Project Update: The "Sandbox Prototype" and a whole bunch of overhauls! 🛩️

Hey, Pilots! 🛩️

We know we’ve been a bit quiet lately, and we really appreciate you sticking around! 🥰 As we get closer to our launch later this year, we wanted to pull back the curtain and give you a little more insight into what’s actually been happening behind the scenes of Lou’s Lagoon.

While we’d originally planned to be purely in "bug-fixing and polishing" mode by now 👀, we hit a point where we had to be honest with ourselves and admit that some parts of the game just weren't hitting the vibe we wanted. Based on recent playtests, the balance between letting you explore freely and giving you enough guidance was not where we wanted it to be (and that balance has been a topic of A LOT of internal discussions!) So, we decided to roll up our sleeves and make some bigger changes to get it right:

🛠️ The "Task Force" & “The Prototype” 🛠️

While most of the team kept improving the main game, a few of us formed a little "task force" to build what we just called “the prototype” or "sandbox prototype". We wanted to experiment with the quest structure and rethink Lou’s Island (the first place you land) and its function in the game. We tried out a central hub, new machines, and... we may have even added pretty cool drones as well! 🙂‍↕️

When the day finally came to play it internally, it was an "all-hands" feedback session. To be honest, we didn't love every single change (but that was to be expected), but the new role of the main island felt amazing. It’s now a place where your favorite characters actually hang out together as a team and their aid in your quest will be very noticeable. We’re still tweaking the visuals, but we’ll show more details on the changes to Lou’s Island very soon!

✈️ Overhauling the Overworld ✈️

We’ve been spending a lot of time flying around our own world, and we noticed that we need to fill the overworld with more incentive for you to explore it. After all, we don’t just want your plane to be a tool for getting from A to B, we want flying to be a fun and integral part of the game! And without a good reason to fly under arches and through tight spaces you might miss the best views! 🪽

To fix that, we’re testing out ways to implement quests in the overworld, so the journey between islands feels like part of the adventure rather than just travel time. 🙂‍↕️ We’ll have more info soon, as this is very much in the making right now. Oh, and we gave some more drama to the tornado. You’ll definitely think twice before not taking it seriously now! 🌪️

🎣 Improving the Fishing System🎣

Fishing felt a bit flat in earlier versions and has been a constant object of iteration, and we’ve done a big balancing pass to make fishing more of a fun challenge:

• Fish spawns are now time-sensitive (day vs. night) and island-specific. ☀️🌘

• Your rod level now matters a little more for the types of fish you’ll hook, and you’ll have more reason to upgrade it! 🎣

• We made some small changes to the fishing minigame itself. It’s less about hitting buttons quickly and now focuses on keeping the fish inside a circle. It feels much more satisfying, intuitive, and captures that feeling of having to lean into the pull to land your catch. We can’t wait for when you’ll be able to try it out yourself! 🐟

✨Small Tweaks, Big Difference ✨

Finally, we’ve been tackling a huge list of "quality of life" stuff based on your feedback. Honestly, there’s been so many little changes! The towns now feel livelier, as the NPCs have more animations and move around instead of staying in one spot, and you’ll also find a stylist in every town now! The crab that Boulderia is built on also got more animations, and a little more personality with that. Nights are now shorter (as befits the sunny island setting), we’ve added a controller rumble function, the map has been improved, there’s now a visual indication of your gadgets’ level, and many building objects have interactive functions... Well, a lot has happened!!

Thanks for reading this wall of text, and thank you for being with us. We’re working hard to make Lou’s Lagoon the best version of itself, and we can't wait to share more with you very soon. 🥰

Best, The Lou’s Lagoon Crew ✈️🌴