Today I have a story about Arctic Eggs’ conception. In this devlog we’re going to talk about its inspirations and show how the game and its vision changed during the beginning of its development. Without further ado, let’s start with the center element of the game and your most trusty companion – the pan!

This is its very first version, from a game called “Fast Food For Antarctica” that was never finished, but gave the initial idea – cooking. It was set in a fast food kitchen and supposed to feature tons of cooking activities, but frying was so fun, I decided to make it the core of the game.

I really didn't believe I could make a game purely centered around the frying pan so I shelved the idea. Almost a year later however I had recently played “Tales From Off-Peak City” – an indie game that centered around just walking, talking and cooking. I fell in love with that game immediately and realized my frying pan could slip into that same gameplay loop beautifully.

Here you can see an early test of this gameplay loop – talking to a character and starting a meal.

One of the most captivating things about Tales from Off-Peak City is exploring the world of the game, meeting interesting characters in various situations. I wanted to capture it as well, and tried different premises. Initially the game took place in an airport and the goal was to raise enough money to buy a ticket to Antarctica (you can already see some similarities). And at one point there was a segment when you get on the rooftop to have a short bliss of serenity to contrast with all the hustle and bustle of the crowded airport.

I liked this moment so much I just scrapped the airport idea entirely and decided to make it centered around this calm atmosphere and, naturally, take place on the city rooftops.

And here is an early design of the rooftops. There was an idea that there was a party taking place here, and you should go around in three interconnected buildings to feed all the hungry guests.

When bringing CDbunker on the team to help with the modeling, he misunderstood and thought the game was taking place IN Antarctica. I liked this new idea so much that I just never bothered to correct him.

Because of this I initially gave the rooftops a dark blue color and cold atmosphere. And for me it just felt too basic and obvious to have this bluish tone for a game happening in Antarctica.

But then CDbunker showed me this photo of a city covered in this bright-pink hue. I decided to pick this atmosphere instead. It’s far more interesting and somewhat less hostile.

And the rooftops acquired this warm glow - moody and mysterious, yet welcoming.

As you might know, Arctic Eggs as a defined game began its story in the Big Mode Game Jam. And, surprisingly enough, the game’s intro was made the last.

The intro must set the tone for the sci-fi world the game inhabits and I spent a very long time trying to come up with something fitting, but nothing really worked. Then Cameron Ginex, the composer for the game, showed me his track called “Blizzard” – an incredibly ominous, slow and almost somber song. It reminded me of a sketch I did back in college, those sad little chickens in cages, and decided to put it in the game. As the game was centered around eggs, it fits the atmosphere well.

I liked this image so much I put these chickens everywhere, practically in every corner. To me this implied that chickens were outlawed at some point, to justify them being imprisoned and heavily guarded in game. And thus we had the intro that doubles as a main menu - caged chickens with “Blizzard” playing in the background.

https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/2763670/Arctic_Eggs/

And that’s all for today! I hope you find this story interesting. There is some more “behind the scenes” stuff and maybe we’ll talk about it in future devlogs. In the meantime…

If the chilly Arctic and Mount Everest interest you, how about another extreme trip? It sure is cool to fry eggs on the highest mountain, but how about working there?
Did you know you can’t breathe with air so thin?
Did you know that the only way to survive there is to break glass with your teeth?
Did you know that by coping with this you are saving your country?
Do you know what’s in this train?
Sacrifice your health to learn the unsettling truth, go beyond the THRESHOLD.

https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/2580020/THRESHOLD/


[discord.gg]

As another part of our Advent Calendar we bring another eggsquisite dish for you to enjoy — a mini concert consisting of unreleased tracks by Mike Klubnika himself, and the composer behind Arctic Eggs — Cameron Ginex!

Listen to Bump 9 on repeat or push through a tough task with Exhaust. And then take a sip of eggnog to the tunes of Ancient Humans and chat with your friends, while listening to Whale’s Domain. This mini concert has only the best of what you’ve yet to hear!

But wait, there are more tracks available in these albums over at Bandcamp. So definitely check them out if this is your vibe:

And if your blood got pumping from Mike Klubnika’s music — we’re happy to let you know that CR Channel Multiplayer Beta for Buckshot Roulette starts on October 28th, so mark the date! Yes, it’s gonna be open beta, because after taking a look at the enormous list of applications for the closed beta, we just couldn’t bring ourselves to not grant everyone the access — which will be provided on our Discord server, so don’t forget to join it!

https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/2835570/Buckshot_Roulette/

P.S. Still working on that juicy devlog we’ve promised, but it’s coming soon.


[discord.com]

As a part of CR Channel Advent Calendar, we prepared a delicious sale for those who haven’t yet experienced the wisdom of rooftops and the hermeneutics of a cooked egg.

You might ask, what an Advent Calendar is. It’s a series of various rewards on each day of October to celebrate the anniversary of CR Channel. It also features giveaways at the end if you manage to complete community goals. You can learn more about it and follow along with other Poultry Peddlers by joining our Discord server.

