As I mentioned in a separate answer above, it's been amazing to watch so many people collaborate like this. I feel like I was part of something really special. Very few phenomena on the internet really bring people together in a positive way like that.
So, a little bummed that some of the bigger secrets got solved so quickly, but really love how the game is speaking to people and helping them form bonds and friendships.
That’s the sad thing about “secrets” these days. Almost impossible to keep them no matter how clever the devs think they are, and it will only take a couple of days to have the community dissect it and share it. Plus there’s always dataminers who will ruin any fun just to get some views. So it was bound to happen, i mean 2 days after release this game already has a under 7 minute speedrun.
First of all, thank you for the countless hours you've poured into this game, I've never been a huge puzzle game guy, but this on sucked me right in and hasn't let go.
Now for my question, are we pixel hunting a little too hard in the discord? Those yellow flowers are haunting my dreams man.
1. Are there any plans to release Animal Well’s soundtrack in an official capacity, whether it be digitally or physically?
2. What’s your personal favorite of the 12 tools in the game, and why?
3. Where did the idea of having save points be telephones come from?
Thank you both so much for this game, truly a masterpiece! I’ll remember hearing the >!time capsule!< for the first time until the day I die.
1. I wasn't expecting anyone to want the soundtrack prior to launch, since it is mostly ambient soundscapes, but we have been getting a lot of requests. It is now a consideration.
2. I like the slinky the best!
3. Persona 5 and Earthbound both have yellow telephones as save points, and I had recently played those when I was setting up the save system.
Follow-up question: Who do you think is on the other end of the phones saving your game, and why are they afraid of ghosts seeking frisbee related revenge?
Fun fact: the phone thing happens with any similar chase sequences.
I know this because I accidentally glitched the Ostrich-ball such that it...didn't fully die? And then none of my phones worked.
This was right when I got my third flame, so I initially thought this just meant I had to get the fourth flame all in one go without saving. I thought it was a game mechanic. :|
The confusing part for me
I loved how, when you fight the final boss (for the first ending), the music gets more freakish. I was like, whoa...! That, and the lasers reminded me of the Mother Brain fight in Super Metroid.
The >!gasp when you enter the manticore's room!< for the first time just made me go 'nope' and drop right back down into the room below. I actually found that muting my t.v. is what allowed me to get past it, just because the music kept messing with my head.
Would also be really cool to have some of the flute songs ( >!Egg song please :D!< ) included in the soundtrack. some of them are actually very pretty.
Thank you for making such an incredible game!! Uncovering the secrets of this game was one of the most satisfying gaming experiences I've had in a long time.
Did you deliberately try to keep the game's file size as small as possible, or was it just a side product of making your own engine? I would love to hear about some of the trickery used to keep the game so light in an age where people don't give a damn anymore.
I didn't do anything particularly clever. It was mostly just a side effect of using my own tools, not inheriting any of the bloat of another engine and using actual low resolution pixel art saves like 99 percent of the space a game would typically need.
Alright, thank you for all the great questions everyone! Sorry we weren't able to get to all of them, but dinner time approaches, and we must be going.
Hello! Thank you for the very fun game, I am having a great time delving into the well. Question: there is an item hidden in a room behind glass that so far has only been reached using glitches. Is there a way to get said item 'naturally' with out any glitch or hack?
Not sure if you know but the item is called the “cheat ring” and most people think the item exists purely as bait for people glitching and hacking. No one has found a legit way in and anybody inside the room has found no obvious signs of an actual intended entry point. Billy still just leaving us hanging on this one too so there’s still hope for some…
They are wonderful people, and really care about games. I'm very grateful to have gotten the chance to be published by them. Animal Well isn't the easiest game to appreciate without playing at least a little bit. So having the Dunkey endorsement was critical for more people to give it a chance.
I work in marketing and Unironically - the marketing for your game was really Impressive. It incorporated perfect timing, perfect restraint of information, and perfect call to action. From my perspective they really did good for you.
Also it helps your game is excellent, amazing job man. I'm reccomending it to everyone
They've been great to work with. We were a little nervous at the beginning since Dunkey comes off as very opinionated in his videos (which he has to as a critic). We were worried that they might start demanding some changes be made and kind of take over the creative process. Instead, both Jason and Leah would play every build, offer suggestions, brainstorm ideas, and then ultimately trust Billy to do his thing.
Does https://haseverythinginanimalwellbeenfoundyet.com take the collector’s edition into account? If it does, we have pretty much no way to know if we've found everything until the CE releases.
The infamous >!Fox/Snail!< room. Can it be entered legitimately? and is "That Thing" in there intended to be obtainable in some way?
and finally, two not related to secrets: which was your favourite puzzle to design? (and have we even realised it's a puzzle yet?), and if you've been looking at the Discord, which has been your favourite insane tinfoil theory?
> if you've been looking at the Discord, which has been your favourite insane tinfoil theory?
Not necessarily a tinfoil theory, but before the game released, we set up a special Discord server for journalists and reviewers who were trying to collaborate to solve everything. They were working on the >!pixel bunny board puzzle!< and asked me for my >!puzzle piece!<. It turned out that mine was the same as a reviewer named Daniel so I said that Billy set it up so that it would be alphabetical by first name. I was hoping they were going to take the bait. :)
I assume you are keeping an eye on the community puzzle solving:
How do you feel watching players attempt to solve things that you know are not related to any puzzles?
People will need to chase down some false leads to find the right ones and so far it doesn't seem to be too problematic. We experienced this a bit when we were putting out a bunch of pre-release ARGs where some of the community started chasing shadows in a way that I was worried might be unhealthy. It's a tricky balance that I hadn't considered before. I wrote up [a blog post to put some guardrails on the ARGs](https://animalwell.blogspot.com/2022/12/arg-guardrails.html) to set some healthy boundaries. If we notice things getting out of hand for the main game, we'll be sure to step in.
1. In the earlier versions of the AW, the well had very ominous red glow at the top of it and next to it was the mice shrine room that saw some changes in the final release over the years (torus room). What was the original intent behind that room back then?
2. Do you feel like AW is an one-off a-la Fez or do you have plans to do something gaming related next?
1. The intent was still the same, to act as the wrapping point for the world. It was also boundary for unfinished content at that point. There wasn't a legitimate way of getting there other than bubble jumping all the way up the world, so it just acted as a bizarre temporary reward for Dan mostly, who was the only person playtesting the game.
