- October 2025 Update - 20 October 2025
To marauding tentacle hordes and those who valiantly oppose them, Following up on our last update, the team continues to plug away at everyone’s favorite octoblood guzzling simulator. Due to a bunch of boring reasons, things are going slower than I’d like, but the 2026 release plan is still on track. We’re currently working on one of the last major dream sections, centered around a golden city and a cast of colorful weirdos who call it home. Karl (the concept artist) came up with many character designs and ideas, and Marina and Niko (the pixel artists) continue to flesh them out and create the necessary spritework and animations to bring these characters to life.Concurrently, the demo was recently updated to bring it in line with the development version. While most of the changes were behind the scenes, there are some interesting additions I’d like to share with you.A number of events w…
- July 2025 Update - 28 July 2025
We’re still slowly working on Octopus City Blues. Since the beginning of the year, key team members were unavailable for extended periods of time. This made it very difficult to plan effectively. One of the reasons I struggled to write an update was because I wanted to have more clarity about their availability, something that didn’t happen until last month.This project has been in development for over 12 years, and much has changed in everyone’s lives since then. I’m lucky to still be working with a supportive and passionate team of people. At the same time, each of us had to deal with a myriad of personal problems and unfortunate circumstances.At the beginning of 2022, I managed to secure funding that allowed me to work full-time on OCB (doing most things that aren't art or music). I initially came up with a two-year budget plan that was eventually stretched over three years. You can…
- November 2024 Update - 30 November 2024
EGGBERT: Hi! I'm Robar Eggbert of the Samarduk Tribune. GRINKEL: And I'm Steen Grinkel of the Samarduk Sun. EGGBERT: And you're watching "At the Talkies with Eggbert and Grinkel". GRINKEL: Grinkel and Eggbert… EGGBERT: In your dreams, Steen! Now we've got a lot to cover in today's episode, from stories of corporate espionage to cautionary tales of evil sofas and destructive monkeys. GRINKEL: My esteemed colleague is referring to the three films we'll be dissecting today: "The Mole: Undercover Inside Ghost In A Bottle", "Dread Couch: The Sofa That Kills", and "Metamorphers vs. Giant Ape: The Motion Picture". EGGBERT: Let's start with "The Mole". In this captivating documentary, gonzo journalist Jager S. MacTavish infiltrates the nefarious Ghost in a Bottle conglomerate to bring us a riveting account of the tech giant's day-to-day operations.. GRINKEL: This extremely biased documentary wa…
- August 2024 Update - 9 August 2024
Rustday, Newt 7, 244 Day 13 of the Containment Experiment Played poker with Dr. Fidge and the others. Vermin was obviously cheating but Walls kept jumping to his defense. I don't know what she sees in a sleazy creep like him but I suppose it's none of my business. Dr. Fidge said that the experiment is going well and the Field is holding. He tried to explain it to me again, but it went in one ear and out the other. All I got is that the experiment is now part of the prestigious Tiny Teams conference and that's apparently a really good thing? Woohoo, I guess... Note: apparently the powers that be are using an older Field interaction video by some streaming celebrity to promote the event. Weird! Fleaday, Newt 8, 244 Day 14 Stuck on guard duty with Stutter again. There's not much to talk about. Vermin and Walls finally finished synthesizing and animating all the required "graveyard sprites"…
- June 2024 Update - 1 June 2024
Unfortunately we had to push back our planned release date again. We don't have a new date yet, but we're trying our best to bring you Octopus City Blues as soon as humanly possible. We're very sorry about that. The rest of the update will go over some of the things we've been working on and provide additional context for the delay. Progress Starting in April, Marina (benevolent tentacle artist) and I (Firas, malevolent snail) significantly changed the way we work. Previously, art and development were mostly done independently and we communicated on a weekly or biweekly basis. We switched to a virtual office kind of setup where we dedicate fixed hours to working together every day. It's been going great so far and we feel much more motivated and productive. Our current target is the Robot Graveyard, the lawless wasteland at the base of Gold Tower. We're mainly working on the remaining i…
