Play With Gilbert - Remake news & patch notes

Merry Christmas Everyone

First of all I want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy new year! It's been a little over half a year since the remake was released and it seems pretty much everyone has enjoyed it. Which I am very glad with. It's still not a perfect game (no game ever is) but I've done my best to smoothen things out and improve it here and there. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/e832cb53d6da56e77fa45b04425d65001e409e46.jpg

Improvements

• CatCam activation tweaked - You now have to hold down the CatCam activation button for about a second before it activates. This is to avoid activating it by accident.
• CatCam thruster speed increased - The thruster speed for the CatCam has been increased in order to travel large distances in less time.
• Gliders saved per level - Gliders are now saved if you found one in a level. I am working on ways to disable them. On Rainbow Island you can disable it by talking to a Cheep Cheep, will most likely move it over to other levels.

Welcome To Rainbow Beach

Rainbow Beach is very much an odd choice to release during this time of year but I've been working on it for quite some time now, bit by bit and I really wanted to give something to you guys for Christmas. Rainbow Beach is a new take on the old beach level from the original game. Rainbow Beach introduces new vehicles (Boats, Catski's and a Submarine) as well as new gameplay mechanics. You'll be able to search for treasure chests which may contain catbells or fishies. Some chests are buried and you'll have to find for a big colorful X and dg them up. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/0dfff0452a08fe7413e355236cc8d8a3fabdc39d.jpg And you'll now be able to combine your glider with a big rocket. This combination enables Gilbert & friends to fly through the air. It's quite a lot of fun and I have put rockets in Down Town as well. Rainbow Beach also adds in the Cheep Cheeps. These cute little birds can be found running around. Some can talk to you and help you out or give information. Cheep Cheeps will get a more prominent role in the future (working on a DLC with them front and center). {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/537d3696924f064cc02ac4f9adaff195f625320b.jpg I also added two new hats and one new sunglass. I still have a few more ideas for this level but I ran out of time and had to make sure what I had was up to snuff for release.

That Other Game I Made

For those who might be interested, I've created another game called STARDROP. This was a huge endeavor and pretty much a passion project. If you're interested in story-driven Sci-Fi games with no pew pew I highly suggest to check it out. It's currently on sale too! https://store.steampowered.com/app/552880/STARDROP/

Whiskered Away

I've talked about this game before but wanted to highlight it again! I improved on some aspects of the player's movement and some other small improvements which you can check out in the public beta. DOWNLOAD WHISKERED AWAY (ALPHA VERSION)

Support Me On Patreon

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/26803372/ef4c2c790f4de0a5509ff4f953013d7a6b1bed7d.jpg If you want to further support development of Play With Gilbert or any other of my new and upcoming games you can check out my Patreon page. IMPORTANT: I want to make it very clear that I am not selling my games on Pateron directly. Patreon has been set up for the sole purpose of supporting me as a developer. If you want to support me and are in the position to do so, feel free to take a look and see what's what. MY PATREON

That's It For Now

I hope you guys will like the new update. Lot of work and effort gone into this one and I had fund making it. It's nice to run around Rainbow Island and chill out. I'll make sure that next year I'll have a more appropriately themed update planned for the game. Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Joure {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/241969e5c895ebade0659915fe523e00dbd7ce80.png

Happy Halloween

Halloween's being celebrated in Play With Gilbert right now. You'll be able to hear spooky tunes, collect pumpkins instead of fishies and the kitties in the game are wearing their costumes. New content for the game is in the works and a new Gilbert game is being worked on which is very different from the ones I've done so far (more info below). For many people, myself included, the last 2 years have been incredibly taxing to say the least and in an effort to keep doing what I love I've set up a Patreon page to hopefully pull in support for current and future projects that are in development. I'll share more info about that at the end of the news update if you're curious and I think it's pretty interesting.

Celebrate Halloween in PWG

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/26803372/de3bf3319bb18653426548b20adf00f9b2ad2092.jpg The Halloween event started on October 24th and with the new update will end on November 4th. I extended the timeslot a bit so that players can enjoy the event just a bit longer. Some of you might have noticed there's an overlap between PWG and Spookity Hollow and that's because the two games share the same base. This also means that your customized kitty can be brought over from Spookity Hollow and vice versa.

Meet Skye

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/26803372/246fce1cd3d5f4cf4d71d72d1253c0b16ec45cce.jpg From here on out the default kitties that the game starts with are Gilbert and Skye. Skye is now based after my daughters customized kitten and is going to be Gilbert's little friend. The two of them actually are going to have their own adventure in their own new game! Of course you can still customize Skye and make your own kitty in PWG but it's a small but important tweak. I also fixed a few things in the game that were broken during the engine upgrade (Fairy lights weren't working properly) so there's that.

Spookity Hollow

For those of you who have missed it, Spookity Hollow has been released which is a standalone game based on the PWG remake project. It's a full on Halloween themed experience and one which I hope to expand upon a little bit to set it further apart and create a richer experience. You can check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1739150/Spookity_Hollow/

Whiskered Away

Now this is a project I've been wanting to talk about for a while now but couldn't due to it being in a very early stage. Whiskered Away is a different take on the Gilbert series as you can see it's a 2D platform game with adventure elements to it. The game has a simple but fun little story attached to it and a simple yet effective dialogue system. This system that I created for the game allows me to create narratives and bring characters to life. On top of that I also developed a simple quest system, which is fully dynamic and will be used in both a linear and non linear way. This means some quests are mandatory while others are optional. Lastly I also added abilities, which will be unlocked when you find certain characters that will teach them to you. This means that you may have to wander off the beaten path in order to unlock a new ability, which is the an aspect of the adventure portion. Don't worry, the game isn't complex and the platforming isn't going to be incredibly tedious. As with anything Gilbert related I want people to have fun so I try to keep the game a little bit sand-box-y. But hey, you can give the game a go right now. As I'm trying to expand the Gilbert community and also build a new one around the new game I've decided to release the early alpha out into the wild for free! This means that you can get involved directly with the game's development either by offering feedback, suggestions and more! DOWNLOAD WHISKERED AWAY (ALPHA VERSION)

Support Me On Patreon

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/26803372/ef4c2c790f4de0a5509ff4f953013d7a6b1bed7d.jpg It's been rough, really rough the last two years and this year especially and I know I'm not alone in this by far. But I don't want to talk about that aspect too much but I've decided to ask for support. If you are in a position and thinking to yourself, yeah I'd love to see more games from this developer in the future I would like to ask that you consider, to check out my Patreon page. I've set up a few tiers and I believe the rewards for them are pretty neat. I've thought a lot about how I would go about this and it's fairly straight forward. I won't bother you too much about it here and just leave a link to a post I made that describes the tier system in general and what you can expect. Even if you don't want or cannot support me on Patreon, Joining the (New) Discord server will enable you to offer support in the form of feedback and suggestions and being kept in the loop of what I'm working on, because I have a lot more planned than just Gilbert games. IMPORTANT: Now I want to make it very clear that I am not selling my games on Pateron directly. This is purely for people who want to support me and my games as I do NOT want to compete with selling my games on Patreon. You will get rewarded on Patreon with the end product, but it's important to note that it's not a direct buy. I also want to make it very clear that you should be able to be in a position to even consider it. MY PATREON

That's It For Now

And that's it for now. I should have something fun coming up before the end of the year for PWG. I'd like to thank everyone for being so awesome. And I'll catch you on the next update! Take care Joure {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/241969e5c895ebade0659915fe523e00dbd7ce80.png

- Fixed some nav issues. - Changed pluche toys on Gilberts Neighbourhood and Timmy & Tommy's house from static to physics objects players can pick up and carry around.

Hello Everyone!

I got some interesting Gilbert news for this update, so let's get right to it!

Engine Upgrade

Play With Gilbert has been upgraded from Unreal Engine 4.25 to 4.26. Luckily it wasn't as much of a headache than I feared it would be. Alongside upgrading the engine version I've also attempted a number of smaller fixes and changes to the game. Nothing you should notice while playing. IMPORTANT NOTE: This engine upgrade requires a fresh new savegame. Don't worry, the game will handle it by its own and you can decline but the game may become unstable. This should remain a rare occasion since I am not planning any big upgrades in the future. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/7f98ad6eed70fa91bf73cc927b1c0c27dc348971.png

Fish-Run Returns

I am happy to announce that Fish-Run has finally returned to Play With Gilbert Remake proper! Fish-Run remains largely un-changed from the original game, except that it can now be played in single-player, where the goal is to beat the high-score. Another big change is that the game mode no longer requires it's own dedicated level. You will find Fish-Run within certain levels and just walk up to the Cheep-Cheep and ask to play. Currently Fish-Run can be played in Gilbert's Neighbourhood, The Park and Down Town. Each level offers a slightly different variant of the game. Ranging from two or Three runners that drop fishies, time limit and the terrain being played in. I plant to experiment a bit more with Fish-Run in the future and see what other kinds of terrain I can play with, I'm currently thinking of trying it out in the water. Let me know if you have any suggestions! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/fd4e97135b771427c58d214315b122d45b077c35.jpg When I created the original I would run circles around my daughter but the tables have turned. While recording the footage for the promo video My daughter beat me 4 out of 4. I'm so proud of her and it's really cool to see how much she progressed her skills from when she started 4 years ago haha. I hope you'll enjoy the new iteration Fish-Run as I have, I'm keen to implement other mini-games as well at some point! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/03e764e1ca456775882e6bf7fc5403b62fa1b163.png

Meet The Cheep-Cheeps!