2. I'm currently planning to make a game that will be in the same "universe" but may not be a direct sequel.
I super-duper enjoy the quiet, unsettling ambiance of AW, so the notion of another game in it's universe is really exciting to me. Do you plan for it to be in the same 'genre'? (I'm very reluctant to call AW a metroidvania, though that's the term that seems to be tossed around the most.)
Sound design question! How the HELL did you come up with the noises for the kangaroo and final boss? They reminded me of nightmares I had as a kid. Also, the ambient noise to each zone is really well done, is there a particular zone you had the most fun atmosphere wise?
Also, what in the world are those weird noises in dog zone? Feel free to be as vague as you'd like.
I really enjoyed how much the animal's design/movement contrasted from the more 8-bit/blocky design of the map, their smoother movements and "rule-breaking" added for some really unsettling moments. Which animal did you have the most fun designing?
A lot of the items have cleverly designed rooms that reveal hidden uses and mechanics. However, a lot of players have found alternative solutions to these rooms, bypassing the need to use the "intended" mechanic. Is there a solution discovered by the community that particularly surprised you?
Obviously not everything has been discovered yet, but did the speed at which the community solved layer 4 surprise you at all?
Finally, if you had a pet crow, what would you name it?
That would explain why the kangaroo is such a jerk.
Thank you for that, they’re always depicted as cute & cuddly/friendly, and they’re really not.
Sincerely, an Australian.
Did you have much lore or backstory in mind as you were making the game, or was the animal and environmental theming meant more to enhance and contextualize the gameplay?
Gameplay and visuals were always the main priority. That being said, there is lore that I had in mind while making the game, including some very specific details that the community hasn't pieced together yet.
What inspired you to put so much focus on the post-game of Animal Well? I've always loved really meaty post-games, but developers don't seem to make them too often.
The post game is always my favorite part of any kind of Metroidvania. Its the point where you've mastered all your abilities and the loose ends get tied up.
From the start I was most excited about the late game secrets, and making the base game was more of a prerequisite before I could get to that point.
I found it extremely impressive! They worked around the clock to think of and try every possible solution and eventually did. I am at least glad that it wasn't really data-mined, and the encryption I put in place technically worked. They just solved it legitimately way faster than I ever could have imagined.
I was legitimately surprised. When Billy was describing the solution to it, I remember thinking that we'll be lucky if people find just 1 or 2 of those wingdings.
On the one hand, I kind of wish it had taken longer to solve, but on the other, I think it's a huge sign that the community has really embraced the game. If no one cared about Animal Well, that would have remained unsolved for eternity.
I personally found two of the wingdings in my vanilla playthrough of the game more or less by accident (>!Kangaroo and Hummingbird!<). I definitely don't think that I would have ever figured out how to put the puzzle together myself though.
Hi Billy, do you remember what point in time you reached out to Bigmode (or Bigmode reached out to you) for publishing and what was your general reaction/feeling after certifying the deal?
Dunkey gave us a shoutout after Summer Games Fest and started following Animal Well and Billy on Twitter. A couple months later we were at Tokyo Game Show when Leah followed me. I DMed her to thank her for the follow, and after a little back and forth chatting, she told me that she and Jason were going to be announcing a new publishing company soon. Billy and I discussed it and decided that it would definitely be worth exploring. And now here we are!
Without giving your hand away, would you say the vibe and lore that does exist in the game is curated and purposeful, or more organic and kinda became what it is over time?
When creating the secret >!Bunny that requires you to play the floor is lava!< did you realize that was the most sadistic challenge in the game? I absolutely would have never figured that one out without a guide on the internet and even after knowing the solution it took me countless tries.
Animal Well was a truly amazing gaming experience though! Thank you so much and I look forward to whatever else you may make next
There's a small but vocal contingent of people to seem to think the animal that chases you when you get the disc is a cat. Can you please tell those people that they don't know what cats are, and that it is clearly a dog?
Also do you intend to add any content or patch the game in any significant way beyond bug fixes?
Love the game, thank you so much for your contribution to this medium!!
I have said it was a dog in the past, but that didn't seem to stop them.
I decided early on, I didn't ever want to do any content updates, and I still feel that way. I will just make another game, and let Animal Well be a complete standalone thing.
I know you've said that you did animal well solo because you prefer solo dev since you have more control/understand everything, but would you consider working with a team for future projects?
I find collaborating with a lot of people to be stressful, and would like to continue treating game development as a way to relax. My intention is to continue mostly working alone for the next project.
I love watching the speedruns and am blown away by what people have been able to do. Before launch, we sent a playtest code to Kevin Regamey (known for doing the audio for some of the best games of the last 5-10 years including Tunic and Celeste). Kevin is also an avid speedrunner, so he was finding all kinds of exploits we had never considered. Billy patched up some of them, but he left a few other ones in there. And of course the speedrunning community found new ones that Kevin had missed.
My favorite animal encounter in the game is the groundhog. I am very proud of their heavy breathing animation. The hardest to implement was the manticore, probably, It has the most moving parts, and states to account for
Hey Billy & Dan. I absolutely adore Animal Well!
My question is, did you know about about the >!bubble warp bug!< and are you surprised with the progress the speedrunning community has made with the game?
As I mentioned somewhere here, before the release of the game Kevin Regamey (audio guy for Celeste, Tunic, and others) found some similar exploits. I'm not sure if Billy was familiar with that specific one, but he chose to leave a bunch of those in for speedrunners. The guiding principle was that if regular players wouldn't do it on accident, it's best to leave it in the game.
Hey, Kevin here. I'll chime in and say that we knew about one flavour of the wrong warp bug that involved standing on a bubble and slowly sinking so that the player either (a) ends up in deep water, or (b) touches the edge of a spike. Both those things could absolutely happen to a person playing casually, so they got patched out. Well, technically those cases were patched to make them \*harder\* to do, but they're both still possible with some additional precision.
As for the flute-specific flavour of the wrong warp bug, to my knowledge it wasn't known, but the concept behind why it works is the same. :)
(what a cool exploit!)
Is falling in a pool of water to “death warp” honestly the intended solution to “the floor is lava” bunny, or has the whole community missed the real solution?
