As always, on day 1 we had a pretty good idea of where we were going, and we focused on building the base classes to reach the end goal while also trying to figure out the style of the game.

On day 2, there was a lot of work to do to reach the point where we had a full game loop we could test end-to-end, so we could start tweaking the feel of the game. After 2 days, you should already be close to having most of the game done, since the last day is usually full of final polish, tying everything together, working on the menu, and trying to build the game to make sure it works properly in the browser.

Probably the hardest part of day 2 was connecting all the systems together, because before that they were mostly separate pieces that were theoretically working on their own. At first the radio system was mostly just a bunch of buttons without much impact on anything else, but once the mini-game, the visual clues, and the interactions with the other systems were put in place, it really started to feel like a real machine.

It feels very good to start seeing systems work together after a rough day of tying everything together. It gives the team motivation for the final stretch, which can be exhausting for some. Still, we try to keep a kind of balance in our organization and not forget to take care of ourselves.

The introduction of sound also changed a lot for the game. Since the whole concept is built around a radio, sound is really what makes it feel alive, and it became much more immersive once we had it in. Our goal is really for players to feel the immersion, and we have put a lot of effort into the overall feel of the game.

We are pretty excited to see how players will react to the atmosphere and the core idea once we finally manage to put everything together and release it.

We still need to finalize the game loop so the game has an actual ending and conclusion, and we also still have a lot of sounds to add, bugs to fix, and the menu to make. We have also not tested the build yet. This time we handled audio differently so we could publish a web version, and we really hope it will pay off, even if it brought more struggle and forced us to sacrifice part of our usual approach to sound effects.

It is very nice to see the game start to take shape, with the logic, the graphics, and the sounds all coming together. It feels a bit like giving birth to something, and there is definitely a sense of pride in that. We really hope people will enjoy this entry for our Ludum Dare 59 game jam.