Category: Dev Journal

Progress updates on the development of my games.

99% Done

The music has been sent off for mixing and mastering.

Graphics and sound are final.

Level design is 98% done.

There are no known bugs.

It’s close…

Progress

  1. Custom Soundtrack should be working
  2. Can no longer Pause during intro text and region name screen
  3. Rapidly changing songs no longer causes the song player lose track of the actual current song
  4. Fixed Lightning machine bug in 4-2 (wasn’t reconnecting after arc broken)
  5. Minor level fixes
  6. Storage device disconnection should be handled properly
  7. No longer endlessly asks for storage device if you press B on selector
  8. Trial mode disables Continue and Save in Editor

So this is probably gibberish to everyone who hasn’t seen the game yet.  Bottom line, things are moving forward.  Results from the playtest have called for a more brisk opening sequence, so that’s another thing I’m working on.  New version should go up tomorrow.

Also, I’m still really digging Simplenote.  It’s become my bug tracker and project management tool for Escape Goat.

Finally, Freakin’ Indies posted an interview with me about this game.  The featured image was all his doing!  One of the best majestic goat shots I’ve seen in all my research.

Twitter Helps

This morning I just wasn’t feeling like working, but loading up Twitter and taking part in a few small conversations actually got me started.  It’s like the virtual version of those office days when you don’t want to work, but feel the need to look like you’re working, then after five minutes you’re actually working and doing OK.

Thanks Twitter list.  You won’t be forgotten.

With that momentum, today was a major Escape Goat workday.  Where do we stand now?

  1. There are no known bugs.
  2. The editor is working for loading and saving user levels.
  3. The layout of the world and level design is 99% complete.
  4. Sound effects are 90% complete.
  5. Music is 75% complete.
  6. There are a handful of tiles to make.
  7. There are a couple small features yet to be coded
  8. I haven’t yet done very much Evil Checklist testing
Hoping to get this game into playtest very soon.

The Home Stretch

Tonight was another highly productive playtest, this time with none other than Greg Kasavin of Supergiant Games.  After finishing Bastion, I have a new level of respect for Greg’s design and storytelling savvy, so I was really excited and anxious to hear what he would say about Escape Goat.

Overall he enjoyed playing it through, with just a few levels serving up more frustration than he would normally endure.  The difficulty tuning is the main thing I am focusing on at this point, so it was great to know which levels were the real sticking points.  He had great advice for extra aesthetics and details, like idle animations for the creatures and some more deliberate feedback for completing levels and unlocking new levels.

At this stage, the playtests still result in the usualy 3 pages of notes, but the related tasks are way less scary.  It’s all about tuning, decorations, and minor glitches to fix.  It’s coming along nicely and I can’t wait to present it to the XNA Creator’s Club soon.