There have been no news or updates on the site recently, and for that I apologize. The fact is that we ran into some problems lately with our little project and we needed to focus all our attention on finding a solution for them. Which I think we now have and we can thus come back to our regular flow of updates and blog post that we have accustomed you with.
To make a long story short, we realized we bit more than we could actually chew when it came to graphic package of the game. We made some unrealistic assumptions regarding the work force needed in ordered to deliver a game containing graphic assets of such magnitude. The original plan was to have levels drawn in full as a single image, no tiles, no objects that repeat themselves, etc. This still sounds great in theory, but the fact is that as we progressed with the level design and the levels got larger and more complex, we realized that sheer size of them was simply overwhelming, especially for a single 2D graphic artist, no matter how dedicated and work absorbed he may be. As a simple example, the 3rd level from the 1st location ended up to be a 400 million square pixels monstrosity that would have taken ages to draw.
So we back tracked a bit, took some time to think things over and toss around some ideas and we now believe we have come up with a solution that will allow us to maintain the level of graphical detail and polish we are aim for and in the same time drastically reduce the workload for our tiny graphic department. That being said, I’m happy to let you know we’re back on track, enthusiastic as ever and still hoping to maintain our promised deadline.
The following blog post will probably be Jim’s since he has recently finished doing some of his technical mambo-jumbo with the game engine and editor that I can’t hope or wish to understand, but he’s pretty happy about and I’m sure he’s dying to share this binary extravaganza with everybody.
Thank you!
Can’t wait for Jim’s update!!! It is great to hear that you guys are going to make sure that the best choice is being made rather than just trying to get it done and out, but rather created to what intended. It is sad to see games released that are only shells of what they really could or even should have been.