September 2025: Why am I doing this?

Hey, friend!

Thank you so much for following my blog. It's incredibly inspiring to see how many of you are interested in what I and my mini-crew are doing.

Lately, I've been thinking about why I'm still doing this. Did it come from a need to prove something to myself, and probably to others? In the beginning, it was definitely like that. But now that initial motivation has faded, and what's left actually feels so much better.

I keep working on this game because, for me, making it is like playing a game. Just like gaming, it lets me escape reality, find that perfect 'flow', and eventually, share what I've managed to create. It takes me right back to how I played with Lego as a kid: I'd sit on the carpet in front of huge pile of Lego bricks for hours, completely absorbed, just trying to build something that would make my mom smile.

Fun fact: I spent so much time on that carpet that it completely shaved the hair off the front of my shins. Small price to pay for fun though 😊

Saying all that let's jump in to a showcase part!

The world humanity have lost

Like any piece of art, we hope our game tells a story.

It all started in 1997. In our lore, this is the year the world was touched by The Strand of Magic, flipping the laws of physics as we know them. With this incredible new power, humanity built wonders: cities reached for the clouds, and shimmering silver towers rose on the surface of the moon.

I'm so excited to show you. This stunning piece was brought to life by our incredibly talented artist, Margo, who perfectly captured the scale and feel of what we're imagining.

That artwork is going to be used in our announcement trailer 😉

Reaching New Heights in the Temple

Now that we've put the finishing touches on the base art for the Temple's interior, it's time to step outside and start climbing!

Our very first task: building a fun climbing puzzle.

Here is how raw idea looked like☝️

From there, it took a good bit of time to get things feeling just right. We tweaked our locomotion system, adjusted all the little settings, and after a lot of back-and-forth, here’s what we have to show for it!

And here is what we managed to achieve for now 🙂

Home

Oliver, is going to be exploring the vast Cloud Archipelago. With countless islands floating in the sky, he'll need a special way to get around.

From the very beginning, this ship was a core part of the game's design.

We wanted it to be more than a vehicle; we wanted it to be the player's mobile homestead. It's the safe haven you'll return to after an adventure, a place to tinker with your gear, cook a warm meal, and prepare to leap down to the next island.

So, allow me to introduce the ship that Oliver will call home. We've named it the Arkenflight, and here's a little look at it's history.

The Flying City: Our early concepts were a bit too grand. The first ship was so massive it could have held a small village inside!😁 We loved the scale, but it didn't have that personal "home" feeling we wanted.

Getting Cozy in 3D: For our second attempt, we focused on creating a much smaller, cozier vibe. We also modeled it in 3D immediately, which let us test how it actually felt to be on board while playing.

Refining the Details: In current (not final) iteration is all about polishing that design. We opened up the deck for more room, tweaked the stern so it plays nicely with the game's camera, and shifted the aesthetic towards classic 19th-century vessels to nail down the final style.

Bringing Oliver to Life

As you may have heard in our previous posts, we're using performance capture to create our reveal trailer. I wanted to pull back the curtain and show you how we bring Oliver's movements to life.

It all starts with our animator, Igor. He first records himself acting out the scenes. We then use a tool called Metahuman to translate his real-world movements onto a 3D animated skeleton, which we can then bring into Unity.

Interestingly, we tried using the same capture process for his facial animation, but the results were a little too unpredictable.

To get the emotion just right, we decided to do it the old-fashioned way: every expression you'll see on Oliver's face has been meticulously hand-animated by Igor. It's a true testament to his skill!

Finding the Rhythm of Combat

Here's a challenge we're constantly working on: how do you make combat feel good? We've been iterating on it nonstop, and to be honest, it's a lot harder than we first anticipated.

"Good feel" is a delicate dance between responsive controls, snappy animations, impactful VFX, and satisfying sounds.

All those elements have to work together to create a unique rhythm.

After a lot of experiments, we had a breakthrough: we decided to focus on the rhythm first. Our entire strategy now is to perfect that core beat and then make sure every other element follows it.

See if you can feel what we mean. As you watch the GIF, try counting along: One... two... three... 😉

From figuring out the rhythm of a punch to designing a ship that truly feels like home, every step is a mix of big challenges and small victories.

It really does feel like I'm a kid again with that giant pile of Lego bricks, slowly but surely, piece by piece, something we're incredibly proud of is starting to take shape.

As always, thank you so much for following along on this journey. Your support and interest mean the world to our little crew.

Talk to you in the next one!