Release Day Devlog
Braden Kovalovich · March 30, 2024
Hi Timeworkers! We’re writing this with the highest of spirits because as of today THE GAME IS RELEASED!! From the earliest prototyping and concept art we’ve spent a mammoth amount of time on this game, and we’re so proud to show you the full and complete TIMEWORKS!!
Since MAGfest, we’ve been full tilt developing our final zone, the Complex. This is where we’ll push your puzzle-solving skills to their limits as Sam navigates the dangers and schemes of the Overseers, the enigmatic and ruthless bosses of Timeworks. Since this zone contains heavy spoilers I’ll keep this part brief, but know that your whole journey will take on new meaning as you, Audrey, and Gary find yourselves elbows deep in a dangerous corporate conspiracy.
To bring this zone to life, we used every tool in our design toolbox. It's a common joke within game dev that most level designers think the levels they make are much easier than they actually are, eventually having to iterate and pare them down for the average player. For the Complex, our designers let loose and went full tilt into testing every bit of knowledge we’ve taught the players at this point. Your platforming, time-saving, and throwing skills will need to be employee of the month worthy to finish this zone! Your reward is a final level that breaks many of our conventions and is an adrenaline-fueled dash to the finish, well worth unlocking to experience.
While the designers wrapped up the zone, the rest of the coding team was putting the final touches on every other part of the game. You only get one chance at a first impression, so we worked overtime to make sure our players would have the smoothest experience possible at launch. We put considerable time into our tertiary menu screens, the settings and level select in particular. We wanted them to have both form and function, with enough personality to match the rest of the game. They also interacted with our custom save system a considerable amount, which we designed to be update-friendly in the backend. This way, we can administer updates as needed based on player feedback and anything that needs a QOL fix.
At the end of last week, all that was left to do was to build. We formally built the game twice before release, once a week before with an MVP that we’d be ok to release, and then again a week later with further bug fixes, adjustments, and improvements. Game development is so iterative, so we’d recommend any game development team to have plenty of buffer time to polish before your game is officially uploaded to Steam or other vendors. It saved us in the end; we squashed dozens of bugs right up until we built! Game development is no straight line to completion, and this being our first game published to Steam meant we had to learn on the fly and adapt quickly to meet our release date. In the end, we put in the hours to make sure the version you’ll download from Steam is one we are all very proud of.
With all that said, what’s next after you beat the complex? (and S rank every stage hopefully👀) Like any game development project, the end credits are never the end. We have plenty we’d like to implement in an update if time permits it, and we’ll be using the momentum of this game to bring you more games in the near future. As undergraduates, the only motivator we need is the passion for game development and the projects we work on, and Timeworks will always hold a special place in our hearts. We learned so much, met so many amazing people, and made something we hope you’ll enjoy over and over again.
