Update from Puddygum - New year and new games

Hey everyone! Things have been pretty quiet on our blog for the last couple months, but don't worry, Puddygum is still alive and kicking. We’ve gone into monk mode and taken a vow of silence to find ourselves and chart a new course. Well, not exactly, but after PLAY NOW! Joe and I really just felt like we needed to rediscover the core of Puddygum and figure out where to go next.

So, over the last couple months (almost three now) we’ve worked on a couple of projects. Here's a little info about those and what's coming next.

Michael's Labyrinth

We made the first iteration of Michael’s Labyrinth, a game about a man named Michael who’s traveling through a labyrinth, believe it or not. The twist is that you play as the labyrinth, not as Michael. You move pieces of the labyrinth around to help Michael, controlled by AI, to reach the exit on the other side of the chamber. It was a good idea on paper, but turned out to be rather difficult to implement in a game, at least in the way we envisioned it. So, after creating the first iteration, we put that one aside to stew for a bit so we could figure out how to change it up to make it work. You can try out the prototype here and leave us some helpful feedback: https://puddygum.itch.io/michaels-labyrinth

Whacky Whack

Joe suggested doing a really short project (like 1-2 weeks) to recharge our creative batteries, so that’s what we did next. We made the first alpha iteration of project “Whacky Whack” two weeks ago—all in one week. The concept of the game was interesting—a whack-a-mole style of game where each key on the keyboard is associated with the hole in the corresponding position on the screen (e.g. Q for the upper left hole.) However, as we tested it we found that the controls we were trying to use just weren’t working. It turns out it's very difficult for people to automatically associate the key with the hole based on its position. Still, it was a good short exercise and helped us test an idea for a very different control method.

The future

After trying a couple of really unconventional game ideas, we're working now to build something a little more traditional (at least from a gameplay standpoint) but with the true Puddygum style to it. Something that we're all passionate about and have wanted to build for a while—a 3D platformer! It's still in the very early stages, but we're quite excited about this one and looking forward to the possibilities of what we can do with it, especially artistically. More updates to follow.

In the meantime, here's a teaser picture of a model made by McKay Thompson.

Bookshelf made by McKay Thompson

So that’s what we’ve been up to at Puddygum. We’re still moving forward, and we’re trying to focus all our attention right now on improving our game design chops so we can make games that people really want to play and that provide a joyful experience for them. We’ll keep the updates coming, and when we’ve got versions that are ready for play testing we’ll put those up on puddygum.itch.io and post about it here to let you know. We can always use some good, candid feedback to help us know what works and what doesn't, so take a moment to check out our games and leave a comment. We need your contribution.

Thank you for believing in us and supporting us on this journey to make amazing games and share light!

- Devon Stern
  Project Manager / Lead Programmer
  Puddygum