THE GAME IS CHANGING | Len's Island Dev Diary #33

[@delazak]

Love the NFTs being crossed out and the 'Fuck That!' underneath it on the whiteboard

[@sybrandboumans5176]

I'm so hyped for the next update, this looks great!

[@zanarkandmusic]

Love it! I'm excited to see what else you've got on that whiteboard... I mean, did I see co-op on there?

[@juliao-gameroo2692]

it's really cool the way you communicate with the community, the updates will be great, you're working very well, I wish the whole team every success

[@Frogster.Braedyn]

So excited for this next update! Even MORE excited looking at that big, beautiful whiteboard! Keep up the amazing work guys, but please don't work too hard! Take breaks and look after yourselves, you're doing amazing!

[@owen8499]

This game is really starting to become something really unique and exciting, keep up the great work can't wait for whatever comes next.

[@alenafraskova6903]

If not a minimap then what might help to point out way around might be something like a compas on the screen which could point us to home base which we choose on the map/dungeon/town and we could switch between these 3 points when we need them

[@FlowStudio]

I like this idea! This exact concept is one we were thinking of before adding the mini map as well. We will work on some prototypes and see how it plays 😁

[@alenafraskova6903]

@@FlowStudio ideally it could be a feature which would be possible to turn on/off in options menu and once open it would be a small "compas" in a corner of a screen with options to point you to homebase (which you choose with some easy to build craftable object (for example a "map" which you can put on a wall of your house) and the compas would lead you to this place (just by showing a direction). Same goes for mine and town. You could switch through these 3 things by pressing either something on a keyboard (lets say "M" and same goes for controller, you can bind it to either a single button or a combination of two). It would make the orientation on the map easier so you dont have to look for ages for your house (which happened to me during dark without a torch and it was not fun :D ) and for those hardcore players who do not wish to have help they do not have to have it open in menu/options.

[@WannaComment2]

@@FlowStudio You should consider adding a map anyways, but as a sort of accessibility feature, and just have it turned of by default, with a notice that it's not part of the intended game experience. There are a lot of people who have serious trouble visualizing and navigating virtual spaces, and the game will probably very frustrating for them, unplayable even, without a map of some sort.

[@Evolved-]

I've been eagerly anticipating controller support since day one of Early Access. I'm so happy to see it's finally coming. Great work, guys.

[@BladesArcadeLIVE]

been playing this game for the past week and I love it! been streaming it and its just a perfect chill game.

[@applecrumble8551]

I love Len's Island. It's worth every penny! Looking forward to updates etc 🙂

[@CreativeSteve69]

Game is looking amazing so far!!!! Thanks for keeping us in touch on the update progress. It's coming along really nicely!!!!

[@janthummler3548]

Wow, you've really come a long way, since I watched the first devlogs. Makes me happy ^^ Way to go and keep it up!

[@TheAwesomeAlan]

I think a potential solution to the minimap is to really redesign the graphics used for it and show a lot less details. Right now, it looks very polished and the art is great for it. However, with the map being that detailed, it's very easy to find your way very quickly with the current size of the island. Another solution would be to zoom in the minimap a lot more, because it falls back onto the problem of being able to find your way very quickly. If you could see less of the area at one time, it wouldn't be relied on as much for traveling. Maybe the map can also be an unlockable aspect. Delay being able to use it for the beginning portion of the game, and that way, players will be able to adjust to the environment completely on their own, and the minimap simply adds a late-game benefit of being able to get a larger scope of the island. Maybe breaking the map into several, randomly placed pieces (random locations every time) that need to be collected over time.

[@rawvoltage]

yes i am waiting for coop!! 🥺 it is my #1 most wanted feature ~

[@vickyxx197]

I started watching your dev diaries when it was #7, I believe back in the fall of 2019. It's been amazing to follow this journey and this channel inspired me to follow my dreams of learning programming and 3D modeling. So happy about how far this game has come and I'm excited for the future of Len's Island and Flow Studio.

[@DatCraftyGamer]

Hi, new here! Thinking about picking this up during the Steam Summer sale. Knowing you are actively working on it reassures me it would likely be a good purchase! Thanks for your time and the video!

[@SxitGtwitch]

Game looks so cool! Im waiting for fishing and then Im gonna def buy it!

[@ricericebaby_1660]

Love you all ! So hyped

[@melvinexpo1298]

Looking forward to the future. Maybe instead of a mini map, you could add signs that we could put up across the map so we can point in directions and give labels? Just an idea. I'm sure you'll come up with something. Keep up the good work.

