#OCTODAD DADLIEST CATCH FINAL HOW TO#
#OCTODAD DADLIEST CATCH FINAL CRACK#

We chose then to develop the levels in linear order so that they could be tested at the players’ relative skill level. We attempted, after the tutorial, to build some more challenging levels set in the middle portions of the game, but just the tutorial was not enough to prepare players to play well. The idea that players needed to get used to Octodad was a troublesome one.

#OCTODAD DADLIEST CATCH FINAL HOW TO#

As time went on, we noticed that players would forget how to raise their arms, so we introduced a gate and other contrivances to remind them how to do it. We took the time to introduce the players to the mechanics of Octodad one by one (starting with simply moving the arm left and right). Linearity turned out to be necessary in the teaching environment of the tutorial, as players had a rough enough time just walking in a straight line.

Initially, the tutorial had distractions such as mini games and explorable secret areas, but they were all cut. It’s a funny scenario, a small location, and it clearly introduces us to Octodad and Scarlet together. Octodad’s wedding was our first idea and we stuck with it. We knew that whichever level we started with would ultimately get the most iteration and polish overall. We decided to build the tutorial first, because we needed to get players used to Octodad’s unusual movement mechanics as soon as possible. Octodad is a smoother, more pleasant game as a result, but it’s a shame we never figured out a version that worked with the mouse. It wasn’t until late in the project, when designing controller input, that we hit on a system that recognized which mode you wanted to be in and switched it for you automatically. Mode switching had its own awkward problems, as players would forget which mode they were in. We created ‘mode switching’ to change whether you were controlling Octodad’s arms or his legs, making the mouse buttons contextual. We ran into awkward situations, as we had only three-ish buttons and loads of limbs. If there was a downside to our work on controls, it was our dedication to locking all controls to the mouse. As designers, we could pepper force volumes throughout the level anywhere Octodad needed it.

There are forces that help him get over stairs, forces that help him throw objects farther, etc. We created invisible helper forces to get around this, a little boost to push him back on track.

#OCTODAD DADLIEST CATCH FINAL CRACK#

It was easy for Octodad to get a leg stuck in a crack between two tables or to catch his foot going up stairs. The arms got a similar treatment.Įven with tighter controls, Octodad’s body physics would get him and the player into a lot of trouble.

As long as the rest of Octodad’s body had follow-through, it could do the business of being a physics destruction engine every time the player moved the foot. The key here was giving the player relatively tight control of Octodad’s foot, increasing its speed and reducing its weightiness. We needed them to be awkward without being frustrating. Our very first task was to overhaul Octodad’s body physics (which I’m not qualified to talk about) and smoothing out the controls. The student game Octodad had glitchy, unresponsive controls and faulty physics. Given that, I’m just going to walk through the project in a rough chronological order. I want to be detailed, so I apologize if this post-mortem analysis goes long.īecause Octodad was a tangled, difficult, but wildly interesting project to work on, I find it hard to break it down into simple ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ decisions. In particular, the design decisions we made, why we made them, and the impact they had on our development.

I’d like to talk about the design of Dadliest Catch. My name is Kevin Zuhn, and I was the creative director on Octodad: Dadliest Catch, as well as the project lead on the student game Octodad. The controls are as silly as the premise, requiring the player to pick up Octodad’s limbs and thrust them around to wriggle his body across the room. In Octodad: Dadliest Catch, players inhabit a well-dressed octopus who tries to fool his human family (and society at large) into thinking that he is an ordinary man.

Octodad dadliest catch final