Prepare to embark on your first flight across the world of Explora! 🦈 Steam Next Fest is now live, and along with it, we’re launching our brand new Townseek – Steam Next Fest Demo and trailer! 🎉



Soar the skies in this small snapshot of the game’s world! In this version of the game, you’ll get to discover the first journal pages of the legacy of Sir Reginald Sharkingston, meet Capt. Jawline and get your own airship. You’ll meet various hosts along the way, discover interesting landmarks! You can also fish, mine, farm and dig for treasure around the world!

Fly around at your own pace, or aim for completion! There are over 200 items available in the demo, including many cosmetics to customise your ship! If you’re a new player to the demo, or a returning one from our Early Demo from last year checking on what’s changed, we believe it will be a delightful experience for you!




Since you may have some questions about the demo, we’ve prepared a Townseek Steam Next Fest Demo – F.A.Q. and Feedback Thread! As we intend to continue improving on the game, please leave us any feedback, from bugs you come around! You can also suggest improvements you’d like to see, or even small critters and cosmetics you’d like added to the world! And of course, you can also reach us out on Twitter and on Discord[discord.gg] where we have channels specifically for you to leave your findings, questions and suggestions! ✨

The Steam Next Fest Demo will be available during Steam Next Fest and for shortly afterwards! While there might be future opportunities for demos in the future, we recommend you jump in now! Make sure to recommend your friends to play it as well!




Along with the release of the demo, we’re also proud to announce that Townseek is being published by the wonderful folks at Super Rare Games[www.superrareoriginals.com] as part of their Super Rare Originals label! We have been working together for almost a year now. Their talented, caring and passionate team has been a great support to day-to-day development and ensuring a smoother voyage for ourselves!

And of course, we had to celebrate the announcement in our own Whales And Games way! As such, we’ve created a dedicated artwork celebrating all of the different titles that are part of the Super Rare Originals line-up! We’re really glad to be part of such an incredible family of games. 🥰



Lastly, with Steam Next Fest we will also be hosting two live streams during the week! First off we will have a pre-recorded Developer Commentary with some developer banter as we play through the current demo! Later in the week, we will be having a live Behind-The-Scenes stream where we'll create assets for the game live! What will that asset be? That might just be up to the people on chat at the time! Make sure you don’t miss it!

Keep an eye out for the Steam Events for when these will be happening! And of course, feel free to jump in into the demo at any time! Thank you for following us along this development journey so far!

We hope you have a whale of a time discovering all that Explora has to offer! Cheers! 🧭

– Whales And Games 🐳

Hey there! 👋 Long time no see! You might have noticed that we have been a bit missing-in-action in updates these last few months. You'll be glad to know that it's not because things have been slow on development, but in fact, much the opposite! Keep your eyes out, as we're about to unveil to you something about an early demo. 👀

Development on Townseek has been advancing at such an incredible pace these past few months that we've barely had any time left to write and make update posts! As the dust is finally settling down now that we've finished some big internal milestones; and as big partnerships are starting to come together on the horizon; we're planning to return to the monthly update posts!

But, rather than having you wait or reading a news post to check on the status of the game, we're putting it in your hands instead! We're happy to announce that we've just released an Early Demo for Townseek available to download right now!



This early demo of the game features 5 different towns, over 20 landmarks to discover, and more than 120 items to collect! It also covers some of the original jam version's activities with fishing and mining; and introduces some new ones such as foraging and quests. While our internal development version has a lot more content at this time, like digging, bottles, and more towns, we believe this is a good vertical slice of the game! It shows you what we're up to without spoiling much of what we've got in the works!

While the game is still very much a work-in-progress, and there's at least one year of development time left on the clock, we consider that now is a great opportunity to check on the overall interest in the game! Since we won't be doing early access, it's important for us to use opportunities like these to collect feedback on what we can improve on the game. It also helps us understand what folks are looking forward to; gives the chance for players to see how the game plays out; while also providing us the opportunity to receive feedback on what we should balance and polish!



The demo will be available until the 28th of June! It'll be available alongside Dreamhack Beyond, Summer Games Fest, Wholesome Direct, and while we're not participating on it officially, Steam Next Fest! We believe that's enough time for you to check on the game, especially as the demo should last anywhere from an hour or two for full collection completion.

Of course, if you miss the demo for any reason, fear not! There'll be plenty of future opportunities for a new demo and more showcases later down the road!



In case that you have some questions about the demo and what's to come, please check out our Townseek Early Demo – F.A.Q. and Feedback Thread! It should encompass most of the doubts that could rise. Naturally, feel free to let us know if you've got any further questions, and use the thread to provide any feedback about the game! 👍



On top of the demo, there's a lot more happening around Whales And Games! We will be celebrating our 5th anniversary soon! Look forward to it, as it will include more in-depth development details and insight! Five years, where does the time go?

