More Trimming

I've been doing art for the past 2 days, and it's been grueling. I actually don't mind doing art in general, when I have all the time in the world to do it. It's very different when you have to do something quick and looking decent. The game doesn't look too hot so I had to devote the first part of the week (and maybe all of it) to fixing that.

I did say a while back that art does not make the game. It is however an attraction factor that has to at least be at a certain level or people don't even bother to try it. I'm trying to get to that level.

All this struggling and I did catch a couple lucky breaks. First, I did get permission from an artist who does D&D tokens, to use his existing art assets.

He goes by Devin Night, and click here for his site.





So that is great! But I still need to animate, get background textures in, fix bugs, and I still have a number of major features to do. So this means cutting stuff. I'm telling you this because I want people to understand how much is cut when you make games. It's a lot. Sometimes it's a crazy amount. But it's also normal. So here's the cut list for this week:

• No more waves - Constant spawning in each area. Although each area will be more intense.
• Game area (and size) cut by 60%
• Bonus area after the game is completed cut
• Weapons are in the red zone and may be cut

All this sort of makes me want to do a "directors edition" of the game. Or revisit it in any case. We'll see, but I'll likely have to move on. I'm reminded constantly that this game is used as a test piece to make measurements for the later game.

So the goal for this week is to have the game playable by the weekend and post it up. I'll need that last week for bug fixing, tuning, and custom code to get it to work on Kongregate and xgen's site.

Essentially at the end of this week I expect be "Beta". With the definition I use as: The game is ready for release, it "seems" to be bug free, and essentially shippable. This is simply a period of time where you ensure that any bugs that are left (or final tuning) are finished. There's also kinks like getting it to work on someone's site or a feature that hasn't been tested with every simple combination.

Basically fix all the murphy's laws stuff.