📣 About this Devlog
When people hear “game polish,” it’s easy to imagine the fun stuff. Better art. Precise lighting. Juicy little particle effects. Maybe some screen shake if we’re feeling dangerous.
And sure, sometimes it is about making things prettier.
But a lot of game polish is much less glamorous. It’s figuring out why a player walked straight past the thing you were sure they’d interact with. Or why a perfectly functional laser doesn’t quite feel like something you should be afraid of yet.
Our dev team likes to compare polishing a game to decorating a cake.
First, you need the cake itself: the mechanics, systems, level design, and all the stuff underneath that makes the game actually work.
Then come the layers. Animation. Sound. Lighting. VFX. Art. Feedback.
Slowly, the greybox starts disappearing and something that actually looks – and feels — like Stay Dead begins to emerge.
So this month, we went digging through some very old, very bare-bones development footage to look at how a few pieces of our demo got there.
Some changed dramatically.
Others just needed handles.
📺 What You’ll See in the Video
How our greybox prototype grew into the demo we have today
Why game polish is about more than making things pretty
The surprisingly eventful life of one very important box
How a simple pink line became a laser that actually feels dangerous
How tiny details can make a big difference without players ever noticing them
💛 Thanks for Watching
Looking back at these early builds is always a little surreal. Things that now feel completely ordinary in the game once existed as grey boxes, placeholder art, and ideas we were still figuring out as we went.
And there’s plenty we’re still figuring out.
We’ll keep sharing the good and the broken as the demo comes together. Join us on Discord to follow development, share your feedback, and occasionally watch us discover that something we just fixed has found a creative new way to break.
And if you haven’t already, wishlist Stay Dead on Steam to support the game and follow the journey.
See you next devlog. Stay Dead! 🧟