November is at an end, and the festive season is fast approaching! The short, cold dark days are very much with us now, so I’ve been holed up in my little development cave pretty much all month, making some really good progress! Here’s a few things happening in Omno world right now.
One of the new things I’ve been working on is these little dudes, who love nothing more than to slide around on their bellies!
They’re one of the many creatures that will be filling the world of Omno, and they’ve been putting a smile on my face this month!
Trying new things to make people aware of the project is really crucial. I don’t really have the budget to pay for marketing, but I’ve had some great support from Reddit and Imgur communities already, so I thought I’d also try out Tumblr.
The crazy thing I discovered was that there’s already amazing people out there posting Omno content without me even knowing! If any of you use Tumblr at all, feel free to follow along with what I’ll be posting over there to help me try to bring new folks into the Omno family!
I also held an Omno webinar in November for Kickstarter backers that supported the campaign at the Dev Pro tier. I’ve posted some screenshots and thoughts over on the full Kickstarter Campaign update.
Stay warm out there, be kind to each other, and have happy holidays! I’ll be back in touch early in 2020 - it’s going to be a very exciting year for Omno!
October Kickstarter Update + Postmortem
Hey Steam,
I still can’t believe it’s the end of October already - where is this year going?!
Anyway, with autumn in full swing here in Germany, and the days getting colder and darker, it’s the perfect time to be getting my head down and making real progress with Omno, which you hopefully like to hear!
Pondering over puzzles...
Puzzles are going to be a fairly big part of the core gameplay for Omno, and this month I’ve been working on a few of these elements (among a thousand other things), trying to make sure there’s plenty of variety in the types of puzzles that will appear in the game. The one you see above is an all-new mechanic (planned for ages, but finally done) I think looks pretty cool and feels quite satisfying - hopefully you’ll like it too! You want the puzzles to feel meaningful and satisfying to solve, but not so hard that they’ll take you out of the overall immersion of the wider Omno world - so achieving that balance is something I’m really working hard on right now.
Swamp Things
These visual changes are something I’ve been continuously iterating and evolving through development, since they contribute hugely to the overall atmosphere and moods of the different areas in the game. As time goes by, I feel like some early artistic decisions are worth rethinking since my creative skillset and gamedev abilities grow a tiny bit each day. It's my first game after all! What do you think of the new swamp visuals? Do let me know in the comments, this solo dev thing can lead to a little bit of tunnel vision at times, so it’s always great to get as much feedback as I can!
My Kickstarter experience
Since I first launched the Kickstarter for Omno last year, I’ve been getting questions on an almost daily basis about how I ran the Kickstarter campaign. For months I’ve been thinking it would be really helpful to other people who are interested in Kickstarter, whether as a backer or as a game maker, for me to write down all of my thoughts on my experience with Kickstarter, and answering all of the most-asked questions that I get about it - it’s a time saver for me too, I can hardly say ‘no’ if someone asks for advice! So...I finally managed to do that, and if you’re interested you can read it here! If even one person finds it helpful in some way, then I’ll consider that a good result :)
Omno is heading to San Francisco
Finally, a few weeks ago the guys from Double Fine got in touch with me asking if I’d be interested in showcasing Omno at Day of the Devs in San Francisco in November! I’ve never been to the show (or to SF), but I’ve heard really great things about it from fellow devs, so I jumped at the opportunity. And about a week ago I found out Omno got selected as one of the games to feature at the show! It’s a real honour to have my little game selected at such a prestigious show for indie games - especially along with so many great titles. Unfortunately, I’m so busy making the game (plus a last-minute trip from Germany to San Fran doesn’t come cheap!) so I can’t make the show myself, but just knowing Omno will be there being played by gamers, press, YouTubers and games industry bigwigs is so exciting for me.
I still forget sometimes that this thing I’m making alone in my house all day, every day, seems to matter to other people out there in the world, and I’m always humbled and just so grateful that people care about Omno, so a massive thank you to Double Fine, and to all you people reading this right now, who supported me through the Kickstarter, and continue to support me as I work towards making the best game I possibly can.
Stay warm out there, folks, and hopefully I’ll have some exciting things to share in November!
-Jonas
PS: Don’t forget to follow OMNO on Twitter and join the community on Discord. You can also read all previous Kickstarter updates right here.
It’s been a busy summer for Omno
Hey Steam,
August was a crazy busy month when it came to Omno. Not only was Omno demoed at Gamescom (Omno’s first-ever conference), but it was super well received! If you speak German you can read impressions on the websites Giga (secret Gamescom tips), Spieletipps (games you might have missed at Gamescom) and 4Players (Preview with verdict “potential hit”) that feature Omno with positive impressions (thanks so much!) and French speakers can check out video impressions from Gameblog with hopefully even more articles to follow soon.
September was all about knuckling down and really focusing 100% on the development of Omno after the excitement of Gamescom. All the positive energy received was funnelled right back into the development cycle and hopefully, you’ll agree, things are really coming along. Here is a small handful of work in progress screenshots of areas being worked on this month:
Firstly, a bunch of work has gone into the desert area in the game, adding some sequences, overhauling the overall layout to help the area’s flow, introducing new critters and much more.
And then there is the snowy biome, trying out some design ideas for that little downhill area that really makes the most of the “surfing” mechanic - kinda feels a bit like 1080 Snowboarding at times (if anyone else is old enough to remember that game :D). Still not 100% sure if this is something that will make the cut for the final game, but trying out these smaller set-pieces is really helping to form the overall idea of the journey through all of the different worlds and how they’ll all tie together, which is obviously super important to the game as a whole!
Lastly, a quick look at a new “updraft” mechanic being adding to the cloud biome. A really important thing for Omno is making sure all of the different biomes FEEL as different as they look, so focusing on unique game mechanics in each area is a really big part of that. This one’s a lot of fun - navigating the different flows of air to get to those hard to reach places, at a slower, calmer pace than many of the other things you do in Omno, which really changes the feel of things and gives you time to appreciate all the pretty things around you.
Anyway, hopefully, this gives you a little insight into a few of the things being worked on - development really is marching on, so more progress should be ready to share with you next month. As mentioned back in the May Kickstarter update, things are taking a little longer than initially anticipated the deeper into development we go, especially with the changes in scope made earlier this year after the surprisingly successful campaign. There is no still no exact date to tell you with any accuracy, but expect early Summer next year to be a realistic aim for Omno’s release, and that’s what is being worked towards. Of course, there will be more updates on this as things develop. More than anything else, Omno deserves not to be rushed and disappoint anyone, so hopefully, you understand and will be patient as work continues to deliver the best game possible to you all.
We’ll leave you with this, a new look at the canyon area of Omno. Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYZwrqZoQMo
PS: Don’t forget to follow OMNO on Twitter and join the community on Discord. You can also read all previous Kickstarter updates right here.
OMNO now on Kickstarter!
OMNO is now live on Kickstarter!
After two years of production as a solo developer I ask the community for help and to join me on the final leg of production.
Watch me talking about the project on the kickstarter video and read more about the game.