I won't dwell on the Cheep-Cheeps too much here as they will be properly introduced at a later time when the focus is put on them fully but while they are technically introduced into the game through Fish-Run with this update, I have bigger plans for them in the long run. They're cute, funny looking "birds" that whom will serve a larger role in the game going forward. Their main purpose lies in being able to talk to the player. They'll be the ones offering narratives in future updates sometime in the future. They will also play a significant role in Spookity Hollow, a new stand alone game in the Gilbert Franchise which you can read all about below! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/f316a577d6be70b2a8865a65a0d48830423bf86d.png

Spookity Hollow Coming Very Soon

Spookity Hollow is a stand-alone companion-piece to Gilbert, see it as an expansion adding some new mechanics and a big, Halloween themed map. It has a spooky castle, a graveyard, lots of pumpkins and a lot of Cheep-Cheeps. As mentioned above, Cheep-Cheeps add a little narrative to the game and while it's certainly not meant to drive any sort of larger narrative, they do provide with small little expositions and other fun little quirky topics to help with a small bit of world-building. Watch the short trailer below. (Which has some WIP footage, since I'm still doing some art-passes, etc.) You'll also be able to fly a magic broom, read books with some cute stories my daughter wrote (which I edited for punctuation and very light corrections). There are magic potions and some other gameplay features that I'm still working on. It's also important to note that Spookity Hollow is compatible with Play With Gilbert. One of the ideas behind the remake of Gilbert was to keep it compatible with offshoots like Spookity Hollow. This means that Customized kitties (and unicorns) are brought over from one game to the other but this also works the other way. You can customize your kitty in Spookity Hollow and bring it back to Play With Gilbert. This also means that certain features that are introduced in Spookity Hollow (such as the talking Cheep-Cheeps) will be brought over and introduced in PWG. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/c4cb1e306d3f9b72f7fc66a543f8f14c2b242fc7.jpg If you're interested in the game you can wish-list it now, The more people wish-list the game the better it will do on launch (and visibility on Steam in general) The game will launch with a discount as well, or just wait until the Halloween sale this year! So any help from the awesome community is always highly appreciated! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1739150/Spookity_Hollow/

That's It For Now

I hope you enjoyed the update and will have fun playing Fish-Run and I can't wait to share what's to come as soon as possible! Thank you all for the continued support and stay Meowsome everyone! Joure {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/241969e5c895ebade0659915fe523e00dbd7ce80.png

Hi Everyone

I'll get to the fun stuff first! Lots of new content has been added to PWG since the game's release about a week ago. These have been quietly released through a number of smaller patches that also fixed a number of issues, which I will go over at the end of the news post. I have a lot more content planned for the future but that's for another time. Let's go over all the new stuff first! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/73b7321decf34a3f312b8c5d1a5ffcb04a5b3790.png

Two New Modes

I've added some new funny modes to the game that can be activated on a per player basis. You can find these options under: Game Settings / Player Options. There you'll find these two new modes that have been added to the game. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/3e9c512e377112909a22efecef4778b916b6d51a.jpg

Big-Head Mode

Big-head mode is exactly what it looks and sounds like. It's a silly little (big) addition to the game where your kitty (or unicorn) has a very large head when enabled. It looks silly, it plays silly but it's all in good fun. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/159f316c425b7ee44a83a5a7ff90545c71750686.png

Pixel Mode

Pixel mode tries to quasi-emulate old games from the PlayStation 1 Era. Nothing fancy but I thought it'd be a fun little addition, perhaps even more for parents who grew up in that era (much like myself). {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/c2ceb2ae5194af5973ff1108c6db0578a6f4fca4.jpg

New Map: Little Big Catventure

Onto the main event of this update: Gilbert's Little Big Catventure is a completely new map added to the game and completely free for anyone who owns PWG. Inspired by the old de_rats maps and the more recent Hyper Charge: Unboxed game, your kitty is a wee little bugger roaming a huge apartment. The goal is the same as in every other map but the shift in perspective is so much fun. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/1d41877ee9339f966b1230b811d656f218948c0f.jpg It's been incredibly fun to work on this level and I feel that I'll head back into it and refine and add and/or tweak little bits and bobs here and there. I believe this map is gonna be amazing for the kids as me and my daughter had so much fun playing in it. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/1ccacb4ea247d9b6eb263fdf8b389bce55da963e.jpg If you or your child has any ideas feel free to share them, I'd be happy to see if I can realistically add them into the game!

Unicorn DLC Update

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/ed4b8a8898f017c02f7c36a750f20bdc2fb2d5e1.jpg Some players expressed their desire to be able to customize their unicorns and I heard you. I already planned to add these features but I wasn't ready in time for release. This has now been rectified and I've added 15 new looks for your unicorn! Two eye styles and eye color options have also been added. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/719fef751947e4f1a46497a7f1c04d694fe28ce0.jpg I love the unicorns and I have more in store for them in an additional DLC which will be more game related and separated from the current Unicorn DLC. As it stands I'm happy with them and I feel the current DLC is more than wort the asking price! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/34a60e0a038bfad4e5dc7d54b7e885f3ef29ab78.png https://store.steampowered.com/app/1634400/Play_With_Gilbert__Unicorn_Supporter_Pack

Bug Fixes

I've been working very hard to get rid of as many bugs as I could and currently there's only one left that soft locks player two in some instances regarding using the Cat Cam. Another small annoying bug happens sometimes when pressing the return button in the menus, which warps the player camera. A quick pause and then return to game should fix this but it's annoying and not sure how to fix it yet. Here's a list of the things that has been fixed since release:

Main Game

• Fixed soft-lock issues when customizing characters in coop.
• Fixed various issues resulting in soft locking the game.
• Kitty / Uni-sense will now always stay active if at least one player is using it.
• Fixed missing grass in Park level.
• Fixed showing players custom characters everywhere in the UI.
• Added Big Head Mode for fun. (Can be toggled per player)
• Added Pixel Mode also for fun. (Can be toggled per player)
• Various quality of life improvements and fixes.

Unicorn DLC

• Tweaked Unicorn material variables to make them look more like plush toys.
• Tweaked rim-light exponent values on unicorn materials.
• Added unicorn customization options (15 unicorn types, two different eye types and eye color customization have been added)
• Fixed changing player character after using "Change Player" in customization settings.
• Unicorns can now collect item rewards.

Consider A Review

A review goes a very long way here on Steam for very small indie developers. Steam's algorithm favors games that sell well and/or that are popular. PWG isn't that kind of game and I never really expected it to be, so on that front a review really helps. I think PWG - Remake is a high-quality game and has surpassed the original completely, finding an audience is a challenge. If you or your child really enjoyed the game I would so much appreciate it if you could leave one for the game. I'm not asking for just positive reviews, although biased as I am, that would be preferred. Any review is appreciated as it offers more insight from the community as to what they liked and perhaps disliked so I can try and make the game even better! Consider Leaving A Review

Final Words

That's it for meow! Thank you all for your continued support! It seems that the remake has been received incredibly well and I am super happy it has. It's been a lot of fun working on it and I cannot wait to share with you what will be next! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/241969e5c895ebade0659915fe523e00dbd7ce80.png Thank you for reading and please take care and have fun with the remake!

Joure

Some fixes and tweaks:

• Fixed soft-lock issues when customizing characters in coop.
• Tweaked Unicorn material variables to make them look more like plush toys.
• Tweaked rim-light exponent values on unicorn materials.
• Fixed various issues resulting in soft locking the game.
• Various quality of life improvements and fixes.

Dear Community

It's finally time to release the game fully. Doing a remake is quite challenge. So in this section I want to talk a little bit about the old and the new and my oh my ,how far the game has come. I can't believe how much has changed over the years. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/fbc2c681474c4f9cb336a2fdfca955905295b66a.jpg This brings back so many memories... With the remake, I knew what I was working towards but a lot of time has passed since the original's release and I'm not the same person I was back then. My daughter was 4 years old at the time of the original game's release and she's now 8. This offered me the chance to try and make Gilbert fun for young children as well as older ones. The underlying idea was that capitalizing on how forgiving the game is, younger gamers most likely will not care for harder jumps if they can't make it and as they grow older and more familiar, they eventually will. This is what I experienced with my daughter. She's now a bona fide Gilbert expert. Play With Gilbert has become a mixture of role-playing and traditional 3d open-world platformers. Customization was a fun little portion of the original but I felt it was incredibly under-utilized on my behalf. I've made sure that the customization aspect is now pretty deep and players should be able to go very far into creating a unique kitty. I hope that in the future I can expand on them even more but as it is, I'm rather quite happy with how it turned out. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/90872ad586855a509e33b7fc460868f5b5512f27.jpg I truly hope this will make a lot of new memories! What's completely new though, are unlockable items. A developer friend of my stressed the fact that adding such a mechanic would add a lot more fun to the game so I decided to give it a go. Each level now has a whole bunch of cat bells that can be collected. If a player collects 100 of them a new item unlocks. After that a selection of hats will be dropped from a different pool. These are the same hats that can be found in the levels themselves. This is done so that there's always something to drive players collecting cat bells. If, however, players have unlocked everything and / or simply do not want to collect them anymore, you can turn on Role-Play mode. This turns the game back to how Play With Gilbert used to be. I felt it was important to keep the original gameplay alive as much as possible because not everyone wants a collect-a-thon. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/dad7de3b95f29efefa73e0969f8656fbecae1092.jpg I'm a huge fan of the new suburbs area... Other new features are vehicles and other modes of transportation such as a glider. The completely new map, Down Town, is huge compared to the rest and after adding in vehicles, it was a lot of fun to just play in. Me and my daughter ended up roleplaying so much on there that I decided to add in more small mechanics to embrace that play style. Adding in doors, showers, flushable toilets and physics objects just for the fun of it. We would carry around food and drink items, settle on a spot and role-play eating and drinking, or whatever else crazy stuff we'd come up with. So, for the past week I've slept very little and am currently super tired yet it's been a lot of fun. I've been so incredibly busy trying to tie up loose ends and fixing bugs and adding in quality of life improvements that I feel the game is at a very healthy state and I am proud to share it with everyone.

Unicorn Supporter Pack DLC

The remake is free for existing users. I did that on purpose because I value each and every one of you! However, I also need to eat and be able to keep working on this game so I decided that I would create a small DLC pack. People have asked me if they could further support my efforts and I felt that this was a nice way of offering something new and fun for existing users to purchase. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/5e0827cdb52d7eb1bb77d0a47d6c675cf771a77c.jpg The DLC pack contains a unicorn player model which can be activated in the customization menu. Unicorns control slightly different from the regular kitties by design. They don't jump as high initially but they can hover and float upwards. They can also use their horns to make objects that are nearby hover towards them such as fishies and cat bells. Uni-sense is a variation on kitty-sense. Instead of having to hold down the button, you toggle it. As it currently stands unicorns can not be customized much and while I do not plan to add in hats, what I do want to add are skin variations and customizable eye color. This will be added in a future update not too long from now. One of the goals with this pack was to test out playing as a different character, something I will be expanding upon in the future as well with different DLC packs. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1634400/Play_With_Gilbert__Unicorn_Supporter_Pack

The future of Gilbert

This DLC pack is testing out the water in some ways. As I've mentioned before, I want to commit to the game long-term. The way forward for me will be in the form of themed DLC packs. One of which could be "Farming With Gilbert". A completely new level would be introduced in the form of a farm with new gameplay such as having to collect chicken eggs, and adding in a playable chicken character. I think this would add longevity to the game as I have a lot more ideas that I want to implement. Other updates would be completely free. Feature requests, bug fixes and such are obviously not tied to DLC, etc.

