Diving into the channel: breath, air pockets and a 162 m tunnel

Water has always been part of the Lumberjack Party forest: a river, a camp lake and a long channel that runs under the camp. Until this month, though, swimming in the open world meant floating on the surface. Going under was something you only did inside the Hold Breath mini-game. That changes now.

Down and up, with the buttons you already know

On the surface you float exactly as before. Hold the crouch button and your beaver dives. Press jump and you swim up. Let go of both and you drift slowly back to the surface on your own. We did not add a new button for any of this: crouch means down, jump means up, on land and in water.

While you are underwater you cannot chop or gnaw. Diving is for getting somewhere, not for working.

The breath bar

A breath bar appears as soon as your head goes under, and only then. It empties while you are below and fills back up quickly once you surface. If it runs out you do not drop dead on the spot: you start losing health a little at a time until you get back to air. That leaves room for a panicked last-second swim, which is usually the funniest part.

It works the same for everyone in the crew, so what you see is what the game decides.

A 162 m tunnel and the air pockets inside it

The channel under the camp is 162 metres long from end to end, and the whole length is underwater. You are meant to swim all the way through it. At swimming pace that takes longer than a single breath lasts, so the channel gets air pockets, placed so that you are never more than 50 metres from air. Swim into one and your breath refills and the view clears. Then you take a breath and go again.

That spacing rule is the whole design. It means a confident swimmer never has to gamble, a nervous one always has the next pocket in reach, and a crew that stops to argue in the middle of the tunnel will find out exactly how long one breath lasts.

Soft on the ears

Under the surface the picture turns murky and the sound gets a gentle muffle. Our rule for audio in this game is that nothing should be harsh or tiring, and that applies to going underwater too: no sharp alarms, no screeching warning tone when your breath runs low.

What is next

The swimming rules are in. Next, the air pockets get placed along the channel, and then we play it: with a full crew and alone. The exact numbers, like how long a breath lasts and how fast it comes back, will be tuned in those playtests. The Hold Breath mini-game keeps its own rules and does not change.