Interstellar Tortoise

(2.4.09)

Wow. It’s been a while since I’ve recorded my progress. All is going extremely well. The Art for the prequel is almost finished. Almost all of the rooms and the Display has been updated with prettier graphics.

The Display looks SO much better! My brother played the game before I updated the display and completely missed the fact the player has a limited number of moves – so I made that number huge and called it ‘Life’ so that It would be more easily understood. I also had it sit in a heart graphic to match the hearts that are picked up as PowerUps. I’ve also revamped the map so that it works really nicely – very similar to the newer castlevania games.

All of the sequential gameplay is put down and works (more or less) and I am really getting down to balance and refinement for the Prequel game. Then I will still need to make the entire full game.

(12.1.08)

Shifted my overall focus slightly. I had been working fully focused on the game up until now – but now I’ve started to consider what marketing I plan(s) to pursue. I knew from the start that I would need to put at least as much energy into marketing as I would into development. Most developers HATE this, but I think that what I’ve been reading is actually pretty interesting.

So I put up some Art on Redbubble.com and DeviantArt.com to see what it’s like having a product, and trying to sell. I’ve also been more consciensious about updating my blog

( www.crispyinspiration.blogspot.com ). It’s hard to get traffic! It serves as a really good test pad for traffic building ideas.

[Disregard -- the blog has been moved to my personal website -- www.dansilber.com ]

It had been my thought for quite a while to have some version of the game available for free – maybe the first level or something like that, which would serve as my primary marketing tool. I still think that idea is sound, but I’ve evolved the concept a bit.

I now intend to have the free version be a stand-alone full storied (albeit small) game. I plan to put some ads up in-game and offer it to AS MANY WEBSITES/PORTALS as possible (it is vector and can resize to any format). My thought is that if it is a fully polished game, widely published – it will get a lot of traffic and I can monetize on a bit of the traffic. At the same time I will be generating buzz/interest/market for the full pay version of the game.

I will here on out refer to this mini game as Game Mini and the full multi-leveled version as the Main game. Okay?

Journal. 7.8.08

Wow.  Getting there.  Got the first ‘boss’ in the game.  Got all of the levels put into the game. Got some of the gameplay in for each level.   Almost all of the item functions work properly.  There are maps for the levels.  Almost everything works.  Now it’s just a ton of adjusting and refining.   And then, of course, creating all of the art and music assets.

Decided that in order to properly hype this game, I’m going to need a decent demo.  It had always been in my plan to have a demo of the game, but today I started thinking about it analytically.  In order to really show off what the game can do, I need to offer the players an opportunity to  get a feel for the majority of the mechanics. Originally, I figured that I would offer the overworld and one level as the demo.  Now I am thinking that I need to make it more focused. 

I am thinking to offer only a small chunk of the overworld and a level unique from the game as a free mini-game with its own story.  The advantages being: 1. player won’t get lost/confused, 2. It will be a satisfying, self-contained experience, 3. Can offer it on a TON of portals and locations for free.  Perhaps even email a copy to friends to send out virally.  4.  won’t conflict with any agreements I might make about releasing the game.  5.  People like getting stuff for free.  6.  I can release it before I have the game ready to be seen – Only need to create 30 or so backgrounds (as opposed to all 90 of the overworld backgrounds).

The down side is that this more content that needs to be designed and created.  On the flip side, it could be pretty small content-wise, but still use all the goodies from the engine.  Sigh… Now I’ll go and adjust my production schedule.

Hey – just realized that by the time most folks read this, they will have already played the demo.  Right now, I am currently in the past.  Weird.  Reminds me of the time I slipped in the bathroom and came up with the idea for the Flex Capasitor.