Missing Content

For those of you who know the original game, there seems to be some stuff missing and you're right. I owe you a beach and moon level as well as parental control options. These will be added some time after this release because I simply didn't have the time to invest on them yet. I do believe that all the new content and feature updates will more than make up for what's missing. Even without the original content this new version is already much bigger and more rich in everything. Oh, and Fish Run will also make its return shortly! Don't you worry! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/0659c919c8e8a42f45b55ba299fd038b6ea31b01.jpg I'll make sure missing levels are going to return asap for free, no DLC. Making the levels from scratch isn't easy. I wanted to make sure they generally feel the same but are better executed and much more optimized. I go over what I think people liked in the original and think of ways to make them better or add new things to them. The park level is the closest I got to a 1:1 conversion.

A Small Tail

The free version of PWG was released about a week ago and so far has been received very well. I'm super happy with the response and gave me a much needed confidence boost in assuring me that I made the right decisions in how to update the game. So, for those who are reading this and not sure if the game's for you or your child, go check out the free version first before deciding, please! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1359630/Play_With_Gilbert__A_Small_Tail/

Gilbert's Official Play Guide

I'll keep this one short, I mentioned this in the last news post but there is an official play guide right here on steam that I created. It's a tad out of date currently but also a work in progress. I will go back to the guide periodically and make sure it's up-to-date. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2352598832

Bugs and Fixes

If you or your child run into any bugs or other issues, please feel free to post on the forums or join the discord channel. I will do my best to respond as fast as possible and will try to fix any bugs and/or resolve any issues you might have. If you find anything, a screenshot or video with a descriptive report would help a whole lot. Report Problems Here

Long Term Investment

Lastly, I want to say thank you! Over the years I've read many comments and reviews and what not and what stood out to me the most is how nice you guys have been to me and each other. Please let Gilbert remain a source of positivity. We all could use some of that in these times. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/fabfc9cbd9499429671819f56ab85b4550d7b18c.jpg I plan to continue implementing new ideas, adding both free and DLC content and just making Play With Gilbert a fun experience for all ages!

Join The Community

I've created a stand-alone Discord server for everything Gilbert related. If you need any help, have questions or just want to chat, feel free to join! I discourage kids from participating but if any of them find their way to the server, it's heavily restricted and I will moderate it to the best of my abilities. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/241969e5c895ebade0659915fe523e00dbd7ce80.png Thank you for reading and please take care and have fun with the remake!

Joure

MEOW MEOW

I'm super stoked to announce that Play With Gilbert - Remake is going to come out on May 12th, 2021! A lot of hard work has gone into this remake. A lot of new features have been added. Old mechanics have been given an update. More options to customize your kitty, more hats and other wearables. All the kitties can now take a nap, including the one you play as. Vehicles have been added, there's even a glider in some of the levels. Pretty much every level has been expanded upon, recreated from the ground up with greater focus on exploration and role-playing. At its heart it's still the same game but I wanted to expand on how much players can interact with the world and other NPC's. Very much like the original, this remake was created with my daughter in mind. She was 4 years old when the original game released and she just turned 8. And once again she was there from the start to help me test, give me ideas and be an inspiration. I believe that the remake will be so much more fun for kids to play. So, to celebrate the coming release I created a simple trailer to showcase a bunch of the new features.

A Small Tail

For those of you who might not have the game yet and perhaps are curious about the game, I have created a free version of the game: Play With Gilbert - A Small Tail. (Which will be released on May 5th) This free version has all the features the full game has but it only offers the first two levels. I know that money can be tight for parents, so I tried to make sure that the free version has a lot of fun things and should offer kids a good chunk of play-time. I have created a store page for PWG - A Small Tail which offers a solid experience for free. If anyone has any doubts about the game they can try it out first. Children can be fickle and not every child likes the same things. I want A Small Tail to showcase the overall quality the remake has to offer. You can find the game over here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1359630/Play_With_Gilbert__A_Small_Tail/

Gilbert's Play Guide

In an effort to help guide parents and players in getting the most out of the game I have created an extensive Play Guide. This guide will be updated periodically when I add new things or find errors. You can check it out here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2352598832

Final Words

I will do a proper announcement when the full game is released! Play With Gilbert - Remake is not just a remake, it's also a long-term investment. There are still features and other mechanics from the original missing, such as Fish Run and parental control options. In the future I also hope to be able to add small DLC packs that extend gameplay and bring in a host of new mechanics, levels and simply even more fun. For me the Journey is not over, it's about to begin again! Thank you for reading and for all the support I've received over the years. I really hope you and/or your kids are gonna love it! Joure

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/ce9194d81f60f911535ab237e52c91b3a65d8c7e.png

Dear Community

The year 2020 is drawing to a close. It's been an incredible tough year for everyone, myself included but I am not here today to talk about that. We've all had enough and it's almost Christmas. I want to give something back to this community, so here goes. No, now it's time to talk about how Play With Gilbert is getting a remake. I'm fairly certain that most of you know that Play with Gilbert was originally created as a small personal project for my then four year old daughter. It quickly grew into something more and I decided to turn it into something presentable. I believe the game, for the most part at least, accomplished what I wanted it to. Which was to Entertain children, and seemingly, adults as well! I've read pretty much all the reviews, personal anecdotes, the posts on the forums and all the chats over in the discord group. It's been a huge pleasure on my part to interact with all of you. At the time of the game's release I was about 4 years into development of STARDROP, which was my main project after. I came back to Play With Gilbert a number of times and adding in new features, maps, coop, etc and left it for what it was after that. After STARDROP was released I dabbled in a bunch of start-up projects. Most of them science fiction related but nothing really stuck. Then, not too long ago I decided to start a new Gilbert project. A sequel! After quite a bit of effort and receiving feedback from a few parents in a closed alpha I was feeling quite happy about where it was heading. And yet at the same time, something didn't feel right. I remember booting up the original Play With Gilbert to revisit it for the sequel and started playing it and thinking. oh, I know what's not feeling right. This game, it doesn't feel like it deserves a sequel at all. Silly bugs, a coop mode with limited options. The 2nd player can't even be customized. The customization options aren't really that amazing, etc ,etc. The game also didn't look as nice as I remembered. And so I decided to hold off on a sequel and instead I started working on remaking the original Play With Gilbert. It's been a while since I started now but I'm really happy I did. I've learned so much since then and especially with all that's been going on, working on this game always makes me feel a bit of joy and before this year ends I was compelled to share some of that joy with everyone here. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/cd55718da2204e65a6c8a588c9bb15691a951141.jpg

Play With Gilbert Remake Is Now Available

So as of today, anyone who owns the game will be able to join the public beta branch and play the new version. The game is not yet finished of course and only two maps are available (Gilbert's Neighbourhood and Timmy & Tommy's House) but most of the original gameplay features are in there, plus all the new stuff I've added. I didn't want to replace the base game yet because of obvious reasons but once the full version is finished everyone will automatically receive the remake. For free, forever! I also expanded quite a bit regarding gameplay compared to the original Play With Gilbert. One of the things I noticed from my own daughter and listening to stories from other parents is that roleplay is a large part of what children like to do in the game. I have tried to lean into that and added more interaction with objects and will try to find other ways to encourage this. But rest assured! At its core, PWG will not deviate from what it's meant to be. A game that small children can play and I won't add in anything that deviates from that too much. A few interesting highlights are:

• All maps will be re-created from scratch, with better quality assets.
• Much, much more color in every level to make the experience all that much more fun. (Seriously, color is now a focal point during development)
• Controller centric navigation menus.
• First and second player customization options.
• Profanity filter built into the name creator feature.
• New features/options for the cats (and the kids) to experience such as opening doors manually, finding food and eating it, seasonal events such as snowball fights, etc.
• Better overall performance.

What the current version lacks are proper settings and options. I will do my best to add those in as soon as possible but I have been working hard to get to this point (I've also had to work on other projects to keep the lights on) but I made it to the point where I felt the game is presentable and playable. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/8ae22e0652d0eeceac01a35387d62c1a3c9b6ed2.jpg

Celebrate Christmas In The Game, Right Now

As you probably have noticed from the screenshots, it's currently Christmas in the game world! This is a returning feature but I've done my best to expand a bit on it with more decorations, more Christmas music, etc. I hope the kids will enjoy it as it ends around the 26th. (It reads your computers date and time to accomplish this). So, have at it! Before I go into all the new features, there's a list of Controls and below is an image detailing how to join the public beta branch: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/6b6ee0e2dd90dbe167ec318eb56df2647ca4e91b.jpg TIP: Press "P" on your keyboard or "select/special left button" on your gamepad to add another player! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/629e33a05040553248c1b36f700662f1125a79ed.jpg

Play With Gilbert (New) Features

New And Improved Character Movement The very first release of the game wasn't that well received when it came to character movement. I certainly fixed most of that but I felt I could do better. The current version of the game plays so much better (in my humble opinion that is). I feel as if I have so much more freedom in the movements I can make. Jumping feels better, walking and running too, but I will keep tweaking and working on it and do my best to improve it where I am able. Expanded Customization Features {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/d7a47dab46a959484a96b9583b4decf56acf6f2b.jpg

• Rich Color Palette Selection For All Items
• More Hats
• Independent Eye Color Customization
• Play As A Kitty Or A Kitten
• New: Moods (Visual Effect)
• Two New Frames For Glasses
• Improved Name Creator Feature (With Profanity Filter)

