The summer heat won't slow us down ! To unlock access to the farm and start breeding adorable animals, you'll have to complete the first dungeon of the game. Introducing the first chapter, Summit Farm, featuring Diego the Farmer.
Summit Farm floats high in the sky. We decided to combine the aesthetics of a farm with that of an airship, with ventilation grids and propellers. Also, there are bones everywhere, symbols of the Cornett, Diego’s family!
For this dungeon’s theme, our composer Alexis ingeniously incorporate the sound of cows mooing and chickens clucking in the mix. Who would have thought that these cute animals could make such chilling noises…
A dungeon in our game consists of a series of levels, with each level being randomly selected from a pool of manually designed maps. Once a map is chosen, the game further randomizes it by selecting from manually crafted variations. This can include adding new rooms, altering enemy placements, and rearranging obstacles to keep the experience fresh.
Our goal is to use procedural generation to diversify the gameplay experience while ensuring that the maps always feel purposefully designed by a human hand.
See all these boxes and barrels? Alva can easily swallow them and throw them onto enemies. They aren’t necessarily the most powerful projectiles in the game, but they can come in clutch if you have no ammo left.
What you’ll really want to use are the desserts and beverages you make in the pastry shop. We’ve started thinking of different effects that we can associate to each of them, to add diversity to the combat system. For instance, an acidic lemon curd will burn the enemies and cause damage over time when thrown at them.
Speaking of enemies, let us introduce to you the roster of angry spirits roaming in the Summit Farm dungeon !
Once the farm's guardians, the Nestraws now wander with the sole purpose of scaring off intruders. Even the little birds perched on their heads seem ready to fight !
In the lowest floors, the first enemy you’ll encounter is the Eggsploder and its bigger, meaner version, Explodzilla !
They jump everywhere, leaving exploding eggs behind ! But it doesn't last for long, since they tend to hurt themselves amidst the chaos. Use their power against them !
The Puffercow and Pufferbeast are the first enemies with ranged attack you’ll encounter. They can throw their spikes at you ! Better hide before making a move.
The Boomram and Blastram charge at you and then inflict damage with their horrible roar. After they tackle you, keep your distance!
They are all animated and functional, which has allowed us to run tests in terms of balance and enemy placement.
Of course, the highlight of the dungeon is the fight against Diego, Spirit of Contempt at the very end.
As the Spirit of Contempt, Diego feels so superior that he floats above everything. His shepherd’s stick allows himself to summon and control farm animals. He can also hit Alva with it for a good deal of damage.
Diego has his own musical theme. In his story, his daughter has left him to go play the lute in the big city. So it made sense to include lute to his theme as a reminder. Our composer enjoyed the instrument so much he ended up buying one!
The shop lights now illuminate it with a warm atmosphere in the evening, creating a cozier ambiance. And have you noticed the beautiful patterns cast by the stained-glass on the floor?
Remember the joy of splashing into puddles on a rainy day? You can relive that experience in Project Acornia ! We've implemented a new weather system that changes with each season. Expect frequent rain in the fall and plenty of sunny days during the summer.
Growing plants is a key part of the game, enabling you to make your own ingredients. There are garden parcels that are accessible just outside the shop that you can use at your own leisure.
Each season offers unique crops and plants to grow. For instance, if you’re aiming to make strawberry tartlets, be sure to plant strawberries in the spring! And for trees, while they remain throughout the year, they only produce fruit during their specific season.
Every plant takes a different amount of time to grow, and each species follows a specific growth cycle. You need to water them to get the most out of them, or let the rain do the job.
To determine how long each plant takes to grow, we actually studied real life plants and learned a lot about them in the process!
Alva’s quest can become emotional, so it is important that we capture her feelings through her facial expressions and gestures. We also added some cute idle animations. Alva’s grandmother Ornella was a magician, and she passed her down some of her tricks!
We also had to animate Alva taking damages… but we hope you don’t see it too often in game.
Starting this summer, we’re excited to welcome back two talented individuals we’ve previously had the pleasure of working with!
First, meet Benoît, our Technical Project Manager. He played a key role in the final development of Tinykin and contributed to the beloved Ori and the Blind Forest. Benoît is here to craft some amazing tools for us!
And then, Thibault finally joins the team! He has been Level Designer on Tinykin for the entire duration of the project and is responsible for people spending their nights trying to find their last hidden pieces of pollen. Thibault will be designing the dungeon rooms and assisting with procedural generation.
We’ve kept up the Tinykin tradition of having a meal together every Tuesday and celebrating milestones with chicken and fries. While we’re great at making games, our cooking skills aren’t top-notch—just check out the group photo, which got a bit smoky from the deep fryer!
After some reflection, we decided to take the picture in the studio instead.
That’s all for now! We have plenty more to share in the coming months, including updates and exclusive art. We also have a Discord, and we’d love for you to join us there!
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