Dev Blog 2: Turning the Valve…
Hi there, reader!
Bear with us, a LOT has and continues to happen over these past few months. To not write and reflect on what’s been going on feels like it’d be a missed opportunity, but more importantly it pays off to be transparent and update on our project from time to time. Such times tend to really fly by during our busy work, so here’s a big update about what’s been going on for the past few months, and where we’re hopefully headed as we work towards our demo release for Retroronto in September. I’ve added a TL;DR below since there’s a fair bit of content, and we thank you for reading and supporting us!
MAY
Hiring a Developer
Back in late April, I kicked off the hunt for a Lead Unity Developer to join the Retroronto project. I’ve been messing around with prototypes since 2022, and after a wild start to 2024, I finally had the resources to bring someone on to clean up my code and lay down the game’s foundations over the summer.
Being a hiring manager was a real trip. It was my first time on the other side of the interview table, and wow, what a perspective shift! Going through all the applications, seeing everyone’s skills and cover letters, and doing the interviews was both overwhelming and inspiring. Toronto’s game dev community is bursting with talent, and it was awesome to see all the different portfolios and projects people have worked on.
Finding the right fit wasn’t easy. We focused on skills, community involvement, and familiarity with the city, so we stuck to posting the job on local game dev Discord channels instead of using LinkedIn or Indeed. Even then, the number of applicants was huge! It was tough knowing we could only hire one person, but it also motivated me to grow this business and create more opportunities down the line. I made sure to send a heartfelt email to everyone who applied, wishing them the best in their game dev journeys.
Onboarding Dor Zairi
“I joined Starspray Studios Ltd. because their innovative game development and focus on local talent really spoke to me. Their project "Retroronto," a city-life simulator inspired by Toronto, aligns perfectly with my passion for creating culturally rich and engaging games. The studio's dedication to originality and high-quality production made it an easy decision for me.”
”Being a developer in Toronto, it just feels right to integrate the city's vibrant culture into my work. Starspray's community-focused approach and creative environment provide the perfect platform for this. I’m excited to grow professionally here and contribute to projects that celebrate and reflect the unique spirit of our city!”
Diving into Steamworks
Aside from hiring, I was at this point creating promotional content and graphics for Retroronto’s Steam Page. The whole process is like a rite of passage for game devs, with everyone sharing their two cents about Steam Pages, wish lists, and marketing strategies. So, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work crafting assets, filling out endless forms, creating gifs, and working on the About section. I knew I wanted to have the iconic Toronto skyline shown prominently in the game, and I already drew it multiple times in the past. So after nailing it’s look and colours, I resized it to fit all of Steam’s store and library requirements.
The game’s title was another beast to tackle. It went through several drafts and might still change during development. Balancing font licensing issues and the temptation to create my own font (not as easy as it sounds!) was a challenge. Eventually, I landed on a smaller, more refined design with a silhouetted skyline on top and the lake within the title. Previous versions tried to capture an expanding city, but this simpler, cleaner look felt right. You can see the iterations of Retroronto’s titles are shown below:
“City Player” by imageX Fonts
free for personal use
Ended up being too big, and wasn’t a fan of the ‘cityscape’ within the title.
Current iteration using waterfront within the title. Still subject to change!
JUNE
A Trailer of Toronto
June was a busy month! Dor has been onboarded and getting familiar with the game’s current state, while I continued to work on the Steam Page, primarily the game’s trailer which you can see above.
Much of the trailer is a combination of footage I’ve taken in our Unity and Godot prototypes, tied together with one of many chiptunes I’ve made for fun over the years. A lot of what’s shown in the trailer is what Dor and I are hoping to showcase for the game’s demo in September, as well as ideas for the kinds of content we think can be added to the game. Because things are so subject to change over a game’s development, it was imperative to add the beginning disclaimer.
Toronto’s XP Game Summit 2024
We also took the time to attend a large game development conference called XP Summit, which was quite enjoyable. The talks were quite informative, we engaged with other devs and business types through MeetToMatch, and we got to see a number of local games presented on the show floor!