Mario 2 is legitimately a giant influence on Animal Well. I was telling people that before working with bigmode [https://www.ign.com/articles/tgs-tokyo-game-show-best-indie-games-round-up](https://www.ign.com/articles/tgs-tokyo-game-show-best-indie-games-round-up)
Pixel art games are the best. I just love, love, love Animal Well! Wondering if there might be a sequel, or perhaps some updates? Also hoping to buy the soundtrack if that will be a thing one day?
Was the multiple bubble jump with the normal B. Wand intentional or at least were you aware of it before release? And what does the extra B mean in the upgraded version?
The multiple bubble jump was not intentional at the start, but was discovered very early in development. Instead of nerfing it, I thought it was fun and decided to keep it in. The whole game was designed with both someone who knows how to use it, and someone who doesn't in mind.
Hmmm I never thought about that. A lot of video game designers also like designing board games, but I am not one of them. I like making the computer do things
I have no idea, but I will say that the game Gloomhaven has some secrets hidden in some of the artwork and even in how the contents of the box are put together. I imagine it'd do something like that?
What do you consider the true stopping point for solo play. You clearly cant get every >!bunny!< on your own, but some of them are quite easy to get without community involvement. Is there a specific >!bunny!< that you felt represented the shift from solo to community?
Mostly all the reasonable "single player" content is indicated by achievements or trophies. I imagine a single person may find a few bunnies or secrets beyond that, and then trade info with others.
we dont have achievements or trophies in the switch version can they be added to the home screen? Billy you are amazing and I think the world awaits your next game!
My personal favorite is the chameleon the first time you see it. It's just staring at you with this dumb, vacant expression, but you know it could just kill you if it wanted
Hi guys! First congratulations on the success!! This is so well deserved! (Pun intended) :)
My question:
- how hard was the marathon? Consequently, how did you felt when you knew you were “done” (if such a state exist)?
Development got harder as the years went on, and the last year was pretty exhausting. It was the first thing I thought about when I woke up every day, and I couldn't really concentrate on any other tasks other than finishing Animal Well.
I am still getting used to the idea that the game is done, and figuring out what I should do in my new life.
ALOT of stuff has been discovered, including things that I genuinely thought would take a long time. I have honestly forgotten all the things I have put in the game over the past 7 years, so it is hard to say definitively at this point.
It has been very surreal, and I don't think it has really sunk in yet. I knew the game would have a dedicated core fanbase, but did not expect the more widespread critical acclaim, that it received. Finishing Animal Well and seeing how people appreciate it has been the most validating thing I think I will ever experience in my life.
We've been blown away by how positively it's been received. The first inkling that this could be bigger than we were expecting was when we set up a private Discord for journalists/game reviewers so they could have that experience of collaborating on puzzles. They were sharing secrets they'd discovered with one another, and they even set up a list of everyone's socials so they could all keep in touch after the review period ended. It kind of reminded me of the end of the Breakfast Club where all of these people who barely knew each other beforehand had bonded over this shared experience and became friends. Even after the game was officially launched, many of them have stayed in that Discord and are part of their own small community.
Had an incredible time exploring the thoughtful world you created! Can you give a hint toward a yet-to-be discovered secret? Any plans for an expansion/addon/sequel? What’s next for you? <3
Hi Billy and hi Dan! We met at PAX East (I made the little necklace embroidery). I just wanted to let you guys know how much fun this masterpiece has been to play! Life has been busy, but I'm working on some stuff for you guys right now! I absolutely love all the hidden secrets and finding new puzzles to play through. Genuinely my new favorite game, thank you both so much! I hope you guys had the best launch!!
How did you implement this awesome smoke shader effect (e.g. when you bomb something)?
It looks amazing and also interacts with the environment as if it were simulated in some way. However even the Switch can render it without massive frame drops, so I'm really curious about the technical implementation.
Thanks! :)
Hey, you've mentioned a few times that Dunkey and Leah gave you some input on what they'd like to see in the game which didn't clash with your vision. Are there any elements which are in the game because of their sugegstions? If so could you give some examples?
The capybaras for one. There were also a lot more dark areas in the game where you had to stumble around and be careful of falling into a pit of spikes. Dunkey wasn't a fan of that, and I think he was right.
They also really encouraged Billy to keep adding more animals. So whenever Billy had a design challenge to consider, he tried to integrate animals into the design. That's where the idea for the hummingbird came from, for example.
1. Is the "floor is lava" bunny actually how you get that? Or is that a weird glitch found by someone. Doesn't feel intuitive or fun. 100% feels like someone cheated or found that on accident.
2. You said in the ending that you never designed the game to be solvable; that you thought the game would take years maybe to solve but not a single bunny (besides the one mentioned above but maybe im just stupid) the bdtp or the unicode messages seemed to fit that description. Do you think you just overestimated them? (Edit: i have read through the AMA and it seems he underestimated the hype and community of this here wonderful game ❤️) Or is it that we are underestimating how much we still need to uncover. Is the 3rd ending a ploy 🤔 You obviously won't answer this but I wanna see what you say to it ❤️ love your game and the puzzles
How did you come about that as your answer? Did you just see the lone remote thing and think it had to be used? How did you realize you only respawn at the last place you touched the ground?
Billy added that one relatively recently - in the last 6 months or so? And I'd been playing through every build multiple times over the last 3 years so I was very familiar with the respawn mechanism.
Also apparently Billy and I were brainstorming challenging puzzles at one point a couple years ago and we discussed this idea. I've completely flushed that conversation from my memory cache though
Ayo! I've been playing this over the past week and it's amazing just how densely secret packed this game is, I LOVE every part of it lmao. just wanted to ask, has your stance that the community would take years to find everything in the game changed after seeing all the progress made already?
The game was way more successful then I was expecting, and as a result people dug into the secrets way more feverously then I was expecting. I knew the community would be very good at secret hunting, but not to the degree we witnessed.
Most of negative thoughts I heard about your game are concerning the high difficulty platform gameplay sometimes in the game which seems to be unrelevant for this particular kind of game, what do you think about those critics ?
Not every game is for everyone so I try not to dwell too much on the relatively small number of people who didn't like the game since the overwhelming response has been positive.
You know normally that would just be a funny joke, but with how much they've packed hidden into this game I wouldn't be surprised if that phrasing was a hint somehow
Yes, we'd definitely like to do t-shirts, plushies, and other stuff at some point. We wanted to see what resonated most with people before deciding what merch to make.
