Hello!

Thank you for your wonderful support so far since launch!

We've been receiving a lot of questions regarding whether there is online co-op in game, so we wanted to give a clear answer here.

Moving Out only supports 1-4 players in local co-op.

If you are playing here on Steam, Moving Out supports Remote Play Together so that you can play with friends over an online connection.

Whilst this this may not work for everyone, it does also run with Parsec and TeamViewer - the mechanics of these are similar to Steam Remote Play.

We appreciate all the feedback you have given us, and we hope that you will continue to enjoy Moving Out!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/996770/Moving_Out/



Start your exciting career in furniture removals and train to become a fully certified F.A.R.T! (Furniture Arrangement Relocation Technician)



You’ll be tasked with various moving jobs across the busy town of Packmore. Smooth Moves may not be the biggest moving company, but there’s no task too dangerous or strange for this busy team of go-getters. Grow your business to brave new heights, recruit colourful customisable characters, and save your town from furniture peril!



Co-op: Play single player or with up to three friends in local couch co-op! If you’re playing on Steam, you can take the game online with Steam Remote Play Together!
Dual Mover Mode: Challenge yourself and take control of two Movers using the joysticks on your controller!
Variety of levels: Every moving company starts small, but as your reputation ranks up, so do your destinations. Move through sleepy suburbs, frenzied farms, haunted houses, virtual reality and lands beyond!
Character customisation: All Movers have their own unique customisation options and every Mover can use a wheelchair!
Assist Mode: Less danger? No problem! More time? You got it! Assist Mode lets you adjust the features in game to suit your player experience.
Accessibility Features: Along with the option to toggle on dyslexic-friendly text, Moving Out has an option to adjust UI text, change the control scheme on controller and remap keys on keyboard for PC, and have subtitled speech.




We’ll have livestreams and VODs running all day over on the Moving Out Steam page! Plus, we’ll be hosting a launch day special livestream and giving you the chance to win one of four copies of the game on the platform of your choice! Tune in to the Team17 Twitch channel at 4PM BST to join the fun!

Loving the soundtrack in Moving Out? It's available right here on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1289400/Moving_Out__Original_Soundtrack/

Keep up to date with the latest Moving Out news:
Sign-up to the Team17 newsletter
Moving Out on Twitter
Moving Out on Facebook
Team17 on Twitter
Team17 on Facebook
Team17 Discord

Hey Movers,

With the game coming out on the 28th – YEP! That’s tomorrow! – we wanted to highlight a really… interesting feature that is pretty unique to our game.

Introducing:

DUUUUUAAAL MOOOOOOOOVERRRR MOOOODDDDE

I like the sound of that, I hear you say, but what is it? Well, DMM is an Advanced Mode that allows one person to wield TWO movers with ONE controller! We know, that’s crazy!



Like all good things, there was a need for this. Our designers, having to test levels with multiple players, couldn’t really do that alone. Enter the most complicated testing tool we ever created. The functionality to play multiple characters with a single controller was absolutely invaluable to our designers, and they loved it so much that they wanted to share it with everyone!

We also wanted to give solo players access to the two-player content, and without DMM there would have been no easy way to do that.

Now, we want to be really clear here. This mode is HARD! It’s not for everyone. We can’t stress that enough. It requires an almost impossible -to-achieve level of controller mastery and your spatial awareness game must be en pointe.



As this mode is so difficult, we’ve made sure you have to intentionally enable it in the Settings Menu, first. Once you do you’ll see the option to join as Dual Movers. Now we did say this was HARD, so we added a warning screen when you join as Dual Movers because we’re slightly terrified for you. If you’re positive you want to give it a shot… well, we aren’t responsible for the brain explosion that is likely to ensue. You have been warned…



Here’s the really cool thing. You can use a combination of Dual Movers plus individual players controlling characters 3 & 4 or if you want to get really fancy, you can even have two sets of Dual Movers, which allows two players to control four movers simultaneously. Yeah, you might need to re-read that sentence.

We did say this was HARD, right?

To help with any bruised egos, we really want to emphasise that our developers have been using this mode to test the game for a really long time and they can still struggle with it themselves. Even recording content for this Blog: FAIL!



To reiterate… it’s very, very HARD!

As for how to use this mode, you can switch which side of the controller is the primary mover and we have a handy UI dashed indicator so you always know which character is the left/primary mover, even at a glance.



With extensive experience under their belts, our developers suggest always keeping your primary mover to the left of the secondary mover, or you’ll be asking for a whole world of left/right spatial awareness confusion! If you do happen to get your wires crossed, it’s ok, we have you covered – just tap that toggle button to swap and you’ll be back to ‘normal’ in no time.

