Getting ready for Owlboy announcements

Sometime along the next couple of days we will upload our new website, giving a bigger focus around the continued development of Owlboy. We've got a bunch of news-stories coming up, we've had a few interviews, and we've been playing FEZ, but handling the new website has taken most of our time, once it's up we'll start serious crunchtime on Owlboy.

Stay tuned next week!

Owlboy is on it's way

We're back, and we're ready to churn like machines to ready up Owlboy for it's final phase of development! Though we'd still like to keep the new content we've added to Owlboy a secret, as soon as we start closing in on completion, we'll get ready to reveal more of the game.

Happy Birthday Adrian!

We've got a birthday on our hands this week, and as always, we treat these glorious occations with the attention they deserve! Happy Birtday Adrian, here is an animated short for you... and we're sorry.

This short is an alternate version of Colin's Bear Animation, a spirit-lifting, reoccuring Youtube video here at the office monitors. See and read about the original here

.

Fan-Art Update #12

Here's a tall standing Otus, done by HaydenKJB. I love his tie in this one! So proper!

San Francisco Invaded

Our little invasion is over! We showcased our games, we handshaked our fans, and we got our fill of burgers, now it's time to go home and finish our Owly game. Oh, and we also got to hand out hand-made swag.

First victim to be attacked by our Gawks was Jessica Bower(Left) of Cogswell Pylotechnical College. But emerging victorious, Jessica got it tamed, and they now are friends forever.

Second Gawk encounter happened to David Saulesco(Right). In this case, the Gawk did the taming. Or atleast, it tried. David is also a very talented musician. I highly recommend visiting his site, and especially listen to Happy Happy Helen.

The going of home

In other words, we got to meet both new friends and old friends. Early at our arrival we randevozed with Amon26, a voracious beast of passion and intuition, music composer and game designer, most recently known for his release, Gyossait. He's here with us to say goodbye to the San Franciscoans, who was kind enough to not kick us out of their city.

So while we really look forward to staple our eyes back to our computer screens back home, and continue to hack away at the Owlboy code, we're going to miss all the crazy, all the gamers and all the fans. Thanks for making our stay memorable.

Invade San Francisco

We've come to San Francisco third time in a row! Looking forward to showing off the new Owlboy and Vikings On Trampolines demos. Last night was a allnighter, we've never been barraged with so many bugs at any point during development, than right before GDC! Typical, but we kept on forward!

Arriving to San Francisco walking. Flights are overrated, so we take to the streets!

New Owlboy demo arrived

In the new demo, you get to explore a small part of Otus's home village, Vellie, and to enter a Gawk infested cave with mysterious artifacts and bosses that await you.

Our slimy, yet curiously cuddly Gawks peer at you while playing the new Owlboy demo. Allthough space at the stand is limited, they seem to thrive in tight spots.

Gawking into your soul! Don't mess up, or they slime you.

Vikings OH NO!

In the new Vikings On Trampolines demo, we now have a up to 4-players deathmatch at the ready. If you manage to beat Simon at the game, his Vikings helm of Death And Doom will become yours, to testament your provess in battle! We also might be able to give you the game for free once it hits release if you provide us with your email adress.

A close quarter combat situation. We must expand our territory!

Arriving at our booth, we realized that Norway's representatives at the Nordic Game Pavillion had recieved the shorter end of the straw. We knew we had to gain some attention, so we wore our Viking helmets, and started to rally up some troops.

We captured a screen from the surrounding enemies! Call out for challengers!

Challangers appear, but they are weak and inferior. @Copenhagen Game Collective.

Day ends well. Territory expanded, still kept our Viking helmets. Whoever beats Simon at our game, get the helmet as token and proof of mightyness & vikingness!

Despite having limited space for showing off our games, the day ended awesomely, and we got a few interviews in, great long-time fans showing up, and a small barrage of players. Day one over, and pretty good.

New Album, Vario

Aleksander Vinter just hit the webs with his new album, Vario! And guess who did the cover! None other than our own Simon!

In celebrating the release of Vario, I've compiled a video of all the games I've worked on thus far using Vinter's music.

It all started with the first game shown in this video, "The Rim". I heard one of Vinter's first radio hits 'Virus' while driving my car, and as I was listening, I could visualize a game playing out on my windshield. I decided to give him a 2minute call, to ask him if I could use his song for a gaming idea I had, and we ended up talking for hours, about game ideas, music, life and the world.

For every Vinter song I've ever listened to, there is also a game idea that has popped into my head. The ones in the video are the ones I've had the time to prototype. Alot of them will never see the light of day, and even more of them will never be created. But here atleast is a little testament to how much he, and his music inspires me.

