Skatebird
We're delaying to Sept 16
[previewyoutube="_4aIuu0a4Fw;full"]
SkateBIRD demo LIVES AGAIN
It'll still get pulled down at the end of PAX Online (it ends July 18th), so you've got until around then, but this gives you a few more days. Also. I should probably mention that I didn't integrate the Steam store stuff yet, which means if you copy the game somewhere and just run the exe, it would probably work forever, since I didn't add kill code or anything? Weird. What a weird factoid. Anyways have fun!
Launch Date IS LIVE
First - our release date announce hit. On August 12th, for $19.99 US buckaroos, you can be a skateboarding birb on PC (Steam & Itch), Xbox, Switch, and Luna. Well, unless you're on Game Pass, in which case $0 buckaroos! The trailer went wild on IGN and everywhere else in E3, you probably saw it, but if not, hey check this out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEaCMxJ4Yts
Next up, we were in the Wholesome Games showcase! Got to talk a little about accessibility features in the game. You can see that spot over here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Mw8KzfC1OU
Finally, we were in the Limited Run Games showcase, cus we're getting a physical edition! You can watch that right here: https://youtu.be/Xx2Puaa2JKg?t=787
Oh and MUSIC STUFF. So much music stuff:
SkateBIRD OST launched! Buy it over here (or Spotify, but hey support our musician!): https://madsenstudios.bandcamp.com/album/skatebird-official-video-game-soundtrack
HolyWOW SkateBIRD Album! They just... did a fun little chip album! Yes it's in the game too: https://holywow.bandcamp.com/album/songs-for-skatebird
Spotify playlist of the We Are The Union / Illicit Nature / Grave Danger tracks from the game? Yeah they put that together too (also please support the groups tho so maybe go buy some merch)! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Blc4XJqT01IsCJqNdsXSG?si=c33241fa00c94a67
...aaaaand that about covers it! Lining that up was a heck of a lot of work, and now we're neck deep in console submissions, so that's kinda all I've got time to cover today. Still though! WE'RE ALMOST THERE!
April News n Stuff
So, here's how I expect this to go, more or less.
This month: Just me explaining this, because woof I'm pushing hard for a deadline right now. Though I did meet both my localization deadlines, hooray! I'll get the last batch back in a few weeks, and then that is done too.
Next month: maybe some content? maybe a tease? Hopefully at least a "I HAVE SUBMITTED TO TRCs AND NOW I AM TIRED" ramble.
June: I think I know of at least one thing happening that we can talk about after the fact. Other things may bubble up after that. This is where stuff starts to get MYSTERIOUS, though. Gasp. Who can say.
... and beyond that is unknowable and I can talk more about it after more things happen, but hey! Now you know where things stand right now.
March Update
Anywho, what's been happening... if you want SkateBIRD in your Animal Crossing, you can use that code (thanks kai!). We added balloons, because of course we did. Also quail, with the lil dingle-bopper, and we started experimenting with cute bird-toy grindables. You won't see these in the first bedroom though, we're saving 'em for the last level. Speaking of levels, much of not-working-on-the-demo time here has been working on the first level. It's very different from the Bedroom we demoed before, though we incorporated a lot of what made it cool. Just had to clean it up a lot, make sense of what was there (ping-pong table instead of Weird Giant Wooden Floor Table Thing), etc. The rest of the time was working on the last level, which has a KITCHEN. Yes you can skate that sink, and the rest of the counter, and a bunch more that isn't shown yet. The level got uh. Fancy.
Once I finish this, I'm going to start putting the missions into the first level, and the next week I should be mission'ing the last level, and then:
WE'RE CONTENT COMPLETE.
Doesn't mean the game will be done then, but so close. So very, very close. 'Til next month!
There's a SkateBIRD demo in the Steam Festival!
It's a very, very different demo from what we had up before. Different level, a year's worth of control refinements, actual story, etc etc. This is close to what we'll be launching.
Like this is literally just the second level of the game. All the plot missions. I'm sure we'll touch up stuff between now and then, but this is just - level 2, cut out, turned into a demo. Huzzah!
You'll find the demo here (or you could just, you know, click over to the store page since you're probably in the Steam client already, heh): https://store.steampowered.com/app/971030/SkateBIRD/
Enjoy!
January Update
(as usual, all these links are over to twitter videos or the like, that I threw up as I was working)
I finished ANOTHER level. Office! You might remember some of the geometry from waaay back years ago, in one of the demos we released. It's also in the Nintendo trailer. The map is quite a bit evolved from that, though. Very significantly evolved. What we did is kind of plonk the old Office level down in the middle of a much larger, Bedroom-sized space, and went... well, ok, how can we make this not suck. I started by widening the desk area by about 1.5x, and then rebuilding the back wall so that you can go back and forth through it, making it all one giant skateable space with just enough division to make it feel distinct.
Then we drew the rest of the owl, as it were. Went big, added a CEO office, did some cool stuff on top of that waaaay up high, figured out how to make much cooler desks with cool stuff to do on them, we even added a cool vent-based access route to the next level (and a whole series of missions to set it up). Not sure if every level will have a load zone directly into the next one, but maybe? It's pretty cool. That in the can, I moved on to the next level in the pipe... rooftops! (and that'll be the work for this month)
I think that's about it? We're rolling into launch year now, so we'll be gradually stepping up with some announcements. Might have a thing happening next month. No it isn't the game launch, but, you'll probably like it anyways :D
We're getting actual skateboards made
What To Expect From The Demo
It's pretty similar control-wise to the last demo in December, but in a more open level and with a slightly different camera - and we'll leave it intentionally vague past that. We're isolating some specific changes (and not entirely explaining what changed) so we can see how folks respond.
Talk To Me About Birds
The Discord is RIGHT HERE: https://discord.com/invite/CdPgqWg
I am legally unable to give you extra credit at your university, but I'm certain if you print the chatlog out and show your art professor the interaction, they'll at least smile. You can tell them to tweet at me for confirmation that you attended my, uh. Gallery show? Tell them it's like a gallery show where nobody has to wear pants.