Courier Tale Wrap Up 2021

It’s the end of 2021 so it’s time for a wrap up dev blog. 2021 saw a lot of progress for the game. Here are some of the key highlights from this past year…

So that’s 2021 done and dusted. So what’s coming up for Courier Tale in 2022?

  • ETA for the game to be fully playable in Alpha form by around Feb/Mar 2022
  • Once Alpha is complete, the polishing phase is estimated to take 3-12 months
  • I’ll continue to stream development of the game on Twitch, but may stream less to avoid spoilers
  • The Courier Tale Demo should hopefully be released on Steam sometime in 2022
  • Hoping to demo the game at more physical and online events in 2022
  • The game may be released sometime in 2022 or 2023 depending on how long polishing takes

Here’s a bit more of a breakdown of the current development progress for Courier Tale as of now…

Graphics

Basically, all of the main Alpha graphics are done as of the end of 2021. The full colour palette is locked in at 28 colours, but never more than 14 colours on screen at one time, which hopefully helps give Courier Tale an unique look. There’s much polishing to be done like animations, extra details and upgrading existing graphics, so once the gameplay is complete, this will be a focus in 2022.

Audio

The soundtrack has finally been started on after debating how to approach it. I considered chiptune or a more cinematic soundtrack but decided to go back to my roots in hip hop and make a lo-fi hip hop/chill hop soundtrack. I haven’t really made sample-based music in the past which is crazy to think that considering my hip hop background. My previous music was always more experimental and synth-based. The Courier Tale soundtrack has forced me to take a different music production approach compared to usual and I’m pretty happy with the results so far. Progress is going well with many music loops already created that I’m testing out in different areas of the game. It’s def got a vibe quite different to my usual music, and makes me excited about the idea of maybe releasing a soundtrack as well. I hope to start implementing sound effects soon as well.

Story

The demo playtest at Perth Games Festival showed me that people are liking the characters and dialogue, and are finding it funny and intriguing, so I think it’s on the right path. The game might have multiple endings, up to 3 at this stage, however, if just having one ending works best, I will roll with that. I will be working on the ending/s in early 2022, with some ideas already on what direction they will take.

Gameplay

While the “jobs” (aka quests) in the game are theoretically similar in their nature, the main challenge is making sure each one is different, unique and interesting. Thus far I think that has been achieved. I will start working on the final chapter jobs in January 2022. At this stage of development from my playtesting, the game is looking to be on track to be up to 3 – 5 hours long depending on if the player does “side jobs” (side quests) or not, which matches my predictions. This playtime could change by the time the game is finished and of course, someone could speed run it in less time if they just did main jobs, but I want to keep the side jobs optional so you can play the game how you want to play it.

That wraps up the Courier Tale 2021 wrap up! There’s a heap more work to be done before Courier Tale is completed and released. If you want to keep up with the development of Courier Tale make sure to follow @couriertale on your favourite social spamming platform, join the email list, join the ZedKraze discord (it has a Courier Tale channel!) and watch the Courier Tale be developed live on Twitch!

And the best way you can support Courier Tale right now is by wishlisting it on Steam!

CHECKYA IN 2022!