A few songs from the album that I really enjoy listening to, are:

• Living Ipod
• Hero from the past
• Shadow

I really recommend giving them a listen, even if you don't like Dubstep, which personally, I usually don't. Vinter's take on the genre thou, is so unique that I can't stop listening to his new album.

His Facebook page can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/savantdubstep, and the new album can be found on Beatport.com.

Keeping you updated from GDC

Simon and Henrik has finally gotten ready to start blabbering about what's going on, and they've opened up their respective Twitter accounts, you can find them regularely updated on the sidebar there ->

Playable at GDC

Last week we announced we're going to the GDC. This week we're announcing that if you're there, you'll be able to play an entirely new demo of Owlboy, and get to see some of the new additions that has made it into the game. We'll finally be able to put some light on things.

Getting ready

Shortly after GDC we will announce when we estimate Owlboy to be finished, and shortly thereafter, we will launch the game. We can't announce a hard-date just yet, but we're spening almost every waking hour on the game these days. Looks like we'll soon get this Owlboy out of his nest!

Traveling

We're going to GDC for the 4th time in a row! We're gonna be there and show off all the goodies we've got, especially our main course: Owlboy!

Adding the last content to Owlboy is faster then ever, as we've done several upgrades to our mapediting tools. Sometime after Owlboy's release, I'm hoping to release a video of the progress we went through making levels and such, but right now, we're waaay to busy actually finishing the development.

Meet us!

We're most likely to bring many gifts to GDC(posters, buttons, flyers and whatnot), so we're hoping to see you there so you can grab some off of us before you scuttle away. Oh, and each day we're gonna have a raffle. Winning it, might win you a new slimy friend.

Win raffle! Win friend!

Development progress

Soon will be Owlboy polish, test and announcement time. We're hoping to soon be able to announce the final deadline, things that has made it into the game, and what to expect from it. You might catch a glimpse of what is to come if you meet us at GDC. In that case, see you soon!

---

We were closed yesterday in protest to the US laws SOPA and PIPA, that will start an era of censorship across the internet. To get more info, visit Reddit or The Wikipedia, both sites we use daily for inspiration and learning, who also today, are shut down for protesting.

The website is up again, but we hope the awareness of the suggested laws are still spreading, so we can keep the internet as intended, a well of uncensored, infinite knowledge, the biggest step we could ever hope for towards the progression and enlightenment of our race.

---

Celebrate with us!

We have several birthdays in our home today, most notably our extraordinarily talentet composer Jonathan's B-Day! How do we celebrate? With song of course!

CUE PIANO ROLL OTUS!!!

We'd like to wish Jonathan a fantastic day, and expect him to keep astonishing us with his tunes all the way through this already promising year! Here is also a new year's greeting from a fan who's eager to fly!

Merry new year!

Winter is coming, and our Christmas season's been full of work and beverages. We have laid our final work plan for Owlboy and are once again pushing tirelessly towards release.

We're getting closer and closer to release, but we don't want to announce a specific release date yet, as polish and perfectness is our ultimate goal for the game.

However, when we next announce a release date, it will be because the game is already finished and ready for release.

What happens this year?

Release! Glorious release! But up till this most magnificent of events, there's not much we can say that won't spoil the game. However, in these coming weeks, we'll reveal some of the design choices and elements we've put into the game, that we're hoping will make things interesting.

Before the year ended, we sat down and designed a bunch of new enemies that has made it into the game. These will challange the gamer on a whole different scale than those found in the demo. You will require tactics to be able to defeat these enemies, and some will also be present during puzzlesolving. One of these new enemies is the Aegis

The Aegis's shield deflects most attacks, and it also comes with built-in laser eyes.
A hardy creature indeed!

Check back next week for more news on Owlboy.

Gifts for us!

We're celebrating Xmas at the office, and will soon be forced out of our comfy and toasty rooms, to leave for social gatherings and family meetings out there in the cold. Brrrrr!

BUT! At the end of the line, there will be rewards! Julie, our manager of management, decided to gift our prominent artist with a very special gift this year! A pet gawk! Stuffed, and not as slimy, but damn close to it's forefather!

Gifts for you!

But why keep all the fun to ourselves, eh?! I've cooked up a special version of an old game of mine to bounce a little xmas cheer around your screen. Dungeon Chaos Xmas, is gonna be available this week only, and you can download it here(Dungeon Chaos Xmas has become unavailable till next Xmas)

Dungeon Chaos Xmas has become unavailable till next Xmas.

