The Skinning of Octodad
A man once was walking down the street. Behind him he heard a sound like the popping of wrappers and the pulling of suction cups. The man quickly turned around, but there was nothing there.
Frightened, the man began to walk faster. The sounds resumed, every now and then he swore that he heard something like mouth farting too. Soon he began to to run but the sounds kept pace. A burbling was begining to add to the cacophony just as he reached his front door. The man turned around again and the noises stopped.
The man threw open his front door ran into his home, closed and locked his door and sat on his couch with a sigh of relief. Then he heard it. It started slowly, a tapping. Like something without hands was holding something and rapping it against his door. Slowly the man stood and made his way to the door. He grabbed a cleaver that he kept close by for just such an occasion.
Taking a deep breath he threw the door open.
“OCTOPUSSSSS!” Fujimoto cried and threw the cleaver.
Nobody was at the door.
THEN WHO WAS KNOCKING?!
Or a video of animation skinning, transformation, and physics glitches during the preproduction of Octodad: Dadliest Catch.
Contextual Engagement in Dadliest Catch
You might have read my previous post about IndieCade submission and how we didn’t make it in last year. If you did you know we’ve been working on fixing a lot of the physics issues and the lack of polish that the first Octodad game had to better our chances of making it in this year. One interesting part of this is that we’ve been doing a lot of playtesting and trying to get a set of levels together that we think represent the game in its different flavors/contexts.
My personal favorite flavor. Is this too cliche for an American?
A Dadgerous Wallpaper for Your Desktop
Well we really hope you all enjoyed our little April Fool’s joke! We noticed that a few people asked about a wallpaper version of the “Armed and Dadgerous” image so our artist Chris whipped up a few quick versions of it for ya’ll. Enjoy!
800 x 600
1280 x 720
1280 x 800
1440 x 900
1600 x 1200
1680 x 1050
1920 x 1080
1920 x 1200
Armed and Dadgerous
I know a lot of you saw our recent Dadliest Catch trailer which probably left some burning questions in your skulls. Why is Octodad so sad at the end? Where can I get that great song? Why did they misspell deadliest? Well, I’m here to answer all of your questions and give a little sneak peak on the controls and new gameplay elements we’ve added to the game. Also, because everyone keeps misreporting our title as Deadliest Catch we’ve changed it to the impossible-to-screw-up: Octodad: Armed and Dadgerous.
Getting Ready for IndieCade
Last year we entered IndieCade with the first Octodad game and with little success of making it into the actual show. Now I think we all knew why we hadn’t made it in, but it was nice clarification when we got the feedback from the judges to confirm our previously assumed suspicions. Basically, Octodad 1 was at the time simply too buggy and not nearly polished enough to warrant its entry into the festival. The good thing about this result is that we then took a few months during the summer to fix up some of the issues in Octodad 1 and even increase the game’s performance a bit so that it could run on lower powered hardware configurations. This is essentially where version 1.5.3 came from and part of the reason it exists. (Besides all the fan feedback about what was going wrong with the game that is. :) )
Now this brings us to today with Octodad: Dadliest Catch when we are once again preparing our little game for IndieCade submission on May 1st. We think that this year we’ve really upped our game so to speak and we’ve addressed many, if not all, of the issues that judges brought up with last year’s submission. Our goal is to have about three “levels” ready for submission so we can give a good representation of what we hope to have when the game is released later in 2013. We do already have one of those levels ready and another a good ways towards completion, so this leaves us with about a month or so to bring another level from prototype to fun. We’re holding our first playtest for the new new level this Thursday with a few people at DePaul University, but if you happen to be in the Chicago area make sure to drop by and try ‘em out. You can check out the facebook event for the details.
Octodad: Dadliest Catch
Well we’ve been somewhat ghostly for the past few months, but we’re finally back with a fancy new teaser trailer and even a brand new title for the game! We deliberated for weeks upon weeks on what the best name for Octodad 2 would be. Needless to say we had some…interesting ideas as we pitched, threw, and screamed through some of the more ridiculous suggestions. Eventually after some more arguing, followed by a few makeup chocolates and also some input from our awesome fans, we settled upon Octodad: Dadliest Catch. We think it best suits our new story that we’re determined to tell and it also seems to fit our style in a way that makes sense overall with what we want to capture in the game’s life blood. (It’s quite the messy craft we’ve chosen to attempt to master. I mean blood right? Poetry.)
– Phil <3
Octodad Comics: Snow Day (Complete)
Does Octodad finally get out of his snow-themed jam, or does he freeze to death before the second game can even come out? Take a look at the final page and see!
I think we all agree that clicking on links is really hard! So, rather than post Snow Day 7 on its own, I’ve put all of the series in this one place for swift viewing. Your index fingers can thank me later! With this post, the weekly Octodad comics come to an end. It was a fun activity, but the game needs our full attention! When the moon is full, and the stars are aligned, we may yet post a comic on this website. I know it’s going to be hard to fill that Octodad-shaped hole in your heart, but medical technology has been advancing every year, and really, why did you think comics were an appropriate replacement for heart surgery?
Anyway, peruse the following post at your leisure. Perhaps it will keep you entertained until something much bigger, better, and Octodad-related comes along…
Happy Pre-Valentines!
This one goes out to Molly!
Yes, it’s a day early, but in case anybody wants to use this on the actual Valentines day, here it is! Coincidentally, we have a mighty fine shirt in the store that has a bold statement on ‘octopus’ and ‘love’. Follow the link!
Octodad Comics: Snow Day 6
It may be late, but it’s still monday! How will this dangerous snow-based adventure come to a close? Tune in next week to find out!
Links to Snow Day comics: Snow Day 1 Snow Day 2 Snow Day 3 Snow Day 4 Snow Day 5
Octodad Comics: Snow Day 5
If you ever wind up naked in the winter snow, I expect you to come up with a better plan than this.
Links to Snow Day comics: Snow Day 1 Snow Day 2 Snow Day 3 Snow Day 4
