Tuttle's Legendary Travels
Development Blog
Posted by fAB on January 12th, 2020 - 11:20 am EST

Happy new year, everyone! And happy new decade, for that matter. What can we expect for TLT in 2020?

Well, Blyka and I are and will remain extremely busy this year, doing our utmost to finish, market, and release an original game. And as it turns out, working so heavily on one game means we aren't often inspired to work on a second game when spare time does come around. Who would have guessed? So, for 2020, don't expect more than the Tuttle's Legendary Trickle you've grown accustomed to.


[ Image of Lilly Sighing ]


That said, the next demo will be a substantial step up from the last, and we'd really, really like to get it out sometime in 2020. Blyka met his end-of-2019 goals by wrapping up the programming side of things for the upcoming demo, and after much discussion and deliberation, has decided to take a breather from TLT until I can catch up. So everything hinges entirely on me and the graphical work that still needs doing. I will continue to do what I can when I can, of course, and will try to keep you all informed as I go.

As always, thanks for sticking with us through these slow times.


Posted by Blyka on November 30th, 2019 - 10:00 pm EST
 
Things were going pretty well for TLT in the first half of the year, with the "Monthly Tuttle" concept managing to keep things moving slowly but surely. Obviously that fell through a few months back, but only on the blog; behind the scenes I've still been doing something on a monthly basis. Even if it's just an hour or so (the case last month, I believe).
 
Unfortunately, November broke this trend, and aside from this post I honestly didn't manage anything. I'm sure everyone is used to the usual excuses--life is just so busy, etcetera--but I can't help that it stays relevant. As a programmer and full-time worker in Unity, the struggle to carve out time for TLT faces two obstacles: one, the few hours I have in the week that I'm not working are all the more important to rest, and two, it's remarkably difficult to jump into a code project that has become distant. You wonder where you put that script, where that reference is going, and what could you possibly have been thinking when you rigged up that sorry excuse of a system. Quite often, the little time I make for TLT finds me stumbling about the now-foreign codebase and only managing to take a few notes of my findings for the next time I'm ready to take a stab.
 
If life ever settles down even a little bit (my sincere wish), I hope to be able to dive into TLT on a regular enough basis that the project structure stays familiar and I can finally get some real work done.
Naturally one can't wait for miracles, so until then I intend to continue doing what I can, when I can. To that end I have a few more things I'd like to accomplish next month before the year is out, so here's hoping.
 
Thankfully, texturing and modeling is a bit more straightforward for fAB to pick up where he left off when he does find the time, and he did chip away at updating Nodin's model earlier this month. That's something for November, at least.
 
Anyway, I don't mean to complain or sound negative. It's been awhile so I just wanted to update you on where things stand and give more insight into the struggles of busy programmers. On a lighter note the holiday season is upon us, and we two TLT workers wish you a happy one!

Posted by fAB on July 30th, 2019 - 07:30 pm EDT

Work on the harbor environment continues, inching toward completion. The boat's textures were recently finished up and it's been added to the playable scene. There's also going to be a little interactive segment between Tuttle and a bunch of Sturmbots who refuse to let him pass (lower right of image). Programming for that is well underway, with them angrily converging on Tuttle if he invades their space.

[Boat in the Harbor]

Also worth noting, we've been in touch with TLT's lead composer to see where things stand. Although it's been a few years he says he's still on board and intends to get actively working on the soundtrack again soon!


Posted by Blyka on May 31st, 2019 - 07:57 pm EDT

Another month, another Monthly Tuttle. TLT turned 7 years old this month, and it's the first anniversary since 2015 that we didn't release a new demo. Things are definitely coming along though, slowly but surely amidst our busy schedules.

With Gold City finally finished last month, the prime focus for both fAB and I this month was getting the harbor environment up and running. Still more work to follow, but it's coming along nicely and the crates that have been popping up in demos for years finally have a real home.


[Harbor]


Tuttle's panic-stricken state when exposed to large bodies of water also manifested this month.


[Can't Swim]


The harbor is where Tuttle will rush to catch a boat to the Quint Islands, where the legendary travels will finally ensue. When said that way, it sounds like we're finally closing in on a more exciting chapter for this project... and so we are! It may be coming slowly, but as always, it's still coming.

And as always, thanks for sticking with us, and shout-outs to those who let us know they're sticking with us. We don't always get around to responding to every comment we get, but we appreciate them just the same.


Posted by fAB on April 30th, 2019 - 08:28 pm EDT

April was another less-than-amazing month for TLT, but we continue to inch forward. Something we hadn't quite finished up with Denise last month was interactions. Blyka has now seen to it that Tuttle can talk to her, and her animation and expression will change accordingly. The rest of Gold City is also interactive now, such as checking the trash bin and listening at doors. Unless we're mistaken, that makes playable Gold City 100% done!

Denise in Gold City

The harbor environment has (not surprisingly) been coming together a lot faster than Gold City did. A few more details and the model will be ready to hand over to Blyka for insertion into the game project.

Ryship Harbor in progress

Last but not least, there's an important element to the harbor that's kind of its own thing, and that's the boat. I'm basing it off the boat from Misadventures of Tron Bonne, but not aiming for an exact replica. I got a pretty decent start on the modeling part of things this month.

Boat model in progress

And that's it for now. It's safe to say we won't be releasing a new demo on the TLT anniversary this year, but we're looking forward to getting all this new content out to you players as early as possible.


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