Woodo Dev Diary #1

We want to share with you the process of making Woodo! This is why we decided to introduce you to our Woodo Dev Diary where we plan to give you an insight into the changes and improvements during development.

🎉 Finally, We Can Share the Map!

We’re excited to show you the level selection map for our game — it’s visually close to being finished! The map itself is rendered as a static image, but to achieve the right shadows, we built a simple 3D structure underneath it. Since we’re using an orthographic camera, the shadows align perfectly with the 3D objects, creating the illusion that they’re cast over a flat 2D surface. 🗺️✨

🔍 How It Works in Unity

Here’s a GIF showing how it looks in Unity. We opted for this approach to optimize performance — a fully 3D scene would be too heavy, and we wouldn’t be able to reach this level of quality. However, the characters on the map will still be in 3D, so we can animate them later on. It was quite a challenge to get the 3D shadows to blend naturally with a 2D image, but we’re happy with the result! 😅👌

🐸 Adding Some Life to the Map

We haven’t implemented any animations yet, but we tested importing a few simple ones — like a frog 🐸 and a watermill 🌊 — to see how it would work. As you progress through the levels, the map will gradually fill with color 🎨, and the characters in that section will start animating. We hope this gives you an extra goal — a meta-objective — to complete every level and see the entire map come to life! ✨

🎮 Button Animations

We’ve also been working on button animations:

🔓 Unlocking new levels 🎯 Selecting a level 🚪 Transitioning to a level For the large "Play" button, we plan to show your progress with a subtle ring around it. 🔄

🛠️ From Concept to Reality

And here’s a look at where it all started. It began as a simple blockout in Blender. I (because I handle the visuals 🎨) first sketched out the overall look, defined the main locations in the game, and then figured out how to reflect them on the map.

We hope you enjoyed hearing more about our process! Let us know what you think! 🤗

There are exciting times ahead and we can't wait to share it with you!

Lots of cozy love, Yullia Prohorova