DIMB - Dev Blog #4

Here's a philosophical question: If a dev blog talks about the complete lack of dev work that has happened in the preceding week, is it actually a dev blog?

I'm on Day 10 of my Philippines trip, and work ground to a complete halt last week as I visited the lovely tourist destination of Boracay. Voted as having one of the Top 10 beaches a few years ago, it has since become a hot spot for holiday makers all across the planet. And what does this mean? It's a complete tourist trap that is essentially the Ibiza of South East Asia. That's not to say it wasn't a lovely trip; on the contrary it's possibly the most beautiful place I have ever visited.

The beaches were white, the skies were blue and the water was clear; postcard perfect. The views were spectacular, the people were friendly and the food was plentiful, there was almost nothing to complain about. Except for the internet being a broken pile of failure. But then again, who visits an island paradise just to re-check Facebook for the seventh time that minute.

But to get back on topic, as a result of this island getaway, very little work happened on DIMB on my side. Chris, however, has doubled down on the art and animation side. I realised earlier today that over half of the levels are now essentially art and animation complete; so we're now over the hump and in theory more art work has been done than there is to be done. Which is an exciting thought.

Despite not wanting to get bogged down in bug fixing, that is exactly what has happened over the past few days, with niggling little edge issues biting away at my soul like demonic bunny rabbits. So I'm working on several little bugs instead of finishing the Boss levels because I'm scared to commit to that larger piece of work. And on a related note, I'm still trying to figure out the final final Boss challenge. That is something I definitely need to figure out.

And one last thing I want to whinge about is all the little tweaks that need to be done whenever you think you've just about finished with a level forever. The number of small modifications I've had to make to several levels that I thought wouldn't need any more attention from me is downright absurd. And it doesn't exactly strengthen my resolve to finish the game.

But no matter; Improvise, Adapt, Overcome. That's some US Marine Corps talk there, and whilst I'm not exactly the biggest proponent of extensive military culture, I do like that motto. Constant commitment to not just sit down and give up, but to figure out steadfast solutions and ensure what needs to be done gets done. 

If you'd rather view my waffling in real-time, follow me on Twitter: @Dannyish