Fixed the ability to zoom in further than the screen lets you
Changed the UI for the head of the rope to make it always visible
Changed the appearance of the Gallery name pop-ups to differentiate between them and the UI buttons.
After testing the new control system we are happy with the direction it takes the game feel but we know it needs tweaking to make it smoother. This is being looked at with 3 main points to address.
Make the movement smoother/less snappy
Address the camera movement making the player over-move if they are moving the mouse simultaneously.
Find a better solution for pins that are far apart without forcing the game to zoom out.
We have discussed a method to address the in-level UI as currently, the UI often overlaps each other and simply making the UI smaller to prevent this makes it hard to read when zoomed out. We are trialling a solution this week of adding a UI bar with "rope selection" to remove all of the clutter from the screen and only give the player one set of instructions at a time. Check back next week to see what progress we have on this.
Livestreaming
Make sure you are following us on our Twitch channel to get notified when we go live again next Friday (25/11/2022)
WooLoop Progress Update: 09/11/2022
Game Progress
Time this week has been split between 2 main parts of Game Development. Bug Fixing and New Levels!
The bugs we found in the last live stream have all about been wrapped up! Most of the smaller bugs were addressed last week with the larger issues being corrected this week. Bug Fixes and Changes:
Screenpanning with the mouse has been adjusted for better corner control.
Fixed leftover rope being stuck on screen on small routes.
Fixed 180degree instructions showing incorrectly
Tweaked large instructions to make them easier to read
These adjustments will be tested in the next QA pass, especially the instruction sizes as we need to find a sweet spot for readability.
Progress has continued in creating new levels as we move closer to release. We have timed how long it takes to make each level in preparation to make a more in-depth project plan that incorporates more accurate time scales for level creation. Here is another sneak peek! *This is a work-in-progress level so you will likely see alterations before the game goes live.
Livestreaming
Streaming will continue over on our Twitch channel this Friday. We have changed to a desk microphone in an attempt to improve the audio quality so please stop by and let us know what you think!
Other News
The first steps have been taken towards preparing what DLC we will be providing along with the content and pricing models. Stay tuned for more details!
WooLoop Progress Update: 02/11/2022
Game Progress
Another very busy week! Our Stream on Friday helped us discover a number of bugs which we recorded for Rob to address. This week has been spent fixing the majority of these bugs along with more improvements to the UI and game controls.
Bug Fixes:
The timer now resets when you New Game+ (NG+) a level
You can now NG+ a level as often as you like without breaking the menu UI
"Hide Level Names" now updates the currently loaded Gallery instantly
Typo corrections
Added a scroll bar to the settings page
Adjusted the end-of-level animation to start according to the current zoom level
Other than fixes and improvement, we have finally begun work on new levels, here is a sneak peek! As always with these update posts, this is a work-in-progress level so you will likely see alterations before the game goes live.
Livestreaming
Streaming on our new Twitch channel appears to be much more interactive than on Steam. We will continue streaming to both platforms simultaneously but if you want to get involved with the chat we highly recommend you follow us on Twitch to get notified when we go live!
Other News
Merch has arrived for testing! We are still making considerations and alterations before we make the merch available for purchase, keep an eye on our Website for when the merch is live.
Marketing is continuing at a steady pace in preparation for our full media outreach towards the end of the year.
WooLoop QA Testing 28/10/2022
Check out the broadcast on our store page or tune in over at Twitch to watch me QA Test the changes we have made over the past 2 weeks!
https://www.twitch.tv/toastielabs
WooLoop Progress Update: 26/10/2022
Game Progress
It's been another very busy week for WooLoop development, so much so that the game has very notable, huge differences since last week!
Saving and Loading has been fully implemented and is ready to go, thorough testing is still required but this is a big step towards finalising WooLoop for release.
A number of Quality of Life improvements have been implemented this week too:
Increased Instruction size and zoom levels
QOL changes to screen panning
Loop counter, % progress and timer
Ongoing bug fixing has been happening throughout as well as we address the number of bugs you reported during the Next Fest Demo.
One of the biggest changes we have made this week is to the pins, taking your feedback on board about being too colourful and distracting, we have made the pins match the game art on Steam as well as adding a gradient colour to highlight the route you are taking, see the GIF below as an example.
