February 2026 Dev Update
Hi Everyone!!
Allow me to introduce myself - I’m Vicki, Production Director here at Wildflower. As promised back in December, this is the first of many updates about what the studio has been up to recently!
It’s nearing the end of February, and what does that mean for game devs? GDC! It’s quickly approaching and a few of us on the team will be making the trek to San Francisco. Bruce is giving a talk, so if you’re in the industry and have a pass, I highly recommend swinging by to check it out.
In his session, From a Naughty Dog to a Wildflower: The Fears, Failures, and Freedoms Found he will not only share behind-the-scenes stories about his career successes, but you’ll also get to hear juicy tidbits about what hasn’t gone so swimmingly. In this industry, there’s so much we can learn both from our own missteps and from others.
Details:
Date: Thursday, March 12
Time: 4:30-5:30 p.m. PDT
Location: Festival Stage (South Hall), Moscone Convention Center
Access: Open to GDC pass holders.
Writing a GDC talk is itself a creative endeavor, and as such, Bruce has approached it in much the same way he approaches game development. He’s been pitching ideas and gathering feedback from a few of us on the team over the last few weeks. From a production standpoint, I’ve enjoyed watching it unfold like a miniature version of creating a game. We’ve chatted about the high-level topics, the thematic through-lines. The beginning - middle - and end structure. He focus-tested the ideas and found greater nuance and clarity in the message through his back-and-forth with us on the team. Right now he’s in the final stretch, filling in all the remaining details in preparation for giving a mock presentation to a few of us for one last round of notes.
Player feedback and rapid iteration are at the heart of Bruce’s development approach. The faster we can stand up content and start getting feedback, the better. We regularly play the game together as a team and encourage everyone to share what’s on their mind about the game - whether it’s things that aren’t working so well, moments that are really resonating, or brainstorming ideas on what else would be fun to build.
We also try to run external playtests as often as possible. Over the holidays we sent a build out with a little over an hour of content, and the notes gave us a lot of fodder for iteration. Fresh eyes helped us identify and address usability issues, pacing concerns, hint system needs, and of course, plenty of bugs. But the best part of the test was that we felt validated that we’re heading in the right direction with Coven of the Chicken Foot.
I’ll leave you with this quote from one of our playtesters which made us smile:
I wanted to play the playtest twice just to make sure I could properly soak in more of the world and play around a bit more with the mechanics
We’ll be back soon with more updates!
~Vicki
Bruce is doing a GDC Talk?! That is so awesome, been a while since the last one! (I think it was the “Active Cinematic Experience” one)
It’s been interesting watching Bruce chase his dream of making the “ultimate Ico-like experience” for so long, i have no doubt after Coven of the Chicken Foot he’ll still give it yet another shot lol
I’m 19 making games and Bruce and his design philosophy and general mentality for game dev has been a pillar for me throughout my life.
Scouring the internet to hear more of his thoughts is tough tho, i know he likes to keep his public presence minimal but rare cases like this where he’s on a podcast or a talk or whatever are absolute gold for younger designers like me.
I really look up to him and wish the entire team success. I know i’ll be playing the game on Day 1!
p.s. if yall need free playtesting, you know where to find me! :)