Blank Canvas

During playtesting we found that players were not identifying the key themes we wanted to portray with the narrative, so we removed a lot of the 'fluff' and made the narrative very direct. This resulted in themes that felt forced as we didn't trust the players to understand subtle narrative cues. By reworking the narrative we hope to introduce more subtlety and relatability to Jesse and their story. Most importantly, we will NOT trivialise trauma as we fear we had done previously.

The boss fights for Blank Canvas should be a culmination of all the tools, techniques, and strategies that players have learned while playing the game up to that point. Currently the boss fights are fine in that regard but we want to both polish them and make them more memorable with dialogue, animations, and particle effects.

We are quite happy with the difficulty curve for the game, but we know we can do better. Consolidating some levels, moving around others, and even eliminating levels we think don't quite fit is something the team is looking forward to.

Blank Canvas is challenging (it is a precision platformer after all) and players will likely fail a level many times before they are able to master it. We want to encourage this feeling of mastery by making it easy for players to come back. Level specific collectibles tied to the narrative, an easily accessible level select screen, and an in-game clock are part of our plan for making the game fun to play over and over again.

We currently have brief "studio" zones that teach players the mechanics but we have found them to be too brief for players to truly cement these concepts in their playstyle. Better tutorials will help players understand the nuances of the game's mechanics in a safe space.

After creating a rough timeline using a list of desired changes, the goal for the team is to create an enticing vertical slice to show to publishers. From there ClownTown Studios hopes to launch a newly formed Blank Canvas on steam late 2024.