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[Jo-Remi]

There's actually a good reason for this! I actually want the clouds to move way slower, BUT, this causes an issue. Moving the clouds slower will make their movement look jaggy. Every time the clouds move a pixel(since Owlboy in reality is a low-resolution game, 640x360), the movement is very noticable, but becomes less jarring the faster they move. A sudden jump of a pixel in low resolutions(as minor as it is) can look daunting. Hmmm, I think I'll make a couple of videos on this to explain it further. We especially noticed this when making idle animations for the characters. Just moving their heads/legs/arms a single pixel, gave way to much movement to look natural. Snake made sure to remedy this by drawing 'sub-pixel' movements. It's hard for me to explain, but I'm sure Snake can shed some light on this technique.

[Jo-Remi]

Oh btw, we've been updating our presskits as of late! Feel free to have a look - http://dpadstudio.com/presskitOwlboy.html!

I recommend checking out DoPresskit, as they've got a very good information setup(in fact I think a lot of press expect DoPress kits setups these days). We opted to add a little more detail to ours, with some animated gifs and moving scenery - but that's just because I'm damn sure Owlboy looks better in motion.



There might be stuff missing for the site that I'm not aware of yet - if you spot any, please let me know :D It's been soon 10 years of development, and we've got next to no experience in marketing, so any tips are welcome!

[JobLeonard]

Moving the clouds slower will make their movement look jaggy. Every time the clouds move a pixel(since Owlboy in reality is a low-resolution game, 640x360), the movement is very noticable, but becomes less jarring the faster they move.

Sounds a lot like the issues with displaying film:

A sudden jump of a pixel in low resolutions(as minor as it is) can look daunting.

Have you tried linear interpolation? It's background anyway so it's allowed to be blurry

[Jo-Remi]

Have you tried linear interpolation? It's background anyway so it's allowed to be blurry

I think we've tried this at one point, tho I'm not quite sure. We try to avoid blurring any of the pixels as we're pretty much all pixel nuts on the team

[JobLeonard]

Which I applaud, because one of my greatest pet peeves with pixel aesthetics is when a game does not respect it's own pixel resolution and really is just a bunch of high-res squares (although some games like Nikra make it work quite well).

OTOH, here it would be more like motion blurring, and on top of that it's a cloud, which in itself has a very blurry physicality to it

EDIT: Oh wait, I just realised you'd just replace the jarring jump in motion with a jarring jump in sharp/blur effect.

[gimymblert]

You can see tears of joy riding down my cheek, and also embarrassment because I won't be able to try, play or any kind of approximation of interaction before a good time i_i7

[Jo-Remi]

We recently sent out preview codes for the game, and we're starting to some impressions :-0

I've created a list of the ones I've spotted thus far on our presskit: http://www.dpadstudio.com/presskitOwlboy.html



It's actually a little funny, because we originally set an embargo for video impressions till the 26th August, but it got broken pretty fast, so we made sure to send mails to all the previewers we'd been in touch with to notify them that they're free to post their impression/vids.

This leads me to believe that embargos generally are a bad idea. Trying to control what the press can or can't say actually left me with a bad taste in the mouth. We wanted to set an embargo, because we wanted to avoid being caught up in all the Gamescom news, BUT, now that previews have started popping up around the web, we're not concerned about that anymore. People seem to really enjoy the game!

I think I can safely recommend just being open with the press(especially when your a dev), as you don't gain any favours by trying to put a lid on them.

[JobLeonard]

"Lars plays owlboy"

Good for you, Lars.

[gimymblert]

Yeah I have seen the jim sterling one, it was glorious i_i7

[io3 creations]

It's actually a little funny, because we originally set an embargo for video impressions till the 26th August, but it got broken pretty fast, so we made sure to send mails to all the previewers we'd been in touch with to notify them that they're free to post their impression/vids.

This leads me to believe that embargos generally are a bad idea. Trying to control what the press can or can't say actually left me with a bad taste in the mouth. We wanted to set an embargo, because we wanted to avoid being caught up in all the Gamescom news, BUT, now that previews have started popping up around the web, we're not concerned about that anymore. People seem to really enjoy the game!

I think I can safely recommend just being open with the press(especially when your a dev), as you don't gain any favours by trying to put a lid on them.

I haven't heard much about embargo issues, perhaps because those were respected, and it's interesting that some didn't actually didn't.  Sounds like the "best" way to have an embargo is to only send keys/copies when the games is ready to played/viewed/reviews.  Then it's a first-come-first-serve free-for-all.

[Superb Joe]

i havethe xbox 360 type of computer

[Jo-Remi]

I haven't heard much about embargo issues, perhaps because those were respected, and it's interesting that some didn't actually didn't.  Sounds like the "best" way to have an embargo is to only send keys/copies when the games is ready to played/viewed/reviews.  Then it's a first-come-first-serve free-for-all.

This was definitely a fault on my end, I wasn't clear on the fact that there even was an embargo, so I totally mucked up. But even before setting an embargo, I was just thinking - "why are we restricting people from playing/enjoying/discussing our game - isn't that what we WANT them to do!?".

When the first impressions hit, the only thing on my mind was 'HOLY SHIT PEOPLE ACTUALLY LIKE THE GAME'!

[Zizka]

I was dropping by to let you know Jim Sterling made a video about your game but it's too late for that clearly. The fact that he liked the game is a good milestone/an accomplishment as has fairly high standards in my opinion. You're on the right path, keep at it! 

[Jo-Remi]

Hoi guys! The game now has a Steam Store page, together with a new trailer for the game!

Steam Store Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/115800

Owlboy Announcement Trailer:

[Tuba]

Congratulations. Been waiting for this for a long time

[Jalapenosbud]

Hoi guys! The game now has a Steam Store page, together with a new trailer for the game!

Steam Store Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/115800

Owlboy Announcement Trailer:

i cried watching this..

[FauxOperative]

Absolutely gorgeous, shocking I have never seen this before.  Checking out steam page now.

[JobLeonard]

Oh wow, the trailers + the preview vids I've seen so far have made me hyped all over again. And I was pretty happed when this project started!

[SolS]

Wow, I'm a bit late... the art is very impressive! I'll have to catch up on the previous pages to see it all.

[McMutton]

Yusss. This pleases me greatly.