TOEM, as a project, was canceled… for a time. It was for the better that we stopped since at this point we were just treading water. TOEM had now gone through 4 major iteration changes in design, looks, and atmosphere, the project ended up giving us too much anxiety as we didn't feel comfortable working. The development came to a full stop in early 2019. We kept working on that version of TOEM, doing several iterations to move it more into an adventure game direction, but after showcasing the game at various events like GDC and European Game Showcase we realized that we could never explain WHAT you do in it. Players reported that they thought of the game as a puzzle game and we didn't want it to be associated with puzzle games as that implies a steady increase in difficulty. We still managed to get out a playable demo on Android where we collected feedback. We never really felt comfortable about designing puzzles and it always felt like a struggle making them. In the early versions, TOEM was a mobile point-and-click game where the player was introduced to puzzles of different forms, such as connecting lasers to orbs, rotating bridges using a winch, talking to NPC's, and finding pillars with an eye on them. Since the initial sketch of what later became TOEM, there's always been an aesthetic that was interesting and had a vibe to it, but the game back then was not that fun… It might not be so apparent seeing the project today that it's gone through 5 major iterations. In order for TOEM to become what it is today we needed to completely kill the project to realize how to move forward. Lucas to the left and Niklas to the right Right 1: Kill your darlings These two students were us two, Lucas and Niklas! And now, nearly 4 years later, it's so weird to think that TOEM started thanks to that little sketch and its trailer, of course, the competition was a huge contributor to our continued collaboration! TOEM had a shaky development that went through 4 major design changes, it was put on hold multiple times, and then, after all that, it made a fresh appearance in early 2020. This gave these two friends the opportunity to join an incubator and to create their own company. After hastily putting together a prototype they called TOEM, the students sent in their submission and it went on to win 50 000 SEK (around 5700 USD) at the Game Concept Challenge competition. It had a vibe to it!įilled with new enthusiasm the two students realized there was a local game competition coming up in a few weeks. This sketch would serve to be the catalyst for the two students as there was something in it that they simply couldn't get out of their heads. You see, these two students had just finished some really hard and also stupid courses and didn't know if game development was for them.ĭuring that long talk, a sketch of quirky characters and islands was born. The year was 2018, two friends from the same university were forced to have a long talk about letting go of game development. ⚠️ This article will obviously contain spoilers ⚠️ The beginnings It's been a wild ride, so let's talk a little about it, shall we!! To put it short, TOEM is a lighthearted photo adventure game, here's one of our favorite trailers: If you don't know what TOEM is, don't worry. Our aim is to give as much insight as possible so we will be sharing more information than we've done before! So that's pretty fun as well! We've structured the article by sharing 5 things we did right as well as 5 things we did not do so well. In this article, we'll explain as in-depth and thoroughly as possible about our process and the development of our very first commercial game called TOEM!
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