[Warning - long post approaching]Still alive! Sorry for the lack of updates! A contract gig I had accepted a while back, [thinking I would be done by now] started, and drastically reduced my free time for the month. See, I was all figuring I was really ready to release about a week ago. Everything on my check-list was done. I was feeling good about things. I was really happy where the game was at.
Then I gave it to some friends for perspective. (The good folk over at
Final Form Games) They were going to "proofread it" before I sent it out for a massive playtest. Make sure that I didn't do anything stupid like forget to connect an important button to code or some such. Give me feedback and tell me if there were any tweaks that they thought would improve things.
ha ha.
They had some suggestions, all right, but they're a little more involved than "tweaks".
One of the difficulties and dangers in focusing on something intently is that you start to lose perspective on it. It's easy to stop concentrating on the game as a whole, and just look at the list of pieces that are left to write. And then assume that when the pieces are put together, the game will magically be there, whole, complete, and fun. Basically lose sight of the forest for the trees.
This is the exact position I realized that I was in. I had completed everything on my list! I so was done, right? But after giving it to some people who had not stared at the game nonstop for months, what they saw was not the same as what I saw! In particular, they informed that the part that I thought was the main game (Survival mode - you vs. a constant growing swarm of enemy ships, play until they finally take you down) was not, in fact, terribly compelling. Oh sure, it was fun. It was still a good addition. But it wasn't deep enough to carry the whole game, and there was not really any reason to play it more than once or twice after you'd seen all the ships. After they spent the requisite 20-30 minutes getting gold-star rank in everything, that was that. They were done.
In stark contrast, they LOVED challenge mode. (a bunch of descrete, bite-sized "levels" with unique goals and objectives which I originally included as a bonus mode) They played it relentlessly. Even though build I sent had only like 5-6 repeating challenges for every boss, which I spent around a total of 10 minutes on, mostly as a proof of concept that I was going to fill in later. Tim apparently played it [willingly!] for over 5 hours, giving it a truly terrifying level of scrutiny. (Although to be fair, he did have a fever at the time, so he may not have been fully in his head!)
Their reaction was basically "challenge mode needs to be your main game. Either take out survival mode or make it a bonus feature. Don't focus on it. Focus on challenge mode, because it is the part that shows off where your game is the most fun. Oh, and make less intrusive help windows."
So. After a bit of consideration, (and checking with a few other friends to see if this reaction was general, and not just an outlier) this is now pretty much exactly what I am doing. While it represents a bit of a shift from my original vision, I think it is a good one. It provides a much more structured play session, and the user has better short-term goals. After all, that's the fun of doing things indie - if I realize at the 11th hour that the game would be vastly improved by adding a week or two onto the schedule while part of the focus is changed... I can do that. Without even having to check in with anyone for approval or buy in!
And I think I will!
Unfortunately, challenge mode at that moment only had about 5 half-real challenges, copied across 6 ships. If it was to be a real game mode, I needed a few more challenges. Based on screen layout and number, 18 seems like a good place to be. That gives me 3 rows of 5, plus 3 "boss" levels at the end of each row. Of course, that means coming up with [and coding!] 108 unique challenges. That is a lot! It is keeping me very busy! Especially if I want to be done within the next two weeks! (I'm currently up to around 60)
So net result: I'm not as close to done as I thought! Still pretty close, I hope. But rather than a matter of days, it's looking more like a week or so. Blame Tim of Final Form Games! Blame him! Although later, thank him, since the consistent stream of advice and sanity checks that he, Hal (also of Final Form Games) and various other friends have provided will, without a doubt, mean that the end game is far better than it would have been if I were developing in a vacuum.
Speaking of not developing in a vacuum, I think I would still like to try to do a limited public playtest. Most likely starting sometime this weekend. I will post details here (later today) as soon as I figure them out.
-Montoli
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