Dev Blog #02 - Working towards the Demo

It's Getting Closer!

We're working hard to bring Animal Game out to all of you. While you can already try the Alpha by joining our community Discord, the upcoming Demo will feel like a completely different experience. Menus have been polished, new levels are being added, and the core game loop has been overhauled. Let’s dive into everything that’s new!

• New track dropped!

• Level Reveals

• Gameplay Upgrades

• Menu overhaul and delicious UI

• Getting Animal Game to a broader audience

New track dropped!

One of our new demo levels has received some serious audio love, with a banger of a soundtrack. Inspired by Slavic folk music and Nordic fantasy tunes, the soundtrack fits perfectly with the chaos of our “Siege” arena.

View store page We’ve also expanded the game’s soundscape: menus, button clicks, upgrade locks, and gameplay all have fresh audio feedback to make the experience more lively.

Level Reveals:

Much of the fun in Animal Game comes from the variety of arenas. We want a healthy mix of big, medium, and small maps, so alongside large battlegrounds like Laboratory and Animal House, we’ve been building smaller arenas to balance things out. Here are a few highlights:

Take the Castle!

Some of you may have spotted the teaser on our socials. There were some good guesses on what the theme might be. We can now reveal, that you fight in the active siege of this old Nordic and Slavic inspired wooden fortress.

Beware of the invading army as you play in this arena. They will attack, sending volleys of arrows across the map, forcing you to take cover. Catapults will be tearing through the buildings, and in the end, you’ll be fighting for the last scraps of safe space.

The map will start at a medium size, but turns into a small size as the buildings get destroyed and the playable area narrows down to only a single point of safety from the arrows. This makes it our most dynamic map to date, and we hope you will have lots of fun playing it in the demo.

Need some training?

The Training Dojo is a simpler arena designed for practice and experimentation. It’s also home to our new tutorial system. Hone your skills, test strategies and get some frustrations out against the target dummies in the level.

This level is the ideal ground for new players to learn the ropes, or for veterans to polish their skill. Steam post image

It's so sweet!

Last time we showed the concept for Candy Land. It still under construction, but here's a peek at the process. We block out the layout and functionality as quickly as possible and then we produce all the vibrant assets that goes into the level. In this case we want the volcano to explode when the detonator in the middle is triggered; raining down sweets onto the player. Minecarts will pass through the level to mix things up - maybe they will carry weapons and healthpacks or maybe players will be able to jump into them and rain down bullets from above... The future will show!

We will be back with more updates on Candy Land in the next dev blog.

Gameplay Upgrades:

One of our biggest improvements is an overhaul of the core loop. Previously, upgrades had to be chosen while the remaining players were still fighting. This made players scramble through options, just picking anything so that they could return to the battle and not miss out. With the new solution the flow is much clearer, and players will have time to go and read over the options and get a break to strategize.

Staying alive:

In the new game mode you stay dead until there is only a single survivor. Upgrades will be picked at the end of a round based on the player standing. Lower scoring players receive more and better upgrade options, while the last standing survivor receives a bunch victory points - and potential skill tokens for skins when the game is fully released.

While surviving the round grants you several victory points, eliminating opponents will also grant you a point - even in death.

Matches can end quickly if one player dominates, so survival is more important than ever.

UI and Menus

Last time we talked a bit about overhauling the menus. And we've been hard at work on that too! We upgraded the main menu to better fit the cute style, with lots of colors, animated scenes and a settings menu so you can get just the experience you want.

Keeping with the Animal theme, we felt that leaning into evolution would be good idea. So upgrades can now be stacked, carving out your powerful niche. Some upgrades can even be evolved into something completely different, letting you shift your playstyle mid-match.

Getting Animal Game to a broader audience

One of the hardest parts of indie development is simply being seen. While most of our energy goes into building the game, we’re also making content outside of Steam to help more people discover Animal Game. You can find our Social Medias here: TikTok, Youtube, Instagram.

The demo is where the real fun begins, and we’re pushing hard to get it ready for you. But don’t forget: you can already join the Alpha version of Animal Game by hopping into our Discord Server.

Thank you for supporting us — please share our videos, tell your friends, and help spread the word! We’ll be back soon with more updates.

• The Animal Game team.