many players as possible to get their hands on our game and are fully aware that 10$USD might not sound that much for some, but quite expensive for others.
What is the current state of the development? We are roughly 75% to 80% done with the content of the game. We are confident (for now) that we can deliver the game in time for February 2023
Will the game offer some challenge? Yes. We designed the game to be somehow challenging, but accessible for most of the users. "Easy to pickup, hard to master" was -and still is- a strong guideline for us.
Is there any assistance to help me beat the game? Yes. Accessibility is very important to us, and with that in mind we will propose some ways to help you beat the game. Note that enabling the assistance will disable the achievements for your save file!
Will the game release on other plaftorms? Yes. We plan to release the game on PC -on steam and other marketplaces-, but there is more... We plan to release the game on Nintendo Switch 6 months after the PC release, and maybe on other consoles if the game hits its financial goals.
What is the size of the team working on the game? We are 3 developpers in Obelisk Studio: a project manager, a 2D artist and a programmer. We have a partnership with a sound studio, "Le Refuge" in charge of the sound & music part of the game.
Will you develop some additional content after the release of the game? To be absolutely honest, we don't know yet. Being an indie studio is kinda random and if we do have some visibility for the coming months, our efforts will be put into completing the game development, releasing the game in his best possible state and then focus on the Nintendo Switch release.
And that's it for this first post, more will come in the coming weeks days as we have a big surprise coming, you might be able to get your hands on the game earlier than February 2023...
