Development Continues!

Hello!

Yesterday was the 2 year anniversary of our Canvas demo. This seems like a good time to talk about the development of Canvas both past and future. I still remember the time before we released this demo. We had been working on the project on and off in our free time. This changed at GDC 2018 where Doug and I discussed the potential of the game. Multiplayer, puzzle game, exploration, horror. It could do all of it in a new way with new mechanics that players had never experienced before and with no prior experiences to build on. It was wholly new and could be anything, and we got the demo completed within a month.

We started with the most pure exploration of this concept: figuring out the mechanics. This demo is all about the mechanic of painting on this, discovering things, changing things by painting on them. It tries to teach the concepts and show off exactly what kind of experiences are available with this kind of interaction.

From a development stand point, we never really stopped working on Canvas. We experimented with different designs, different visuals, different technical implementations that could unlock greater potential for the painting mechanics. For me the issue was always that this game could be anything, but what was the best game this could be? We could make anything.

A lot of other events have happened in the last year. Both Doug and myself have spent two years working in the game's industry. We live on opposites sides of the US and have had a variety of different experiences over the years. I definitely have become a better systems designer, level designer, 3D modeler, and I think most of all I've become better at empathizing with the player experience. The new technical groundwork that's been laid for the game has made it so that building content for the game is as quick and easy as it can be. We can make bigger areas, more complex areas, and really focus entirely on the positives of this game: Exploration.

We are excited to release something that shows off this new direction, tech, and experience all about painting and exploring. In the next month look for a new demo that shows all of this off! If you see this and haven't tried the current demo, please give it a try and give any feedback you have. We're looking to be very open about development and listen to every piece of feedback we get.

I've been active on twitter showing the development of the game in realtime [here]. And give Doug a follow for the more technical elements of the game!

Thanks for reading and playing!

Brandon