The Beta Build Up

Hey everyone! Jay and Angel here bringing you another devlog from the Space for Sweets team! We’ve had an awesome week pushing visuals, mechanics, and level design further. Let’s dive into what everyone’s been up to!

Lawrence started the week with some clever system updates for our throwable mechanic, he added a timer to limit how far you can carry them and made sure they respawn automatically. He also put together a mini-map that shows enemies, collectibles, and interactables, complete with vision cones! Oh, and every building collision’s been cleaned up too, so no more getting stuck on random windows.

Elizabeth focused on beefing up the level’s verticality, making the world feel more dynamic and layered. She tested collisions across the updated layout and added details like benches and outer buildings. On the texturing side, she knocked out a ton—vehicles, buildings, platforms, even our dogs and throwable cans.

Robert was everywhere this week! He made the hat stand and hats for our character to wear, updated the building shapes for better visual variety, and helped playtest the level. He also fixed our alien’s hands for animations, created trees and cardboard cutouts for buildings and bushes, and added new balconies and overhangs for extra depth.

Jay rigged the newly updated alien, done by Robert, and created new and improved character animations! New animations were created for throwing, throw idle, idle, caught, and walking. He’s got his workflow down and is focused on polishing everything until the alien moves like butter.  

New model and rig

Character animations

Jay also animated the camera that will catch players in the act of acquiring their highly sought after sweet treats. Better not get caught in the spotlight!

Camera animations

As for Angel, he focused on bringing in some juicy visuals and player experience polish. Added a CRT full-screen filter with post-processing effects to really nail the retro vibe, along a dithering filter, and put in random collectible spawning so things feel a little different each time. I also hooked up a new settings menu and loader.

That wraps it up for this week. Can’t wait for you all to see it in action and share what you think. See you in the next update!