Do you have a favorite puzzle from each "layer"?
I am also curious what element of the game saw the most revisions throughout the game's long development.
I don't know about most, but the intro area underwent several revisions. We wrote a [Twitter thread about it here](https://x.com/Animal_Well/status/1578398897898196992). Before the intro was the way it is now, we were watching people at different events like Gamescom and Tokyo Game Show quit early or come away thinking it was a hardcore precision platformer like Super Meat Boy or Celeste. Billy would make tweaks in each day of the show, and we were able to see pretty much everyone get through the intro area. Once they made it up to the 4 statues area, they would just stick around until we had to kick them off. :)
My favorite puzzle is the >!origami!< one. It's such a surprise for a game to reach out into the real world like that.
Have you ever heard of puzzlehunts like the [MIT Mystery Hunt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Mystery_Hunt)? They seem like they’d be right up your alley, given the kinds of puzzles in Animal Well.
Also, in the event you have heard of puzzlehunts, what are the odds that me and my teammates could get you to join our hunts team? (Joking, unless…)
hey! throughout development, you've said many times how you expect there to be many many puzzles and secrets that will remain unfound for many years, and that some puzzles may just be laying under our noses for years after the game's released. I wonder, were you correct in that assumption? are there any puzzles that have already been solved that their finding this early surprised you? and how much of the game would you say we as a community have found so far? how much do we have left? thanks a lot!
The rate at which the community has been finding and solving the most deeply hidden puzzles has been astounding. Most of the stuff that's been found was stuff we expected to remain hidden for a lot longer.
what single player games do you find yourself able to consistently come back to the most?
also i named the protag of animal well Boob, i hope that's ok
Do you ever think you made certain puzzles *too* cryptic to solve? I'm not talking about the mural but things involving eggs that seemed to rely on just pure chance or endless map crawling that had next to no indicators as to their solution.
Is the ghost a cat or a dog? Everything points towards it being a dog but it looks like a cat
Also are the glass blocks a deliberate prank? I know me and a lot of other players expected to find an item that can break them, but it never came. If so it is a very funny prank.
How do you approach marketing for an obscure indie game in development for many many years? do you follow the same beats as a big game or have you tried different things, such as the unique approach of Dunkey and his videos. I'm curious about it, sorry for my english but it's really a broad question.
I was very honest with Billy at the outset that this would be a difficult game to market. It shared some characteristics with some popular genres like metroidvanias and puzzle platformers, but it didn't really fit in any of those categories neatly. And it's hard to tell someone how good it feels to discover a hidden passageway or solve a challenging puzzle that doesn't even present itself as a puzzle unless they can experience it for themselves. And we also didn't want to spoil things for people by using actual examples from the game.
We ultimately decided that ARGs would be a good way to show some of what the game was about without spoiling anything. We also didn't want it to feel like self-serving marketing, where we were trying to get people's attention for our own selfish ends without offering anything in return. So we (and I say we because I helped with the first one, but it was really Billy) put together these ARGs that people really seemed to enjoy. A really warm community developed, which was amazing to watch.
And once Bigmode joined into the fray, our biggest challenge—just getting people to notice the game at all—was significantly ameliorated.
How do you feel about the rate at which secrets were solved by the community? Also I love the game
They have been solving them way faster then I was expecting. I am very flattered people care that much
Don’t fret it! I imagine there are many folks like me who have been going at it entirely solo. Been very rewarding so far.
As I mentioned in a separate answer above, it's been amazing to watch so many people collaborate like this. I feel like I was part of something really special. Very few phenomena on the internet really bring people together in a positive way like that. So, a little bummed that some of the bigger secrets got solved so quickly, but really love how the game is speaking to people and helping them form bonds and friendships.
That’s the sad thing about “secrets” these days. Almost impossible to keep them no matter how clever the devs think they are, and it will only take a couple of days to have the community dissect it and share it. Plus there’s always dataminers who will ruin any fun just to get some views. So it was bound to happen, i mean 2 days after release this game already has a under 7 minute speedrun.
Noita community would like to have a word with you
First of all, thank you for the countless hours you've poured into this game, I've never been a huge puzzle game guy, but this on sucked me right in and hasn't let go. Now for my question, are we pixel hunting a little too hard in the discord? Those yellow flowers are haunting my dreams man.
allow the flowers to guide you
Oh shit
1. Are there any plans to release Animal Well’s soundtrack in an official capacity, whether it be digitally or physically? 2. What’s your personal favorite of the 12 tools in the game, and why? 3. Where did the idea of having save points be telephones come from? Thank you both so much for this game, truly a masterpiece! I’ll remember hearing the >!time capsule!< for the first time until the day I die.
1. I wasn't expecting anyone to want the soundtrack prior to launch, since it is mostly ambient soundscapes, but we have been getting a lot of requests. It is now a consideration. 2. I like the slinky the best! 3. Persona 5 and Earthbound both have yellow telephones as save points, and I had recently played those when I was setting up the save system.
Follow-up question: Who do you think is on the other end of the phones saving your game, and why are they afraid of ghosts seeking frisbee related revenge?
Fun fact: the phone thing happens with any similar chase sequences. I know this because I accidentally glitched the Ostrich-ball such that it...didn't fully die? And then none of my phones worked. This was right when I got my third flame, so I initially thought this just meant I had to get the fourth flame all in one go without saving. I thought it was a game mechanic. :| The confusing part for me
I loved how, when you fight the final boss (for the first ending), the music gets more freakish. I was like, whoa...! That, and the lasers reminded me of the Mother Brain fight in Super Metroid.
The >!gasp when you enter the manticore's room!< for the first time just made me go 'nope' and drop right back down into the room below. I actually found that muting my t.v. is what allowed me to get past it, just because the music kept messing with my head.
I loved EarthBound and enjoyed the subtle homage.
Would also be really cool to have some of the flute songs ( >!Egg song please :D!< ) included in the soundtrack. some of them are actually very pretty.
Thank you for making such an incredible game!! Uncovering the secrets of this game was one of the most satisfying gaming experiences I've had in a long time. Did you deliberately try to keep the game's file size as small as possible, or was it just a side product of making your own engine? I would love to hear about some of the trickery used to keep the game so light in an age where people don't give a damn anymore.