Two Player Customization Both players are now able to customize their kitty or kitten independently. Players can also swap their customized characters out. If, for instance, the player who was playing as player two the last time is now playing solo and wants to play with their own customized character, or let's say the controllers are swapped for some reason. Improved Day / Night System The day / night system returns. You can now set the time to static or real time if preferred. The game saves the time of day when quitting the game. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/1fdbefb717e95ba78cd3a399d4ea2c6a24688e8a.jpg New: Four Seasons The game now has a proper seasons system. While it's not super accurate it does its job well enough to convey which season it is. This can be turned off and overridden. Festivities The game now has four festivities as well. Easter, Summer Vacation, Halloween and Christmas. Each event is celebrated in-game through visual props and ornaments and some minor festive gameplay additions. Festive events can also be turned off. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/36d50cb348da8bacaf2b223986ebb8bb213dd549.jpg Expanded Gameplay A set of small gameplay additions have been added to the base gameplay loop. These events range from eating food found around the levels to snowball fights in the winter, or water balloon fights in the summer. Certain doors, windows, etc. can now be opened by meowing at them. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/3c9904958ff6f668515b2378c75d2dd64bb4e52a.jpg All Maps Completely Recreated From Scratch Most maps will return in the remake and will be recreated from scratch. Some assets from the original game will be used while a lot of new higher quality assets are mixed in with the new levels. This adds to better visual consistency as well as better optimized asset usage. Almost every level is going to be slightly bigger and with more to do. New Maps A new map is also being worked on and a remix of two existing maps are also in the planning stages. The gym and the Fish Run levels will be mixed together to create a larger map to roam in. More Options And Settings The goal is to add in all the previous options and settings, along with parental control options. I will expand upon a number of game options, such as being able to toggle player icons in coop, enabling or disabling player scores and more. Currently there is no options menu, which I know, is pretty annoying. It's very high on my priority list to get it into the game asap and should be included in one of the upcoming updates. Fish-Run Returns Fish Run will return as well. I enjoyed the mini game a lot and I can't leave it out. The new iteration of Fish Run will be done in a way that I can add them into existing maps easily and players will be able to start a game if its in a level, seamlessly! More content planned I want to do more with Gilbert and I am planning m ore content once the remake is finished. These include DLC content and spin off games as well as a sequel when the time comes. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/fc83e35ed03f27eb7331c4a0102f432b570076e8.jpg

Play With Gilbert Remake Forums Is Up

If you have any questions or need help with something regarding the public beta version you are more than welcome to head over to the new remake forum. Once the full game is out, this forum will become the new default and the current general forum will be depricated and archived. Play With Gilbert Remake Forum

What To Expect In The Near Future?

The remake is, of course, not yet finished. I still need to implement a proper settings menu as mentioned and I still have the task of remaking most of the old maps. I am however, pretty far along implementing all the gameplay mechanics but not there just yet. The goal is to continue to update the public beta right up till full release. This release will be treated as a new release. It is in fact a completely new game. As mentioned. the beta branch shall be updated periodically with new content and levels and features, etc. I will treat the beta branch like an Early Access version. I will strife to have as little bugs in these releases as possible but they might be there. As always I will personally test the game with my own daughter first but any help would be highly appreciated.

Please Leave A Review Or Wishlist The Game

I don't really like to ask anything from the community but I feel that I can ask this much. If you enjoyed the game or am interested in the remake, then please consider leaving a review, or wish-listing the game for when the remake is out. It's been a rough year and a review really does mean a lot. Not just to me but also to Steam's algorithm. Thank you in advance! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/c5709c8339d759658f1eee7e73fb8f25f15ddc5c.jpg

Final Words

For now, this concludes this news update. I wanted to give a heads up first before releasing the new beta branch to the public. I will release more information once I get to that point. I want to do a lot more with this IP and this remake will serve as a jumping point for me. As always, I'm grateful with the communities that sprung up around my games. They're genuinely awesome and I want to make sure that before I make any sort of sequel or spinoff, or what not, the original game is up to standard and deserving of any of those. As it stands right now, I don't feel that it does, so I'm hard at work making sure that it will. So let me know what you think of the public beta version, or anything in general. I'd love to hear about it! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/e832cb53d6da56e77fa45b04425d65001e409e46.jpg

Thank you! Joure

I'll make this quick. So I proudly announced that Play With Gilbert was going Free-To-Play soon after the Summer Sale and am cancelling it for now. I have a number of reasons and they have been brought to my attention thanks to a few of my closest (dev) friends. So yeah, I made the original decision in isolation (no pun intended), meaning, I decided it without ever consulting anyone and just deciding through emotions purely. So, what would the benefits be of making the game F2P? In my mind it would offer a game up for free, which I think would be received as a positive in general. I mean, what's wrong with that, right? Well, the negatives of this act has been shared with me by some of my friends who've had personal experience with doing so and experiences of this happening to other games. I'll try to explain what these are and why I changed my mind. The first one is that going free to play lowers expectations in general. The game would perhaps be perceived more as a low effort / low quality title and while this game surely is not a high tier game in general, it is something I put substantial effort into making it. I value the IP and I also value the community. It could also do harm in other ways. Such as the IP in general, which may spill over into Gilbert's World and I do not want to risk either games in a way that will hurt the franchise. Free games have been found to be at risk being criticized more harshly due to the fact that anyone could get it and it's easy to slam something when you gotten it for free. So far, the community around the game has been amazing, I don't want the game to turn into an open invite. Free games generally get a surge in player numbers for all the obvious reasons. This could result in attracting the wrong audience and with a title as specific as PWG I was told to really think about my decision. I've been through this myself with the game in earlier stages when I first released it and it resulted in a number of negative reviews because I did not specify the game being for children. (I also had some fundamental issues with how the character controlled initially and some minor bugs) but yeah, I don't want to go through that again. As it currently stands, the game seems to be finding the right people on Steam and I'd like to keep it that way. As many people probably know by now, indie games live or die on Steam through reviews. I don't like it, but it is what it is. A negative review weighs so much more than a positive one. Opening the game up would be yet another great risk. And then there's another more personal one. I actually never thought about how going F2P would impact my own income. I'm a small dev, pretty much by myself at this point and after doing some calculations, it would hurt me more than I thought it would. I really don't want to some across as greedy (I'm not) but as I said before, I want to be as open as possible. I only have two games out there right now and it brings food on the table. I didn't realize how much the game actually contributes to me being able to survive and stay and indie. So, I would open up the game to the wrong audience, risking a larger number of negative reviews and risking devaluing the IP/franchise as well as possibly changing the community around the game. As I said I'm happy with the community as it is. I met some amazing people here and I've read some heart warming and really cool reviews. I'm not sure how or what I'll do in the future, not yet. But right now after considering all these things I honestly don't want to change anything. The game isn't expensive, the demo has everything except more levels and I think in general, while I would love to give something back to people around the world, right now might not be the right time. Not just yet. So, I hope this makes sense. I'm not the greatest in putting thoughts down to text but I think I got the gist of it. If there are any questions or critique, please let me know and I hope you all can understand why I changed my mind. I'm not outright cancelling it at all, not yet. I want to think things over in the future and perhaps find a better way to do this, or at a better time. Thank you! Joure

Play With Gilbert is going Free-To-Play

It still feels like yesterday that PWG was released. So much has happened in that time with me personally and the world. The game had a somewhat rocky start. The character movement and camera itself weren't up to par and I tried my best to improve. After the improvements I noticed a shift in the reviews I got. I also never clearly stated this was a child's game for young children. I ended up being reviewed by a bunch of content creators / streamers who were not the intended audience, it was interesting to say the least. But I kept going. Kept improving and adding new levels and things to the game and I ended up with something I could look back at and smile. As you know I initially created this game for my daughter and I hold her in the same regards I do any child. Everything in this game was for her and the other kids. A while back I started on a successor on PWG (more on that later) but the gist is that I don't feel comfortable making money of the game anymore. I recently took part during the itch.io bundle for equality. A lot of people who are not even its target audience expressed their gratitude for the game simply being what it is and that's when I decided that I wanted PWG to go free to play. Coupled that with the pandemic that's still on-going it only feels right to try and give something back for those who are having a hard time right now. I'm always trying to be as open as possible with my community so I want to be clear as to my intentions. As most of you may well know the summer sale is close, so this will be the last time PWG is going to partake in the sale. Shortly after the sale it will be going free to play. If you want to support me while I work on its successor or just want to support an indie for whatever reason, it would be highly appreciated but if you don't want or can't, then please wait until it's free which brings me to the second topic of this news post.

Gilbert's World Announcement.

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/31069309/b4e5f7b336393f60a06d808d4dc9fb073b2057b1.jpg I started prototyping Gilbert's World since last year. As my own daughter has grown and with the limitations of PWG in terms of how it was built I felt that it was time to create a new game. The goal is to keep as much of the accessibility from the old game towards younger players while also increasing the skill ceiling a bit. Add some more depth to the game mechanics and try to find a balance. From what I learned children and even older people enjoyed the simplicity PWG offered. This is still there in the new game but I also added lots of new stuff to do. I am still looking into how to expand things in the new game but I feel it's shaping up to be a worthy successor. Gilbert's world is built from the ground up. I'm re-using a number of assets but there's also a ton of new stuff. The levels are much bigger now. I decided to go with Islands to create the levels in. This gives players so much more freedom and it reduces that trapped feeling of bumping into invisible walls or being teleported back. I also improved the customization options. There are now lots more hats and other wearables that are now unlocked when you find fishies. And there are a lot more of them to discover. I am planning to reveal more when PWG is going free to play and will be showing off some alpha footage as well in the next news post. Thank you all for your support so far and take care! Joure

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Play with Gilbert Big Update!

