Developmental work for Whale Trail began with a prototyping phase, where the goal was "to explore as many different directions as possible and to see what ultimately turned us on." The company based the process around the idea that "we could polish anything we came up with" but that they could "make sure that we had an engine this time that could drive us all the way to the top." The prototyping ended up taking two months to complete and was concluded when they decided on a loop-the-loop mechanic game.