[@franciscopedroza5775]

you should add a mini map to the creative mode you are working on to make creative mode easier to use

[@ggboyroy5031]

i remember the map inside out ...its pretty easy to navigate

[@HintzeDarrin]

Yeah I see why not

[@tanvaras9961]

Excellent and good to see an Aussie Developer on the ball and their game doing well.

[@laflyingspartan3831]

Very well Done team, I'm very excited for the future updates and everything you are working towards. The office looks Fantastic too. (Cheddar Brisbane pls.) I can't wait to Break your game again

[@cheddar9871]

😆♥️

[@Geo-Luke]

I love your ideas. I must also say that lack of minimap was what I immedietely loved in this game! As you say, there was this feeling and excitement of exploring that you rarely get nowadays in games, please leave it as it is :) It makes this game unique and more fun. Plus this island is not that big and even a person with no spatial senses can find its way quite fast - plus it may be fun to get lost for a second in a first hours of playthrough. Its super cool that we have to learn and memory this short path from our house that we build as we go to the caves, bridge etc. - not hard but fun. As for implementing maps there is a buildable map of island for later phases of game. When you will implement new parts of the world there could be a map of each region that we may acquire by quests or hidden somewhere deep where we would have to already explore a lot by ourself earlier. I feel like the map with fog of war to uncover does not suit this game :)) EDIT: as someone said here in comments, minimap could be for creative mode, and RPG with no map available at the beginning. Cheers, you are doing amazing work guys!

[@runnair]

Hi! It's good to see how it's developed with many creative ideas! One thing- Just remove the X sign from the minimap and put more assets at places so players can orient themselves according to the "sunk ship icon on the map" and their character being next to the "sunk ship asset" itself. So it gives back the exploration flow but not very hardcore because you find stuff on the map.

[@martinboniotti423]

Keep the great work guys!

[@DreadFox53]

I am actually really looking forward on this update, especially with the inventory because it's disheartening sometimes to lose all your stuff when you die. Love the work you guys did and keep it up!

[@tankwheels3744]

mini map idea- to balance it out make it so when you log out it resets or it could also track the past 10 minutes of where you've been, for example if im in the caves exploring and i need to go back to a spot that i was just at i will be able to use it as a tool however next time you go back in the caves you wont have that making it so you still slowly learn it fully but will act as a short term memory for len

[@VigemoGamez]

So hyped for the update! Love the work you do!

[@argonaut_jay]

I have an idea for the map. Maybe include the map but make the player first have to find the map pieces that are scattered around the world? So the player still has to explore the game the first time but then can potentially find pieces of a map and slowly the map gets pieced together. You could even make the map really vague, so it's a map of the island but it doesn't show the character location or anything. Just a blank map that would force players to use landmarks and surroundings to figure out where on the map they were. You could even go as far as making the map an actual item that players would have to equip to use and would take up an inventory slot so it isn't something that is overused or depended on but instead is a tool, just like your axe and pickaxe etc.

[@TheRobisFourAces]

100% gonna play this one, just will wait a bit closer to a full release, great work, very excited!

[@mustafaamraan8110]

i think to wait that must be long i think 2 years more?

[@jdgames3783]

I want to start my own game studio and you are a true inspiration for me! :)

[@jorgeln3637]

This game has brought back my childhood. Brilliant work, infinite thanks.

[@Edwins1984]

Love the art style and game mechanics, great work guys!

[@MoZenLen]

Watching your video from making graphics tutorial to this. Sooo proud of what you have done.

[@BenOyarce]

Can’t wait for the coop, i really love your game 🥹🥹🥹

[@tori_cz]

If there are Easy / Medium / Nightmare difficulties implemented then only Easy could get the minimap. Or it could be found later in the game. Love the updates that are dropping, thanks and cheers!

[@joshuarowe8410]

Wow, the studio looks great!

[@kiaraharris1150]

I can’t wait until this game is way more developed. I’ve been watching for almost a year now on all these updates and little bits of gameplay.

[@benjamina6915]

Looking forward to the update and of course the big update too.

[@daianagonella7927]

this is great guys! n_n love the game!! keep up the good work

[@markimoofan1239]

Super Excited for all the new updates, i am really happy about the cave update

[@betrxyed4354]

Will be interesting to see if a backpack will despawn if you die while trying to recover it, or whether you'll be able to drop multiple backpacks

[@digitaldoom3593]

I just got the game last night. Been playing it on the steam deck.

[@icemanhf320]

Yusss backpack update :) Have been waiting for this!

