The Kaiyo Mission

After what I’ve heard a lot of people describe as a challenging year, here at eXplore Studio we have been reflecting on what progress we have made. It has not been all sunshine and rainbows for us either. We have had our fair share of hurdles, especially as a …

At eXplore Studio, we see the value of taking an agile approach to our work. This working style still includes two structured weekly meetings with the whole team, with a scrum planning meeting on Monday and a technical meeting on Thursday. Nonetheless, through…

Whilst developing video games, accessibility might not be your first thought. After all, some people argue that certain accessibility functions could limit your creative scope. However, here at eXplore Studio we believe that accessibility and inclusivity are k…

In the first mission phase of The Kaiyo Mission, the player controls a submarine that is exploring the underwater plateau of Enceladus, a moon of Saturn. While the submarine is discovering this new fascinating, extra-terrestrial world, you take pictures of the…

‘Are you telling me that one of our two ESEL submarines that landed on Enceladus last month, that was deployed, melted through the ice, found life in the subsurface ocean, and suddenly vanished…has been found on Earth last week?’ asked the Head of Deep Space E…

Many developers do not bother with estimating their workload, because it takes time and effort, and in most cases, estimates turn out to be incorrect anyway. This is true. All estimates will probably be false. Too many factors have an influence on the time it …

An Underwater Inflatable Life Support System (UILSS) has been put on Europa in the vicinity of the portal to Earth and before it is fully operational, two researchers of The Kaiyo Mission are there at work, 1.44 billion kilometres away from Earth. ‘Sheila and …

One might think the situation is hopeless, when small indie game studios try to gain visibility and traction in the market, given that they have to compete against seemingly very powerful, big companies with impressive marketing budgets. However, despite the o…

Since The Kaiyo Mission belongs to the hard science fiction genre, with animals, plants and artefacts created and named for the game itself, we thought that a compendium would be one of the many cool features to implement. Indeed, the compendium is easily acce…

Small game development studios face several challenges in gaining visibility in the large market of games – why is there still much hope even without having a publisher? The global gaming industry keeps growing at a rapid pace, which is good news for game deve…

Deciding whether to employ people or work with freelancers in game development depends on various factors, including your project’s needs, the location and country of residence of the people who work with you, your available budget, and the long-term goals of …

Attending game conventions can be highly beneficial for game creators. Here are a few reasons why: Conventions are a great place to meet other game developers, publishers, and industry professionals. Building these connections and ‘networking’ can often lead t…

Attending game conventions can be highly beneficial for game creators. Here are a few reasons why: Conventions are a great place to meet other game developers, publishers, and industry professionals. Building these connections and ‘networking’ can often lead t…

Game developers often face a big dilemma: should they create a game they love or develop one that is more likely to sell well? Clearly, in the extremes lies danger: Some game developers make just the game they have always dreamed about and spend many years on …

The Kaiyo Mission developers wanted to make sure that the game would be as inclusive and accessible to all as possible. That is why, when you hit the ‘Options’ button, you can adjust the sound, sound effects, brightness and more. Indeed, the players can select…

In game development, we always have to put ourselves in question and be aware of how players actually approach our game, how they play it. They do not have years of experience working on our game, they do not know it by heart, inside out, like we do. On the ot…

There are many games around that have started using inclusive language. Still, sometimes one can find vicious comments on social media or sales platforms from players who do not agree. So, when we are developing a new game, should we use it or is it better for…

The Kaiyo Mission is the story of a courageous mission to find extra-terrestrial life in our own solar system, the experiences of amazing people from all over the world, working together as one, to push the boundaries of human knowledge and understanding, whil…