Hello, future entomologists! It’s time for another quick update on CatchMaker. Aside from trying to get some funding, we have been rethinking the way we approach dating, so let’s get right into it!

Dating Reworked

We felt the date UI wasn’t giving the player sufficient information. While you could gain a general sense of how the date was going, it was hard to understand why it was going that way and what impacted the process. This made it hard to predict whether the outcome would be failure, an OK match, or a perfect couple!

So, we decided to rework how dates work and also how we represented its progress during the actual date itself.

Each bug has attributes they LOVE, others that they HATE, and a bunch that they are INDIFFERENT about. During a date, they will make comments about the traits of the OTHER bug, e.g., “I love your colorful body.” or “I hate that you have a hard shell.”, etc.
Depending on their PERSEVERANCE bugs will be able to take a certain number of negative comments before their heart is broken. You can think of this as how many “lives” they have. This is now clearly shown in the UI in the size and color of their heart: the larger and warmer it is, the more the bug perseveres. Every negative comment they receive shrinks it a little bit more, and if it pops completely, and the date fails.

The other part is EAGERNESS, which determines how excited they are to find a partner in general. The “love bar” starts at the two sides of the screen, next to each bug, and positive comments push the hearts closer together towards the center where they meet and meld into one. This is the best possible outcome, a perfect match!

The UI now also represents this by a number of “checkpoints” the hearts need to go through before meeting in the middle. One positive comment fills the bar to the next checkpoint.

Now, there is a lot more going under the hood that will make every date an exciting and rewarding event, but we’re hoping that these changes will give you a clear understanding of what’s going on and put control into your hands. After all, you ARE matchmaking love doctors!

Dating Reworked

Work on the second Biome has started. It will be a Birch Forest with a more autumnal vibe. As you progress the story you will gain access to it and the bugs that live here will need your help too.

It features some abandoned man-made structures that have been reclaimed by nature and represents a wilder area than the ones we’ve shown so far. This biome, complete with a disused mine, was inspired by a region in our home country of Luxembourg called Minett or Land of the Red Rocks.

We’re also adding some crows to the game in this area. “The early bug avoids the bird.”

That’s it for now! Thank you for checking out this month’s update. As always, check out our social media for more regular updates.

Dev Diary November 2025

Hello everyone, thank you for reading this month’s dev diary. I’m really excited to get the ball rolling because today we’re talking about:

• Our Steam page going live next week!
• Progress on bug traits
• Dev diary going forward

Steam Page Going Live December 9th

As some of you may already know, we’ll be unveiling our game next week during the Wholesome Snack live show! You’ll get to see the trailer during its world-premiere debut.

When

December 9th 21:00 Central European Time, 3pm ET (12pm PT)

Where

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/WholesomeGames
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/wholesome_games

We will be watching the show live and would love to hear from you, so feel free to chat with us on social media.

After the trailer premieres, you can head over to our Steam page to wishlist the game. We will send you the link by email the following morning, and you will also be able to find it on all of our social media pages.

Bug Trait Discovery Progress

So, we know that bugs have traits but how do we use these to our advantage? Well when sending out bugs on a date, you will learn how they feel about their date’s traits. They can either be indifferent to a category of traits. For example a critter doesn’t care whether their date has wings or not. Otherwise they will Hate (red), Like (blue), or Love(green) certain traits. In the image above for example Ardene the yellerbee love’s Maggi’s Oozy attitude.

By the reaction a bug has to their date you can find out what their ideal partner looks like by deducing which traits they are looking for.

If you click the image below you can see a quick look what the end of a date could look like. Although as with anything this early in development, everything is still subject to change.

Changes to the Dev Diary

We are changing things up a bit! From now on, we will release developer diaries every three months so there is more exciting progress to share each time and we can do some deeper dives into the art, systems and design of the game. And don’t worry, our devs are still working just as hard behind the scenes.

So the next dev diary will be towards the end of February. Until then you can always catch regular updates on the development on our social media accounts.

We all at Grand Duck Games are really excited for the announcement and we hope everyone enjoys the trailer.

Flo

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Dev Diary October 2025

Hello hello hello and welcome to this month’s dev diary. We have some very exciting news to share with you this month so make sure to read until the end.

On today’s menu we have:

• Visually representing bug traits
• Building the village
• BIG game announcement news

Bug Traits and How to Identify Them

As previously discussed in our August dev diary all bugs will have random traits that will determine whether they have a chance with their date.

There are multiple trait options for each trait and some bugs have traits that others don’t. For example we have the wings trait. A bug can either:

1. have no wings
2. have one pair of wings
3. have two pairs of wings

Other traits include color, shell type, antenna, attitude, and eyes for example.

All these traits are randomized to generate the look for the critters in the game. Here are some examples.

Building the Village

The village and its surroundings are starting to take shape. Take a look…

Game Announcement

I know I have been tip-toeing around the subject of the official announcement for a while now. This is because we have been trying to reach as big of an audience as possible for our release.

This is why I am SUPER EXCITED to finally be able to share the news with you guys that we will be participating in the Wholesome Snack this December 9th at 9 PM CET.

So tune in to the Wholesome Snack on Twitch.tv to see our game announcement live. We are incredibly excited to be part of such a big event.

What’s Next?

As before, the devs are hard at work, making assets, designing the world and coding stuff that needs coding.

