Week 11

After weeks of hard work, testing, and iteration, we’ve officially published our game! This devlog marks the end of our development cycle, and we’re excited to share the final polishing touches that brought everything together. From bug squashing to visual improvements and gameplay refinement, here’s how we pushed our game across the finish line.

Art

We made a number of visual upgrades to polish the overall look and feel of the game:

End Island

Finally finished and placed the end island, creating a satisfying final destination.

Textures

Touched up and improved textures across the board to add detail and consistency.

Foliage & Vertex Shader

Added more plants and greenery to the level, improving visual richness and immersion. 

Implemented a vertex shader to give foliage subtle motion and life, making the environment feel more dynamic.

Shader Improvements

Enhanced the water shader to look more vibrant and dynamic. 

Fixed the outline shader so players are always visible, even when obscured by objects.

Particle Effects

Reworked and fixed several effects to make them clearer and more polished.

UI Improvements

Refined various UI elements for a cleaner, more readable interface.

Code

This week was all about polishing and refining mechanics, ensuring that the game feels smooth and satisfying from start to finish. Next to that we also tackled a lot of bugs we found during the playtesting session.

Aiming Aid

We added a curve to the aiming line, giving it a more natural and helpful trajectory to guide the player better.

Disembarking

Improved handling and transitions when getting off the boat for smoother gameplay.

Whacking Mechanic

Introduced a cooldown system to prevent button mashing, adding tactical timing to attacks.

Massive Debugging

As expected during the final stretch, we hunted down and fixed countless bugs to ensure a smooth launch experience. Things like sound not playing correctly, particle effects not playing, focus not being applied to widgets,..

End Word

This marks the end of our final devlog and the end of our game development journey. We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who followed along, playtested, and supported us throughout each week. Your feedback and encouragement meant the world to us.

A special thanks goes out to our supervisors, Alex and Tristan. Their honest and insightful critiques week after week helped guide the project in the right direction. Without their support, the game wouldn’t be what it is today!

On a personal note, I want to sincerely thank my team. It’s been an absolute joy working with you all. The beginning was definitely rough. We faced our fair share of challenges but we overcame them together. We grew not just as developers and artist, but as a team, and I’ve learned so much from this experience thanks to each of you.

We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve built, and we truly hope you enjoy playing the game as much as we loved creating it.

Thank you for being part of this journey <3