If you havn't played Dungeon Chaos yet, here's a short description. It's a little platformer I worked on before Owlboy, heavily inspiered by Bubble Bobble's(PC) level design, Cave Story's(PC) fast paced platforming and River City Ransom's(NES) lightweight RPG system.

Basicly, shoot and blow up everything in sight, and use the teleporters to advance. After each stage, you will be met by a boss. Instructions can be found in-game by pressing F1 or from the menu.

The footage in this video is taken from last year's xmas version of Dungeon Chaos. The new one has a new set of features, including support for mouse and joystick. You now shoot and throw granades using the mouse, you can also teleport back and forth to the portals using the mousewheel.

Dungeon Chaos Xmas has become unavailable till next Xmas.

We hope you have a holly jolly Xmas, and the best of wishes from the whole team! Merry Christmas!

A few weeks ago, Simon designed a poster for JoinGame, an annual games workshop held here in Norway. Here's an interview together with illustrations of how Simon progressed when creating the poster. The final poster in all it's glory can be found here,

Interview: Joingame & Simon(Translated using GoogleTranslate)

Click for larger versions,

Fan-Art Update #10

Jolly! The mystery character from the demo illustrated by Kaishu. No doubt, he's looking forward to seeing you in the final release of Owlboy.

Try to look busy

This winter will be a tough one. Not only are we at hard work with the final parts of Owlboy, we're also working to avoid distractions like the new barrage of Zelda, Mario and Elder Scrolls games! Henrik has had his birthday, and for this occation, Simon drew him a gift card.

Feeling giftcardy? Click the image for a printable sized version. Zelda is out in just a couple of days!

Getting cold in here!

We're heading into a cold winter, good thing our office is next door to our bedrooms, leaving the house is neither time-productive nor warm round these parts of the year, and we're soon heading into the finishing parts of development. With two projects now on the agenda, this is going to be a busy holiday!

We found this hilarious and game-breaking playthrough of Owlboy by Giantbomb interns, Matt and Daniel this week, in their Indie Adventures. We both cheered and despaired when they found out they could hurl poor old Geddy through the waterfall without using the teleporter device. We were also cheering for them to figure out that you can teleport the gunner to you. We're making this more obvious in the final version.

Fan-Art Update #9

One of the more challanging enemies of the game, the Molt, got pixelated! Fanart by Dingo Ringo.

Viking invasion funded!

Our government decided to sponsor a new viking invasion. A trampoline fueled one. It's official, our next project after Owlboy will be Vikings On Trampolines, and development on this will be taken up straight after Owlboy's completion.

What is Vikings on Trampolines some may ask? Up till now, it's been a frantic head-on multiplayer battle game, where you control one of four vikings, trying to knock down your opponents while staying off the ground.

Simple stuff, though our plans for the game stretches quite far. We won't reveal any juicy details yet, instead, have a look at the new four-player Vikings trailer that we made in occation of entering it to the IGF 2012.

Fan-Art Update #8

This week, Otus is triumphant! Those pesky Gawks needs to conform to the new master of the flight. Fanart by Lee Stevenson, an aspiring artist with lots of talent.

Updates

In these days of cold and darkness, I'm joyed to be one of those who doesn't need to leave the house inorder to get to work. I usually start the day off by chugging coffee, and staying warm all through the day. Sometimes though, we're wanted outside of our cozy house of gamedevelopness, and I guess that's good, it's what keeps us connected to the surrounding world.

These last couple of weeks, we've held lectures at schools, done interviews and attended business meetings, and everytime we partake in such events, the team's spirit seems to get renewed. Lucky for us, we've got so much work to show, that I hope it's just the beginning of our tour.

One of the interviews we've done, is with 8BitHorse, in their regular "10 Questions" video interviews, which can be seen here:

While Simon is very busy doing his graphics, usually he'll get commision work aswell, this time, for a promoposter for an annually held games workshop held in Norway. If you're in Trondheim at the time of the workshop, you should definetly attend. Free lunch included(I'd be all over that if I was there)!

Fan-Art Update #7

Otus has got his upgrades right!

Minimaps in Owlboy

Following the demo, we got alot of response and suggestions of what to add, minimaps being one of them. Luckily, we've been one step ahead all along, having minimaps already planned out.

In the final release, we're adding the possibility for entering the menu, and checking out your progress throughout a dungeon, and maybe even hint at where you're supposed to go next, but we don't want to be too helping. The room in which the player is currently exploring, will light up on the minimap, and possible exits from a room will also be highlighted. Secret rooms, ofcourse, will remain secret.

