It's now been one week since we submitted our game, Else Return Home, as an entry to the 2019 Global Game Jam. We were thrilled to be recognized for Best Use of Color out of nearly 40 teams at our local site in Seattle, and we've been very pleased with the attention it's received so far. Already, the game is outperforming the first week of release of our previous most popular game! (Good Night Rowan)

Like many game jam games however, we knew it contained some bugs, and there were a handful of features we had in mind but did not have time to get to. We decided that in the first week following the jam, we'd focus most of all on bug squashing and improving overall usability. We have been making daily updates since the jam, and here are some of the things we've tackled:

PLAYER

• Reduce the chance of camera clipping
• Sync up player spawning better with asynchronous scene loading
• In case the player manages to reach an unintended area and falls off the map, spawn the player back at the starting location
• Keep player from  moving or raising photo during intro sequence
• Drain energy faster per unit distance while running (relative to walking)
• Halt energy drain / gain while paused
• Fix bug where player could not re-enter house empty handed after collecting first item
• Gradually slow player movement to a halt while powering down
• Drop held item on powering down

LEVEL DESIGN

• Update some building models in City scene
• Place some floating items flush with ground
• Add colliders to buildings missing them
• Block off areas unintended for the player to reach

UI / UX

• Add text prompt telling player how to start game from title screen
• Hide battery UI until after exiting title screen
• Fix some HUD element positioning to handle different aspect ratios
• Choreograph intro sequence better to sync up raising & lowering of photo with voice over lines
• Add text prompt telling player how to show photo again
• Render photo over rest of scene
• Enhance power down glitch effect
• Eliminate lingering frames between scene transitions
• Add ability to Pause & Quit with an in game menu
• Add end game text sequence with credits

AI

• Prevent robot pet Dorg from walking through park fence
• Have robot pet Dorg move around instead of through scene props (e.g. lamp posts, benches, debris piles, etc.)
• Add interaction with Dorg, prompting voice over lines and barking responses

Now that we've squashed the majority of the existing bugs and enhanced the usability of the game, we're turning next toward adding more content and features. This following week should include some significant updates as we prepare to exhibit the game at the Seattle Indies Show & Tell and Global Game Jam Showcase. If you happen to be in Seattle, we hope to see you there!

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