- February 2024 Update - 6 February 2024
Hello everyone. This is your host Kaftan von Kaffeeklatsch and you're listening to the Cosmic Millipede Podcast, the show about rocket ships, red quasars, and the search for extraterrestrial life. Before getting to today's interview, I'd like to apologize for the delay since our last episode. We've been quite busy preparing content for the new year, so it took more time than expected. Today's sponsor is the Ghost in a Bottle Consortium. Do check out their upcoming Octopus City Simulation that's coming soon. You can already download a lengthy demo on Steam. Oh, and if you're reading the transcript after the episode, we took the liberty of adding the latest Octopus City Blues screenshots for you to admire. Our guest today needs no introduction. I'm talking about the infamous business tycoon, the world's wealthiest person, and the founder of Kosmomash Rockets, Constantin Mandibule. Unless…
- AdventureX Live-Stream - 5 November 2023
Watch riggy2k3 take a stab at the Octopus City Blues demo during the AdventureX conference Steam event. Check the event for discounts and the chance to try a handful of awesome games. Octopus City Blues is a surreal simulation of life on a giant octopus. Assume the rule of an eccentric tentacle trimmer applying for a seedy corporation. Acquire illicit substances, uncover dark secrets, and teach slimy children in an adventure about everything and nothing. Try our lengthy demo and explore the various branching paths and optional quests. If you like what you see, please support us by following the project on Steam and adding it to your wishlist. Thanks to riggy2k3 for kindly allowing us to use the footage: https://www.twitch.tv/riggy2k3
- Demo Playthrough - 15 October 2023
Watch some gameplay footage from the Octopus City Blues demo. Octopus City Blues is a surreal simulation of life on a giant octopus. Assume the rule of an eccentric tentacle trimmer applying for a seedy corporation. Acquire illicit substances, uncover dark secrets, and teach slimy children in an adventure about everything and nothing. Check out our lengthy demo, with branching paths and many optional quests to experience. If you like what you see, please support us by following the project on Steam and adding it to your wishlist. Thanks to riggy2k3 for kindly allowing us to use the footage. This is an edited version of the original video, which can be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duqlmIal9ro Sorry about all the livestream event posts. Steam requires special events for different kinds of livestreams and we also ran into some technical issues. Hopefully this one will…
- Octopus City Blues - Next Fest Livestream 2 - 15 October 2023
Watch riggy2k3 take a stab at the Octopus City Blues demo during this featured Steam Next Fest Livestream. Octopus City Blues is a surreal simulation of life on a giant octopus. Assume the rule of an eccentric tentacle trimmer applying for a seedy corporation. Acquire illicit substances, uncover dark secrets, and teach slimy children in an adventure about everything and nothing. Check out our lengthy demo, with branching paths and many optional quests to experience. If you like what you see, please support us by following the project on Steam and adding it to your wishlist. Thanks to riggy2k3 for kindly allowing us to use the footage: https://www.twitch.tv/riggy2k3
- Octopus City Blues - Next Fest Livestream 1 - 11 October 2023
Check out some gameplay footage from Octopus City Blues during this featured Steam Next Fest Livestream
- Steam Next Fest Demo - 9 October 2023
We're happy to announce the availability of the cross-platform Octopus City Blues demo! Check it out on our Steam page and spread the word! Note that the demo will remain available (everywhere) after the event. If you run into any issues or have some feedback, let us know on Discord or the Steam community hub. The demo is lengthy and can take 2-3 hours to complete. It represents almost one third of the full content. We're currently setting up the livestream for the event. Expect another announcement soon with the exact date and info. You might've noticed that the release date has been pushed back to the second quarter of next year. We're sorry about that, but preparing this demo took more time than expected. It did involve a lot of necessary work for the full version as well. This included extensive testing, integrating with Steam, automating our build process, supporting cross-platform…
- August 2023 Update - 30 August 2023