[@TheArtkaw]

I wish picking up the backpack creates an effect that you picked it up

[@Revenant483]

This update is amazing!!! I want to talk about the mini map. Not sure if anyone at Flow will even read this but as a person that is directionally challenged the mini map would be a major QOL improvement for me. Why don't you make it so you can just enable or disable it? Some people will not use it and some like me would. You don't even have to use the whole map on the screen, just use a circle that you can zoom in and out on like most survival / exploration games. Surly a compromise can be made.

[@gamayn2110]

Круто! НО лучше бы вы боссов добавили, расширили локации и прочее! Ну будем ждать, а если обновление зайдёт, то и отзыв в стиме поменяю!

[@trickpa80]

Hey guys ..good to see new updates... for sure , more Craft tiers stuffs ( SANDBOX stuff ), more open world to explore , and way more sinc progress, i mean, to explore new lands , you will need progress your crafted tiers , like many rpg .... give a try on World of Warcraft stuff .

[@OptimumSlinky]

I wish more players would watch dev diaries like this to truly understand that in game dev literally nothing is "simple."

[@duxxck]

Glad you removed the auto update minimap. I would love to see some map snippest together with the notes on the ground though. Like "John is leaving tonight, he will take this route. he heard there were less monsters there".

[@diligencehumility6971]

Been playing 10 hours or so, really great, really polished. A feature I am really missing is map. I can see in the video it's not working for the game. Maybe you should consider a more 1:1 approach with not only fog of war but also hide path ways and shortcuts until they are found. I am 10 hours in and I have difficulty navigating the island, I end up running along the shore.

[@ariae]

What if players could "draw" on a piece of paper and call it a map? The mystique would remain as it's the player's own mental map but there would be a rough reminder where to go (the main function of a map) - no quest markers or autofollow "you are here" - just a map drawn by the player.

[@boogoscgradegaming79]

Pets that fight by your side! Tame a wolf or dog with meat or a Cat with fish..a monkey even. Ive been looking at this game for a while and animal taming would make me absolutely purchase.

[@duonglamhang1756]

Hope you guys make a game like this graphic style

[@joshklein]

CO OP!!!!

[@JohnnyThousand605]

I really admire the decision to cut the map, at least to potentially cut it. The whole idea is to familiarise ourselves with the island and make it our own and a map is almost certainly going to affect that. One way to add a map that might not kill the mystery/discovery of the island could be to make the map more stylised, so POI and landmarks are shown but only their relative directions from each other, not their distances. Also you could make it that map pieces have to be found, but only after the POI has been visited and not every part of the island is 'mapped'?

[@xragexxx]

DUUUDDDEEEE it's been more than a week or two, we want to see the update please....

[@justinsmall756]

if you do a map maybe one in your house so you can look at it but cant take it with you so you can plan out your rout but still have to explore cant just pull up map while your walking that you have to go home to be able to look at the map again that way there is a map but its only in your houses or key points in town etc to help but not become depended on it

[@mkrichey1]

Maybe the mini map can be a crafted thing that only fills in a small area around you? So it’s not a one and done thing :) Looking great tho!!!

[@SkateMasterman]

I haven’t gotten to play yet cause I’m poor lol but I’ve been following dev for a while. Your game looks great

[@severnayabnkr]

As soon as the game get's controller support i'll buy it 😀It's a pity that the controller support is delayed.

[@Duke6598]

Nice

[@xtraspecialj]

Controller support is exactly what I've been waiting on. Either that or WASD movement because I DETEST click to move games (at least for action type games like this. It's fine for RTS games). This game has always looked really cool to me, but the click to move controls have kept me away. If they implement controller support and it works nearly as good as The Ascent's controls, I'm in.

[@FlowStudio]

Wasd movement is already in the game by the way :)

[@xtraspecialj]

@@FlowStudio Yeah, I saw that as I continued to watch the video. That's great! Still feels more like a controller game to me, at least for the character movement, but I imagine building may be better with a M&K. Either way, I'll probably snag the game now. Keep up the good work! Oh, one other question, can you rotate the view (outside of Photo Mode of course)? Especially when building, I'd want to be able to easily rotate the view to see how my structure looks from different angles without having to go into photo mode. Not a deal breaker for me like WASD and controller support was, but definitely would be a nice-to-have feature.