Please note this is still work-in-progress so expect to see changes before release.
Livestreaming
Stop by our Twitch channel on Friday to watch us test all of the above changes plus more as we QA test the game live with chat interaction.
Other News
Progress on Merch is going ahead, we are currently waiting for test products to arrive in the office so we can check them before adding them to our Store page on our Website.
Marketing is ramping up alongside development as we prepare for the upcoming release. If you are a content creator interested in WooLoop, send us a message!
WooLoop Progress Update: 19/10/2022
Game Progress
We have had a busy week making progress on WooLoop, the big changes we have made are:
End-of-level animation has been implemented
Improved the background design in level
Changed the framing of the artwork
Made a good start on Saving and Loading
The end-of-level animation can be seen here, please note, image quality is lost in the GIF compression
Work is continuing this week on the saving and loading along with an overhaul to the UI with the help of our artist Jack.
Livestreaming
Last week we tested out Livestreaming to both Steam and Twitch at the same time. This was our first attempt at multi-streaming and our first time streaming to a different platform.
The testing went well and we are scheduled to stream bi-weekly on Fridays starting next week, Friday the 28th. Tune in on Twitch to chat with us live!
Tune in to see development progress from QA testing, new feature display, to potential level design showcasing in the future!
Other News
As development continues, we are starting our marketing and additional research. A part of this is the creation of Merch items to line up with our other game titles. The merch won't be available yet but you can check out our Store page here to see what we have on offer.
Thank you for playing our Demo!
Thank You
From all 3 of us here at ToastieLabs, thank you for stopping by during the October Next Fest and playing our game, WooLoop! ❤
The Numbers
A staggering 3000 people played the Demo over the course of the week.
Around 15,000 people had a quick look at our Live Broadcasts over the week (Totaling around 27 hours of watch time 😮)
Over 1000 of you have added WooLoop to your Steam Wishlist, thank you!
Last but certainly not least, around 300 of you took the time to fill in the feedback form to give us your input on how we can improve the final release - not including those of you who have joined our evergrowing Community Discord server to say a few words and join the ongoing conversation.
All of this makes us even more excited to work on WooLoop as we are taking your feedback on board for the January release.
Your Feedback matters
Behind the scenes, we spent all week collecting and analysing your feedback. Here is a snippet of the things we have taken on board for development (plus some extra we already had in the pipeline)
Save Files - This is a given for a complete game, don't worry that these are missing from the Demo
Alternate Controls - Many players reported that holding to drag the Wool can be strenuous, we are committing to improving the control system to make it easier.
Zoom Alterations - We are going to give the player more control over how the Zooming works
Visual updates to the Background and Frames - this is an additional method alongside a better Dark Mode to make the game less bright.
Even better instructions - We made last-minute updates to the instructions before the Next Fest began but from your feedback we know we can make these even better!
Plus even more!
Our Next Steps
Following the Feedback and project planning we have done this week, we are approaching finalising the facts and figures for the full release of WooLoop. We are sticking to a January 2023 release and committing to adding all of the feedback above to the game before release.
In case you haven't played the WooLoop Demo yet, make sure you download the game now as we will be shutting off access to the Demo sometime next Monday (17th Oct). There is still time to let us know what you think and influence the development of the game!
Pricing, DLC size and Free game content are still being worked out this week as we need to finish collecting average play time per level. Something we admittedly forgot to include in the feedback form.
We will be fully announcing all of the information and what to expect in the coming weeks as we move on to our next stage of marketing and development. To make sure you don't miss out, make sure you have WooLoop added to your wishlist and join us in Discord, on YouTube or on any of our other socials!
We are live streaming the WooLoop Demo again! For around 1 hour, starting at 1PM BST, stop by to chat.
Come along to watch the developers play the Demo of WooLoop and ask any questions you may have. Chat interaction will be taking part for the whole duration of the broadcast so please don't be shy and say hello!
All feedback is welcome!
If you cannot make this stream and have missed both of our Broadcasts this week, join our Discord server where you can chat with the Developers in dedicated WooLoop chat rooms - we are active in there from Monday to Friday every week.
Full details on WooLoop are available on the store page and on your socials.