As this mode is, you know, so HARD, you can always try Dual Mover in combination with Assist Mode options to make things a little more manageable.

When all is said and done, this is a really weird and wacky mode, but maybe that difficulty is just the challenge you’ve been looking for. Maybe it’s something you really want to master. So sure, it might be HARD, but you can always try to go HARDER!!

Dual Mover Mode is something we’re proud to share with you, our super engaged players, and you’ll find it there waiting for you, so make sure you update on launch day and you’ll get these extra goodies as well:

• New Dance moves with the option to choose which dance you want to move your mover!
  
• A whole lot more Character Customisation options
  
• 4k support for PS4
  
• New and updated Art on heaps of levels with new particle effects included
  
• Random license plates for your Smooth Moves Truck
  
• Milliseconds added to the Game Timer for those extra competitive types among us
  
• Split Keyboard allowing for two players to use the one keyboard on PC
  
• Multi-user Achievements
  
• Awarding bonus challenges retroactively

We are so excited to bring this game to you on April 28th 2020. Oh my goodness, that is TOMORROW! Let us know in the comments what you think about DMM or any of the Day Zero updates and we can’t wait for you to play Moving Out!

Team SMG,

Moving Out from home (just like everybody else in isolation)

Hey Movers,

Last week was all about accessibility, but this week we wanted to show off some of the really cool options you’ll have customise your characters and truly make them your own!



The artists went to town when it came to customisation and had lots of fun making weird, quirky and otherwise adorable accessories. We know you’ll have fun making the human characters representative of yourself, but more importantly, you can even put a bird on the bird, you meta-thinking animal.



Running with the animal theme, you can have fish-for-brains and feel bee-utiful with elaborate head pieces of dynamism and grace. And that hair – it IS the 80s, after all.



In spec-tacular fashion, you have many options. You can even sport some bodacious 3D glasses as you toast the perfect waffle. Delicious.



We can’t wait for you to see what our artists have in store for you come character creation and to see what YOU come up with as you play.

May your home be your sanctuary,
Team SMG!


PS. Don't forget you can pre-order Moving Out ahead of launch on April 28th to get four extra movers in 'The Employees of the Month' Pack!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/996770

Hey Movers,

Last week we talked all about the ways in which you can really customise the game for yourself, but this week we thought we’d go a bit silly and introduce you to…

THE GHOSTS!



In Moving Out, you can ‘slap’ all sorts of things. What kind of things, you may ask? Well, I’m happy to let you know that the exhaustive list includes other movers, mailboxes, NPCs, delicate vases and well… all the movables.



Now back to that Ghost. The Ghost of Packmore’s Past is actually very friendly, but it’s just in their nature to be very ghost-like. We’d ask you not to hold that against them. But what can old Ghostie do? Games of chasey – this is fun, running is good for you – it’s especially important during isolation to keep your fitness up, after all. Ghostie also tries to bust you by grabbing you with those creepy and ghost-like arms – oooOOooo don’t get caught!



In the event that you don’t want to deal with the skeletons in your closet, you can try blocking their path with stacks of items. Unlike your more sophisticated, garden-variety ghost, old mate Packmore can’t pass through material objects, so they’re stuck if you try to block them in. If only all ghosts were as accommodating.



Now, if you’re a real hero, you can offer yourself as bait and lead Ghostie away from the other players to save the day. They will thank you by passing the level and offering social distance appropriate air hugs from exactly 1.5m away.

Now, if you do get close, never fear, you can SLAP old Ghostie to stun them for a few seconds to escape.



I knew we’d get to the Ghost slap, eventually.



Thanks for chilling with us,
Stay safe!

Hey Movers,

This week we’re excited to showcase some of the great work we put into our assist mode and to highlight some of our accessibility options! We really wanted to give all our players lots of control over how to play the game, so we made it a priority to create tools to make that happen!



In terms of accessibility, we worked heaps on the controls. We have a super cool Hold/Throw toggle that takes away the need to hold down triggers for extended periods of time, plus you’re able to remap the keyboard controls on PC.

We made a point to include a dyslexic-friendly font to make our written words as legible as possible, and we also added a scalable UI feature.



When it came to our assist mode, we wanted to give all our players a fighting chance - we reduced the difficulty by removing some dangerous elements and slowed down the hazards. We also slowed down enemy movement and chase speeds and made sure that slapped enemies would stay stunned for longer. You’re welcome.



To make levels easier, we also increased the time limits – this really helps players finish without the added pressure of that super quick ticking clock!

