February Devlog!

Normally I post these devlogs closer to the end of the month, but since we'll be out of the office then, I figured I'd go ahead and update you now. Hmm? Where will we be? Oh, that's right. We're going to...

🎉 PAX East

That's right, the big secret I've been alluding to in my recent posts is that Rolling Hills was accepted to be part of the Indie MEGABOOTH at PAX East 2020! 

As I said on Twitter, the opportunity to introduce Rolling Hills to new players is great, but to also become part of the supportive and talented IMB community is a really big deal for us, especially as developers living in a rural area where game devs are rare. Needless to say, we are very thankful to everyone involved! 

We'll be in the MINIBOOTH section on Thursday and Friday. Please stop by!

We're bringing some cute buttons as well as Rolling Hills travel brochures, which I hope are both informative and a cute collectors item. Are there Rolling Hills collectors? Probably not, but that's what will make these items so rare years from now!

✨ More Glow Ups

As you might've guessed, we worked extra hard this month to make sure Rolling Hills is nice and shiny for the PAX audience. Here's a little rundown with before-and-after gifs!

My personal favorite! The Fresh Market received some huge improvements courtesy of Ryan, who was adjusting great models made by Aender, as well as improving the lighting and tossing in some boxes. If there's a theme between all of these changes, it's that Ryan loves boxes. See if you can spot them all!

We wanted this demo to represent an early section of the game when the player is still getting settled into their new life in Rolling Hills. Coincidentally, that forced us to reexamine our lighting and details since an empty restaurant can look pretty bland. Luckily Ryan came through again. My favorite part here is the way the light trickles through the windows. 

And the boxes, of course.

Seeing these images back-to-back, it almost looks like the difference between fall and summer. Maybe we'll revisit those yellow shades when Rolling Hills is ready to change seasons. 

The boxes strike again. At this point I see them even when I close my eyes.

🤖 Sushi Bot Is Ready To Roll

I saved the best for last! For a while now we've known that Sushi Bot would play a major role in the game going forward, so it makes me so excited that we were able to squeeze it in for the PAX demo! Brittany did the concept art and Aender modeled and textured the lil guy.

Sushi Bot's claim to fame is their ability to learn recipes and prepare sushi even after you leave the restaurant. This means you'll have plenty of time to explore while Sushi Bot keeps rolling. What else can Sushi Bot do? Stay tuned as we reveal more!

❤️ Thank you for supporting us!

As always, I want to end with a sincere thank you to everyone supporting our development. I apologize that I haven't been able to post more patron-exclusive stuff this month as we've been really busy with PAX prep. I look forward to sharing more frequent updates when we return. If you'll be at PAX East, let me know in the comments and please swing by the Indie MEGABOOTH's MINIBOOTH section on Thursday and Friday. See you soon!