Piggy Payback! 2025 Year In Review

Bo
5 days ago
5 min read

Welcome back to the 'Piggy Payback!' devlog! You’re reading the year in review for the game’s development.

Yes, we're still here and we're still working hard on this game!

We hope all you bacon fans have been well this year. It’s been a pretty crazy year for us, personally. A lot of ups and downs for me (Bo) and Andrew. With my health scare (I almost died) and stay in the hospital, I've had to switch to a more balanced lifestyle, which included less time spent sitting at my PC. But nevertheless, we are still working hard on Piggy, and we hope to bring you the beta demo and trailer in the first half of this year.

The first big update is itself the 3D art. We’re almost done with the first two new and improved models. We will soon have the main pig character the player plays as (Jumbo George), as well as the second of the three main bird models. These new models are much better looking, cuter, and also more performant, so your game will run faster, as well.

We’ve added yet another brand new mechanic to Piggy! The Special Move system unlocks a unique special move for each character. You fill your Special Move meter by scoring points quickly. Once full, your Special Move is unlocked. Tap within the gold box in the middle of the screen to utilize the Move.

The special move system in Piggy Payback!

Jumbo George’s special move is called ‘Heavy Impact’. Once activated, each time George bounces off a surface, his massive frame warps the air around him. This causes a warped air effect to expand around him, squashing any bird or egg it touches. It effectively makes his collision (the space he takes up) larger, making it easier to squash those pesky feathered fiends!

We’ve finally perfected the tutorial widget system. The issue was that some of the arrows point to objects in the world, while others point to UI elements. So when we changed the aspect ratio of the screen, some of the arrows would be offset from where they should be. We had to make two different versions of the system. One for the objects in the levels, and one for the UI elements.

Another cool thing we added is the visual objects to the cannon which represent the cannon upgrade. For example, the laser upgrade has an actual laser mod on the side of the cannon that actually projects the laser.

MultiBoar - The Boxing Glove that punches an additional Piggy into the level

One of the mechanics we’ve perfected is the extra pig, or ‘multi-boar’ system. One of the ways you can unlock multi-boar is by pressing a button with your pig, which causes a giant boxing glove to punch the extra pig, causing it to roll into the level. You now have multiple pigs to flap around the levels to help you in your bird bashing brawl.

The Point Multiplier Slots

Another mechanic we’ve perfected is the point multiplier slots. Pinball-style slots that the pig drops into, which increase your minimum point multiplier for a few seconds. This mechanic can help you score insane points! Just get your pig to drop into one of the slots, and reap the rewards!

In addition, the game now has the new mechanic, ‘Jumbo eggs’. These are giant metal eggs that require multiple piggy hits to score. The pig bounces off of them with crazy velocity, and once hit enough times, explode, rewarding you with even more points. Pretty sick.

As for the gear store, we added a new system for you to buy backwards hats. You will be able to buy a backwards version of some of the hats available in the store, and this will be denoted by a blue 'backwards' icon.

Piggy falling into the slop trough

We decided that the row of barrel hazards at the bottom of the vertical levels was kind of lame. So we replaced them with a pig trough hazard. Now when you let your pig drop below the paddles, he drops into a piggy trough full of slop 🤮- It’s best to avoid this…

On the visual side of things, we’ve finalized the look of the 3D menu level. We got all the textures right, perfected the outlines system and got every object exactly where we want it. We’re pretty proud of this world!

In addition to all of this, we’ve implemented countless bug fixes, improved many mechanics, and optimized and polished every aspect of the game, top to bottom, since the alpha demo we released a couple years back. Piggy Payback! Is really feeling like a great game now.🔥

We’re now very close to finishing the Piggy Beta demo. We’ve begun packaging test builds for PC. From here, it’s mostly a matter of working out the bugs that emerge from the packaged game, as well as doing the same thing for Android builds. We will then be able to make the demo available to the public! We’re pretty excited about this, as it’s been a very long time coming.👍

We’ve had some bad luck with the art side of things, so the 3D art needed for the demo/trailer is taking longer than expected. But we’re in the process of hiring a new artist, so we expect this process to be expedited, and to have the trailer finished soon.

We plan to have a pretty polished Beta trailer, and to advertise with it in order to get as many wishlists as possible.

Once we have the Steam page up (coming soon), with the Beta trailer on the page, we plan to start releasing fun YouTube shorts of the game with different themes. Themes such as finding different ways to break the game. We’re excited to show off Piggy in this new way!

We truly thank you all for your patience and ongoing support. ♥️

As we wrap up 2025, Piggy Payback! stands as proof that clear vision, and a refusal to quit will always beat shortcuts. This year taught me that progress doesn’t come from luck.. it comes from showing up, building piece by piece, and honoring the people who believe in you. So as we head into a new year, keep your focus sharp and don’t be afraid to chase your goals!! The road ahead is long, but it belongs to those who stay disciplined and finish what they start. Let’s make 2026 the year we aim higher.

💪The best journeys are fueled by passion, persistence, and belief in the impossible.

Every loss is a step closer to mastery. Keep playing, keep improving.

🌳| LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/dangerousmind.games

🔗| Website: https://www.dangerousmindgames.com/piggy-payback

🐷 | Piggy Itch Page: https://dangerous-mind-games.itch.io/piggy-payback

🔗| Discord: https://discord.gg/gYRUN564tB

▶️| Piggy Payback! Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5o297mlA98&list=PLEHiM_uUvTU6PwieL38UbYgUhfXrlC2PV