DIMB - Dev Blog #7

I can't tell if this weekly post is late, or if it's within the week I was meant to post and I'm just doing it later than usual. It's probably late. Either way, here it is.

​So I've been back in the UK for almost two weeks now and have been busier than expected with completely non-dev related stuff. My new goal/objective is to be done with coding completely by the end of April. With just about three weeks left in the month, that makes for a pretty tight deadline taking into account all of my other responsibilities. But I cannot allow development to continue spiralling on, especially considering this game is not intended for sale or to make money at all.

The biggest thing accomplished this week was two fold - the new introduction and tutorial was written and finalised (but not fully implemented), and new end game graphics were provided and added. So the end game no longer looks like it was design by some flipper handed child with a broken crayon.

The introduction and tutorial proved to be a bigger challenge for me than expected.Trying to get across the basic story, objective, controls and structure in a quick, straightforward manner can be difficult. Making sure the intro isn't too long that people lose interest is the top priority. Teaching the player the controls and the objects, is the second priority. I managed to come up with an intro that I was happy with on paper, and started implementing it. Hopefully I'll be done with it soon so that I know whether or not it works in-game.

Next was all the new art and animations for the end-game sections. Chris, despite now being situated on the other side of the planet, has still been plugging away with new backgrounds and sprites. And all of the new art has been awesome, even with me not being helpful and giving very little idea of what I thought would be needed. 

So, over the next week I hope to get the rest of the intro implemented into the game, and after that will be the ending. The ending still needs to be written, but the finish line is in sight. Almost.