This video will be on the platforming aspect of the game.

Speaking of polish I think I’m comfortable enough to show the Felix model as it is now. He’s still missing thumbs and there are a few decals missing but here’s a relatively final build. Small disclaimer, I can change things on a dime.

The video may not look as final as I hoped but I’m sure it won’t look drastically different at release.

I may stop with using dates for a while after today. So I’ll just say check back soon! You may see the video floating around on some gaming website! ; D

Don’t check back Sunday though, I definitely won’t be done. At least I can project when I won’t finish something…

As for the footage of the game, I’ve hit a slight bump. It’s not what you think! I actually set a realistic goal this time. The problem is I’m having a bit of trouble on the music. I didn’t want to use the song I had been working on previously (I’m saving it to make it aware there will be a variety of songs!), so I’ve been trying a different song.

I can still make my goal but I could be a few days late. I definitely need music.

I’m not sure how many times I’ve told this story but, I actually began running a website because my games were planned to be more community based. There would be Tandem Tales which I planned on having available for download and would continuously update, and there would be Random Tales which would be community created content available for download on the website. That Invader Zim screenshot could still be floating around on the internet somewhere… The project pretty much died after the first few releases due to lack of interest and installation difficulty. Looking back on it, if I had stuck with OpenGL and been more persistent things could have turned out differently. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the internet its that persistence is vital. That said, I’m a patient person but never when I’m waiting for results. Still I rather like the position I’m in now even if it took 8 years to get there! But I digress….

So where does that leave me now. I really don’t know. If I hadn’t really thought about how I’d promote this game I’d probably continue updating as lackadaisically as usual. It’s funny how simply pausing to think about something can drastically change the way you see things.  I’ll need to renew my web plan soon so this is definitely something I’ll be thinking about.

Side Note: Everything’s looking good for the 15th : ) ! The wonderful thing about trying to make dates is your learn to cut out things that don’t really matter at the time. To be quite honest, without deadlines, you could stretch out a project for quite a while and the things you spent the most time on will probably be the least important. Just my take on it.

I’m going to throw out a date for a trailer April 15th.  I have a habit of constantly missing my dates, in fact the last thing I finished on time was that picture for Valentine’s Day, so take that with a grain of salt. The next trailer I do won’t be an actual trailer but rather show off some finalized gameplay footage and a few new features.

When I’m done with this video I’ll probably become a bit more promotional. Afterwards, when I’m done with the actual trailer, I’ll probably become even more promotional, annoyingly so. Selling myself has never been something I’m accustomed to doing but it’s really sink or swim at this point.

I have a relatively official screen shot. This isn’t concept art, its an actual part of the game. Probably not the best graphics but I will be upgrading them further, I just need to add a few more tool side features. I may also move around some things around or add a few more things such as more varied trees to the scene but I’m more or less set on this theme for the first portion of the game and what little of the stage layout seen here will remain untouched.

Everything still runs at 60FPS and I haven’t gotten rid of the bump mapping. Right now I”m going to focus a little bit more on creating better levels, so I’m going to put a bit more effort on the tool side of things.

I know I’m moving extremely slow but I’m certain it will be worth the extra time.

With that out the way, here’s something that’s been on my mind a while, why is there a 10 point review system? A rating of 1 to 10 sounds all nice and well rounded but I rarely see it used properly. A bad game is usually a 5 or 6 while in order to be a good game you have to range in the 8 to 10 area. I’ve even seen some reviews that make it even more confusing and throw an 11 in there.

To be fair I’ve noticed a small amount of  effort to fix the scoring system but ultimately  you’re still left with readers who are behind the curve who like to get “vocal” about how a game (most of which probably haven’t even played) got such a low score. It probably also doesn’t help when your score is tallied in with other media who still use the 5 to 10 system and it seems like your website has brought the score down.

Needless to say, I’m a big proponent of the 5 star system. It’s still in proper use and you get a nice visual of how many stars something got. Here’s a nice layout of what I think a 0-5 star system looks like.

0- Unplayable [This game provides absolutely no amount of entertainment]
1-Terrible [This game is buggy, poorly made or poorly designed]
2- Pretty Bad [An average game with more cons than pros]
3- Pretty Good [An average game with more pros than cons]
4- Great [This game has few flaws and has a lot of high points]
5- Perfect [This game is extremely fun /addicting with negligible or no flaws]

A 1-5 star system could bring 3 stars into just Okay as opposed to a 2.5 but for the most part the two system synch up. You don’t really need the same number of points for good games vs bad games because there will always be more average or good games on the market than bad ones. Those app store games I hear about on the other hand would definitely need that zero though. If you want to get more intricate you can use more complex numbers like a 3.75  (x/4) or even a 3.9 (x/10) to cater to the audience that thinks decimals decide which game is better and the casual audience can just look at a rounded visual representation.

This really has nothing to do with what doing. The 10 point review system has  just always been a pet peeve of mine. So if you’re a reviewer of some kind reading this, maybe you should consider a 5 star system. If you already use a 5 star system, my hat goes off to you! Come review season maybe you could swing a few of those stars my way eh ; D!

I’ve changed up my style a bit to a more classic Disney-esque look and I think I’m seeing a lot of improvement in how well the character works in 3D. Honestly it seems like everything has improved; not too foxy not too cartoony.  If it seems like my model is getting less refined however, that’s because I’m only worried about the basic look right now.

I suppose a week or so focusing on the model and design itself is my way of decrypting all the little changes I’ve been making throughout the years on the fly.

I hope all this pays off. The days are just flying off the calendar but this is definitely one of those things I can’t rush. I probably should start doing a few side tasks though. Hopefully I won’t lose focus.

While the game is in its final paces (from a Wendell standpoint), much of the graphics work is preventing me from showing anything, namely the illusive Felix model itself. The move into 3D has put me into a weird position because I have to design the character well enough to work in 3D and once my design became questionable it’s been a nightmare ever since.

Although, the game mostly takes place in a 2Dish view, I’ll actually be using a variety of camera angles. Even if I wasn’t I wouldn’t want to have to make drastic changes at some point in the future.

Business will leap forward once I get this model right. the hardest thing about anything artistic is that you can’t control when you’re done with it. And even when you think you’re done you can wake up the next day and not like what you did.

This model is especially important because I don’t want to end up hating it like I did with Tale of the Night, in addition, I’m actually expecting this to be considered the “first” game and the model I launch with will likely be the one that speaks for every game afterwards (provided there are sequels of course).