Hello, Popmates
Hello! This is the devlog for Popmates, a pixel-art party game in the making. It is one week old. This first post is a quick hello and covers days 1 to 7 in broad strokes; the next few posts go into the details.
The plan in one breath
You are a balloon, called a Popmate. You float around a world of small islands in the sky with other players. When you fancy a game, you step through a portal, a category pops up ("things in a kitchen"), and everyone has 30 seconds to type as many answers as they can. An answer only you thought of is worth 2 points; one somebody else also found is worth 1. Then you drift back out, maybe buy a silly hat, and go again.
The What is Popmates page has the longer version.
What a week gets you
Here is the title screen as it stands today:
That one picture is most of what exists. By the end of the first week the art style was settled, the Popmate came in five colours with five moods, and there was a logo, three skies, a set of island edges, a title and settings screen, and a Popmate that walks around a test map in a web browser.
What does not exist yet is everything you would actually play: there is no server, no accounts, no categories and no matches. Popmates is not playable yet, and I am not going to guess at a date.
How this blog works
The build is split into stages, and I plan to write one short post each time a stage is finished. The Progress page lists every stage and marks each one done, up next or later. It has no dates on purpose, because I would rather be late on nothing than late on a promise.
When I describe something in a post, I will say whether it is built (it exists and was tested), planned (it is only in the plan so far) or still open (not decided). Place names like the islands' are working names and may change.
If you want to follow along, the RSS feed is the way. There is no newsletter and no comments, just posts.
Thanks for floating by.