Oslo 1.0 & 2.0 Post Mortem + new art partner!
Hey folks, some of you might be wondering about our absence - there are a few reasons for this:
1. We’ve been working on our game services to sustain our game so we pretty much only have a few days a week to work on Oslo :(
2. We’ve also bumped into issues finding an art team to work with.
3. We discarded our past 2 builds including the one y’all saw at Taipei Game Show 2018
This huge post will address both (2) and (3). We’ll start with the great news first (on hindsight, they’re all great news, depending on how we want to look at it).
Art Team
After nearly a year of finding an art team to work with us, we’ve finally got our friends from Kaiju Den on board to help us out with Oslo!
Seeking partners who align with our vision for both the game and the partnership itself is something we’ve decided to not rush into, and we’re glad to have Kaiju Den fit that bill! They do great stuff with VR/AR primarily as a service, but are stellar in their own might with 2D and 3D art.
Oslo 1.0 - Why it was discarded
Many of you may not know, but we did have a version of Oslo before Taipei Game Show (TGS) 2018. Obviously, it was super different from Oslo 2.0 at TGS - our main inspirations for Oslo 1.0 was closer to that of BBC’s Blue Planet, where realism and the harshness of reality played a big role in Oslo’s journey to find his way home.
The story also featured a “nemesis” that’s constantly on his tail - a bigger, meaner polar bear; also part and parcel of nature is that some carnivores do cannibalise each other when they’re starving. *shudders*. Oslo 1.0 was pretty dark, wasn’t it?
These are some of the issues we bumped into:
We ran into issues with 3D expertise. It couldn’t reach the quality and vibe of what we envisioned within that short period of time.
Project management: Expected too much in a short time.
HR: Made the mistake of having a concept 2D artist try out 3D instead of playing to their strengths. It’s like asking a composer to do SFX and then complaining that their SFX isn’t of standard as their music. Why didn’t we think of this? Hurrdurr.
It didn’t feel fun; was too much like an interactive documentary experience than a game.
Oslo 2.0 - Why it was discarded
Most of you who read this are most familiar with Oslo 2.0, the one we exhibited at TGS 2018. Oslo 2.0 was more magical and bright compared with the previous, with the setting being in a fantastical winter wonderland. The game overall felt a little less punishing as well, with the concept of death being understated. Our experience at TGS was valuable - many people seemed to love the art as we decided to push the 2D art talent. So why did we move on?
It was still not as fun as we wanted. We made a huge mistake of committing to art before even playtesting the core mechanic extensively.
Some of the audio mechanics were too daunting for the intended target audience. We didn’t take into account the tone-deaf, for example.
Having it 2D would mean that the art wasn’t as scalable. Our artists were eventually also looking for a more sustainable gig which we, unfortunately, weren’t able to afford. This is completely understandable and it also affects the scalability of our game.
We ultimately weren’t playing to our strengths of being half an audio team. Yes, there were audio puzzles but they still felt token.
Oslo 3.0 - Moving forward
As we embark on Oslo 3.0 (to be revealed™), some of the key learning points to consider:
Learn to filter feedback. While listening to feedback is important, we can also be more confident of our vision.
Playtesting the core mechanics early on would prevent excessive cycling of ideas, hard work and time.
Most importantly, there needs to be more frequent team check-ins regarding feelings, thoughts and feedback. Co-developing isn’t just about 2 companies “collaborating”, there needs to be a joint identity rather than treating each other as 2 discrete companies, to better understand and know each other as individuals.
Overall, we’re super happy to have learned this early on and we’ve been blessed with the support of many of our local game devs. Onward to Oslo 3.0!