Week 12 – Grinding – Questweavers

Overview

Week 12 was mainly about grinding on details based on continued internal and external playtest feedback. As Softs got closer, the team focused on making the build clearer and more intuitive, especially around navigation, shrine readability, player guidance, and narrative communication. This week was less about adding big new systems and more about improving how the existing experience was introduced and understood.

Weekly Focus

Continue iterating based on internal and external playtest feedback
Improve narrative, navigation, and tutorial
Prepare the build for Softs

Progress Update

Tech

Focused on getting the build ready for Softs by fixing bugs and making things more intuitive
Improved mist-cast visuals and mist-cast advice
Added and refined more shrine interaction effects and activation feedback
Made shrines more noticeable with permanent lights and glowing attractors
Added and updated cutscene text at shrines and for collectables
Improved firecracker UI and shrine-related firecracker reset logic
Moved the mist-cast UI closer to the player, and only when casting
Changed the sprint so it no longer slows down in mist, but drains more energy
Fixed multiple terrain, decal, mist, collision, and shrine-related issues
Continued dealing with crashes and lighting-related frustrations

Art

Updated basic enemy silhouettes
Updated the lantern enemy texture
Updated environmental assets for Section 2
Updated the skybox
Updated terrain
Updated lighting effects
Updated the gourd bottle model
Updated the firecracker model

Sound

Updated SFX for narrative pop-ups
Adjusted SFX volume when in the mist

Design & Production

Redesigned Section 2-1 based on the latest playtest feedback
Updated Section 1-1 again to continue improving navigation
Added Section 0 as a tutorial space
Updated pop-up control instructions
Added Celestial Court narrative on shrine activation
Added the Celestial logo to each shrine to improve pathfinding
Continued running Playtest Night and regular playtests
Reworked Section 0 again after realizing the mechanics still were not being communicated clearly enough

Notes

This week was a heavy polish and clarity week. The more feedback we gathered, the more it became clear that strong ideas alone were not enough if players could not easily understand what to do, where to go, or how the mechanics were supposed to work. Because of that, a lot of this week went into improving navigation, tutorial, and narrative support, though mechanical communication still remained a challenge by the end of the week.