Unfortunately, every convention/conference has it’s variety of immune systems buzzing around between everyone, and I was evidently the weakest link, leaving me fairly ill in the aftermath (which meant missing out on Toronto Games Week, still not over it!). After taking some time to rest for a week, I recovered and managed to get the trailer done before the end of June!
Time was also spent building more of the game’s GDD, animating mockups, creating much of the sprites and assets we’ll be using, helping to communicate the design of the game besides through walls of texts. Here’s some animated mockups I’ve made on the GDD I’d like to share, but naturally features may vary upon release! UI is certainly a factor we’re taking into consideration and it’s being iterated/changed the most.
Bank location and UI mockup
Home location layouts
Work UI for fast food minigame
JULY
Coming Soon…
This brings us to this past month, where we finally released the Coming Soon Steam Page for Retroronto on Canada Day, July 1st. It felt appropriate for such a Canadian game, and gave us some time in June to get Dor and I situated. But it’s pretty much official, there’s no turning back now!
Click to go to Retroronto’s Stream Page, wishlist it maybe?
The Great Game Dev Filter: Marketing
Now that the page is out, we’re starting to market a bit more on social media in order to slowly build up a community. Expectedly, it’s been a rocky road; a very different kind of workload for us. But as we work to adapt and familiarize ourselves with the fast-paced nature of marketing, we’re actively developing Retroronto in full swing.
We’ve tested the waters so far using LinkedIn, Twitter, and Reddit as our go-to social medias, with varying results.
While somewhat unorthodox, we got some reception, followers, and connections when we posted to LinkedIn. A more proactive and supportive response than expected.
No huge strides on Twitter, as marketing on the platform demands vast consistency almost on a daily basis. We’ll keep posting when we can and stay relevant in this fast-paced environment!
We got up to several hundred upvotes on r/Pixelart, and much lesser numbers on r/indiegames, r/Unity2D, and r/gamedevscreens. We tried posting to r/toronto but can’t due to self-promotion rules (fair).
It’s an encouraging start, considering the work on the game thus far and my ability to create the content to put out into the world at our current pace. Ultimately, this was a chance to dip our toes into these spaces and get some initial feedback/support, just figuring out what works and what doesn’t for folks. We’ll continue to share what content we develop for the game through these three platforms, and reflect on our progress next month!
Cities can’t be quiet!
While we onboarded our developer Dor for June, we also wanted to make sure the audio for our game would be covered, primarily the game’s soundtrack. I’ve networked and discussed with a fair number of existing audio professionals within Toronto over the past few months, about what kind of genre of music Retroronto could have, such as chiptune, jazz, lo-fi, maybe even something from Toronto’s own music scene.
I already made a series of chiptunes over the course of the pandemic for fun alongside hobbyist projects, some of which I’ve determined to use in Retroronto. But chiptunes overtime can be grating on the ears, so I wanted to bring someone along to help produce it better and find an audible identity for Retroronto so-to-speak. We already got the art, the design, and the code, now we only need the sound!
Onboarding Chris Goodfellow
“I joined Starspray Studios Ltd. because I want to help create great experiences through video games. I am excited to lend my musical abilities to Starspray Studios' "Retroronto", and hope that I can use it to elevate the gameplay, story, and atmosphere of the game.”
AUGUST
Moving into this month of August, we’ve since grown our team to three people, launched a coming-soon steam page with a trailer, visited a game dev business conference, and made ample progress on Retroronto from a hobbyist’s prototype towards a playable demo for September. We’ve hit some snags with illness and marketing, but ultimately laying the groundworks for all our future work to come.
We’re going to do our best in bringing updates to you as we find our rhythm and learn new insights into marketing our game. We appreciate any time you’ve taken to read this blog and support Retroronto, and we hope to repay that in full this coming September. It’s hard to ask you to stay tuned should we typically disappear into our work, but rest assured we’ll be back with news, insights, and content during this development process!
TLDR;
May - Understanding the hiring process, created promotional artwork + animated mockups for GDD
June - Dor (Developer) has joined the party! Worked on Steam Page and Trailer, attended XP Summit (and got sick)
July - Chris (Composer) has joined the party! Released Steam Page, Marketing beginnings and results!
August - Development continues…
Cheers,
- Sean Browning