Our priorities are making sure everything goes of smoothly for the game announcement and making a playable demo so that you can hopefully try the game next year (*knocking on wood*). I will give you guys an estimated time window as to when we will release a demo as soon as I can. In the meantime you have the Wholesome Snack to look forward to.

As always, thank you for taking some time to read this newsletter. I’d love to hear from you so feel free to reach out to us via social media or email.

Yours truly,

Flo

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Dev Diary September 2025

Hello everyone, welcome to our third dev diary. 

In this entry, I will be focusing on the following things:

• Some of our new environments
• Creature concepts
• “Juicing” the game

Decorating the Island

Our artists have started designing and making more assets for the island. These are things like houses, flora, and decorations.

In this example, we start with an early rough 3D model of a house, then add some greenery in 2D to brainstorm what the finished version could look like, and finally create another 3D model that incorporates some of those changes.

The process itself can vary slightly and often artists start with a 2D sketch.

Sketching out concepts in 2D is much faster than sculpting it in 3D, so artists will generally start with sketches including variations of the subject before creating it in 3D.

More Cute Critters

Like I mentioned in the last dev diary, bugs will have different attributes which means they will look different up close.

Here is a bug in 3D and what its 2D variations can look like. (I’m not sure we have landed on a name, but my favourite is Tricerahops.)

Of course we are still coming up with a bunch more critters for the game. I’m not gonna bore you with the details, but if you have questions, I would love to hear from you. You can always reply to this email or hit us up on one of our social media pages.

Getting JUICED

What is “juice” in video games?

To add juice to a game simply means to add animations or effects with the purpose of making it feel better. There are lots and lots of small ways to add juice to a game, most people won’t even consciously pick them up but they are very important to elevate a experience.

When slamming your net down near pinwheels, they start turning.

The grass sways gently in the wind 🍃

There are a couple things here: the bugs move around both when they talk and as an idle animation. And you can only see it vaguely in this gif, but letters pop up and big and get a bit smaller to give the dialogue more action.

What’s Next?

I know I have been saying this for a while, now but the announcement trailer is pretty much done. We are adding music and sound effects. Right now we are figuring out when we will release the Steam page. We will make a big announcement and finally be able to reveal the name of the game when we do.

Until then, follow us on our socials if you’d like to support us. 🙂

Thanks for reading this far, I truly appreciate it.

-Flo

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Dev Diary August 2025

Hey guys and welcome to our second dev diary. I’m super excited to share the core concept of our game. But before we get into that here is what we will be talking about today:

• Matchmaking game concept
• Introducing the island inhabitants
• What’s next?

Catching bugs and feelings!

The core concept of the game is catching bugs to help them find love ❤️ I will tell you a bit more about the story reasons at a later point but I can assure you the bugs are willing participants.

The gameplay loop will consist of catching bugs then helping them find a compatible bug-partner. 

Just like with humans, finding the better half of your many legged friends is not an easy task. There are a couple steps necessary to set up a successful date.

Traits & Preferences

Critters will have dating traits & preferences.

The different traits a bug has make up their “dating profile”. Some bugs will be very picky while others are more open to any trait.

Traits are things like:

• Number of legs/wings
• Shell type
• Color/style
• Personality
• Eyes/antennae

Compatibility

You can learn what a bugs preferences are by:

• Sending them on dates 
• Finding notes in the wild
• Observing bugs in their natural habitat
• Tracking bugs in the wild
• Postcards obtained through perfect matches
• Events (when running around with a bug it might let you know that it likes this place a lot)

Preparing a Date

There are two environmental factors that determine a date’s success, decoration and location.

Setting the Mood (decorating)

You will be able to add objects to increase the odds of the date succeeding such as branches, rocks, moss or flowers. Each bug will have different preferences that you will need to adapt to.

Finding the perfect spot (location)

The date spot can be a certain biome or landmark like a waterfall or lake, or it can be specific cardboard backgrounds that can be found/unlocked around the island. Here again certain bugs will prefer different environments.

Meet the Islanders

Of course you will get to know the island locals during your stay on the island. Here is some concept art for some of the islanders you will meet.

Leah

Loves landscapes and pictures of landscapes. Tells the player about chill-spots and doesn’t stop talking about how beautiful the mountain is. Doesn’t really care for bugs but is supportive anyway.

Wears polaroids as earrings. “What if one breaks? Don’t care, i take new pictures all the time!”

John

Tries really hard to be different from everyone else but is still going through his journey of self-discovery.

Lindsey

Lumberjill with history in the mountain, doesn’t trust it.

She acts outwardly cold but is really kind once you get to know her. Names all her axes in her collection.

Winston

Operates a fishing hut near the beach but is a surfer boy at heart.

Has build the hut by himself to be always close to the ocean and marine life despite not having much fishing experience.

Matt

A Mayor that doesn’t know how to be a mayor. Rarely gets the opportunity to exercise  his authority, but when  he does, he loves reveling in that feeling.

Nick

Friendly weirdo next door. Used to work as a sign-flipper for a fast food chain and kept the costume and sign.

What’s Next?

We decided to make some changes to the trailer to better highlight the dating aspect so the trailer will take a while longer until it is done.

The plan stays the same. Once we have a trailer we can officially release on steam. After that the team will focus on getting a playable demo up for the beginning of next year.

That’s it for this dev diary. Let me know what you would like to hear more about and follow us on our socials for more regular updates.

Please feel free to respond to this email or contact us directly on our socials. We would love to chat with you directly and answer any questions you may have. 

-Flo

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