Hello everyone, here are the two developers of Migration.
We would like to take 10 minutes to tell you everything we have been working on in the last 3 months since the launch of the Steam page, the current state of the game, and the next steps in the weeks and months to come.
First of all, we want to thank all of you for the support you have shown for this project and for the incredibly important feedback you have given.
Everything started as a project to work on in our free time, and now it has almost 40,000 wishlists on Steam and tons of followers on various social platforms after only 4 months since the page launch on the store.
This has truly changed our lives and our perspective on what we need to do. We are just two developers working on Migration in our free time, and despite the limited hours, we are giving our best to make a solid and worthwhile game in a reasonable timeframe.
So thank you from the bottom of our hearts; it means a lot to us.
That said, here’s what we’ve been working on in the last three months:
We have completely reworked the AI system, moving from a complex and fundamentally fragile system to one that will allow us to develop the various AI states and behaviors more efficiently and easily.
This required a significant amount of work because it meant discarding everything we had done for the NPCs previously in the game and starting from scratch.
To date, we have managed to get all the existing AIs working again and have begun working on new animals that will populate the world of Migration.
First among them: the eagle, and more generally, sky predators.
Staying on the topic of AI, we also added a “Friendship” system that allows the player to form bonds with other animals.
For example: spotting prey for a wolf will allow the wolf to hunt that prey, strengthening its bond with the player. Once a bond is established, the wolf will be less reluctant to attack and will allow the player to approach and interact with it.
However, the friendship system, besides increasing the relationship between the player and other animals, can also generate enmity in response to the player’s wrong actions: this will cause a different reaction from the animal when it sees the player.
The friendship system has currently been implemented for all animals present in the game: foxes, rabbits, wolves, and other crows (we will talk about the other crows in a separate section).
We also added a stealth system that allows the player to approach animals without being noticed, enabling actions like stealing fur, taking food, and escaping without consequences.
Regarding the crow, we added a system that deeply enriches the gameplay: growth over time and stats related to that growth.
At the start of the adventure, the crow will begin at the fledgling stage.
During the game, it can grow, progressing from fledgling to adult, and eventually to old age.
This growth will affect both the crow’s appearance and its gameplay stats.
From an aesthetic point of view, as the crow grows, it will have denser feathers, a larger beak, stronger legs, and a bigger overall body.
From a gameplay perspective, growth affects three main stats: Bioefficiency, Constitution, and Knowledge.
Bioefficiency affects how much food and water satisfy the crow and how much stamina is consumed for actions like sprinting or flying. The higher the bioefficiency, the less stamina is consumed and the faster food and water satisfy the player. Conversely, low bioefficiency means actions consume more stamina and food satiates more slowly. Bioefficiency is high at the start of the adventure but tends to decrease as the body grows and the crow ages.
Constitution affects carry weight and how much weight causes altitude loss during flight. It also determines the crow’s maximum health and stamina. Higher constitution means higher health and stamina and less impact from weight on flight. Lower constitution means more impact from weight and lower max health and stamina. Constitution grows from the fledgling stage to adulthood, making the crow’s body stronger over time.
Knowledge affects the number of knowledge slots available, which are used to equip specific abilities. Higher knowledge means more slots; lower knowledge means fewer slots. Skill slots are used to equip craftable items, passive abilities, or different calls. These calls allow interaction with other animals or other crows. Crafting recipes and passive abilities are unlocked during the adventure and then equipped in the knowledge slots. Higher knowledge allows more abilities to be equipped simultaneously and more interaction and action possibilities for the player.
At the start of the adventure, it is possible to assign points to these stats to make your crow “specialized” in one stat over another, depending on gameplay needs.
We also added other crows as NPCs (Non-player CROW).
Currently, these crows allow the player to unlock new crafting abilities, new calls that will be taught to the player, and new passive abilities obtained through interaction. The interaction we’ve designed is currently simple: the player must first call the crow and, once it has attention, perform certain actions, behaviors, or give gifts to increase the relationship. This interaction is more specific and deeper than with other animals and requires more time
to raise the relationship level with other crows.
Once a certain relationship level is reached, the crows will teach the player a recipe, a passive ability, or a new call.
Once learned, these abilities can be equipped in the player’s knowledge slots to be used.
We have also reworked the actions the player can perform, linking them to a radial system. There will be a radial menu where it is possible to select the action to equip, which can be, for example, a specific call, an interaction call, or an action like pecking.
Actions can be performed freely and at any time, allowing the player to approach the game with a greater sense of discovery.
For example, pecking can generate different consequences depending on the object or entity: used on a pinecone, it breaks; used on another animal, the crow steals fur, lowering friendship; used on a breakable object, it breaks, and so on. The same principle applies to all actions that can be equipped in the action slot.
We have also started working on a nest customization system, introducing collectibles.
Collectibles are special items, like small gems, flowers different from those in the map, small bones, and many other objects.
These collectibles can be found scattered across the map and, once collected, will be available in any nest built by the player, as nests are multiple and can be built anywhere.
Once in the customization screen, players can decorate their nest using these collectibles.
But that’s not all: each collectible has its own sound, which can be triggered inside the nest.
Approaching the nest, there will be a button to play all the sounds of the collectibles, creating a deeper sense of personalization. This system allows building nests with different sound atmospheres: darker, gloomier, or more floral, depending on the player’s choices.
We have also started working on the main menu, an initial tutorial level, and have begun important optimization work that we hope will allow the game to run on Steam Deck. We found new collaborators to help with 3D models, animations, UI, and music, while still remaining a core team of two.
For the next weeks and months, we are defining new features to implement and preparing small internal builds for deeper playtesting, balancing, and refinement of game values. This will allow us to organize one or more meaningful playtests over the year.
● A fishing system
● A system for collecting insects with sticks and creating these sticks
● Expansion of NPCs and other animals, and deeper interaction with crows
● Various quality-of-life improvements for inventory and stash
● A more in-depth and flexible tree perch system, currently in early stages
● A breeding system with other crows, including offspring management
● A system for aesthetic customization of the player’s body
If you want to see videos of the new features already implemented and those we will implement in the future, follow us on social media: we are mainly active on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Bluesky, where we regularly post updates on new features, fixes, and all improvements and updates for the game. If you want to give feedback on the game, join our Discord channel where 1,800 other crows are waiting for you. All social links are on the Migration Steam page, in the bottom right section.
We want to thank you once again for all the support you have shown over the last three months and we cannot wait to share the new progress with you.