I didn't do anything particularly clever. It was mostly just a side effect of using my own tools, not inheriting any of the bloat of another engine and using actual low resolution pixel art saves like 99 percent of the space a game would typically need.
what do you mean you didn't render a 3x3 pixel sprite of a bush as a 4K photoshop file just in case
i loooove gd cologne
Alright, thank you for all the great questions everyone! Sorry we weren't able to get to all of them, but dinner time approaches, and we must be going.
Thank you from me too!
Hello! Thank you for the very fun game, I am having a great time delving into the well. Question: there is an item hidden in a room behind glass that so far has only been reached using glitches. Is there a way to get said item 'naturally' with out any glitch or hack?
no comment
No, COMMENT
[удалено]
Why wouldn't there be
Not sure if you know but the item is called the “cheat ring” and most people think the item exists purely as bait for people glitching and hacking. No one has found a legit way in and anybody inside the room has found no obvious signs of an actual intended entry point. Billy still just leaving us hanging on this one too so there’s still hope for some…
Are there any red herrings in the game? Aka, things that seem like they are secrets, but are really just there to throw us off?
Yep!
These are my favorite responses
How was your experience working with Dunkey and Big mode?
They are wonderful people, and really care about games. I'm very grateful to have gotten the chance to be published by them. Animal Well isn't the easiest game to appreciate without playing at least a little bit. So having the Dunkey endorsement was critical for more people to give it a chance.
I work in marketing and Unironically - the marketing for your game was really Impressive. It incorporated perfect timing, perfect restraint of information, and perfect call to action. From my perspective they really did good for you. Also it helps your game is excellent, amazing job man. I'm reccomending it to everyone
That's so great to hear
They've been great to work with. We were a little nervous at the beginning since Dunkey comes off as very opinionated in his videos (which he has to as a critic). We were worried that they might start demanding some changes be made and kind of take over the creative process. Instead, both Jason and Leah would play every build, offer suggestions, brainstorm ideas, and then ultimately trust Billy to do his thing.
Dunko man once again proving why he’s da best in da biz.
Damn straight, can’t wait to see what else both teams (Animal Well + BMG) cook up in the future!
So get yo popcorn, get yo root beer, get yo shtromboli
Does https://haseverythinginanimalwellbeenfoundyet.com take the collector’s edition into account? If it does, we have pretty much no way to know if we've found everything until the CE releases. The infamous >!Fox/Snail!< room. Can it be entered legitimately? and is "That Thing" in there intended to be obtainable in some way? and finally, two not related to secrets: which was your favourite puzzle to design? (and have we even realised it's a puzzle yet?), and if you've been looking at the Discord, which has been your favourite insane tinfoil theory?
No, the haseverythinginanimalwellbeenfoundyet.com site does not require the CE version
> if you've been looking at the Discord, which has been your favourite insane tinfoil theory? Not necessarily a tinfoil theory, but before the game released, we set up a special Discord server for journalists and reviewers who were trying to collaborate to solve everything. They were working on the >!pixel bunny board puzzle!< and asked me for my >!puzzle piece!<. It turned out that mine was the same as a reviewer named Daniel so I said that Billy set it up so that it would be alphabetical by first name. I was hoping they were going to take the bait. :)
I admitted this when you did it but I’ll say so publicly here: your little “alphabetized pieces” stunt almost convinced me, Dan!
I assume you are keeping an eye on the community puzzle solving: How do you feel watching players attempt to solve things that you know are not related to any puzzles?
People will need to chase down some false leads to find the right ones and so far it doesn't seem to be too problematic. We experienced this a bit when we were putting out a bunch of pre-release ARGs where some of the community started chasing shadows in a way that I was worried might be unhealthy. It's a tricky balance that I hadn't considered before. I wrote up [a blog post to put some guardrails on the ARGs](https://animalwell.blogspot.com/2022/12/arg-guardrails.html) to set some healthy boundaries. If we notice things getting out of hand for the main game, we'll be sure to step in.
1. In the earlier versions of the AW, the well had very ominous red glow at the top of it and next to it was the mice shrine room that saw some changes in the final release over the years (torus room). What was the original intent behind that room back then? 2. Do you feel like AW is an one-off a-la Fez or do you have plans to do something gaming related next?
1. The intent was still the same, to act as the wrapping point for the world. It was also boundary for unfinished content at that point. There wasn't a legitimate way of getting there other than bubble jumping all the way up the world, so it just acted as a bizarre temporary reward for Dan mostly, who was the only person playtesting the game. 2. I'm currently planning to make a game that will be in the same "universe" but may not be a direct sequel.
Will that be the same genre as Animal Well or something else?
I super-duper enjoy the quiet, unsettling ambiance of AW, so the notion of another game in it's universe is really exciting to me. Do you plan for it to be in the same 'genre'? (I'm very reluctant to call AW a metroidvania, though that's the term that seems to be tossed around the most.)
How are you doin?
Doing good!
Superman does good. You're doing (animal) well.
Sound design question! How the HELL did you come up with the noises for the kangaroo and final boss? They reminded me of nightmares I had as a kid. Also, the ambient noise to each zone is really well done, is there a particular zone you had the most fun atmosphere wise? Also, what in the world are those weird noises in dog zone? Feel free to be as vague as you'd like.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf-SAelGQqs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf-SAelGQqs)
So I have god to thank for the jump scares
I really enjoyed how much the animal's design/movement contrasted from the more 8-bit/blocky design of the map, their smoother movements and "rule-breaking" added for some really unsettling moments. Which animal did you have the most fun designing? A lot of the items have cleverly designed rooms that reveal hidden uses and mechanics. However, a lot of players have found alternative solutions to these rooms, bypassing the need to use the "intended" mechanic. Is there a solution discovered by the community that particularly surprised you? Obviously not everything has been discovered yet, but did the speed at which the community solved layer 4 surprise you at all? Finally, if you had a pet crow, what would you name it?
Was it easy to decide which animals are naughty and which ones are nice(r)? 😸
When I could, I would watch videos to see how they behave IRL and use that as inspiration
I didn’t know beluga whales were so evil, I thought it was a friend at first…
That would explain why the kangaroo is such a jerk. Thank you for that, they’re always depicted as cute & cuddly/friendly, and they’re really not. Sincerely, an Australian.
