Tales from the Tides - February Dev Log

Reef Guardians, we are back again to share updates on what’s been happening beneath the waves!

We were super excited to share the playtest with you last month and we’re extremely happy with how it was received. We were genuinely blown away by how positive and constructive the feedback was, and you were all extremely helpful in identifying and squashing bugs. While we’d done plenty of internal testing, this was our first large public test without, as Megapop’s CEO says, ‘controlling transmission.’ It was hugely motivating to see how players engaged across gameplay, videos, and streams (yes we watch it all, especially what’s shared in Discord!). Most importantly, we’ve been digging into the common themes and smart suggestions you shared to help improve the experience.

After the playtest wrapped, we invited our Discord community to send Megapop their burning questions about the game:

From Cravone, “What were some of the biggest takeaways from the demo feedback?”

The main takeaway was that people really liked the core mechanics of the game, but also had some good notes around balance. That’s exactly what we were hoping to learn from the playtest, and it’s something we’ll definitely be tweaking.

We also spotted a few player communication things we need to improve. Sometimes when you’re deep in development you get a bit blind to what players do or don’t know, so seeing it from their perspective was super helpful. For example, we realised energy needs clearer communication, which we’re adding right now.

Overall the feedback was really helpful, positive, and constructive. We really appreciate everyone who took the time to play the beta and share their thoughts - thanks all!

From Lindatron, “Are the sprite names random or do they have meaning?”

Oh I love this! The sprite names are in fact a random combination of a list of first and last names. Some are references, like there’s some references to other games or media we like, and some are the names of the developers or our friends and family!

From David Robinson, “What is your true inspiration for Life Below?”

For me personally, the biggest inspiration for Life Below comes from growing up around the Oslo fjord archipelago, specifically Tønsberg. As a kid I spent my summers island-hopping with my grandparents, and my favourite thing to do was just watch life in the ocean. I’d spend hours looking down into the water at crabs, shrimp, seaweed, fish, and everything else living around the islands.

As I got older I got really into builder and strategy games like Frostpunk, The Wandering Village, IXION, and Prison Architect. Then Terra Nil really showed that you can flip the perspective from humans to nature, which was a huge inspiration.

When I first pitched the idea to the team, we realised a lot of us shared the same interests and really cared about the theme. So the inspiration for Life Below is a mix of my personal experiences growing up by the ocean, the things our team is passionate about, and the many amazing games that already exist in this genre.

From Planet Estefania, “Where did you take inspiration for designing the main characters of Life Below? Could you show initial designs and how they evolved into final characters?”

My first visual rule for Life Below was that I didn’t want anything to look “plastic.” It sounds a bit funny, but a lot of underwater visuals in games end up feeling shiny and artificial, with really strong colours on hard surfaces. We wanted it to feel much more natural than that.

So we spent a lot of time gathering real-world references — looking at actual ocean species and basing our designs on things that exist in nature. Visually, we’d often place characters and art somewhere on a Venn diagram between realistic, magical, and stylistic.

Thalassa, for example, is inspired by a mix of jellyfish and sea angels, while the water sprites lean more closely toward sea angel designs. There’s also a bit of inspiration from the movie The Abyss in there too.

We followed a similar process with the structures in the game, each one is based on a real coral species, but with some added magical flavour and stylistic interpretation. Our artists are incredibly talented, so it’s been really exciting to watch the world evolve as they’ve developed it.

So what’s next? Keep your eyes peeled for a brand new trailer, diving into the ocean’s hazards and volatility, where every decision could save or doom your reef! We also have an upcoming interview with Rhianna Prachett, the narrative mind behind Life Below, so stay tuned for a closer look at how the story is taking shape.

We’re so excited to share more between now and launch, make sure to follow us on socials and join our Discord server to stay in the know!