Last but not least, we gave players a never-fail option. If you’re really struggling to progress to the next level, we have good news for you. With level skipping, you will never truly get stuck.

We knew going into this game that we wanted to make something for everyone. We were excited by the challenge of making the game accessible to every player we could imagine and we really wanted you, the players, to be able to experience the game with both your families and your friends, regardless of skill level or requirements more generally. We can’t wait for you to play the whole game through, in any way you like. Let us know in the comments below which features you’re looking forward to most of all and tell us how you think they might help you play the game in YOUR way.



Until next time,
Stay home and stay safe xoxo

Hey Movers,

Last week we took you ‘behind the camera’, but this time we wanted to share with you the crazy mayhem of destruction that you’ll find in our game. It’s a whole world of comedy, colour and chaos, and it’s a blast to mess around in!



We have all sorts of weird and wacky objects in Packmore, from old-school CRTs to giant plush giraffes.



Aside from deliverables, there’s a lot of physics-based objects to break and smash; but do be careful, these are people’s homes and workspaces you’re moving through – then again, no one ever cried over spilt... pizza.



There’s also the matter of Fragile Objects. These require teamwork, so please do handle with care. Or don’t. But if you don’t you’ll need to handle that object again, so better to be safe than sorry!



Lastly, we wanted you, the players, to forge your own paths through this world. To that effect – don’t let windows get in the way of you living your best life. Charge through those like they don’t exist!




Until next week,
Stay home and stay safe!*

*No funnies here – please stay home – Team SMG and Team17 are working from home like it’s nobody’s business and we all need to do our bit!

Hey Movers!

Last week we went all in on the World Map, but today we’re gonna touch on some of the technical problems we had to solve during development.

First up, let’s talk about Steve’s* Magic Camera! You’d think the camera would be simple, but we had to consider things like: framing all the characters to make sure that everyone would stay on the screen at the same time and crucially, designing the size of the levels so we wouldn’t zoom out too far and lose all legibility.



We also found that when players were walking up ramps and stairs, objects could get caught on the ground. One solution we tried was to make the ramps super long for a shallow angle of elevation, but this wasn’t really workable from a level-design perspective.



In the end, we created a system whereby the characters would automatically raise their arms up when approaching ledges or walking up ramps and stairs. Chaa-ching!




Another issue we faced were complications with item respawning. We had to consider things like: how would they respawn with items in the way? How would we indicate something being blocked? We had to think creatively to solve those issues, and we added respawn markers and indicator graphics to make things pretty clear.



In the end, game design is a complicated mix of unknowable things and every game is different. It’s only when you’re putting all the pieces together that you can see the tech problems that need to be solved, but that’s part of what makes designing and building games so much fun.

Now that the demo is out, let us know in the comments what you think about the technical considerations and pay attention to that camera, especially if you’re giving it a shot with multiple players. We’d love to hear your thoughts!

*Steve is one of our amazing developers and he totally nailed the camera in our game!

Pre-order and get ‘The Employees of the Month Pack’ – four exclusive movers to represent you on your journey to become a certified Furniture and Relocation Technician (F.A.R.T):



‘The Employees of the Month Pack’ movers from left to right: Sprinkles, Bruce, Professor Inkle and Dials.

You can pre-order now right here on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/996770/Moving_Out/

If you’re a fan of couch co-op fun and own Overcooked! or Overcooked! 2 you’ll get 20% off when you pre-order Moving Out on Steam!


A free demo is also available now! Grab your co-op buddies and try Moving Out before launch! Steam players can also utilise the Remote Play Together feature here on Steam to play over an online connection.




Keep up to date with the latest Moving Out news:
Sign-up to the Team17 newsletter
Moving Out on Twitter
Moving Out on Facebook
Team17 Discord

Hey Movers!

Last week we got you grooving with emotes and dances, but this time we thought we’d get you racing through the Moving Out overworld!

Welcome to Packmore!



Lots of concept work went into the world map because we wanted it to be both fun and functional. Early on we started with some abstraction and a board game sort of feel.



As we progressed, we made the decision to take a more real-world approach so it would echo the levels, but keeping the board game feel. There were lots of elements to consider though. From the environment itself to the buildings and the truck, we had to do a lot of design work, which was super fun!



We also needed to make sure that the levels were clearly defined – the map is a tool to navigate through the levels of the game after all - so we tried lots of different things to make them pop.



Even though the world map needed to be functional, we also really liked the idea that you could have oversized physics items to play with, so we kept this board game element all the way through.



We hope you have fun exploring the Packmore world as you progress through the game. It took a lot of development and planning, but we think it was worth it!



Until next week,

Keep Moving!