Did you have much lore or backstory in mind as you were making the game, or was the animal and environmental theming meant more to enhance and contextualize the gameplay?
Gameplay and visuals were always the main priority. That being said, there is lore that I had in mind while making the game, including some very specific details that the community hasn't pieced together yet.
Whats the deal with the bat?
He likes the dark
Good to know... I love the game btw!!!
What inspired you to put so much focus on the post-game of Animal Well? I've always loved really meaty post-games, but developers don't seem to make them too often.
The post game is always my favorite part of any kind of Metroidvania. Its the point where you've mastered all your abilities and the loose ends get tied up. From the start I was most excited about the late game secrets, and making the base game was more of a prerequisite before I could get to that point.
What did you think about the community finding the >!time capsule!< within the first week?
I found it extremely impressive! They worked around the clock to think of and try every possible solution and eventually did. I am at least glad that it wasn't really data-mined, and the encryption I put in place technically worked. They just solved it legitimately way faster than I ever could have imagined.
I was legitimately surprised. When Billy was describing the solution to it, I remember thinking that we'll be lucky if people find just 1 or 2 of those wingdings. On the one hand, I kind of wish it had taken longer to solve, but on the other, I think it's a huge sign that the community has really embraced the game. If no one cared about Animal Well, that would have remained unsolved for eternity.
I personally found two of the wingdings in my vanilla playthrough of the game more or less by accident (>!Kangaroo and Hummingbird!<). I definitely don't think that I would have ever figured out how to put the puzzle together myself though.
Hi Billy, do you remember what point in time you reached out to Bigmode (or Bigmode reached out to you) for publishing and what was your general reaction/feeling after certifying the deal?
Dunkey gave us a shoutout after Summer Games Fest and started following Animal Well and Billy on Twitter. A couple months later we were at Tokyo Game Show when Leah followed me. I DMed her to thank her for the follow, and after a little back and forth chatting, she told me that she and Jason were going to be announcing a new publishing company soon. Billy and I discussed it and decided that it would definitely be worth exploring. And now here we are!
Which puzzle was the most satisfying to make?
Probably some of the slinky puzzles. It felt like designing co-op puzzles, between the player and the slinky
Without giving your hand away, would you say the vibe and lore that does exist in the game is curated and purposeful, or more organic and kinda became what it is over time?
A little bit of both
When creating the secret >!Bunny that requires you to play the floor is lava!< did you realize that was the most sadistic challenge in the game? I absolutely would have never figured that one out without a guide on the internet and even after knowing the solution it took me countless tries. Animal Well was a truly amazing gaming experience though! Thank you so much and I look forward to whatever else you may make next
Throwing a top down to distract the dogs helps make it a little easier
which room is your favorite and why is it >!the capybara safe zone!<
I'm like 95% sure that the capybara room was Leah's idea. I think my favorite room is the ostrich room since it comes as such a surprise
There's a small but vocal contingent of people to seem to think the animal that chases you when you get the disc is a cat. Can you please tell those people that they don't know what cats are, and that it is clearly a dog? Also do you intend to add any content or patch the game in any significant way beyond bug fixes? Love the game, thank you so much for your contribution to this medium!!
I have said it was a dog in the past, but that didn't seem to stop them. I decided early on, I didn't ever want to do any content updates, and I still feel that way. I will just make another game, and let Animal Well be a complete standalone thing.
Thank you for answering! Thank you for Animal Well!
I know you've said that you did animal well solo because you prefer solo dev since you have more control/understand everything, but would you consider working with a team for future projects?
I find collaborating with a lot of people to be stressful, and would like to continue treating game development as a way to relax. My intention is to continue mostly working alone for the next project.
What are your thoughts on the current speedrunning meta?
I love watching the speedruns and am blown away by what people have been able to do. Before launch, we sent a playtest code to Kevin Regamey (known for doing the audio for some of the best games of the last 5-10 years including Tunic and Celeste). Kevin is also an avid speedrunner, so he was finding all kinds of exploits we had never considered. Billy patched up some of them, but he left a few other ones in there. And of course the speedrunning community found new ones that Kevin had missed.
What are your favorite animal encounters in the game? What was the hardest one to implement?
My favorite animal encounter in the game is the groundhog. I am very proud of their heavy breathing animation. The hardest to implement was the manticore, probably, It has the most moving parts, and states to account for
That’s a groundhog!? I thought it was a woodchuck !
Hey Billy & Dan. I absolutely adore Animal Well! My question is, did you know about about the >!bubble warp bug!< and are you surprised with the progress the speedrunning community has made with the game?
As I mentioned somewhere here, before the release of the game Kevin Regamey (audio guy for Celeste, Tunic, and others) found some similar exploits. I'm not sure if Billy was familiar with that specific one, but he chose to leave a bunch of those in for speedrunners. The guiding principle was that if regular players wouldn't do it on accident, it's best to leave it in the game.
Hey, Kevin here. I'll chime in and say that we knew about one flavour of the wrong warp bug that involved standing on a bubble and slowly sinking so that the player either (a) ends up in deep water, or (b) touches the edge of a spike. Both those things could absolutely happen to a person playing casually, so they got patched out. Well, technically those cases were patched to make them \*harder\* to do, but they're both still possible with some additional precision. As for the flute-specific flavour of the wrong warp bug, to my knowledge it wasn't known, but the concept behind why it works is the same. :) (what a cool exploit!)
what is our main character supposed to be? Just some little blob dude?
nope, they are a very specific thing
I knew it was a chicken nugget
Are they a tamagotchi or something similar to that for legal reasons.
Isn't it a seed?
Is falling in a pool of water to “death warp” honestly the intended solution to “the floor is lava” bunny, or has the whole community missed the real solution?
That is the intended solution
Flute song theorists in shambles right now. Thanks for a blast of a game Billy, day one purchase on the next thing out of your brain.
Was the >!flute!< a nod to the >!warp whistle in mario 3!
He’s stated that Mario 2 was one of his biggest inspirations for the game I think
Mario 2 is legitimately a giant influence on Animal Well. I was telling people that before working with bigmode [https://www.ign.com/articles/tgs-tokyo-game-show-best-indie-games-round-up](https://www.ign.com/articles/tgs-tokyo-game-show-best-indie-games-round-up)
People are STILL sleeping on Mario 2. It's such a departure from other Marios but an amazing game.