It's been quiet for quite some time, I know! Mainly because the PWG was pretty much finished and I was working on STARDROP which is now also released. While I have plans for future updates for that I have been looking forward towards future projects. Currently I am working on a spiritual successor to Play with Gilbert. I have started with a fresh empty project and have lots of new ideas to expand upon the ones I explored in PWG as well as new stuff too. So, yes, that will be a completely new game and now that my daughter has gotten older I am putting more emphasis on platforming aspects and more challenging gameplay elements. What does all this have to do with Gilbert you might be asking yourself. Good question because so far, not all that much, well, except for the fact that I have been experimenting with a different rendering technique. This new technique allows me to have better overall performance with a little bit lesser visual quality in some aspects. Anti aliasing is one of them. Anyway, to cut this long story short, I decided to go back and see how this would benefit Play with Gilbert. To my surprise it seems that overall performance has increased quite a bit and so I decided to go over all the old levels and tweak them. They are now more vibrant and colorful. More stark contrasts between colors and overall just much more cheerful. I always felt bad that the game was quite demanding performance wise and while it still is in some areas I believe that it's so much better now. I unlocked the framerate from 60 to 200. So if your rig can run the game at 200 fps it will. :) I also fixed some minor issues regarding co-op play. The map bounds were not working properly and would always work for player 1, this is now fixed. Sometimes player's HUD would be drawn twice, once with the custom name and the second would display Gilbert's name. This should now also be fixed. I want to make sure that anyone who has gotten PWG would be able to look back to the game and feel as if they've been taken serious. I appreciate all the support I've gotten over time and this is another instance of me saying thanks! And I also haven't forgotten about that. So yeah, enough talk, below I made a comparison of the old Park level with the new one. I hope you guys like the change and let me know if the game runs better for you. I will update the Demo asap, but I want to let some time pass before I'm done tinkering. I still feel the moon level can use some more work when it comes its color tones, etc and I might tweak a few more smaller details here and there which I will set live when I'm really done. I don't think I will add much more to PWG but you never know. ;) https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/0eeca5f4849661e8ab07b8cc5a615cc3846e29d8.jpg https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/dc9f23471f23a40343867143ccee09578c2959b6.jpg Below are some screnshots of how the game looks like right now. I hope everyone enjoys the new look. :) Gilbert's Neighbourhood: https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/34e97f6e01f13897270e9bc905766ea9b47c1bd6.jpg https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/a160e8ca27bc3338b04584e20a0d5ad8c6c66a28.jpg Timmy and Tommy's house: https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/3d5f70fe671153598143c72b09c2a8c6000dbb6e.jpg https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/0b276ab69def4f9ed684a17468536d9611da17dc.jpg The Beach: https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/10115d3beb25b06947a62edb74ed11d9cce8860e.jpg https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/7f5d6cf214a2c024731f45e3561baaf7e29060cf.jpg

Final Thoughts.

So yeah. I am working on a new Gilbert game. I can't say too much about it, only that it should be more gamey compared to PWG. I am also adding a ton more options regarding customization and this time coop is added in from the start. This means 2 players can have their own custom kitty. Since it'll be a new game I won't spam it here too much but I will post some more news down the road. Anyway, thanks again for all the support and meow on, ya'll !!! :rascal: Joure

Hi everyone.

A very short update here while I'm still working on STARDROP. I've taken a bit of time to fix a few bugs and tweak the kittens. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/5472ebfd2b785a2f53bcc95847b1b5214e13353a.jpg

Ninja Lady Nerfed :P

So, basically Ninja Lady was bugged. If she'd drop the golden fish and then pick it up, all golden fishies in a level would dissapear. This should now be properly fixed. On top of that I made it a lot easier for her to drop her fish. I noticed it might be tricky to sprint or dash into her she'll get stunned and drop her fish. On top of that I also lowered her running speed making it a lot easier to catch up with her.

Meowsers!

Another tweak includes how much/often the kittens meow. It's been something I wanted to tweak for quite some time and I went ahead and did just that. They will still meow just not every single second. Before, one kitten was all right but as the group grows they became loud, very loud. Now this should not be the case anymore and I think it'll help everyone not get a bit heated by the constant meows. This one's mostly for you, parents . ;) https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/dae5d800fedbe06eaae078f77156d088f4412302.jpg

Further More

I also wanted to also bring up that splitscreen multiplayer has been implemented a little while ago, introducing a new game mode called "Fish Run". In the future I do want to see if I can explore the game mode with more levels and as well do something more with other game modes but these ideas are not 100% verified. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/847ea4abc8ef107143fa90909fda14fd16c5625b.png https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs_qbf7r13M On top of that I have also further tweaked some of the levels to improve "quality of life" in general. I added a small docks portion to the beach level on one of the islands and I am looking into other ways to perhaps add more to the levels. Any suggestions are always welcome! https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/760640580b074481abcde6881e082a1e5f2d6a02.jpg So yeah, that's it for now. Not sure if or when I'll be back with something new but I hope these fixes/changes will be appreciated. Take care for neow! Joure

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/847ea4abc8ef107143fa90909fda14fd16c5625b.png I've been experimenting with a new game mode for Play With Gilbert. I've had a few ideas but I wanted to move away from just coop. The levels in coop are fine, for now but I felt that something that you could play against someone else would also be a fun addition and I just finished the first game mode: Fish Run. Below is a video where I recorded myself playing against my daughter. She's been helping me test the hew game mode for the past couple of days before she goes to bed and we've been having a blast. I don't play overly aggressive with her for obvious reasons and I aim to either let her win or tie the match, which in itself is a bit of a challenge on my end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs_qbf7r13M I'll break down the game mode here if you don't want or cannot watch the video. Basically we have two ninja ladies running around like mad dropping orange fishies. The two kittens now need to collect as many as possible within a 90 second time limit. Whoever grabs the most wins the match. I also made sure there's a draw setting because that could happen, which is also demonstrated in the video above. There are currently two levels for this game mode but I am planning at least one more so stay tuned for that.

Some Fixes

I also fixed a few issues with the normal coop portion of the game which is that the HUD would freeze whenever you did a level change. This was super annoying and I finally was able after some work to find the issue and Correct it.

• HUD Freezing after level change is now fixed
• Parental time limit was not saving the time during level change. -fixed
• The water in the park teleporting kittens back to shore only worked for player 1. -fixed.

Price Increase Incoming!

I posted this information in the previous update but I wanted to keep this news relevant so I'll simply re-post what I said before: For now Play with Gilbert will remain the same price until after the Steam summer sale is over. After that I will update the base price because I feel that with this new addition and even more new content (which is coming in soon), a humble yet suitable price increase is something I think is fair for all the work I've put into the game since its release. I wanted to give everyone who might be on the sidelines a chance to get the game before that happens!

What's next?

I will continue to add in more versus game modes because it's just so much fun and I want to see how far I can push this game, which is getting very difficult. I never really planned to have coop or multiplayer and I never thought of going into the game as much as I have post launch but I just cannot let it go. Not just yet. In the future I want to add an even more in-depth cooperative game mode where two kitties HAVE to work together in order to finish a level but I'm still debating what that could be. I also am thinking of writing a proper game manual in the form of a guide where I will go over as much stuff as possible. But my time is limited and I am not entirely sure when/if I can manage that but I feel the game is becoming more and more extensive and it would benefit a lot of people. Anyway, I hope you guys will enjoy this new update and I'll make sure to post some more news when there are new developments. Oh, and if you or your child have been enjoying the game please consider leaving a review. It really helps within Steams eco system and therefore in turn helps me to be able to continue development of the game! Take care everyone! Joure

Local Split-Screen Co-op Action!

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/f73d79b3e9814e19c818d21c66114ba8d8a20efc.png

Hi Kittens!

When I started developing Play With Gilbert being able to play WITH my daughter was something I wanted to be able to do, really bad and I finally been able to get it to work and I've released it to the public. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/5a21ab057b95311323accce0888e14eea446d900.jpg Right now this new feature is still in beta. However, it's perfectly playable though a lot of work has gone into this, having to vastly tweak the existing framework. I didn't think it was possible but I managed to get something fun going! Keep in mind that not everything has been updated yet. I need to bring back the gamepad and a few oddities are present such as the split screen showing up after you load a level and go back to the main menu. I will continue to push updates and get it all sorted. That said, Play with Gilbert lets parents, siblings or friends join each other towards a single goal: Collect everything together. Below I'll describe how things work for the majority:

• kittens follow the player that meowed at them.
• When you collect fishies they will count towards one collective total.
• Using the kitty sense shows up on both screens.
• All the levels have been updated and tweaked so that two players can have fun in them.
• For now you will need two gamepads to play, but I plan to have options available to be able to change this
• The screen is currently split horizontally but I also hope to be able to add in options soon to change this to whatever is preferred.
• I will also try to enable keybinding for two players but I cannot promise to get this implemented due to how hard it is to get keybinding to work at all through blueprints.

The main goal is to have fun together, at least for now. :) https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/4154ee13eca1a59de324d4bad7457551701573d4.jpg For now the 2nd player will play as Gilbert. I will add in customization options for the second player as soon as possible but for now this will do. I also want to add in new options such as being able to set vertical split screen and a few other options. I pushed this new version out the door hoping I'd get some feedback from the community.

New Maps Planned!

Now that local multiplayer is an actual thing I want to do more with the game. I have been thinking about special Co-Op only maps and also versus maps. Co-op maps will consist of two players having to help each other to progress in a level and work together as a team where versus levels would pit two kitties against eachother, for instance, in a race to find all the fishies first. I'm open to suggestions of course so let me know what you guys would like to do.

A New UI!

I also pretty much re-designed the UI and updated the HUD in the game. I had to do this because the old HUD was not set up for multiplayer action so I took the opportunity to simply re-design the HUD. I've added tons of new effects and animations when things happen and I am incredibly happy with the new look. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/fbc2c681474c4f9cb336a2fdfca955905295b66a.jpg I think the new HUD layout and Icons,etc really simplifies everything and males the experience a whole lot more clearer and I hope you guys like it as well.

Price Increase Incoming!

For now Play with Gilbert will remain the same price until after the Steam summer sale is over. After that I will update the base price because I feel that with this new addition and even more new content coming in a suitable increase is something I think is fair for all the work I've put into the game since it's release. I wanted to give everyone who might be on the sidelines a chance to get the game before that happens!

Final Thoughts!

I will post more updates once I have more to talk about. Oh and more customization options are also planned! I hope this update was something you guys appreciate and I hope everyone is happy with the game so far. Take care for now! Joure

Hi Everyone!

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/22f47132edc51c75f0c2bbfef6b6506c88c680a3.jpg Here's a small update for you all. I added another Kitten for you to play as. A red, white and black rugged kitty for you to play as and accessorize. I also fixed an annoying little bug that would keep adding kittens in excess. This can be very confusing when trying to determine if you found them all and triggered the bug by accident, especially for young-uns. It should be properly fixed now allowing a kitty to be added only ONCE per level spawn. That's it for this update. Won't be sure when the next one will be I have something I want to do but not sure when I'll get around to it. Thanks for all the support so far guys and take care !!! Joure

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/56c58c673ccbb7c7f35426171679df5ed004af4b.png

Gilbert Update For May 2018

Hi everyone! Today marks yet another new free DLC for Play With Gilbert. As summer is approaching I really wanted to do something with it and have taken some time off from STARDROP to create a fun beach level which I will go over in detail below. On top of that I have tweaked the moon level and added pitch control to the JetPack. I lowered the JetPack's overall speed so it's easier to manouver. I added a lot of smaller tweaks and added a new fun little music emote when kitties are wearing headphones. Now let's go over the beach level.

Gilbert At The Beach!