Attention: Supreme Space Fleet Commander Qor-Oh VI Regarding aberrant radio signal 6EQUJ5 originating from the AL3002 system, Galaxy Sector D2. Decryption by GRUE bio-compute matrix successful. Identified primitive species of meat-based organisms with self-designation: HUMAN. Most of the inhabitants of the third planet, AL3002-C work for a large commercial entity known as Ghost in a Bottle. Contrary to initial fleet assessment, radio signal picked by deep space probes in D2 was not intentional. It only contains updates sent from one Ghost in a Bottle office to another concerning the status of "Octopus City Blues", a primitive cybernetic simulation. Photo by Max Mijs Brouwer Signal is composed of four messages. Summary of first message, titled JUNE: Company experimented on a large number of meat-based organisms by releasing some kind of pathogen code-named DEMO. Release took place in a D…
- June 2023 Update - New Release Window - 14 June 2023
Greetings octo-pundits, Octopus City Blues is now scheduled for an early 2024 release. We tried our best to meet the 2023 deadline we'd originally set for ourselves, but things got in the way (shocking!). The extra time will help us further polish the simulation, while also giving us the space to promote the project ahead of the release. We also decided to participate in the October edition of the Steam Next Fest event instead of this month's. With that said, we're currently inviting people to test a new build that will serve as the basis for the eventual public demo. If you want to give it a spin and help us test it, join us on Discord. Much was done in the last five months: wrapping up quests, working on the cowboy dreams, fixing numerous bugs, bundling the simulation's data in one big archive, introducing in-game awards, and acting on December's play testing feedback. We also paid mo…
- Dec 2022 / Jan 2023 Update - 2 February 2023
To those who dream of octo hellscapes, Last year was a special year for Octopus City Blues. The funding and advice provided by Midgame Fund allowed us to fully concentrate on development, and we got a lot done. The focus was on wrapping up 8 story quests, implementing the remaining mechanics (tentacle watering, day progression, saving/loading data), and making it easier to test/debug our work. What's left is finishing and testing 6 quests + the ending. We also released a couple of builds for play testers in 2022. In addition to fixing many bugs and making things more intuitive, the feedback resulted in new features such as highlighting nearby exits, or allowing Kaf to take a nap. Throughout last year, we closely followed a road map with the goal of releasing the simulation in Q4 2023. That's still our goal, but only if we can release something that's not buggy or incomplete. As always,…
- What's Octopus City Blues? - 9 December 2022
Where are we? Who am I? Picture a giant octopus-like creature resting on top of a mountain. Instead of frolicking beneath the waves, our ginormous octopus resides in an inhospitable snowy world. The dregs of humanity have learned to coexist with their colossal protector, fortifying it with various structures and machines. In particular, large towers were built around each of the creature's 8 arms. Our story takes place in the districts of the densely populated Gold Tower. Here, we meet a small and repulsive humanoid who goes by the name Kaf Kafkaryan. Kaf occasionally works as a tentacle trimmer, someone hired to cut the excess tendrils that grow all over the city. Our unlikely hero starts out applying for a job at the Curtain Crust corporation, and has to endure their lengthy recruitment process. Around the same time, Kaf begins to experience a series of bizarre dreams, playing the rol…
- Progress Update December 2021 - 4 December 2021
Greetings from your Ghost in a Bottle corporate overlords, We're happy to announce that Octopus City Blues was selected to receive funding and support from the Midgame Fund, a group of Dutch developers who invest in locally developed games (and octopus city simulations that are totally not games, obviously). This isn't a publishing deal, and the developer-friendly terms of the Midgame Fund guarantee that we still have full control over the amount of obscene tentacle puns we can fit into the simulation, so please put down those torches and pitchforks. So what does it mean for you? Mostly a much higher possibility to receive the full version sooner than you would've without this funding. The money will allow our main developer to work full time on finishing the simulation, while getting valuable advice from a group of accomplished game developers. The lack of dedication and time has alway…
