- Devlog #12 Animations and Menu Polishing Part 2 - 17 November 2023
Starting of with Hector's little pets, usually rodents like mouses or rats are viewed as pests and at best, nuissances. However, for Hector, since he feels a sort of sympathy with them, they are usually great friends. Needless to say, Brumhilda isn't all that pleased about this, so Hector's little pets are usually keeping quiet! However lazy Hector may be, he also has a creative mind, and sometimes, because of his creative genius, his drawings really come to life! Ever wondered what's behind the little mouse hole on the right? Well Hector has! But he's still not sure... He's convinced there's a whole new world hidden behind that small hole, and once in a while, mysterious creatures wander out... If you're curious about how we draw, animate and polish our games, check out our Youtube channel! We have many educational videos and we also just started making game review videos! Funtaptic Yo…
- Devlog #11 Animations and Menu Polishing Part 1 - 3 November 2023
Today we'll be showcasing the work of our animators in the form of a couple short animations that, in our opinion, make the cave of the Grugs a lot more livelier. Alongside these, we will have a lot more movement on these screens in the form of clickable items such as doors, plants, ropes or other assets. Our first entry for today animations is Doug the invasive mole. Doug always finds a way into other peoples homes, how he does isn't a mystery, on the other hand, why he does it is very much so. He is usually accompanied by Pod, the adventurous possum. This loud little possum lives out his life just like the Grugs, having adventures of his own! One such adventure is running from Brumhilda and making one helluva noise while doing so. Our last funky friend is Chirp, the little blue bird, who just wants to find a safe place to make a nest. However, she seems to make nests in the most unsua…
- Devlog #10 Into the caves - 27 October 2023
Welcome to the deep dark caves of the stone age! These shadowy holes have been shifting and moving around for thousands of years, so you can never know what you'll find here. Sometimes, you'll stumble into larger caverns where you can find isolated beautiful landscapes, but you should keep your guard up, as even these beautiful halls have hidden dangers inside. Below you can see how our artists have worked to design such hall! Besides cool background art, our caves also have a number of unique assets you can interact with while spelunking! These are various rocks, boulders, crystals, roots, pathways, boulers, arches and many more! Alongside decorative and interactible assets, you may also find enemies and dangers inside these cave! These require special attention to avoid or bypass, as the caves limit your vertical mobility, so jumping over them is especially difficult! We wish you a sa…
- Devlog #9 Character Skills - 20 October 2023
Starting with Hector, his specialty is, well, not too honorable, but very useful! Living with Brumhilda has thought him how to get up to speed really quickly, so he has developed his very own special evasive dash to get out of trouble! However, this leaves Hector exhausted for a while, being slowed and unable to dash again for a while. While in this sorry state, Hector usually resorts to blind luck, which works 100% of the time! If Hector personifies the flight, in fight or flight, then you know what Brumhilda stands for. Her signature skill, the earthshattering stomp breaks everything known to caveman in front of her, whether it be a spiky bush a rocky boulder or a ferocious dino! She's also a skilled cook, being able to create heal herself on the move! Here's an early look into how Brumhilda's stomp will look in game: If you can't run from it or break it, just outsmart it! Brat's sign…
- Devlog #8 Introducing Lola & Pip - 13 October 2023
Most parents know about the differences between the first and second child, well, in the case of Lola, she's definitely the typical second child. Not only did she inherit Brumhilda's strenght, but she's close to surpassing it. She's also extremely loveable, being the perfect, cute and orderly child, she can get away with practically anything. As perfect as she is, she couldn't manage it alone. That's where Pip, her loyal pet in the form of a baby mammoth comes in. He's always there to support her, and sees her as a best friend. How they came to be best friends, noone really knows, except for Brat, who somehow seems really dissapointed about it all. With Lola's strenght and Pip's speed and loyalty, they just couldn't sit still and had to let loose their curious mind and adventurer spirit. So they ventured into the Misty Jungle where they thought they might find some hidden treasure or a…
- Devlog #7 Ui and screen design - 6 October 2023
Welcome, welcome! It's a bit dusty, that's because Brumhilda has been locked away due to her anger issues, but other than that, welcome to the cozy cave of The Grugs! Here in the luxurious main hall, you can find the couch where the family usually hangs out, lucky for them, nothing can get under it. You can also find the achievements, setting and play buttons! From here, you can find each family members special little room, starting on the left with Hector! These rooms not only provide respite from the wilderness outside, but also allow each family member to express their quirky personality to the full! Though as you can see, only Hector's room is open for visitors, maybe you can do something about that... You can also decorate each room to make the family feel at home, look at the special traits and skills of each character here, selec who you wanna play as, and finally, even customize…
- Devlog #6 Introducing Brat - 29 September 2023