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/9fe36cdcd68ac893a2b729a48637de7d24a978fc.jpg Summer is almost with us so it's time to chill at the beach and relax. In this new level you will be able to go into the water but you need to find the Snorkel mask first! I know most kittens don't like water but some actually love it! https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/0e551f7c3ec889ba975f984902250e66b8973f6c.jpg On the beach itself there's a small cafe and a number of caves to explore. The other kitties, in kitty fashion, don't fancy the water but Gilbert loves it! https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/760640580b074481abcde6881e082a1e5f2d6a02.jpg When you do enter the water you'll be able to reach one of two small rocky islands and find fishies there. I also added some underwater caves to explore as well. Swimming should be pretty straight forward. You can look up and down and swim in that direction. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/78734444125d72eafc165bace50a921210436be0.jpg But I also added a new twist to finding fishies. Some fishies are hidden. You can see an effect where a fishie might be hidden so you won't be completely clueless. However they don't show up when using kitty sense. I think it's a small little addition and if you guys like it I might update some of the older maps.

New Demo Released!

On top of that I have also released a demo for those who are on the fence about getting the game. Players will be able to play Gilbert's Neighbourhood and the new Beach level. The demo will allow anyone to make sure the game runs properly on their system before making a decision as well as getting a feel of what the game is like. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/a9032227fef8b18d745cfe6975b200ef3be4e2cb.jpg I hope this update will keep you guys entertained for a while and I myself enjoy running around the place wishing I could book a plane there. I had a lot of fun working on this and I will keep fine tuning and tweaking the new level where needed. As always feel free to share thoughts and ideas! Take care everyone and who knows what else lies in the future! Joure

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/2b317e5b871a1b32405cd4cfd3234f5d5c450666.png

Dear Play With Gilbert Friends!

As most of you have probably noticed, the game has been receiving a constant stream of updates throughout the past week or so. I have been rolling out the new DLC update in small bursts. These updates contain a lot of changes, fixes and new features. I've taken my time to take a good look at all the feedback and have done my best to address concerns and issues people have been experiencing, all in the name of making "Play With Gilbert" a much more fun experience for our kids. Well, not just our kids of course. ;) Besides the new DLC map the main goal was to address these issues and to attempt to bring the game to a higher quality standard while retaining the original feel of the game. This will be a lengthy update news post containing all the new features and updates! I will cover the ones from the previous post as well since I tweaked some of them but first of all I wanted to point you all to a recent interview I did courtesy of Julia Couture from IndieGames.com who approached me asking me if I would do an interview. Of course I was more than happy to do so! Play With Gilbert Developer Talks Game Design With His Daughter

Gilbert Visits The Moon - Gilbert In Space Free-DLC

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/2ce14b5c61a193cb54190e6bb467b1d2c7976f22.jpg While thinking about the future of Play With Gilbert I thought about fun places to visit and the moon was pretty much the first thing I thought of. With a much lower gravity I thought it would be a ton of fun. Another aspect I wanted to introduce was a slightly more challenging gameplay experience. Slightly more difficult jumps are required to get all the fishies, yet, making sure it's not too difficult. Depending on the feedback I might go back and adjust these if needed. My little girl has been testing the map as usual but she just keeps flying around with the jetpack, she seems to love it. I hope you all will have fun with he new map, but there's a lot more to talk about of course.

New Features

The Jetpack: The jetpack, well, is a jetpack. I was considering making it a pickup or power-up but felt that that was not needed in this case. I might still tweak some of the values, regarding speed,etc. and will be looking as to how to further improve maneuverability. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/8293aef2cd0ab7b2d5e3d703fcab3cb2b59a20ee.jpg New Camera Options: I added a new camera option that you can toggle to go between the old camera settings or the new ones after some people asked me about changing it back. I hope this will please both parties. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/6f8ee6e874247ed062d27e70c6bc264a4c356e28.jpg You can find the new option under the |Controls" option. Pink Fishies Updated: The regular pink fishies have gotten a proper update as well. They have gotten a new 3D model, which I think looks a whole lot better but the most important update is that collected fishies are now saved when you pick them up. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/299741be80040e0ea5e307a80c04cc9aaecf9a65.jpg Once you have collected all the fishies in a level they will all be re-set once you leave and come back. So if you want to hit the win state in a level, make sure to also find all the kittens and the golden fish. I believe that this was a much needed feature, as these fishies can be the most time consuming to find. Kitty Sense: Kitty Sense has been covered before but in general it will display an outline of all the pink fishies, ninja lady and the golden fish. This feature was suggested by one of our awesome community members and I'm glad she did. Ninja Lady Tweaked: Ninja lady has been tweaked to make it a lot more easier to get the golden fish. I realized that it takes a lot for kids to get it and it was a long time coming. Changes include a longer wait time in-between her running from one spot to another. She also now staggers longer, giving players a bit more time to get to the golden fish. And I also adjusted where the golden fish spawns. Again to make life a little bit more easier.

Fixes

I have fixed numerous small issues, such as humans getting stuck when trying to walk out a door. Small tweaks in some of the levels. The left thumb-stick has now also been properly fixed and should be working accordingly. Another big fix was regarding the fact that video options weren't actually saved besides the screen resolution. I also added a full-screen option as well.

Final Words

I will continue to listen and update and iterate where I can and where I feel it makes the game a better experience. I've watched a few videos on YouTube where the game gets slandered and treated as some joke or a Goat Simulator game. It feels that these content creators seem to not have taken a look into who this game is aimed for, nor anything else about it. Just a "cat simulator, lulz" reaction and then tearing the thing apart. At face value I can udnerstand that. Especially looking at the kidns of games that get dropped into the Steam store these days. It makes it even a lot tougher to release a game like this where it's easy mistaken as one. However, I have added a new message for those above the age of 13 when you first start the game. Hopefully with all these changes and new content the game might be taken slightly more seriously. Having said all that, I haven't forgotten all the awesome feedback I received as well. Mostly from you guys right here on the forums. Reading about parents telling me their child genuinely enjoyed the game is worth all of it.

A Huge Thank You For All Your Support

For now I will go back to my main project: STARDROP. But as I said, I will always listen and fix issues where I can. Thank you all for your time and meow on, you awesome people! http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/308e1037f933533b0f7fd736308565b712b8b51d.jpg

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/2b317e5b871a1b32405cd4cfd3234f5d5c450666.png

Dear Play With Gilbert Friends!

As most of you have probably noticed, the game has been receiving a constant stream of updates throughout the past week or so. I have been rolling out the new DLC update in small bursts. These updates contain a lot of changes, fixes and new features. I've taken my time to take a good look at all the feedback and have done my best to address concerns and issues people have been experiencing, all in the name of making "Play With Gilbert" a much more fun experience for our kids. Well, not just our kids of course. ;) Besides the new DLC map the main goal was to address these issues and to attempt to bring the game to a higher quality standard while retaining the original feel of the game. This will be a lengthy update news post containing all the new features and updates! I will cover the ones from the previous post as well since I tweaked some of them but first of all I wanted to point you all to a recent interview I did courtesy of Julia Couture from IndieGames.com who approached me asking me if I would do an interview. Of course I was more than happy to do so! Play With Gilbert Developer Talks Game Design With His Daughter

Gilbert Visits The Moon - Gilbert In Space Free-DLC

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/2ce14b5c61a193cb54190e6bb467b1d2c7976f22.jpg While thinking about the future of Play With Gilbert I thought about fun places to visit and the moon was pretty much the first thing I thought of. With a much lower gravity I thought it would be a ton of fun. Another aspect I wanted to introduce was a slightly more challenging gameplay experience. Slightly more difficult jumps are required to get all the fishies, yet, making sure it's not too difficult. Depending on the feedback I might go back and adjust these if needed. My little girl has been testing the map as usual but she just keeps flying around with the jetpack, she seems to love it. I hope you all will have fun with he new map, but there's a lot more to talk about of course.

New Features

The Jetpack: The jetpack, well, is a jetpack. I was considering making it a pickup or power-up but felt that that was not needed in this case. I might still tweak some of the values, regarding speed,etc. and will be looking as to how to further improve maneuverability. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/8293aef2cd0ab7b2d5e3d703fcab3cb2b59a20ee.jpg New Camera Options: I added a new camera option that you can toggle to go between the old camera settings or the new ones after some people asked me about changing it back. I hope this will please both parties. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/6f8ee6e874247ed062d27e70c6bc264a4c356e28.jpg You can find the new option under the "Controls" option. Pink Fishies Updated: The regular pink fishies have gotten a proper update as well. They have gotten a new 3D model, which I think looks a whole lot better but the most important update is that collected fishies are now saved when you pick them up. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/299741be80040e0ea5e307a80c04cc9aaecf9a65.jpg Once you have collected all the fishies in a level they will all be re-set once you leave and come back. So if you want to hit the win state in a level, make sure to also find all the kittens and the golden fish. I believe that this was a much needed feature, as these fishies can be the most time consuming to find. Kitty Sense: Kitty Sense has been covered before but in general it will display an outline of all the pink fishies, ninja lady and the golden fish. This feature was suggested by one of our awesome community members and I'm glad she did. Ninja Lady Tweaked: Ninja lady has been tweaked to make it a lot more easier to get the golden fish. I realized that it takes a lot for kids to get it and it was a long time coming. Changes include a longer wait time in-between her running from one spot to another. She also now staggers longer, giving players a bit more time to get to the golden fish. And I also adjusted where the golden fish spawns. Again to make life a little bit more easier.

Fixes

I have fixed numerous small issues, such as humans getting stuck when trying to walk out a door. Small tweaks in some of the levels. The left thumb-stick has now also been properly fixed and should be working accordingly. Another big fix was regarding the fact that video options weren't actually saved besides the screen resolution. I also added a full-screen option as well.

Final Words

I will continue to listen and update and iterate where I can and where I feel it makes the game a better experience. I've watched a few videos on YouTube where the game gets slandered and treated as some joke or a Goat Simulator game. It feels that these content creators seem to not have taken a look into who this game is aimed for, nor anything else about it. Just a "cat simulator, lulz" reaction and then tearing the thing apart. At face value I can understand these sentiments. Especially looking at the kinds of games that get dropped onto the Steam store en masse these days. It makes it even a lot tougher to release a game like this where it's easy mistaken as one. However, I have added a new message for those above the age of 13 when you first start the game. Hopefully with all these changes and new content the game might be taken slightly more seriously. Having said all that, I haven't forgotten all the awesome feedback I received as well. Mostly from you guys right here on the forums. Reading about parents telling me their child genuinely enjoyed the game is worth all of it.