[@darkigg]

The map must get bigger soon.... it's pretty boring having such a small map also you should add boats to the game and make the newer parts of the map fit that well (you can make the boats be unlocked through the town to not create any problem of people being able to reach it without building the bridge). also a steam demo for the game would help you market it

[@mustafaamraan8110]

i think taht will happen soon on future , yeah i like to see

[@darkigg]

@@mustafaamraan8110 it should probably be coming in the next update because the map right now is underwhelming

[@baileyanderson2166]

What about a mini map that the player has to kinda be the cartography rather than just unhide the map. IDK like.... drawing the map them self and just giving some kinda like place holding stickers after they complete and objective at the city lets say. May be never used or to weird for the player to use but fun to think about

[@imirbryan6666]

Maybe u can make the mini map in the town so u can go look at it but not take it with u..maybe

[@Zharkan16]

Looks dope. :) its weird that the only way to remove the splash image from Unity is to pay like 600$ a month

[@HintzeDarrin]

Wow fishing will be added or it is in progress for the future

[@RehanKhan-ps5tn]

so i lost his channel after watching the 2 year develog and now look at him , he went from a single develper to a double and now a studio

[@mustafaamraan8110]

Really? a single person start from scratch. wow i hope their studio will be more expand I mean member so this game can develope much further and fast

[@MMKnight_1]

So there are quests in the game now?? That is awesome if it is.

[@arianathearyan]

You can make this into a Sonic game

[@kaligames85]

The mini map really looks great, I hope to see it in the game soon.

[@buhokyan4585]

Add more furniture for designing like sim platform so builder content will make this content.

[@ricardobaeta3184]

If there isn't a Mera Mera no mi then I'm going to be sad

[@snackgames13]

hi. add actual maps that we can find as you explore. like in real life. in that way, we will have an unexplore minimap waiting to be explored using the found maps scattered around the island. the map hunting itself could be fun!

[@3rdaxis649]

Six months guys...

[@icemanhf320]

Devil fruit.... Powers? :o

[@bramantios5797]

I interest on this game before purchase have a question has this game a strong conversation between MC and NPCs? and able to build relation with other NPCs? Or so far just farming dugeon etc?

[@Secret7devil]

C'mon please update 😁

[@matheus-kirchesch]

yeah dont include maps, they are not mandatory, idk why people keep putting them in every game, the game becomes so much more immersive when you don't have a topdown view of the world

[@soulsandvessels9238]

does this game have friendly npc's? so that it feels more alive? npc's that help you survive, and you can trade with?

[@alir8zana635]

please make more videos

[@BananaTokyo]

maybe add a pet/familiar like wolves and cats. or even foxes maybe turtles?

[@vetirs]

Love the new things but what about expending the map? more dungeons and such. I think many would prefer expansion over new items

[@benbua5521]

Hey guys My macbook has i5 with 2.5 ghz 16 gb ram but only intel hd 4000 graphics card. ... will the game be playable if I turn graphics down to lowest?

[@buffetbar8231]

Please make a tutorial of how to start from scratch?

[@ashleykettle343]

Any updates on narrative, characters having stories/quests etc?

[@FlowStudio]

Were working on overhauling the narrative and story elements of Len's island in a big way. More details will come over the next few months :)

[@SAMUELgreyGOTH]

HELP DEVS ! I got stuck with building while swimming in the water. Is there a respawn console command or something I can do to get out ?? I don't want to lose my progress... please help!

[@yuichiro1289]

When is this update coming out ?

[@OzzietechGaming]

Did not know you guys where based in Brisbane Any chance of a review code as im working to rebuild this channel and would be great to get some support from a fellow Brisbane based company. Would be great to be able to come visit too.

[@mmfaaa]

will there be no animals to hunt ?

[@xlIDavEIlx]

so i downloaded this game and thought it was good but instantly got a refund. Controller support coming and the devs actually care about this game, i think i will give it a shot again!

[@iro-iro939]

pls make that u could build a road.

[@user-gz1to7sx9m]

I hope it's translated into Korean.😍

[@Simul4tion]

a really small map! I understand now why I finish the game in 5 hours :/

[@Prodhaywire]

Can u please try getting lens island to PlayStation 4/5 please please please

[@m.g.t31]

instead of a minimap make ( The forest ) game map style

[@HintzeDarrin]

Will you be able to download this on mobile it we’ll exposed the Game to more people

[@KizzCaTs]

Please set camera not zoom-out when I use workbench or when use anything im not AFK. And please set UI (font/image) not go small when game force zoom-out the camera it very hard to read things thank you.

[@KizzCaTs]

And watering plants which already sink(?) under water looks weird. Please do something about it.

[@zack2396tube]

will it run on MAC?

[@qwertyuuytrewq825]

Why don't they use Blender and instead pay a lot for Maya?