Why we’re postponing the release
Unfortunately, earlier this year, one of our lead game designers found himself unable to continue the project due to an unavoidable situation in his personal life. Haydn remains active on the Discord server and continues to check in occasionally, but has stepped down as a developer. On the other hand, early April we welcomed a new level designer onto our team. Kati has done a fantastic job at bringing new interesting concepts to the table and bringing the Narwhal Heist world to life. Needless to say, however, the changes to our team structure have been challenging, though inevitable. We’re now realizing that the workload initially taken on has become too much to complete within our original deadline. Rather than sacrifice the quality of the game to meet this deadline, we’ve chosen to push the deadline back.
Where the game stands now
Currently, we believe Narwhal Heist is roughly three fourths complete. Below is a detailed breakdown of where the game’s development is currently at, and what we’re going to do to progress it forward.
Level design: Currently, four out of seven of our levels are complete. On average, each level so far has taken around a week to plan, a week to blockout, and a week of iterative polishing, balancing, and bug fixing; adding up to a total average of three weeks per level. At an accelerated rate, the remaining three levels can realistically be finished within this 7 week period.
Programming: Almost all of the core programming for Narwhal Heist is complete. The only programming that remains is within the Black Market shop system (for which a prototype has already been completed), the scripting for the remaining three levels, and the level editor (again, a prototype has already been made for this as well). The primary programming-related hurdle at the moment is bug fixing, as each level and mechanic needs extensive testing to ensure everything works as it should. This is being worked on by our excellent team of play testers who test every update and change to provide us with feedback and information on every bug they encounter.
Audio: There are three main components to Narwhal Heist’s audio: music, sound effects, and voice work. Fortunately, we have access to a massive library of sound and music to choose from, so implementing these two components is simply a matter of sorting through the audio and finding the best fit. The majority of the game’s voice acting is complete as well, with the only voice work remaining being small lines for NPCs and non-essential dialog for certain levels. We have been in contact with some phenomenal voice actors and have provided them with the scripts for these remaining lines, and they are ready to be implemented as soon as the voice actors have finished recording them.
Art: While a lot of Narwhal Heist’s art has been completed, it is hard to gauge exactly how much work is left in that area. Each level of the game has a unique theme and atmosphere, meaning an entirely new set of art assets must be created for each level. This can be anywhere from 10 to 50 models per level, each model taking somewhere between 15 minutes to three hours to finish. On average, this is a little over a week’s worth of work on a 40 hour per week work schedule. These assets will be made while their respective levels are being planned, so at the same time the levels are ready to be populated with models, the models will be completed.
Marketing: Very little has been done in terms of marketing for Narwhal Heist. Throughout the next month, we will be contacting various influencers and press to have a demo of the game reviewed, streamed, and recorded. We will also be increasing the frequency of our posts on Twitter, Instagram, and Discord, as well as actively seeking a publisher for the game. Lastly, we will be setting up a crowdfunding campaign in an attempt to fund future updates, such as new game modes and Steam Workshop support.
What comes next
For the next month, we will be working arduously to get the game to its best state possible. We want to be very clear about what will and will not be available in the game at the launch date, as well as what we’ll be doing up until then. Below is a list of our exact plans before release.
- We will shift a greater focus toward marketing and promoting the game in an effort to broaden our audience. This includes posting more frequently to our social media, contacting “influencers,” and more.
- Seven “story” levels will be available at release; additional side levels will be released as a free DLC update at a later point.
- A basic in-game level editor will be available for users to create and share their own levels. The level editor will be rather primitive and limited, but will continue to receive updates and improvements as time goes on.
- The current levels in the game will be refined further based on feedback received from playtesters.
- A full in-game shop system will be present upon release with basic upgrades and items. More items will be added to the shop in future updates.
- Around 50 achievements will be unlockable upon release.
- Weekly progress reports will be posted in our Discord server at the end of every week.
- A video will be uploaded to our YouTube channel biweekly showing the main points of progress during that two week period; typically, these will be level previews, new mechanics, or other significant changes to the game.
- On the day of release, a live stream will be held on our Twitch account. Haydn, Kati, and Connor will be joined by the various voice actors and play testers of Narwhal Heist to discuss the game, chat with players, and enjoy a few entertaining activities together.
We sincerely apologize for the postponement. This is our first commercial game and has been a tremendous learning experience for all of us involved, and we’re very prone to making mistakes along the way. One such mistake was neglecting to properly prepare before release, but is a mistake we’ve learned from and can avoid in the future.
You can follow us on our various social media below to stay updated, or follow Narwhal Heist on Steam for future announcements.
Discord
YouTube
Twitch