A new week approaches, and we have new updates to share with everyone! Since the release of the alpha build, there has been little further discussion; we've been taking action to work on and build all the things we discussed, as well as add and work on some additional items the judges recommended during the presentation. We are excited to continue working on the game as we are nearing the stage of finalizing levels and polishing the game. Lots of exciting stuff in our most recent update, and here is what has been going on this week (July 3 - July 9):

Gameplay

• We received a lot of positive feedback on the first-person perspective. Many people said that first-person makes it FEEL more like you are the one in this magical world of swapping and sizing, and that's what they found the most joy in. 
• On top of that, they also mentioned how the most fun they had in the game was scaling between drastically different-sized objects, such as going from the cupcake to the giant pawn. This is something that hopefully the maze level we have been talking about will be able to convey, as well as potentially updates for other puzzles.

Art:

• We have added animations! They might still be a little janky as it is still in early development, and the swap snap animation is still not implemented; however, this is a huge step forward in polishing. We obviously still have tons of work to do, like different animation speeds for different player speeds or sizes, and those will come in time.
• We have also started work on a more fleshed-out start menu with a settings button which leads to a similar screen to the pause menu, as well as creating a good-looking pause menu that players can use to restart levels, adjust sensitivity and stuff.

Design:

• We are still not sure if we want to cut the picture level or not, but for now, we are keeping it and trying different small changes to see if it could potentially become more fun and intuitive, and if not, we may have to scrap it. Right now, it is neither intuitive nor fun to the degree we want it to be.
• As mentioned before, we are working on a pause menu that we've decided to add some features to. One is allowing the player to restart the game, another is changing sensitivity, and the last one is the music volume. Some basic accessibility features, but important nonetheless.
• Finally, we are also discussing changing the wavy walls to be walk-throughable but not swap-throughable. This way, we can make puzzles like our mirror level more visible, and allow the player to explore the mechanic themselves to learn it better. Further, we hope it also causes some players to mistake the solution of the puzzle like one of our developers did when discussing this idea!