Devlog: Development notes

All the main levels of CowHammer have now been thoroughly described with concept art and development notes, including the final secret level and the interactive cutscenes that will lead to it, so I'm ready to attempt the modeling phase again.

The whole gimmick of the game is that every level must be played twice in different ways before you can get to the real ending, so I'll give you a little spoiler-free summary of what you can expect.

• Level 1: A basic exploration level, a citadel of water worshipers, with a temple, a market and a castle, where the King of Cornamenta provides lore and a fellow knight offers a battle tutorial. The city is protected by a mechanical guard. The smuggler tunnels beneath the city will include a propositional logic puzzle during the second playthrough.

• Level 2: A basic platforming level, a forest with a treetop village and a non-euclidean maze. The first and most important ally can be rescued at the beginning of this level. The maze can only be crossed during the second playthrough, once the player has learned the right path through it.

• Level 3: A physics puzzle level, a prairie populated by shepherds. Six of their animals have escaped and the player can choose to help find them and bring them back to their pen. Recruiting the right ally unlocks a second part of the level involving cattle thieves.

• Level 4: An ambient horror level, a dark cave populated by hostile bat people. Some areas require careful exploration in barely visible environments. If the player finds a way to reach the end of the level without hurting any of the bat people, they're granted access to a different area of the cave that uses darkness as a puzzle mechanic.

• Level 5: A non-euclidean level, a temple populated by evil chaos monks. The player can choose to fight their way through impossible architecture to save the virgin they're planning to sacrifice to their dark god. Hiring the right ally unlocks a stealth area of the temple.

• Level 6: A battle level, a small town under attack by demons. The player must join a knight ally and fend off all the attackers. During the first playthrough, a warlock will hit the player with a confusion spell to hinder their advances. Hiring the right ally will prevent this.

• Level 7: An apparently very simple exploration level, the player's weapon is stolen and they must find a way to get it back. It is found in a small village populated by friendly creatures and under siege by evil kobolds, which the player must fight off. Recruiting the right ally will turn the level into an investigation.

• Level 8: An environmental hazard level, a city being destroyed by a giant dragon. The player must run through streets on fire and climb a tower where the dragon is perched. Hiring the right ally to fight the beast unlocks a completely different route towards level 10.

• Level 9: A mostly narrative stealth level, a large bridge leading to level 10, defended by strong demons. One of the allies gets injured half-way through and the player can choose to bring them back to a safe spot, while avoiding detection.

• Level 10: A non-euclidean level, a castle created by Chaos magic. The player must go through several physically impossible structures to get to the evil witch and fight her to rescue the prince. Finding every ally in the game lets the player find an alternative route into the castle, producing a different ending. Finding every collectible in the game provides additional lore and unlocks the true final level.

• Level 11: It's a secret!

And that's a very summarized version of what you can expect. I'm currently working on making level 1 functional enough. I hope I can show you some basic gameplay as soon as possible.