We're only 3 days through the Steam Next Fest and we are blown away by your reception and appreciation of WooLoop! 🤎
We worked tirelessly over the past week to make sure the Demo was as ready as it could be, taking players' feedback on board we added new features to make the gameplay smoother and more relaxing. As well as tackling a number of pesky bugs.
Based on your community feedback, Rob has made some considerable changes to the game which you can see below.
V0.106 Patch Notes
New Features
Added a new Accessibility tab in the Settings menu
Added a new setting "Edge Of Screen Panning" (defaulted to on) - When enabled, the screen can pan when you reach the edge of the screen with a rope.
Added a new setting "Panning Speed" (defaulted to 1x) - This setting lets you control the speed at which the edge of the screen panning setting and keyboard controls move the camera.
Added a new setting "Dark Mode" (defaulted to off) - Requested by our community, so we did it <3. This is a work in progress, we hope to add more to this feature in the future.
V0.110 Patch Notes
Bug Fixes
Edge of screen panning changes
It now works when you have let go of the rope
We have also shortened the distance from the edge of the window before it activates
It now stops when the game loses focus
Major improvements to the responsiveness and visibility of instructions
Reduced the number of upcoming instructions visible at once
The changing colour of instructions is much more responsive. Now light blue should always be the instruction you need to complete, and dark blue is a previous instruction.
When an instruction is offscreen, if it is light blue it will always be full scale
Main Menu Scroll bars have been added
Main Menu scroll speed has been increased
Bug Fixes
Reduced Panning Speed and made slight adjustments based on how zoomed in you are
Fixed multiple occurrences of anticlockwise instructions sometimes being incorrect
What's coming next?
More Next Fest! We were amazed at how well you all seemed to enjoy our live broadcast yesterday, we have a second live stream scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday the 6th at 1pm BST. Make sure you stop by again to say hello and get involved with any questions you may have for us, the developers.
The Demo itself will be live for another week or so, so make sure you download the demo whilst you still can and let us know what you think. We are spending the week analysing all the data and feedback we get from players and will be posting a wrap-up of all our findings. This will let you know what improvements to the game we will be making for the full release in January based on your own feedback!
Steam Next Fest is a multi-day celebration where fans can try out demos, chat with developers, watch live streams, and learn about upcoming games on Steam.
We are very excited to be taking part with WooLoop!
From today all the way to the 10th of October you can download demos of all games taking part to try for yourself! Give WooLoop a download and let us know what you think!
WooLoop is a game of creation. You build great works of art by dragging your yarn in loops around various pins in your canvas. Slowly, one thread at a time, patterns will form until you eventually construct a beautifully woven masterpiece.
Inspired by our community of players who enjoy creative, relaxing games. We wanted to design something brand new that scratches the same itch, so when you play WooLoop, make sure you are ready to unwind for the day and settle back to the soothing music and relaxing gameplay!
Our Next Fest Schedule
During the Steam Next Fest we will be broadcasting the game live twice!
Tuesday the 4th of October at 7pm BST (11am PT)
Thursday the 6th of October at 1pm BST (5am PT)
Stop by for these live streams to say hi to the developers who will be playing the game and active in the chat - we will be streaming for around an hour and will be available to answer any and all of your questions.
If you can't make the live streams, make sure to join our Discord server or follow us on social media where we are always available to talk and keep you up-to-date with any updates!
WooLoop Full Release
The demo available now is not the full game that you will get upon release. The Demo includes 18 different art pieces for you to enjoy, a small portion of the images that will be available with the release of WooLoop.
WooLoop is planned to be released in January 2023, not that long away! The game will be Free when released. If you really enjoy playing the Free game, additional DLC will be available over the following 12 months for you to purchase more levels to keep you winding and looping.
The exact number of art pieces per DLC is yet to be finalised as we are still collecting data on playtime and what images are most enjoyable to play. With this in mind, please note that when you finish playing the Demo, you will be prompted to fill in an optional questionnaire about your experience with WooLoop. We will be very appreciative if you are able to take 5 minutes to let us know about your time playing - most of the improvements we have made to WooLoop over the past couple of weeks have come directly from our player's feedback!
We will be collecting and analysing all of your responses over the week of Next Fest and will post an update on what changes and features we are going to make based on your feedback.
From all 3 of us here at ToastieLabs, Thank you very much for checking out the WooLoop Demo <3 Stay Toastie!