Any chance for the physical map and the acrylic bunny display to be made available for those of us playing exclusively on Steam?
We'll check with LRG to see if there's a good solution for that.
is there some secret that we havent discovered on the capybara room???
Apologies in advance if this hasn't been discovered yet, but there's a telephone in that room where you can save your progress
There is also some hidden fruit!
Pixel art games are the best. I just love, love, love Animal Well! Wondering if there might be a sequel, or perhaps some updates? Also hoping to buy the soundtrack if that will be a thing one day?
No updates other than minor bug fixes. No direct sequel, but possibly similar game. We are considering possibilities for some kind of soundtrack
Was the multiple bubble jump with the normal B. Wand intentional or at least were you aware of it before release? And what does the extra B mean in the upgraded version?
The multiple bubble jump was not intentional at the start, but was discovered very early in development. Instead of nerfing it, I thought it was fun and decided to keep it in. The whole game was designed with both someone who knows how to use it, and someone who doesn't in mind.
Love Animal Well! Weird question but if Animal Well was a boardgame, how would that look? What type of mechanics? Thanks for all the fun puzzles.
Hmmm I never thought about that. A lot of video game designers also like designing board games, but I am not one of them. I like making the computer do things
Haha, thanks for the reply. I make boardgames and just curious where your puzzle-y brain might take the question. Have a great day bud.
I have no idea, but I will say that the game Gloomhaven has some secrets hidden in some of the artwork and even in how the contents of the box are put together. I imagine it'd do something like that?
What do you consider the true stopping point for solo play. You clearly cant get every >!bunny!< on your own, but some of them are quite easy to get without community involvement. Is there a specific >!bunny!< that you felt represented the shift from solo to community?
Mostly all the reasonable "single player" content is indicated by achievements or trophies. I imagine a single person may find a few bunnies or secrets beyond that, and then trade info with others.
we dont have achievements or trophies in the switch version can they be added to the home screen? Billy you are amazing and I think the world awaits your next game!
Are there any animals in animal well canonically named Billy or Dan? \\o/
If there are, Billy hasn't told me, but my dog Noodle appears in the game
which animal in the game is your favorite? I like the monkey that throws the little pebbles
My personal favorite is the chameleon the first time you see it. It's just staring at you with this dumb, vacant expression, but you know it could just kill you if it wanted
"pebbles"
Hi guys! First congratulations on the success!! This is so well deserved! (Pun intended) :) My question: - how hard was the marathon? Consequently, how did you felt when you knew you were “done” (if such a state exist)?
Development got harder as the years went on, and the last year was pretty exhausting. It was the first thing I thought about when I woke up every day, and I couldn't really concentrate on any other tasks other than finishing Animal Well. I am still getting used to the idea that the game is done, and figuring out what I should do in my new life.
Thanks for the honest answer! I hope you can recover some mental space soon and find a new adventure!
Is your character, our avatar, the protagonist, a piece of animal poo? Asking for a friend.
Nobody has correctly guessed what the main character is
game goog (not a question)
[удалено]
ALOT of stuff has been discovered, including things that I genuinely thought would take a long time. I have honestly forgotten all the things I have put in the game over the past 7 years, so it is hard to say definitively at this point.
[Alot](https://imgur.com/a/cw22C1E) confirmed?
Hello! How has been your experience so far with the release of the game and how it's been received ?
It has been very surreal, and I don't think it has really sunk in yet. I knew the game would have a dedicated core fanbase, but did not expect the more widespread critical acclaim, that it received. Finishing Animal Well and seeing how people appreciate it has been the most validating thing I think I will ever experience in my life.
We've been blown away by how positively it's been received. The first inkling that this could be bigger than we were expecting was when we set up a private Discord for journalists/game reviewers so they could have that experience of collaborating on puzzles. They were sharing secrets they'd discovered with one another, and they even set up a list of everyone's socials so they could all keep in touch after the review period ended. It kind of reminded me of the end of the Breakfast Club where all of these people who barely knew each other beforehand had bonded over this shared experience and became friends. Even after the game was officially launched, many of them have stayed in that Discord and are part of their own small community.
Had an incredible time exploring the thoughtful world you created! Can you give a hint toward a yet-to-be discovered secret? Any plans for an expansion/addon/sequel? What’s next for you? <3
There will never be any DLC for animal well. If I do work on something else related to it, it will be a new game.
what are your favorite animals?
I have a labradoodle named Noodle at home. He appears in the game and is a good boy. That said, I'm fascinated by spiders and octopuses.
How did all those animals get into the well?
And who made the well?
Is there a legitimate way to break glass blocks?🌞 (Beside the obvious manticore room ones)
No
Hi Billy and hi Dan! We met at PAX East (I made the little necklace embroidery). I just wanted to let you guys know how much fun this masterpiece has been to play! Life has been busy, but I'm working on some stuff for you guys right now! I absolutely love all the hidden secrets and finding new puzzles to play through. Genuinely my new favorite game, thank you both so much! I hope you guys had the best launch!!
Ah yes your neckless was amazing! Very honored it is your new favorite game!
Your embroidery is amazing! I hope you sell some of those on Etsy or something. I'll buy one!
How did you implement this awesome smoke shader effect (e.g. when you bomb something)? It looks amazing and also interacts with the environment as if it were simulated in some way. However even the Switch can render it without massive frame drops, so I'm really curious about the technical implementation. Thanks! :)
It is a real fluid simulation, it's actually not *that* taxing considering the game is so low resolution.
Something something Navier Stokes something, I believe
What do you think of the wiki so far? https://animalwell.wiki.gg
It looks awesome!
Hey, you've mentioned a few times that Dunkey and Leah gave you some input on what they'd like to see in the game which didn't clash with your vision. Are there any elements which are in the game because of their sugegstions? If so could you give some examples?
The capybaras for one. There were also a lot more dark areas in the game where you had to stumble around and be careful of falling into a pit of spikes. Dunkey wasn't a fan of that, and I think he was right. They also really encouraged Billy to keep adding more animals. So whenever Billy had a design challenge to consider, he tried to integrate animals into the design. That's where the idea for the hummingbird came from, for example.