A Huge Thank You For All Your Support

For now I will go back to my main project: STARDROP. But as I said, I will always listen and fix issues where I can. Thank you all for your time and meow on, you awesome people! http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/308e1037f933533b0f7fd736308565b712b8b51d.jpg

Dear Cat Lovers

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/d2ac374c024c41b3f5c7c3d527213f3f9e561389.jpg A new update has been released where I'm introducing a new work in progress map called: "The Moon". That's right Gilbert is going to space! This new map is certainly not yet finished and the reason I decided to release it now is to hear back from you guys and see if you like it and to listen to feedback. Gilbert, or your very own kitty, also sports a fully functional jetpack as well! This new mechanic is also still being iterated on, so expect a few tweaks along the way before this new free DLC is fully released in a few days. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/daae00b02129b15eb1a4aace4b322a5d0818d2d1.jpg You can access the moon level by starting out on Gilbert's neighbourhood level and head towards Timmy and Tommy's house. When you're at the alley leading to the exit, make sure you go to your left! You should see another exit point.

New Features

I also am introducing a new feature called Kitty Sense. Now, when you press F on your keyboard and hold it down your kitty will be able to "sense" all the fishies and all the other kitties in the level. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/ce0a5f75e083017e20e083c60ce9cdd19f724b3d.jpg Thanks to one of our community members Meddy, for suggesting this idea! This new feature should aid our kids to find the kittens a little easier. When you hold down the key or gamepad button, your kitty will start sensing until there's no more Kitty Power left. Don't worry it'll refill instantly.

New Customization Options

And to top it all off I added three new customization options, namely: A Dafty Top Hat An old school Bakerboy And a relaxing headphone. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/63e2ddd59498a20171bbc6b60da6eb82f4dd67e6.jpg http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/eb9e6a25f3bc15f8f1300faf08dc3bcc0c429f4e.jpg

Just A Few More Days

I hope this update was helpful and give me a few more days before I am able to wrap up the full DLC update! I will continue to fix up other issues if/when they're brought to my attention. As always thank you all for your support and I hope you guys will have fun with all the new stuff. Joure Visser

Dear Cat Lovers

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/d2ac374c024c41b3f5c7c3d527213f3f9e561389.jpg A new update has been released where I'm introducing a new work in progress map called: "The Moon". That's right Gilbert is going to space! This new map is certainly not yet finished and the reason I decided to release it now is to hear back from you guys and see if you like it and to listen to feedback. Gilbert, or your very own kitty, also sports a fully functional jetpack as well! This new mechanic is also still being iterated on, so expect a few tweaks along the way before this new free DLC is fully released in a few days. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/daae00b02129b15eb1a4aace4b322a5d0818d2d1.jpg You can access the moon level by starting out on Gilbert's neighbourhood level and head towards Timmy and Tommy's house. When you're at the alley leading to the exit, make sure you go to your left! You should see another exit point.

New Features

I also am introducing a new feature called Kitty Sense. Now, when you press F on your keyboard and hold it down your kitty will be able to "sense" all the fishies and all the other kitties in the level. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/ce0a5f75e083017e20e083c60ce9cdd19f724b3d.jpg Thanks to one of our community members Meddy, for suggesting this idea! This new feature should aid our kids to find the kittens a little easier. When you hold down the key or gamepad button, your kitty will start sensing until there's no more Kitty Power left. Don't worry it'll refill instantly.

New Customization Options

And to top it all off I added three new customization options, namely: A Dafty Top Hat An old school Bakerboy And a relaxing headphone. http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/63e2ddd59498a20171bbc6b60da6eb82f4dd67e6.jpg http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/eb9e6a25f3bc15f8f1300faf08dc3bcc0c429f4e.jpg

Just A Few More Days

I hope this update was helpful and give me a few more days before I am able to wrap up the full DLC update! I will continue to fix up other issues if/when they're brought to my attention. As always thank you all for your support and I hope you guys will have fun with all the new stuff. Joure Visser

Dear community members, avid cat lovers, gamers around the world: young and old! As you may recall I mentioned that I'm currently in the process of updating Gilbert to version 1.5. I've listened to a lot of commentary, feedback, complaints and also listened to what you liked about the game. I just added a new beta branch available to anyone who owns a copy of Play With Gilbert. This new version is in a "work in progress" state. Numerous features are currently not working properly or just not working at all. However, in this new beta branch you'll be able to try out the new Gilbert player character. I started from the ground up and I do believe that Gilbert controls so much better. He now jumps higher and is now able to do a double jump, just like any regular cat. Okay, maybe that's not true. :P The idea of course is to make Gilbert more fun to control and I do believe that this is the case. At the core nothing has changed too much, and the foundation remains the same. You'll be able to play the game with just one control stick, or both. Where the right stick controls the camera. On top of that you can now reset the camera using the old teleport button. (Teleporting still works, you just have to hold the same button down for about three seconds.) I also fixed the other kitties getting stuck under the floor. I also changed the camera position (It's now slightly further away), giving the player a better view of the surroundings. I would very much appreciate some feedback regarding the new changes as I continue to update the game until everything is pretty much working as it used to. You can opt into the Beta simply by right-clicking on "Play With Gilbert" inside your steam client. Then click on properties and navigate to the Betas tab. After that all you need to do is select "gilbert_1.5_preview" from the drop down list and you're good to go. I will be monitoring feedback and once most of the features are working again will I push the new version to the public/default branch. On top of that I will also be releasing a new map to celebrate the 1.5 update, which will be a surprise for now. I'll continue to post updates until the final 1.5 is out. I hope this will reinvigorate some of the people who did not appreciate the old movement system. Please feel free to share your opinions and of course anu ideas for possible future content as well. Sincerely, Joure Visser

Dear community members, avid cat lovers, gamers around the world: young and old! As you may recall I mentioned that I'm currently in the process of updating Gilbert to version 1.5. I've listened to a lot of commentary, feedback, complaints and also listened to what you liked about the game. I just added a new beta branch available to anyone who owns a copy of Play With Gilbert. This new version is in a "work in progress" state. Numerous features are currently not working properly or just not working at all. However, in this new beta branch you'll be able to try out the new Gilbert player character. I started from the ground up and I do believe that Gilbert controls so much better. He now jumps higher and is now able to do a double jump, just like any regular cat. Okay, maybe that's not true. :P The idea of course is to make Gilbert more fun to control and I do believe that this is the case. At the core nothing has changed too much, and the foundation remains the same. You'll be able to play the game with just one control stick, or both. Where the right stick controls the camera. On top of that you can now reset the camera using the old teleport button. (Teleporting still works, you just have to hold the same button down for about three seconds.) I also fixed the other kitties getting stuck under the floor. I also changed the camera position (It's now slightly further away), giving the player a better view of the surroundings. I would very much appreciate some feedback regarding the new changes as I continue to update the game until everything is pretty much working as it used to. You can opt into the Beta simply by right-clicking on "Play With Gilbert" inside your steam client. Then click on properties and navigate to the Betas tab. After that all you need to do is select "gilbert_1.5_preview" from the drop down list and you're good to go. I will be monitoring feedback and once most of the features are working again will I push the new version to the public/default branch. On top of that I will also be releasing a new map to celebrate the 1.5 update, which will be a surprise for now. I'll continue to post updates until the final 1.5 is out. I hope this will reinvigorate some of the people who did not appreciate the old movement system. Please feel free to share your opinions and of course anu ideas for possible future content as well. Sincerely, Joure Visser

IMPORTANT

Hi everyone

Now that the game's been out for a while I have been given the chance to gain some proper feedback from the community and surprisingly, a lot of players are a tad above the target audience I noticed, which in turn, comes with a slew of negative, yet useful feedback. I received complaints regarding controls, movement and game design for instance which I do feel carry some weight. Regarding the older player base and their reactions my own first reaction was changing the description on the store page to include an age recommendation to hopefully further avoid confusion. However, you may have judged from reading the news post Headline I have a lot more planned for this little kitty game. As with all my projects I care a lot about them and the people who choose to give my games a try. I've been accused by a few people of asset flipping and just carelessly throwing assets into the mix without any rhyme or reason. The thing is that I myself believe there's a lot more potential for Gilbert and I think some people feel that too and therefore judge the game more strictly. So what am I trying to say then? Well as you most likely guessed by now, I am going to overhaul the entire game. This means completely re-doing the player character and its moves and move-set. Gilbert and company will get new and improved abilities. Right now I implemented a double jump and You can only dash while jumping for instance. But that's far from all. The way Gilbert moves and plays has been completely been revamped and so has the camera system. The camera turns depending on Gilbert's angle and there's a dedicated camera reset button. Gilbert plays and moves a lot more like Mario, who has been the major inspiration during this overhaul, and with this I believe everyone will be able to control him without any real issues. Gilbert can now also jump slightly higher if you keep holding down the jump button as well.

Play with Gilbert 1.5

Right now I am working towards "Play with Gilbert 1.5". A version of the game which will completely remove the old player character yet remain all the old levels and gameplay elements. Other changes may also occur but in general the main focus is on the player character. Ultimately I will be working towards a "Play with Gilbert 2.0" version of the game. This version will have all new revamped gameplay elements, and new levels and content. The game's price will also be adjusted according to the changes but will be kept in line. I'm not turning this into a full fledged triple A experience yet with all the new changes I have planned, the game will become much more then it is today. I'll be going over the majority of the planned changes below:

From The Ground Up

I have a much stronger design vision then when I first started and a lot more new ideas that I want to implement. In order to achieve all this it means most of the game will have to be re-build from the ground up. The player character, the levels, etc. Luckily I should be able to keep using other existing elements, such as the music player, etc. I will keep most existing NPC AI systems but might heavily alter them when/where needed. However, I also require a lot of new systems for what I have in mind for the new Play with Gilbert game. These will tap into adding more gameplay elements for instance. Another addition will be a more clear visual presentation to help guide the player to where they need to go. This is done in a way very similar to Mirror's Edge and how they used Red for instance to visually guide the player. However in Gilbert it'll be much more obvious and much less based on quick reflexes, obviously.

Gameplay

While the spirit of the old PwG game will be still around, a lot more focus and effort will be put into the the level design. Each level will completely re-made and you can expect a LOT of changes. The aim is to keep an open world approach but have segments within these new levels that are more traditional and build around a simple challenge through exploration. This means a lot more platforming and thinking trying to get to a certain fishy for instance. All the citizens and other inhabitants will now get their own living area depending on which level you're in and I am prototyping level streaming so that I may be able to remove load-times in-between level transitions.