A preview of Owlboy over at Thunderboltgames.com also appeared last week, have a look here.

Office Sparetime

We usually fill a little of our sparetime by playing games, though we'd like to call it 'research'. One of the games we downloaded and tested this week, was Wizorb, a magnificent looking game, mixing Breakout and old-school NES Adventure game elements. It just came out on the Xbox Live Indiegames section, a place hidden well away on the Xbox Live service, and most definetly needs a mention.

Fan-Art Update #6

Pirate attack!!! Great snapshot of Otus in the middle of trying to land a dropkick on a pirate. Drawn by Koriboy

Owls and Vikings to Texas!

Our Texacanian teammembers are stepping up this weekend, appearing at Fantastic Fest in Austin with both Owlboy and Vikings On Trampolines on display for you! There will even be tournaments! Get your ass over to Fantastic Fest right away, and look for the proud D-Padder's wearing their Vikings shirts!

Fan-Art Update #5

Another fan has jotted up this fantastic looking Otus with Gawks at every corner!

Comics and games!

We're going to this year's comic festival in Bergen, Raptus, to show off Owlboy in all it's glory, and to have a talk on how we work as a team. The festival lasts for the weekend, so we're finally one weekend off development. PHEW!

If you're anywhere near Bergen this weekend, be sure to come by and have a chat and try out the Owlboy demo.

An few articles has popped up on Owlboy aswell, and here are some of them:
+ NRK - Filmpolititet: Owlboy Demo ute nå(Norwegian)
+ PressPauseRadio: D-Pad Interview

Fan-Art Update #4

Speaking of comics and art, here is another piece of fanart that needs to be seen!

Otus has become *Superior Otus*

In a burst of dangerous vigour since the release of the demo, we have leaped ahead with feature implementation when we thought we would be bugfixing the demo! With all the feedback we have received, we have been able to polish the Owlboy's controls (good bye floaty jumps!), find performance issues we never knew existed, and patch holes in our vision for Owlboy that we wouldn't have found on our own. To be clear, a new version of the demo might still appear.

Also, since the release of the demo, we have implemented 2 new enemy AIs, a new scripting system, re-examined our screen scaling system, made numerous bugfixes (grudgingly), made a previously unplayable dungeon mostly playable, and we have optional side-dungeons slated for inclusion into our trunk.

Gathering opinions

Of course, we have also been paying close attention to people's feedback, and while most of it has (amazingly) been positive, there have been some points of interest that I will address here.

• We don't recommend using gamepads, as the game is optimized for mouse and keyboard use. We will get to optimizing gamepads eventually.
• The pacing and length of the Owl Temple are not final, as we have cut content from the temple to make the demo not reveal too much of the story.
• You're all awesome. Nearly all the criticism we've received has been constructive, and people have been amazingly forgiving. We plan to make Owlboy truly great, so chances are if your criticism is well thought it, it will be addressed, and it is helpful.

Donations kick purchasing power into overdrive!

With the recently added donations button,, we have amassed enough capital to invest in light bulbs for Simon's light bulb-less apartment! In a future update, we will tell you whether his pupils will have adjusted to ordinary light.

New Owlboy website

Be sure to visit the new Owlboy Website, where we've added several new screenshots, the launch trailer, the demo, and various info + pressreleases on Owlboy. Remember that this blog will always have the latest news on the development.

Fan-Art Update #3

The cutest and cuddliest Otus yet! Thanks to Griffsnuff!

Fan feedback are in

Fans all over has now gotten to play the first part of Owlboy, and it seems most players are enjoying it. We've got so many mails and comments that we're barely able to work due to reading through all the fine words that has been spread around the net.

A couple of video-playthroughs has dropped in, and we've sat down and enjoyed them all. Our smiles are bigger than anyones right now, not only from the satisfaction of finally being able to give out some playable bits from our upcoming game, but also because the feedback has been so immensly positive.

A huge thanks to everyone who's tried the demo!

We've also got several impressions on the demo around the net from forums, gaming websites and blogs. We'll be sure to link some of them in it's own section.

Fan-Art Update #2

One brilliant piece of art appeared not long after the demo got released, and the artist, Espenartman was also able to record himself working on it via Livestream. Here is the final result:

That is one glorious Otus.

Oh, and while you're here, pick up the demo:

Disclaimer: Remember, this is an unfinished product. Things are subject to change. There might be unexpected errors or bugs.

Look! Its a demo! Up there, in the sky!

And it has landed here for you to pick it up!

