Summer Devblog 🌞

Hi everyone,

First off, thank you so much for all your interest in MIO: Memories in Orbit! The past few weeks have been very intense (in the best way possible), between the Summer Game Fest, the release of our gameplay trailer, our participation in the Steam Next Fest and gamescom.

And we’re happy to say that everything went really well! Huge thanks to everyone who took the time to fill out our demo feedback survey. We read every single response, and your input has already sparked some ideas for little things we could do to enhance the experience further. For those interested, the demo is still available on Steam right now! Keep the feedback coming 🩵

We’ve also spent a good deal of time watching your playthroughs, streams, and reactions. It’s been both incredibly interesting and rewarding to see you discover and talk about the game, see how you engage with it and navigate in it. The overall results have been very positive and it’s been amazing to learn which features resonated with you the most!

For this summer devblog, we’ve decided to share a recap below (which includes old concept arts 👀)!

🎨 Art direction & music: universally loved!

One of the most consistent pieces of feedback was praise for the art direction and music. These have been the core pillars of MIO from the very beginning, so seeing them resonate with so many players is quite rewarding.

Fun fact: the art direction actually went through three full reworks before we landed on the current style. While we're incredibly proud of where it ended up, our rendering dev still has a few ideas they'd love to push further, though that might have to wait for future projects. 🤭

🍥 Progression: a design choice

A few comments brought up things that were "missing" like fast travel or limited abilities early on, but these are actually intentional design choices. MIO is a metroidvania at heart, and progression is built around unlocking new powers and mechanics over time. We want players to earn their way through the world! 💪

That sense of discovery, of gaining access to a new area or finally beating a boss after learning its patterns is part of what makes this genre special.

So yes, things like fast travel do exist. They just arrive later 😉

⚖️ The cleaving bits

Some aspects of the game got divided reactions, which was to be expected and also something we’ve actually experienced before. When we released our first game, Shady Part of Me, we were obsessively refreshing the Steam page to read the very first reviews. The first one was “It’s too easy.” The next? “It’s too difficult.” You get the idea. 🤗

For MIO, these divided aspects include:

• The difficulty curve

• The"simple to learn, hard to master"combat system The “soulful” level design with fewer handholds

As always, it’s impossible to make a game that works for everyone. And that’s okay. Our philosophy has been to own our intentions and core design choices, while staying fair to the player. That means clearly communicating those choices and what kind of experience MIO offers, so players know what they’re signing up for and won’t be disappointed.

We’ve also worked hard on accessibility options, which could be a great solution for players who want a slightly less difficult experience. Not options that just “make you invincible” and undermine the game, but tweaks that help more casual players enjoy it without losing its intended feel. We will share more details about it when we're ready!

🔧 What’s already fixed (or will be fixed)

Some of your feedback pointed out issues that we’re already actively addressing or have already solved:

• 2K / 4K display support ✅ (not implemented in the demo yet)

• Option to disable low-HP screen borders ✅ (not implemented in the demo yet)

• Map & shop UI visuals 🔄

• Performance improvements 🔧

Right now, performance is a big focus for us and it has been for a long time. While the game looks 2D, it’s actually fully 3D, with procedural rendering and no loading screens between rooms, which makes optimization very tricky. However, there is no need to worry, we’ve been working on this for over a year and are committed to making sure MIO runs smoothly on as many setups as possible by launch!

🛠 What needs work (and we’re on it)

Lastly, a few areas came up that weren’t as well received and that are now on our radar:

• The long path to Egis

• Some guidance / navigation issues

• The map & shop UI

• A jump reset bug (known and tricky, but currently being handled)

• The shop not feeling interesting enough

These are all areas we’re now keeping a close eye on, and while some are trickier than others, we’re exploring ways to improve them wherever possible.

🌞 Sun, dogs, and a bit of rest

Right now, some of the team is also enjoying a well-deserved summer break, but we’re still making the most of the time we have before release: polishing, refining, and adding final touches wherever we can to make the experience even better. 🫶

This summer, we also had the chance to attend our publisher’s summer party, and this time, our producer brought both of her dogs! (She usually only brings Ino to the studio, but made an exception that week.) It was a perfect evening: great company, PERFECT weather, and a much-needed moment to relax together. 🍹

🎮 Gamescom

We were at Gamescom this year, it was a great event as usual. We talked with journalists but also presented our demo to the public.

It was great but we realised that this demo is really not optimized for this event 😅 it’s way too long and there is way too many people there. In the end, each person could only play the game between 15 to 20 minutes. A simple path with a short plateformer challenge ending with a boss would have been more appropriate.

Actually, that is exactly what Silksong presented during the event. We haven’t have the opportunity to play their demo unfortunately but we’ll all play the game soon 🫶

We hope you enjoyed your summer as well, and we’ll be back soon with more news! We can’t wait to share more with you.

See you soon! 💛