Kittens

The kittens Themselves will also be given a treatment. One of my initial ideas was to give the kittens a lot more personality and I think that's been hugely absent and not given the best treatment. Even with the customization options. So a lot more effort will be put into that as well. Think of expressions through thought bubbles or something similar. Having individual names, etc. I'm not sure yet how extensive the new changes will be regarding this, but expect something to be done with this.

Character Movement / Controls

As I said a lot before already, Gilbert and Co. have a whole new move-set. The game in its current state plays nothing like the old one and I'm not even done. I want to add a wall-jump ability and am looking into object interaction where Gilbert can pick up stuff using his mouth. I haven't prototyped these ideas yet but they're in the works. Along with this is a whole new updated camera system to further make the game so much more fun to play. Both young and old should now be able to play the game properly without having to swap control schemes. I have more ideas to further make use of the player camera, but you'll have to see what that means.

When?

Obviously all of this requires time. I am also working on my main project which will be released this year so I can't promise a solid timeline. However, I will roll out updates that will affect the old game, introducing updated core elements, such as the new character component. This will offer a look into the future of the game. The first update should come out not too long from now and will introduce the new character controls. For now this it! Take care and thank you for your support. Joure

IMPORTANT

Hi everyone

Now that the game's been out for a while I have been given the chance to gain some proper feedback from the community and surprisingly, a lot of players are a tad above the target audience I noticed, which in turn, comes with a slew of negative, yet useful feedback. I received complaints regarding controls, movement and game design for instance which I do feel carry some weight. Regarding the older player base and their reactions my own first reaction was changing the description on the store page to include an age recommendation to hopefully further avoid confusion. However, you may have judged from reading the news post Headline I have a lot more planned for this little kitty game. As with all my projects I care a lot about them and the people who choose to give my games a try. I've been accused by a few people of asset flipping and just carelessly throwing assets into the mix without any rhyme or reason. The thing is that I myself believe there's a lot more potential for Gilbert and I think some people feel that too and therefore judge the game more strictly. So what am I trying to say then? Well as you most likely guessed by now, I am going to overhaul the entire game. This means completely re-doing the player character and its moves and move-set. Gilbert and company will get new and improved abilities. Right now I implemented a double jump and You can only dash while jumping for instance. But that's far from all. The way Gilbert moves and plays has been completely been revamped and so has the camera system. The camera turns depending on Gilbert's angle and there's a dedicated camera reset button. Gilbert plays and moves a lot more like Mario, who has been the major inspiration during this overhaul, and with this I believe everyone will be able to control him without any real issues. Gilbert can now also jump slightly higher if you keep holding down the jump button as well.

Play with Gilbert 1.5

Right now I am working towards "Play with Gilbert 1.5". A version of the game which will completely remove the old player character yet remain all the old levels and gameplay elements. Other changes may also occur but in general the main focus is on the player character. Ultimately I will be working towards a "Play with Gilbert 2.0" version of the game. This version will have all new revamped gameplay elements, and new levels and content. The game's price will also be adjusted according to the changes but will be kept in line. I'm not turning this into a full fledged triple A experience yet with all the new changes I have planned, the game will become much more then it is today. I'll be going over the majority of the planned changes below:

From The Ground Up

I have a much stronger design vision then when I first started and a lot more new ideas that I want to implement. In order to achieve all this it means most of the game will have to be re-build from the ground up. The player character, the levels, etc. Luckily I should be able to keep using other existing elements, such as the music player, etc. I will keep most existing NPC AI systems but might heavily alter them when/where needed. However, I also require a lot of new systems for what I have in mind for the new Play with Gilbert game. These will tap into adding more gameplay elements for instance. Another addition will be a more clear visual presentation to help guide the player to where they need to go. This is done in a way very similar to Mirror's Edge and how they used Red for instance to visually guide the player. However in Gilbert it'll be much more obvious and much less based on quick reflexes, obviously.

Gameplay

While the spirit of the old PwG game will be still around, a lot more focus and effort will be put into the the level design. Each level will completely re-made and you can expect a LOT of changes. The aim is to keep an open world approach but have segments within these new levels that are more traditional and build around a simple challenge through exploration. This means a lot more platforming and thinking trying to get to a certain fishy for instance. All the citizens and other inhabitants will now get their own living area depending on which level you're in and I am prototyping level streaming so that I may be able to remove load-times in-between level transitions.

Kittens

The kittens Themselves will also be given a treatment. One of my initial ideas was to give the kittens a lot more personality and I think that's been hugely absent and not given the best treatment. Even with the customization options. So a lot more effort will be put into that as well. Think of expressions through thought bubbles or something similar. Having individual names, etc. I'm not sure yet how extensive the new changes will be regarding this, but expect something to be done with this.

Character Movement / Controls

As I said a lot before already, Gilbert and Co. have a whole new move-set. The game in its current state plays nothing like the old one and I'm not even done. I want to add a wall-jump ability and am looking into object interaction where Gilbert can pick up stuff using his mouth. I haven't prototyped these ideas yet but they're in the works. Along with this is a whole new updated camera system to further make the game so much more fun to play. Both young and old should now be able to play the game properly without having to swap control schemes. I have more ideas to further make use of the player camera, but you'll have to see what that means.

When?

Obviously all of this requires time. I am also working on my main project which will be released this year so I can't promise a solid timeline. However, I will roll out updates that will affect the old game, introducing updated core elements, such as the new character component. This will offer a look into the future of the game. The first update should come out not too long from now and will introduce the new character controls. For now this it! Take care and thank you for your support. Joure

Hi everyone. I listen to pretty much everyone who posts, even if I don't always respond immediately. have been compiling recent complaints and requests, etc and am here to respond to them. While I haven't received that many complaints, a number of these have been valid and also ones that raised questions for myself regarding things the game could be improved by. I anticipated that the game would do okay and it's done better then expected. However I find myself in a bit of a crux. I have been hearing complaints about the general gameplay and controls etc. As most probably know the game has been created for and with input of my daughter. The game is aimed at young kids who might want to play something other then another mobile game but are till new at them. The controls are simplified and the gameplay is simple. While I still think there's a merit behind this design choice I do believe there's a lot more that can be done with the game. Complaints regarding controls and gameplay as well as the tutorial section have been noted. What I am going to do now is head back and recreate a new experience. While the basic premise stays the same I have a much more grounded idea of which direction I think I want to go in with Gilbert. This means that I will expand the game thoroughly and with a lot more effort which will resort into a price increase once I'm done. So for everyone who already has a copy there's something to look forward to. Other things that I will be introducing is a much clearer system to guide players. I'll be using color coded (Pink) objects etc to help guide players as to where they can go. I will also redesign all the levels and I am working on a level-streaming approach which will make the entire experience seamless. I want to further flesh out existing gameplay systems. The basic idea will be that Gilberts neighbourhood will be redesigned into the main hub. In this new redeign, gameplay exploration and will carry a much heavier role. Other levels will be redesigned depending on what I want to experiment with. I want to re-do the tutorial section into a much more clearer experience with a larger obstacle course and one that can be easily skipped.. Obviously this will all take time and I will roll out these changes in parts. I will also keep the old levels available in a new "Gilbert Classic" mode. I will continue to listen to feedback and will try to help those with issues. That's it for now and I wish you all a happy new year !!! Joure.

Hi everyone. I listen to pretty much everyone who posts, even if I don't always respond immediately. have been compiling recent complaints and requests, etc and am here to respond to them. While I haven't received that many complaints, a number of these have been valid and also ones that raised questions for myself regarding things the game could be improved by. I anticipated that the game would do okay and it's done better then expected. However I find myself in a bit of a crux. I have been hearing complaints about the general gameplay and controls etc. As most probably know the game has been created for and with input of my daughter. The game is aimed at young kids who might want to play something other then another mobile game but are till new at them. The controls are simplified and the gameplay is simple. While I still think there's a merit behind this design choice I do believe there's a lot more that can be done with the game. Complaints regarding controls and gameplay as well as the tutorial section have been noted. What I am going to do now is head back and recreate a new experience. While the basic premise stays the same I have a much more grounded idea of which direction I think I want to go in with Gilbert. This means that I will expand the game thoroughly and with a lot more effort which will resort into a price increase once I'm done. So for everyone who already has a copy there's something to look forward to. Other things that I will be introducing is a much clearer system to guide players. I'll be using color coded (Pink) objects etc to help guide players as to where they can go. I will also redesign all the levels and I am working on a level-streaming approach which will make the entire experience seamless. I want to further flesh out existing gameplay systems. The basic idea will be that Gilberts neighbourhood will be redesigned into the main hub. In this new redeign, gameplay exploration and will carry a much heavier role. Other levels will be redesigned depending on what I want to experiment with. I want to re-do the tutorial section into a much more clearer experience with a larger obstacle course and one that can be easily skipped.. Obviously this will all take time and I will roll out these changes in parts. I will also keep the old levels available in a new "Gilbert Classic" mode. I will continue to listen to feedback and will try to help those with issues. That's it for now and I wish you all a happy new year !!! Joure.

Hi Everyone !!!

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/35fa16967c8f8b771768fb83e45cb36f50cf26bb.png Today's update adds the Paint with Gilbert content for free. This DLC Pack contains the new paint feature and an entire new level dedicated to the new paint features. The controls will be explained in game through a pop up, though I kept them easy and simplistic so they should be incredibly easy to pick up. I also have some more ideas regarding the paint mechanic and how to possibly expand it in the future. However, I wanted to get the "Paint with Gilbert" update out in time for Christmas as a gift to you all for your support. :) The new level can be accessed from within Gilbert's Neighbourhood or through the level select menu. On top of the new content I also fixed a number of issues, however I've already received a few more which I will be looking into asap.

What Else?

I am already working on more free content which will be a pretty big departure from what the base game has to offer, however I simply could not pass up the genre so stay tuned to see what I'm rambling about in the next announcement update. :)

Merry Christmas

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/31069309/33cd2c332f1f25ab911d11f775836334602efe9c.png Lastly I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas. I hope you're all enjoying the snow and spending time with your loved ones. Soon on Dec 18th the rest of the Christmas assets will become available in the game and I did my best to make it a special in-game event. :) I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a very happy new year !!! Joure