Without further ado, here is your download link sir/madam.
Download link: Owlboy Demo v1.0

Disclaimer: Remember, this is an unfinished product. Things are subject to change. There might be unexpected errors or bugs.

Get your owl boots on! The skies await!

Demo Description

The demo starts off right after the pirates have attacked Otus's home village, Vellie. Otus and Geddy are approaching the 'Owl Temple', in order to find the 'Wind Machine', which will help prevent another pirate attack.

Discuss with us!

Have an opinion on the demo? Found something we've overlooked? Visit our brand new forum and tell us all about it! The forum is still rough around the edges, but give us a minute, and we'll fix it right up.

Link: D-Pad Forum!

Donate

If you like the demo, and feel that you want to contribute to make Owlboy even better, we've set up an donation solution for you. If you donate, we'll make sure to give you proper credits. Donators will get an exclusive wallpaper drawn by Simon, Owlboy's glorious artdirector. Donators will also recieve any future high quality Owlboy artwork, or any other secret goodies that Simon creates.

Fan-Art galore!

We've recieved alot of fantastic fan-art, and we've put a place to show off all of the fans compositions and colors! Head over to the Fan-Art page to check all of them out. With every update to the main website, we'll feature one new piece of fan-art.

Orly?

Yes! Today the demo will see it's glory in the hands of the fans! Atleast, that's the plan. We're currently working out the very very last kinks, hoping to reach our Aug 20th deadline! Even thou there are lots of things we still want to add or change, the life of a developer must be the one of having to reach deadlines, if not, nothing would ever get released.

Ya rly!

One of the things we've been working is the support for bigscreens. Pixels don't render well on bigscreens, notleast on widescreens, and often results in pixels being pushed around. Here is one example, Otus's face would become horrendously scrambled on some parts of the screen. We decided to dub him Derp-Otus, here compared to the original.

Otus, pixel perfect.

Derp-Otus, not perfect.

Demo out tonight!

If nothing else fails, then yes! We are always prepared though, and should there be an massive onslaught of reported bugs, we'll get to the hotfixing! Keep in mind that tonight's release is a demo, and alot of content has been pulled from it, even in the areas which are open. Perfectionists we are, yet perfectionists we become! Check back tonight, while we eat these delicious waffles to celebrate.

Approved by Henrik.

How we deal with deadlines?

Quite good, panic hasn't taken us yet, which is the first sign of a good team. We're hoping that the demo will both impress and interest players, and we're doing the very last touches on it. Though it's not pandemonium at the office yet, things has started to pump up.

Henrik has started dual-wielding his tea.

Office renovations

In the wake of getting Henrik over to our team, a total renovation was also needed at our office for adding one extra person. Simon had to move his workstation over to the window, but he seems happy over there, with Horseblanky looking him straight in the whiteball.

We're down to improv here at D-Pad Office. Here, a horseblanket can become a most glorious curtain.

Pixeling the bigscreens

Getting Owlboy to look good on the bigscreen is our main priority this last week, which is'nt all easy when we're dealing with pixelgraphics. Scaling and strecthing pixels are usually the best method to make them look horrible. We're testing Owlboy on the biggest screens we've got, and hopefully, we'll make it look brilliant within the demo release.

Final tests and polish has commenced. Getting Owlboy to look good on the bigscreen is one of our big goals for the demo release.

Fanart Update

We've recieved even more fanart, this here is one dramatic piece from one of the scenes from the launch trailer.

Otus VS Alphonse the Pirate!!! Thanks to Aodigimon at Deviantart for this piece of fanart!

More and more!

Following the release of the Owlboy Demo Launch Trailer, we've had a non-stop riot in our e-mails from fans who want to see more, questions from on-lookers and general mail from people who wants to cheer us on! The trailer has been spread around so fast, we can hardly hold on to our monocles! Thanks to all our fans for putting smilies on our faces this week!

Here is a fantastic piece of fan-art from Themrock at Deviantart.com! Otus in all his rugged glory!

Apart from all the ruccus around the trailer, we've also ended up getting our faces into other media outlets, and a 20 min documentary on D-Pad Studio has been released, aswell as an almost hour long Podcast interview with the Rad Crew. Sadly, they are both in Norwegian, thou from the images you can see our office, our house and how we work. Hopefully interesting, even thou it is not pleasant for your ears.

VGTV.no Video: Det Nye Spill-Norge(The new Gaming-Norway), with D-Pad Studio

Podcast:

Video for you!

The official launch trailer for Owlboy is up! Together with this, we've announced that the releasedate of the Owlboy demo is the 20th Aug. Join us in REJOYCING!