Today’s post is pretty much the reason why I wrote that whole maturity post. The first stage is extremely deceptive to the game’s nature. In fact that second stage will look absolutely nothing like this! But, I won’t go into that speech again.

Moving on, the first stage will be the Whimsical Forest. It’s filled with magical happy dancing plants and other vegetation to have you merrily bouncing around the screen. There will even be some fantasy-based puzzles in the mix. It’s the perfect stage to put all this planning I put into dynamics into use.

This art is likely to be inaccurate for the most part, as most of my graphics skew towards realism, but it should give some sort of an idea of what I’m going for.

Happy Thanksgiving! For such an occasion I’d like to draw a little turkey trying to ban the holiday but I never have the energy for those things. This brings me to the subject to this post. The website and production of the game has slowed down. It doesn’t mean I’ve lost enthusiasm (which you’d think I’d be overdue for doing), but I need time to step away from the project and try to remember what’s most important about it.

In short I probably won’t be talking about development much more because honestly I don’t have anything to add and I’m still too far away from showing real material. Regardless of what I show, I won’t be releasing this game unless I truly think it would sell a million copies. Something like that will take time, and thus, I’m slowing down and focusing my chi (whatever that is).

You can probably find some actual gameplay video in January, in the time between, I have no idea what I’ll put up.

I remember back when I thought I would release the title in May, but no it’ll be going into Q1 year. There shouldn’t too many things out at time to risk overshadowing the project and everyone should be done with games released over the holiday for the most part. I’d like to say the time frame is strategic but for the most part I’m suffering the burnout from the second half of a project. Don’t worry, I won’t be doing some major cut to the project like I usually do. : )

It all started with a little idea, stacking boxes. I did pushing boxes (poorly) back in tandem tales but, this time I really wanted to further with it considering that dynamics is the focus of this game. Looking at the physics engine so far, I think you can easily see that. Long story short I had to gut out the entire physics engine to get boxes as smoothly as the rest of the world. This means I’m going to need to time redo and retest all the features I had set up. The engine is far better for it, but it’s so stressing I could kick a baby right now.

This will be my first step towards puzzle elements, and interactive objects.

I really need to lower my standards a bit or this could take a long time….

The villain of Heather’s book is dubbed, The Count. The count is played as Roy, your typical womanizing pervert. Given Roy’s cowardly nature, I think this choice says a lot about the shift in gameplay. For those aware of Roy, you may be thinking how could I use a relatively good guy as a bad guy. The wonderful thing about stories inside stories, is that you can get away with it!

Last post I talked about how I was going to wrap up Tale of the Night inside World of Whimsy and while I have a way to do it, it seems like I’m getting off track here. The very reason this project exists is because the overzealous Lithodora of Despair was too much to swallow right now and slowly but surely, this project is becoming too beefed up. Once I get the basics down I’ll see how the story can be enhanced. Right now I just need a good game.

It bugs me to leave the plot hanging a bit..

I was hoping some early footage would generate a tad more interest but I suppose the game is still too incomplete. Tough crowd…

I’ve taken a break from programming and decided to go over my design and plan prepare for production of the first stage and finalize some of the ideas that were on the fence. I’ve been asked a few times if I planned to continue where I left off in Tale of the Night and I think I’ve decided that I will within World of Whimsy. Naturally World of Whimsy will take the spotlight but it’s interesting how the two play together.

Next update I’d like the show who will play the role of the villain of Heather’s book. Any guesses?

If you’re wondering why I’m a tad late with the video,  the answer is simple. I got a little behind because of the new additions in preparation for the video were a bit buggy. I didn’t have really any time to polish the game much. I guess I could have waited but there really isn’t much of a point. I’m weeks away from any serious footage. Although much of it isn’t final, hopefully it gives a good idea of where I’m going with this.

2005 Artwork for Fall

My tools are in the sunset phase and and my focus is gradually shifting towards the game itself. I will be posting a video of the engine in play either later this week or early next week. From the point of video, I’m most likely to make graphical improvements, more gameplay features, and probably a lot of tweaks. I’ll also probably begin giving more attention to the website once again. I think I may have jumped the gun a few times.

This game, despite the premise, will most definitely have a plot.  I  reveal much more about the story until I’m 100% sure of everything that occurs in the plot, but thus far it’s looking like Wiley will be playable in short parts of the game outside book form.

Not much new to report, but I couldn’t resist doing some kind of update today! For 10-10-10 I’d like to show the near final Felix model. I say near final because the model still isn’t sewn together and the hands are still complete blocks. I also haven’t tried to add any fur decals or touch up on the uv mapping, but what you see is pretty much what you get. Although I may make some proportional changes depending on how the Wiley model turns out.

In addition to this, I’d also like to add 10 features that will really make this game stand out from the previous ones. Some of this I may have already said but just let that be a confirmation that I haven’t lost sight of what I’m doing.

1. Grab/ Latching
   This is easily my favorite new feature. Everything flows better and it feels as though you’re doing the actions yourself. The Right Trigger will be given a lot of use in this game. Quickly grabbing things when sudden events occur adds to the quick time theme the series uses.
2. Deductive Puzzles
   I’ve heard this called “item-based puzzles”, “common sense” puzzles and “inventory-puzzles” but I’m just going to call them deductive puzzles. What this means is, you will find real world items, or real world type items and use them in logical ways to proceed in the game depending on the situation presented in the game.  This may range from something simple like  lighting a fire will melt ice, to creating a flamethrower with a match and aerosol spray. The information involved is usually extrinsic. A great example of this would be 5th Cell’s Scribblenauts. I plan to really dig in on this concept this time which has been poorly implemented in previous games. Continue reading →