[discord.gg]
So grab a copy and immerse yourself in the art of Poultry Prepping. The cold rooftops and moody alleys of the Arctic await.

https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/2763670/Arctic_Eggs/

If you’re intrigued by the premise of Advent Calendar or eager to participate in the giveaways (which is completely understandable) – join the CR Channel Discord. Most of the stuff happens there!

The next post is going to be a big one. Brace yourselves for a devlog.

I have some exciting news for everyone here in Antarctica.

First of all, I am happy to announce that we have a publisher now — CRITICAL REFLEX. Thanks to their help you can flip the pan in a whole bunch of new languages. Now you can cook your illegal scrambled eggs without scrambling your brains!

To celebrate this match made in heaven folks over at CRITICAL REFLEX prepared a new trailer, cooked to perfection:

More surprises for aspiring chefs coming soon.

New available languages available in this update:

• Portuguese - Brazil
  
• Russian
  
• Spanish - LATAM
  
• French
  
• Korean
  
• Portuguese
  
• Polish
  
• Spanish
  
• Traditional Chinese
  
• Ukrainian
  
• Turkish

In this version we also updated Simplified Chinese, German and Italian translations.
Let us know in the comments below if your language is missing and we'll see what we can do.
If you’ve already become Antarctica’s best Poultry Peddler, can we interest you in some other position? How about…a clerk? In a border post where air is so thin you can’t talk? Moments before disaster? Proving your loyalty to the state? Check out the free Prologue for THRESHOLD, new addition to CR Channel broadcast.

https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/2580020/THRESHOLD/

Have you ever found yourself longing to discuss your favorite egg recipes? Play Russian roulette with a shotgun? Explore the mysterious Great Well, unwanted by the world above? Or maybe join the Tulpar Crew? Talk horror and post quality memes? If an answer to any of these questions is yes, consider joining CR Channel Discord!

[discord.gg]Wish you joyful cooking in the Arctic Circle!

https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/2763670/Arctic_Eggs/

The Arctic Eggs soundtrack has just released on Steam! This games story and atmosphere owe everything to the incredible work done by Cameron Ginex, a talented composer and great friend. Give it a listen if you are able.

Arctic Eggs is now in Chinese thanks to user RamenLava! Also fellow gamedev KowloonsCurse on twitter finished up the Dutch Translation and now I just need to be implement it. Also currently the Polish translation is being worked on by my Polish girlfriend. That is all currently in the works at the moment, so let me know of any others you want next.

Here is a list of small fixes/additions in this latest update:

• Random mode has been added into sandbox. You can set your desired difficulty and just enjoy cooking indefinitely. I enjoy a difficulty of 5 or 6, this can create some very weird combination while still feeling fair.
  
• I spent a good while optimizing the bar area of the game. A few of you reported issues with freezing in this area, I can't replicate this unfortunately so it is a little hard for me to pinpoint the problem, but I did a lot of things to help improve performance so hopefully that fixed the issue.
  
• Added an Invert Y option

My hardware distribution request was approved, so soon the game should be steam deck certified! Thank you for your continued support, I really appreciate it and I will keep working at improving the egg flipping experience!

Artwork by: @ESanchezIll

A few of you seemingly yearn for more punishment so I have quickly thrown together a Sandbox mode which allows you to put together your own food combinations and try to cook them. Accessible through the main menu after you have 100% the game!

It is very rough at the moment and very shallowly tested. Some of these ingredients were never meant to interact with each other, so break it and let me know what I need to fix.

It lacks a few features I would like to add in the future such as an infinite challenge mode with difficulty based randomly generated dishes, the ability to change the BG, and achievement's for some really challenging configurations, so consider this a version 1!

A few of you asked for the ability to switch the game back to a version before all the difficulty patches, so now in the beta branch you have access to version 1 of the game!

Also if you ever want to try out the first ever version of the game you can find it here[the-water-museum.itch.io]. It began as an entry for the BIGMODE Game Jam and for me at least it is still pretty interesting looking back on it and seeing how much changed and how much surprisingly didn't.

I also tried to fix a few Mac related issues but it is hard for me to test it out, so those of you with Mac give it a try and get back to me.

Updated a few of the meals at Mawson to ease out the difficulty spike a bit more:

• Beer is a bit more stable so keeping it upright is easier
  
• Ice cubes now cast a shadow directly underneath them. Making it easier to judge where they will be dropped
  
• Spaced out the meals just a tiny bit more so the challenges are no longer back to back to back
  
• The whales mouth hit box has been enlarged slightly
  
• Easy mode actually made beer more difficult. The curved edges made it easier to tip things over, so the base of the easy mode wok was enlarged slightly to account for this
  
• Added more light around the soda machine so you stop ignoring all of CDbunker's beautiful modelling work (soda machine will be interactable soon)

Thank you again for all of the feedback so far! We will continue to improve the experience as issues arise!