Today’s VV Eekly Update is very exciting!! One year ago, I started working on Vyn and Verdan!!! I can’t believe it’s been a year since I’ve been actually concretely working on this rather than just having thoughts rattling around my head.
It’s been a long time since then! For this Vyn and Verdan, I want to take you through memory lane and walk you through some of the milestones I’ve hit. I think it’s inspiring how much progress I’ve made from absolutely zero to today. There’s still more to go though!
At the end, there’s the final version of what I showed you a sneak peek of last week – the intro animation! I would like to hear your thoughts, so please please please take a look 🙂
Concept
I had to dig through my old documents to figure out when I started working on Vyn and Verdan. When I first started, I wasn’t sure if I would be doing very much work on this, or if it would be a quick experiment that would be over quickly. Anyway, on February 18, 2024, I made this concept art:
You can see the bones of Vyn and Verdan in this concept art! I’m amused by how true to the vision I’ve stayed, despite changing other things. There’s Vyn, and there’s Verdan, and there’s mushrooms! Seems close enough, right?
In Krita, you can see the document information on when you started the doc, when it was last edited, and how long you spent editing.
Apparently, I opened this document, edited it for about 14 minutes, and haven’t touched it since. What efficient conception!
Milestones
Let’s take a look back at the significant events with Vyn and Verdan – and with Shrubb Games in general!
- February 18 – First concept art! Started version 1 of “game”
- February 24 – Restarted coding the game, now with the code name “cottagecore”, with a Git repo!
- May 20 – Formed Shrubb Games LLC
- June 9 – Started the Vyn and Verdan Discord server and registered shrubbgames.com!
- June 12 – Started the VV Eekly Update, along with choosing the name Vyn and Verdan
- July 10 – Created the Steam page for Vyn and Verdan!
- August 7 – Opened playtesting for the demo
- October 28 – Finished the third level and boss, which is the first time someone could play all the way through!
- Early January – Original planned demo date :’)
- February 11 – Finished the intro animation
- February 19 – Celebrated the anniversary!
Wow, it’s been a journey! Thank you to those of you who have kept up with me for the whole time and those of you who have joined us along the way. I really appreciate it!
Intro Animation
I’ve finally finished an intro animation!
This is something that I’ve been thinking about basically since I first started working on Vyn and Verdan. Back in March 2024, I wrote a poem and created this doodle:
You can see it’s old – Verdan is called “Vyre”, and the last line is one of the rejected name options “A Season Pair: The Forest’s Blight”.
Since then, it’s been serving as the same role as the concept art above – merely as inspiration for the vague feeling of the game. However, in the past few weeks, I’ve been working on bringing it to life!
I would LOVE to hear your feedback on this so far! Please drop a note in the Discord, privately message me, or respond to the email. I’m planning on using this intro animation as the cinematic trailer on Vyn and Verdan‘s Steam page, so this will be one of the first things potential customers will see. I want it to be good!
That’s almost all for today’s VV Eekly Update! Unfortunately, I have some bad news to share at the end here. I got a different job 😱 I just started the job this week, so I’m still figuring out how it impacts my schedule, but one thing is for certain: I will have less time for Vyn and Verdan. I’m still unsure how it will impact the VV Eekly Update schedule, but it’s possible that VV Eekly Update will be published… monthly. 😱😱😱
If you have any comments about today’s VV Eekly Update, please let me know! Again, I would love to hear your thoughts about the intro animation above. Until next time, cheers!