Above you can see a glimpse into our world at the moment as we balance all of the elements in our eco-system. There have been some big developments since my return from GDC. We’ve decided to focus Chapter One exclusively on the Amazon Rainforest as we feel tying it into a locality will give each chapter a heightened sense of identity, while structuring the factual core that inspires / informs our choices for flora and fauna.

So it’s been a week of research for me, locking down the species, learning about their habits, diet, and various species variations, ensuring that all the t’s are crossed and i’s dotted from a factual perspective. This process has brought up a lot of cool new ideas as well, which we’ve added to the pile while iterating through the core loop of the game to make sure those daily activities of exploring, pollinating, and tending to your grove are fun and rewarding. Soon we’ll be testing that loop with persistence and user accounts linked to Facebook, which is very exciting indeed.

We also have some very exciting news in the form of a complete overhaul for the central grove area which will put a whole new level of control in the hands of our players, allowing them to create their own truely personalised part of the rainforest. More on that next time

Links that kicked ass this week:

Jane McGonigal convinces the TED conference that games will save the world

Dude slices a baseball in half with a Samurai sword

Spike Jonze tells a robot love story

Bill Murray bar tending at SXSW

Square Enix

Goldfrapp

And here it is, our first video of Flutter in action!

It shows off your home grove where you can choose your butterfly, then the decent into the rainforest where you’ll explore, pollinate plants, make friends, and avoid enemies. If you like what you see we’d love to have you as a Facebook fan so you can test the beta when we put in live in May

Capcom

Hot Chip

Since I returned from DICE, our focus has been on building the social mechanics of the game atop our pretty new environment navigation. That means giving people something to do on a daily basis, and rewarding them for returning many days in a row. In the open field, your key activity will be pollinating flowers, which will subsequently produce seeds and spread through the environment. The more subsequent days you return in a row, the more flowers there will be and the more “honey dust” (the game’s currency) you’ll collect, which you can then go back and spend in your home grove (pictured above). This launch screen for the game is kind of like your home in Pet Society. You’ll launch into all your adventures from here by choosing one of your butterflies. You’ll decorate the place with various flora, and over time your vibrant environment will attract other rainforest creatures to make it their home (more on that later).

If you’ll be at GDC this week, pop me a line as I’d love to show you the game in the flesh. For those that cant make it, we’ll be putting up a teaser video in the next couple of days to whet your appetite.

Things we loved this week:

Sushi Cat is Sushi Cute

The Witness is coming and it looks pretty as hell

GLaDOS Returns!

Creators of Zoo Tycoon enter the Facebook arena with the super slick Zoo Kingdom