We'll also be showing up on Wholesome Direct, this Saturday, alongside almost a hundred of other wholesome games. Pay attention as, while our time-spot will be a bit on the short-side, it'll include some new footage of towns that are not included in the demo! 🔎

[whalesandgames.com]

And that's about it for now! We wouldn't want to stop you from playing the demo any longer, would we? Take it for a spin, and when you're done, feel free to either use the Feedback Thread or hop into our Discord Server[whalesandgames.com] to share your findings, opinions and feedback about our game! And for more frequent updates and sneak peeks, follow us on Twitter!

We hope you have a whale of a time exploring this first look at the brand new world of Townseek! We'll be seeing you in the next post! Cheers! 🥂

– Whales And Games 🐳

Remember those old-school CDs and cassettes that used to come with magazines and cereals that featured a ton of games and demos? Well then, the folks at Super Rare Games[superraregames.com] and the wonderful Ryan Brown have taken the format and brought it to the modern age with their Super Rare Mixtape. 📼

Through the previously released Vol. 1, the Super Rare Mixtape[superraregames.com] is a curated physical compilation of games. It brings together small indie games including experimental projects, itch.io jam games, older classics and demos for upcoming games in a unique, physical trinket. With a charming tape cassette shaped USB stick featuring a launcher with all the games, and a full manual with pages dedicated to each game, it's a fantastic collector's piece!



And would you look at that? We just happen to be a part of the upcoming Vol. 2! We're honoured that both Starsnap[whalesandgames.com] and Townseek Jam Version[whalesandgames.com] will be featured as a part of the latest volume's incredible collection of 30 games and 6 demos! Both games also include brand-new short developer commentaries, concept art, and several tweaks and additional easter eggs from our own!

We're very grateful to Ryan for having picked our games, and it's been incredibly fun to be a part of this fantastic collection and to officially have a physical release of some of our games! Of course, there's also other wonderful titles included such as Cheeky Chonks, Franchise Wars[jollycrouton.com], Tracks of Thought, Gardenarium[palgal.itch.io], Postbird in Provence[isart-digital.itch.io], Stargrove Scramble[team-bugulon.itch.io], and there are a bunch more of wonderful games that we could shoutout! Each of the games and demos is really worth their own look!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZplmdB3--Y
Now, this is where the tricky part comes in! Since this is a collector's item, the Super Rare Mixtape Vol. 2 release will be limited to 2,000 copies! And last time, they sold out in under 5 hours! That means you really have to act fast if you want to get it! 😱

This time, copies will be going on sale on the 24th of February at 6:00 PM UTC through the Super Rare Games website[superraregames.com]! You can check what time that is in your time-zone through this handy website[everytimezone.com]! Of course, if you are a community member at our Discord Server[whalesandgames.com], we will make sure that you know the time that it goes live by mentioning to everyone when it goes on sale!



Having our games featured in a physical collection like this, this early in our history, is a fantastic honour! It was a huge surprise when we received Ryan's invitation to be a part of the collection! 🏆

If you plan to purchase it, we hope that you really enjoy how well put together the overall package is; and we hope that you enjoy revisiting both Starsnap[whalesandgames.com] and Townseek Jam Version[whalesandgames.com]! And of course, Townseek Jam Version is always a fantastic segway to the full version of the game! Development is really coming together, and tons of exciting stuff is happening in the background! ✨

We can't wait to show you everything that's coming along, and for you to get your hands in this stunning collection! Cheers! 🐳

Townseek[whalesandgames.com], our exploration-trading game, is coming to Steam with a bigger world, a new main quest, new activities, new towns to seek, and more! 🧭

Tasked with re-assembling Sir Reginald Sharkingston’s journal, you must travel far and wide and discover what the world has to offer! Trade merchandise with towns and complete their requests. Fish, mine and farm to complete your collection! The whole world is your sea now, so be sure to see all that it has to offer! 🦈

Make sure to wishlist the game and follow us for more news, sneak peaks of the full version! ✨



After many years working across several game jam projects, our team at Whales And Games is proud to be announcing the first upcoming full version of one of our games!

Townseek was originally created in a game jam, during Global Game Jam 2021. While we were expecting a quiet release, the reception we received on the jam version blew away our expectations. We received many comments with praise for the game and suggestions for more features and town! It became clear to us that players wanted to continue exploring this world we’ve created!

Building on top of the latest jam version, there are several new features we’re working on for this full-version for Steam. These include a new colourful art direction; a new main quest featuring the journal of Sir Reginald Sharkington; new-side activities such as farming and digging for treasure; and of course, several new towns and townspeople to seek!



If you have any questions regarding this new full-version, we’ve prepared a discussions thread with a FAQ with most answers you might be looking for!

Over the next few months, we will continue sharing news about the game here on our Steam Announcements! We will be going deeper into new features as we design them, and, of course, you can be on the lookout for regular Status Reports. And of course, we'll also be updating the store page regularly!

[discord.gg]

Finally, but not least, you can also follow us over on Twitter where we share progress frequently! We also invite you to join our Discord Server[discord.gg]! We've got dedicated Townseek channels for general discussion and suggestions there!

We hope that you follow us for this new voyage into Steam, and that you look forward to seeking new towns in this new full-release! Make absolutely sure you have wishlisted us, as it really helps! Cheers!

– Whales And Games 🐳