While I’m back to my productive streak, it’s pretty obvious I won’t be making that demo May.

Here’s the part where I say June is most definitely the month, but I’m not going to say it. I don’t see the prototype going pass June but still I won’t say it. It’s almost like I jinx myself. The good news is, once the game is in prototype form a release shouldn’t be very far behind. It took roughly a month to put Tandem Tales together.

Another quick doodle!

Beating up on animals is something that’s been occurring every game. Seeing as the story is completely based on fiction this time around, I decided to actually capitalize on that.

A group of enemies you will see popping up throughout the game are the card knights. Given the whole, Alice in Wonderland theme the game has, card people carrying spears just felt right. A lot of the story is actually inspired by Alice in Wonderland but in the end result it probably won’t show very well given the wily nature of the story.

The cards will not be appearing anytime soon because the combat system is going to take some time to get running but they’re likely to be the first thing you see when it is.

I don’t think I”m going to be able to send the first build in this month. Not making dates is nothing new but it’s not for the lack of trying. I’ve been trying to get the most out of my lighting system right now because this is likely the last time I’ll be fiddling with it. I want to do what I can to make this game stand out because quite honestly indie games do not stand out at all.

After lighting is done I think things will begin to progress very quickly.

You know those items you pick up to use in a game in order to solve puzzles? Most games simply call them items, but isn’t that a bit too ambiguous? Health Items, Quest Items, Key Items, and then there’s just plain items.

I think I’d like to coin the term utility item, which isn’t much more than something useful in terms of problem-solving. When I hear the term utility I often think of a plumber, or something but the definition is so spot on I think I’ll get pass it. It’s more broad than the term Equipment Item and more specific than simply just Item. For example I wouldn’t want to call a paper towel an equipment item. Plain objects which are utilized are known as utilities and it works so well because my entire puzzle system is based on utilizing objects around you.

Am I nitpicking? Yes, I am most definitely nitpicking, but it’s maddening when I hear such specific objects used with such as general term! So for future reference, I will be referring to my general items as utility items or utilities.

Okay to make up for my rant I would like to introduce one confirmed utility, the giant leaf. I always think back to The Wind Waker when I think about its functions but I’ll try to think of some uses that weren’t used in Zelda. That said, you can expect Felix to use it as a parachute or to reach higher areas using wind currents.

I noticed that may texture shading system made things look a bit unreal when I was trying to get my stage theme correct which lead to another detour. Sometimes I feel as though I’m stalling on purpose. This little detour, I decided to try bump-mapping. It has such a scary reputation, I kinda avoided it to as to uphold the 60fps standard. I may need to make sacrifices later on but so far it’s not really a problem.

The shot to the right is a quick scene I made to test how much juice it would use. I tested it out using texture on everything in the scene (including Felix). The shading is going to need some work but thus far I like it.

Just when I hit a stride I always seem to hit a bump somewhere. I spent this entire week trying to make the game move fluid and I’m still just not satisfied. I’m beginning to think sleek movement has a lot more to do with animations than the physics. I guess I’ll take a second look at things when my animation system gets an upgrade. One of my main goals is getting the player to actually feel how nimble Felix is. I have a lot of big goals now that I think about it, if I had to rank them, I’d put them in this order….

3. Story
I’ve never given story a proper treatment despite that I’m the type of designer who bases gameplay on the story. Originally I did this because every game thus far is actually a sequel to the main game and I didn’t want to reveal too much on what happens there; but now I don’t see the point so much.

2. Fluid Platforming and Environment Interaction

This may sound like I just want good animation and physics, but it’s more about how the player seamlessly flows through the stage, like a ninja made of feathers.

1. True Puzzles and Object Interaction

I haven’t been acting like it but I really want some decent puzzles this time. Puzzles have always played second fiddle, often showing up last or not at all during development, but trust me when I say you will use your brain this time. Still, while puzzles may rank at the top it’s really only by a hair.

An honorable mention goes out to Music.

Dream Master - Coffee Mug Scene Recreated

Originally World of Whimsy spawned from the idea of creating a quick 3D game to familiarize myself with 3D gaming instead of heading straight towards a very demanding project (Lithodora of Despair). I also said the game would play mostly like a 2D game and have 3D portions every once and a while. Looking back at the old games however, I don’t really see a reason to do that. Sure there are times where 2D movement simply works, but when I think back to Dream Master, it has the soul of a 2D platformer (a poorly executed one, but still). Also given the camera perspective, the development time between 2D and 2.5D stages is more or less the same.

I’ll probably be jumping all over the place from 2D to 2.5D to 3D… but I think I’ve decided to give my classic “Paper Mario-esque” style the limelight.

Makes me wonder what a traditional Mario game would be like in that perspective…..

Okay it’s an empty promise, but in truth I could’ve been at this all week. While this blocky scene doesn’t look anywhere NEAR final, the lighting is more or less finished and the stage theme is close to set. I really didn’t feel like texturing all that or dealing with more two sided or alpha blended layers. I know I’m going to build on to the tool eventually but now isn’t exactly the time to do it, thusly I’m only making it harder for myself by working with geometry right now. Why not build on to the tools now? Because there are much more important things afoot to deal with!

Seems my graphics, once again will be one of the last things I work with. Even so, it’s nice to have something to work up from.