You've already seen Brumhilda and Hector, now meet their first child: Brat, the mischievous genius! When it comes to the personality of Brat, we wanted to show that strenght isn't the only solution to stone age problems, sometimes you gotta use your brains a bit as well. Well, Brat ceratinaly does that a lot, as the first child, he inherited the creativity and free spirit of Hector, and the persistance and work ethic of Brumhilda. Because of this, Brat is known for attention to detail, and his many inventions! Even his room's door is a special one, using some sort of advanced technology to open and close, while Hector and Brumhilda use the old fashioned doors! An inventor has to be precise and attentive, and so another trait that Brat boast is six times the attention span of his dad, which by Hector's standards is not impressive at all. He is also extremely quick on the foot, and though…
- Devlog #5 Map and biomes - 22 September 2023
Welcome to our fifth developer log, this time we'll be showing you guys more of the world you'll get to explore as the four members of The Grugs family! As we mentioned previously, the world of the Grugs includes multiple different biomes, each with their own colour scheme, reoccuring motives, design elements, enemies and challenges and a unique boss at the end! The first of biome is the lovely, lush green hills. This place is dominated by greenery, tall grass, reeds, bushes, trees and many other organic features. This is due to the abundant fresh water that flows from the nearest mountaintop. Needless to say, the Grugs family was smart to build their home here, as it's a relatively peaceful and a safe area, however, occasionally raptors and pterodactyls do find their way into here, as there's plenty of food for them to find, make sure you don't become it! The first four levels lead you…
- Devlog #4 Introducing Brumhilda - 15 September 2023
Welcome to our fourth developer log, here, we'll introduce our second playable character, Brumhilda, the wife and mother of the family. When it came to desgining Brumhilda, we wanted to create a mother figure that was different from most of the archetypical caring, soft and nurturing characters we've seen so many times, but we also didn't want to stray too far from the already well-known image of a mother, and so the first concept for the giant wooden spoon wielding brunnette with bangs was born. Her shape design tells the most about her character, as it includes mostly squared shapes, but she also has a few sharp edges around her dress and hair. This makes her feel like a inherently soft character with a hard exterior. Brumhilda's animations all have lots of weight to them, yet they also have a small sense of grace too. We did this to convey not only her size and power, but also her hi…
- Devlog #3 Visuals design - 8 September 2023
Welcome to our third developer log, this week we'll be showcasing the wonderful work of our lead art designer focusing on world building, environment and atmosphere. Firstly, we thought it necessary to showcase the artworks first designed years ago for the mobile version, since these assets mark the start of the unique and colourful style of art we have continued to expand and evolve all the way into today. However, when we started working on The Grugs: Origins, we no longer had the performance and size limitations that mobile platforms have, and because of this we did our best to improve on each and every visual element. Secondly, the games that inspired us to bring The Grugs to PC are known for their incredible visual perspective, with each scene having an immense depht to it. We wish to replicate this with multiple foreground and background layers, to essentially make the world feel…
- Devlog #2 Introducing Hector - 1 September 2023
Welcome to our second developer log, where we introduce our first playable character, him being Hector, the head of The Grugs, the man of the cave, however lazy he may be. Our early designs for Hector started with the idea of an unconventional caveman, who is not the typical strong and dumb brute, but someone full of creative ideas and just a mind of his own. Throw this character into a family setting, and soon he'll be tired of all of the responsabilties and troubles of a serious life. In terms of looks, we went with a heavily stylized, floating hands look, but we wanted to have a clear siluette for the character, and so the hair and the beard made that possible. Below you can find an artwork for Hector we used in a promotional video. While in a side view his facial expressions are mostly hidden, make no mistake, Hector has become one of our most expressive characters when it comes to…
- Devlog #1 First look into The Grugs: Origins - 26 August 2023
Hey everyone! In this announcement, we will be giving special insights into how The Grugs: Origins started out as an idea and how it's development has been going! The first idea for The Grugs games started off around the end 2020, but back then we focused on mobile platforms such as Google Play and the Apple Appstore. Taking the game to PC, and making PC games in general has been a great aspiration for everyone on our team so taking our previous ideas and making them PC worthy is what we set out to do. The following image is one of the first splash arts we designed for the game, in it you can see the main members of the family: Hector, in the middle, the laziest man alive, Brumhilda, his wife on the right, the best jam cook, and Lola and Brat in order on the left, the strongest girl and the craftiest boy. Our first sketches for The Grugs: Origins started with a design for a unique and s…
- The Grugs comes to Steam! - 18 August 2023
Hey everyone! We are happy to announce that we are working on Grugs: Origins, which will be a PC port of The Grugs mobile games. We understand just how difficult it is to take a mobile game and make it into an enjoyable and exciting PC game, but we certainly would like to try. So if you're interested, wishlist our game and follow us on our game development journey! Check out the announcement video for the Grugs: Origins Join our Discord community to get more info: Funtaptic on Discord Follow us on our socials: Funtaptic on Twitter: Funtaptic on Facebook Funtaptic on Instagram Stay tuned for more!
