Fall Progress Report!

Here's an update on development: Some changes in our release timeline, and the first of a series of "Gameplay Spotlights". And, as always, some concept doodles to close us out.

DEMO RELEASE TIMELINE UPDATE

In our previous news post and showcase debut trailer, we announced that our "Dress Rehearsal" demo would release Fall 2024. However, we're now changing that date, and are planning to release the demo to the public within the first quarter of 2025. The reason behind this delay is to improve the demo's stability, performance, and mechanical depth as much as possible.

While we're very excited to let everyone play, we also want to make sure the experience is free of crashes, softlocks, performance problems, and any other jank that might get in the way of your dinosaur-based adventures. That kind of quality assurance takes effort and time, which is why we've decided to move things back a bit.

So with that in mind, keep an eye out for our announcement of the actual day. We know it will be sometime early next year! As soon as we're sure we can fully commit to a specific date, we'll announce it here and everywhere else.

GAMEPLAY SPOTLIGHT

We want to talk to you about dinosaurs!

More specifically, we want to shed some light on the gameplay mechanics of the Clever Girls. Here's the first in an ongoing series of spotlights.

Consider these minor environmental and mechanical spoilers: If you want to experience the demo 100% spoiler-free, consider skipping the section below.

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Clever Girls is a story and character-driven game. While the demo story doesn't branch like the full game will, it still has a lot of character personality to share. We're very excited to see the reactions players have to our main cast.

The other half of the game is the tactical battles! Combat in Clever Girls (including the demo) is turn-based and has an in-depth stealth and enemy knowledge system. Battles take place on a loose grid, but it's designed to be subtle so that it doesn't cover up the environment too much.

You can use a cursor to look around the environment and plan your route ...

... and then walk around while directly controlling your character, within a maximum distance per turn. Your movement path is indicated with a trail. It's possible to undo your movement if you want to find a better route (or if you were spotted by an enemy!)

That leads us to stealth and enemy knowledge. Enemies will need to find your characters before they can attack them. In order to do this, your opponents will search the environment, share information with their allies, and try to track your dinos down using their last known locations.

While the dinos are formidable, the enemies they fight haven't come unprepared. Oftentimes ambush tactics and misdirection are key: taking advantage of the knowledge system is the basis of advanced gameplay. (At least until the tide has turned and enemies are isolated or outnumbered-- at that point, rampage away!)

Here you can see some tactical maneuvering from Sawyer, using her "Leap" ability. Leaping into or out of cover is an important way of moving without being seen, and it also opens up the level's verticality.

If the enemies think you're still hiding in the tall grass, they won't see you approach from elsewhere. Attacking an enemy that's unaware is always beneficial. Sawyer's focus is coordination and leading-from-the-front, which her abilities demonstrate by providing buffs for initiating actions, or marking targets.

Prati can also leap around! What she lacks in Sawyer's offensive capability, she makes up for with trickery and misdirection-- even when she's hidden, she wants to be the center of attention! Here you can see her using the "Ventriloquism" ability:

Can you guess what it does? Since each of the characters are different species, we wanted to make sure they play in a way that fits their talents and personality. Prati may not be incredibly effective on her own, but with teamwork her abilities shine.

That's all for the first of our gameplay spotlights! The next one will give some details on what Daisy and Shade bring to the table during battle.

ART FOR YOU TO LOOK AT

During our story planning, we often end up with concept art, doodles and more. Here's one we can share:

Why are these two chilling with some modern-day chickens? Perhaps they consider the chickens honorary dinosaurs, via inheritance... To find out you'll have to wait until the full game, as the demo, sadly, is chicken-free. (Unless you count Prati, but that'd be rude.)

We'll show off even more gameplay stuff in upcoming spotlights. If you want to see more of this kind of thing, let us know! We're also planning on character spotlights too, so stay tuned if you want to learn more about the cast's personalities, backstories, etc.

As always, thank you for following the project. We're constantly surprised and delighted at the enthusiasm everyone's directed our way, and it makes us want to double down and ensure we can deliver something that you all will enjoy.

We'll be back with more info as we have it. Thanks for following! - Ossifrage Games