Welcome to the first ever Sugary Spire Newsletter!

 It’s officially been almost FOUR YEARS since we started developing Sugary Spire! (5/31/21 is when we officially started making the project!) We are so incredibly grateful for everyone’s support since the start, and we have a lot we want to talk about.

The Game Is…

0%

Finished!

Just Kidding.

 Game development is a very fluid process, and we want the project to be the best it can be for both ourselves and everyone who follows it. So far, after Sugary Spire: Exhibition Night, we’ve spent a lot of time touching up any character designs and dynamics we were unsure about. At the very least, we can say we’re 100% done with that.

 We also develop Sugary Spire with a passionate team of people who feel that they have enough time to help contribute to it. This often leads to less getting done during busier parts of the year, such as around holidays or final exams as most of us are still in school, are working a job, or both. This heavily contributes to the progress made on the project, as we all work at our best when we are all together and are able to share ideas, concepts, and bounce off of each other.

 After Exhibition Night, most of our level designers have been busy with real life complications, so we haven’t been able to make a ton of progress on later levels, though we’ve still done a few things!

 However, before we talk about how the game itself is going, we want to talk about a brand new character we’ve recently designed. You may have noticed him in the promotional art!

The Bushranger

 For a very long time, we’ve been concepting a character that would be the Sugary Spire version of Pizza Tower’s Pepperman. Internally, there was a lot of debate over the character design, and it took the input of everyone on our team to finally settle on something we’re happy with.

 After four long years of not having a proper character fill this Pepper-shaped void, we’re extremely proud to announce The Bushranger! He’s an old, adventurous caramel apple explorer who sources ingredients for the Sugary Spire…

Now, with all of that being said, we'd like to show you all what the bosses will be for each respective floor!

Bosses

Sugary Spire Progress

 In terms of game progress, we are currently working on the rest of the second floor of levels for Sugary Spire. After coming back from a break after Exhibition Night, we’ve been working on Mt. Fudgetop and Chocoa Cafe. Since both of them relatively early on in terms of level design changes, we can't really show anything too interesting yet...

 Despite this, we are working hard to make them as enjoyable as possible while we work through our level design process. That process usually looks something like this:
v
Programming mechanics, enemies, and other level features
v
First level draft
v
Playtester feedback and tweaking mechanics (S rank requirements, etc.)
v
Art assets, music, and other finishing touches
v
Onto the next level!

 This order can sometimes be switched around or some steps may repeat, but this is a general idea of what we do when creating levels. As it stands right now, Mt. Fudgetop has all of its mechanics programmed in, with the same for Chocoa Cafe. Currently, we are putting together a first draft for both levels, with everything subject to change.

What Else..?

 While we’ve been programming in mechanics and level design for Floor 2, we’ve also been concepting level mechanics, visuals for later levels…

…and we’ve also been doing some additional concept work for the spire itself!

Conclusion

 Overall, we’re gradually warming back up as we return to development after Sugary Spire: Exhibition Night. While it’s going to take us a while to get the rest of the game down, we’re very excited to continue to work on it!

(Oh, we’ve also been doing some other small things, too.)