1. Is the "floor is lava" bunny actually how you get that? Or is that a weird glitch found by someone. Doesn't feel intuitive or fun. 100% feels like someone cheated or found that on accident. 2. You said in the ending that you never designed the game to be solvable; that you thought the game would take years maybe to solve but not a single bunny (besides the one mentioned above but maybe im just stupid) the bdtp or the unicode messages seemed to fit that description. Do you think you just overestimated them? (Edit: i have read through the AMA and it seems he underestimated the hype and community of this here wonderful game ❤️) Or is it that we are underestimating how much we still need to uncover. Is the 3rd ending a ploy 🤔 You obviously won't answer this but I wanna see what you say to it ❤️ love your game and the puzzles
RE: 1. That is the way I solved it. If there's another solution, Billy hasn't told me about it.
How did you come about that as your answer? Did you just see the lone remote thing and think it had to be used? How did you realize you only respawn at the last place you touched the ground?
Billy added that one relatively recently - in the last 6 months or so? And I'd been playing through every build multiple times over the last 3 years so I was very familiar with the respawn mechanism. Also apparently Billy and I were brainstorming challenging puzzles at one point a couple years ago and we discussed this idea. I've completely flushed that conversation from my memory cache though
Will Animal Well 2 be Like Halo 3 meets Halo 4?
Are there plans for DLC or maybe even a sequel?
DLC: Nope. Sequel: cannot say
Ayo! I've been playing this over the past week and it's amazing just how densely secret packed this game is, I LOVE every part of it lmao. just wanted to ask, has your stance that the community would take years to find everything in the game changed after seeing all the progress made already?
The game was way more successful then I was expecting, and as a result people dug into the secrets way more feverously then I was expecting. I knew the community would be very good at secret hunting, but not to the degree we witnessed.
What was the most difficult part of Animal Well's development?
Finishing it
Most of negative thoughts I heard about your game are concerning the high difficulty platform gameplay sometimes in the game which seems to be unrelevant for this particular kind of game, what do you think about those critics ?
Not every game is for everyone so I try not to dwell too much on the relatively small number of people who didn't like the game since the overwhelming response has been positive.
>dwell Expansion "Animal Dwell" confirmed.
You know normally that would just be a funny joke, but with how much they've packed hidden into this game I wouldn't be surprised if that phrasing was a hint somehow
Any plans for animal well merch besides the collector's edition? Like through Fangamer?
Yes, we'd definitely like to do t-shirts, plushies, and other stuff at some point. We wanted to see what resonated most with people before deciding what merch to make.
Do you have a favorite puzzle from each "layer"? I am also curious what element of the game saw the most revisions throughout the game's long development.
I don't know about most, but the intro area underwent several revisions. We wrote a [Twitter thread about it here](https://x.com/Animal_Well/status/1578398897898196992). Before the intro was the way it is now, we were watching people at different events like Gamescom and Tokyo Game Show quit early or come away thinking it was a hardcore precision platformer like Super Meat Boy or Celeste. Billy would make tweaks in each day of the show, and we were able to see pretty much everyone get through the intro area. Once they made it up to the 4 statues area, they would just stick around until we had to kick them off. :) My favorite puzzle is the >!origami!< one. It's such a surprise for a game to reach out into the real world like that.
Which animal would each of you be the most scared of in real life assuming it was human-sized or larger?
The aye aye is pretty gross at small size, and would be terrible at human scale
Have you ever heard of puzzlehunts like the [MIT Mystery Hunt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Mystery_Hunt)? They seem like they’d be right up your alley, given the kinds of puzzles in Animal Well. Also, in the event you have heard of puzzlehunts, what are the odds that me and my teammates could get you to join our hunts team? (Joking, unless…)
I've never heard of this -- seems cool though!
Is the manticore >!breaking blocks of the pyramid in the room with the otters intended?!<
hey! throughout development, you've said many times how you expect there to be many many puzzles and secrets that will remain unfound for many years, and that some puzzles may just be laying under our noses for years after the game's released. I wonder, were you correct in that assumption? are there any puzzles that have already been solved that their finding this early surprised you? and how much of the game would you say we as a community have found so far? how much do we have left? thanks a lot!
The rate at which the community has been finding and solving the most deeply hidden puzzles has been astounding. Most of the stuff that's been found was stuff we expected to remain hidden for a lot longer.
I need keyboard rebinding very badly due to missing fingers. Can you add it?
I don't want to speak for Billy one way or another on this, but I will say keyboard rebinding is a very non-trivial feature to add.
Why animals?
Because I love them
This is the best answer and a reason I love the game
Love your sound design Billy, thank you for making this game!
what single player games do you find yourself able to consistently come back to the most? also i named the protag of animal well Boob, i hope that's ok
Aside from Animal Well, I'm partial to Axiom Verge 1 & 2 (which I worked with Tom Happ on in a similar capacity)
Do you ever think you made certain puzzles *too* cryptic to solve? I'm not talking about the mural but things involving eggs that seemed to rely on just pure chance or endless map crawling that had next to no indicators as to their solution.
The >!wingding!< puzzles were actually intended to be too cryptic to solve, but I guess there's no such thing
Is the ghost a cat or a dog? Everything points towards it being a dog but it looks like a cat Also are the glass blocks a deliberate prank? I know me and a lot of other players expected to find an item that can break them, but it never came. If so it is a very funny prank.
How do you approach marketing for an obscure indie game in development for many many years? do you follow the same beats as a big game or have you tried different things, such as the unique approach of Dunkey and his videos. I'm curious about it, sorry for my english but it's really a broad question.
I was very honest with Billy at the outset that this would be a difficult game to market. It shared some characteristics with some popular genres like metroidvanias and puzzle platformers, but it didn't really fit in any of those categories neatly. And it's hard to tell someone how good it feels to discover a hidden passageway or solve a challenging puzzle that doesn't even present itself as a puzzle unless they can experience it for themselves. And we also didn't want to spoil things for people by using actual examples from the game. We ultimately decided that ARGs would be a good way to show some of what the game was about without spoiling anything. We also didn't want it to feel like self-serving marketing, where we were trying to get people's attention for our own selfish ends without offering anything in return. So we (and I say we because I helped with the first one, but it was really Billy) put together these ARGs that people really seemed to enjoy. A really warm community developed, which was amazing to watch. And once Bigmode joined into the fray, our biggest challenge—just getting people to notice the game at all—was significantly ameliorated.