This week seemed to be the opposite of last week. I didn’t get much done at all. Whenever I fiddle around with the model it seems I’m doomed to go crazy editing. I can’t seem to get the legs exactly right. You’d think I’d  just scribble something down and say hey that works and be done with it, but I have a series of updating sprites comparing with old designs and replaying old games with new designs over and over just to see how well things fit. Needless to say, it’s time consuming.

The head however has  pretty much remained consistent. I’ve broken the model into several pieces to make tweaking things easier (which oddly reminds me of a old post when I was thinking of problems with 3D). I’ll stick it back together once things are settled but it really doesn’t look all that bad.

Next week I plan to integrate gameplay inside my world editor to improve and speed up level creation. This should give me a better idea of scale, the ability to seamlessly place objects in conjunction of one another, weed out most errors as they appear, and highlight areas which the player will mostly be around so more detail can be applied. In short, better levels overall.

I’ve spent the pass week focusing on my work habits and it’s paid off. I expect the game to progress much much faster from this point without feeling forced.

That said, next week I believe I’ll have the game in a playable form.. There will still be a bunch of addition features to add, but basic platforming should be in place and I’ll have established a sense of pacing. I’m wondering when to start showing video. because I’m likely not to really get into aesthetics until the end phase.

If I can keep up at this speed, I think I can finish in October but there are still a lot of unknown variables to deal with such as music.

It’s amazing how the mind works. I never remember my old model looking that bad but I’m currently finding it hideous. I was trying not to show models anymore until I had something final (I’ve been using a downgraded model for a while now), but this comparison is just mind boggling to me. Apparently all the tweaks you make in design add up a lot.

I never realized how close I was getting to making him look like an actual animal. I’m beginning to believe the mind can adjust to about anything if you look at it long enough. But I wonder, if I were used to looking at the old model, what would I say about the new one… I”m really glad I keep records of these things.

The game change was a bit sudden but I can turn on a dime if things make sense. Working alone certainly has its perks.

Felix and the World of Wonders sounded a bit too light  even from the start, so I believe the final name will be Felix and the World of Whimsy. I never want to give the impression that I’m targeting children so it’s important that even the fluffier titles have some sense of the true nature of things. The box art will have to do most of the work probably.

As I’ve stated the game will have mostly 2D gameplay I’m aiming for the game to host segments where it plays fully in 3D simply to get a taste of that will be like. The 2D sections in Tandem Tales are probably the best example of how I’m expecting things to turn out like but in actuality there’s nothing stopping me from Tale of the Night approach toward the gameplay perspective. When I make my test stages I’ll see how things go. I’ll start with simplicity and let ambition naturally take its course.

Lastly, while the game is in storybook format. I’m thinking of story development outside the book. There’s no reason why the play can’t assume control of Wiley in between segments. I’ll see how things turn out.

What can I say I”m impatient. Lithodora of Despair is a very intricate game and I don’t see it coming out very soon unless I do a rush job which I will NOT be doing. I’ll see how time plays out when I reach further in the project but really the sub project idea has already sunk its teeth in me. Taking a small detour from the project sounds like a fantastic idea to me. It will leave me energized to focus on the action, story, and presentation when working on Lithodora afterward while keeping the core system in place.

Felix and the World of Wonders is the current title of the potential sub project. I don’t really know what the story will be about (the title just popped in my head) but you can expect a lighter tone and possibly wacky stages. While many of the past games can be considered 2D characters on 3D stages, World of Wonders will mostly if not completely be 3D characters on mostly 2D stages. This is to get a better feel for stage design requirements and work free of the camera.  Earlier I said I could throw out something at 80 points and use parlor music but I really couldn’t do that : ). Pricing would be determined by quality and length. I’m still expecting extremely high quality especially with a lower bar. The game should be classified as a action-adventure/platformer just as Lithodora but I believe this game would have a lot more platforming to it.

Too many times have I  cut my game short for something simpler but rest assured it’s not the game cut short but rather a sub-division of the engine to sample. Aside from more 3D style gameplay and a more theatrical game, there shouldn’t really be much of a big difference between the two.

I’ve broken up my development into stages. Actual stages highlighting each part of the engine. It’s just occurred to me that my engine is HUGE! The platforming aspect alone is enough to base a whole game off of. Which has me thinking, what if I put a tiny little 80 point game on the market that just featured platforming. It wouldn’t need to make sense or anything. Just Felix running around on a 2.5D stage doing goofy stuff with 1 or 2 parlor songs playing. It’s a really a lazy thing to think of but I’m a bit overwhelmed looking at it all. I may take video of these stages when I reach that point, then maybe open it up for discussion. The last engine was a lot of work and I really just piled it on this game. It’s not a plan to replace the current game by any means but just an optional detour to consider.

It bothers my that my art turns out better when I don’t try to do anything fancy. Anyway this is Karina’s working design in concept form. You may notice that I’ve added a neck. I was working with clay and a neck just looked so much better for some reason (not to mention it stopped the head from falling off). It’s hardly noticeable I’m guessing but it seems to change the way I draw a great deal.

This picture is actually a good representation of the first stage.

The site seems a little dead without my random blurts, and who am I kidding, nothing in the game at any point would ever be considered final in my eyes so I’m going to revert back to my blog style posting format a little. I’ll still attempt to refrain from bringing up minutia.

The game is HEAVILY reliant on the collision system. That’s likely to be why it was rebuilt 3 times. One version only had core collision , the second version had rotational collision, and my current version allows for moving platforms and such. I LOVE it!! Everything is in place for a much more dynamic world and thusly more opportunity for adventure style play.

Once I get the model to animate right, things should pick up pace. It’s been dragging me down for ages.

Model Images are off limits right now, but here’s a picture of the design I’m currently working with. The picture is in my concept format so the face looks more classical because its easier to work with. I think the trick to a foxier look lies not in structural changes but the fur. Next time I work with art I think I’ll try more detailed fur and a finer outline. Art really isn’t all that important though…. but it sorta is.

I consider this design to be a blend of all the previous designs and everything about it so far just feels right. Hopefully it works just as well when animated in 3D.

I’m reworking the collision system again, not because there was a problem with it (for once), but because I’m going to add a realistic physics engine to the game. Physics based puzzles did cross my mind but it would’ve been too much of a hassle with the old system but things are looking up for it this time around.I  really just want it to make the environment become alive!

I’ve been adding a lot of things I originally didn’t plan for that have really pushed back my project time (3D, Shadow Mapping, etc..) but as I stated, I’m striving for quality. If I was willing to make the game longer, I would think a Xbox-Live Arcade release would definitely be plausible.

Update: I may be canning the whole “realistic” physics idea. Its been far too time consuming and it’s especially irksome knowing that thing like PhysX are available (just not for XNA) so anything I do has already been done better and is readily available I’ve been trying to think of things that could make it worth while but I really can’t. Ah well, a lot of good has come from at least trying.