PLEASE START US OFF BY INTRODUCING YOURSELF:

Mikel: Let me introduce us. We are Mikel and Juan. We're two Spanish developers, and without taking credit away from the rest of the team, it's the two of us, along with Viktor, the musician, who handled most of the work on Everdeep Aurora. We’re both 3D artists: I focus more on visual design, and Juan specializes in tech art. We've worked on other video games over the past nine years. But for this project, I worked as the pixel artist, Juan handled programming, and we both shared responsibilities like writing, level design, and more.

TELL US ABOUT EVERDEEP AURORA.

Mikel: Our game, Everdeep Aurora, is a small narrative-driven pixel art game with no violence. You explore an underground world full of secrets alongside Shell, the protagonist,a little cat searching for her missing mother.

Mikel: The idea came from our desire to create something of our own. A small game with a message. Something polished that didn’t just follow commercial trends or rely on external decision-makers.

HOW HAS THE DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY BEEN

Juan: The development, although we couldn't meet our original scope, went well overall. The plan was to finish the game in a year and a half, but since both of us were also working on other projects, it ended up taking longer than we would have liked. That said, we managed to release it with everything we had in mind, and we told the story we wanted to tell, so in the end we're quite happy with the result.

WHICH GAME ENGINE DID YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?

For Aurora, we chose Unity simply because it's the tool we’re most comfortable with and the one that allows us to prototype ideas the fastest. There wasn't really any other specific reason beyond that.

WHAT'S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST DEVELOPMENT HURDLE SO FAR?

Mikel: For me, the biggest challenge was finding the right balance when it comes to guiding the player. I know Juan agrees, this was something we spent a lot of time thinking about. As players, myself included, we’re used to being guided constantly, and often very obviously. When that guidance is missing, we can feel lost or like we're wasting time. But too much guidance kills exploration and the sense of discovery. Striking that balance was a real challenge.

Juan: From a design and programming perspective, the biggest challenge has definitely been the quests and dialogue systems. In the game, there are many side quests that depend on what you've done before, as well as characters moving to different places on the map depending on your progress. These kinds of systems can easily create cases or specific combinations that break things. It took a lot of testing, but we think the final result is quite solid.

ADVICE FOR FELLOW DEVS?

Mikel: My advice is to find your niche. And if that niche doesn’t exist yet, don’t expect your game to sell more than a couple of copies. Another piece of advice, especially if it’s your first game: don’t be overly perfectionistic. Finish it, learn from it, and move on to the next one.

ANY FINAL THOUGHTS?

Juan: Just to say that we know Everdeep Aurora doesn’t quite follow the usual mold of modern games, but we believe that’s part of its charm. So, if you’re looking for something a bit different, filled with secrets, quirky characters, and that won’t take 30 hours to finish, you might really enjoy what Everdeep Aurora has to offer.

Thank you, take care!

Mikel and Juan

Everdeep Aurora on Steam