Kandria
The die has been cast...
Yesterday I submitted Kandria for the Swiss Games Showcase, the mentorship programme I talked about before. I've been working a lot to get that done in time, in fact I've been working every day for almost two weeks now, oh boy. I'm fine for now, but I am looking forward to getting a proper free day again soon!
Nick - Pitch Video, Steam Artwork, Bugfixes, and more!
With some editing help from Tim I put together a script for the pitch video, recorded it, and then edited it all together into a video that just cuts it below the 3 minute limit for the application. You can see it here:
Now we just have to hope that we get selected!
The video is made specifically for the application, so we can't re-use it as a general trailer. We're gonna have to make one of those, too, though, so I'll see if I can salvage some part of that for at least a rudimentary trailer.
Next I finished the final piece of artwork needed for Steam today:
This is for the Steam library, it'll be shown at the top when you select the game. I'm actually quite pleased with how this turned out! I was still struggling a lot with the shading, but got some good advice from fellow artists that helped a bunch.
Next I did a bunch of bugfixing and such for things that came up throughout the week. There were a few problems in the dialogue systems, we changed how movement is done in the animations, and there were a bunch of other minor things that I've forgotten about by now. Oh- and just for fun I implemented a cheat code system. I'm not yet sure what all we're going to do with that, but for now you can do a T-pose by typing the "tpose" cheat. Amazing.
Finally I started on a new tileset.
It's far from done, but it is nice to see a different environment after all this time. I think I need to push the look and colours to be a bit weirder, similar to the purple tones of the tundra environment.
Fred - Movement tweaks, Explosion!
I worked on updating all the animations for the new movement system, and then got started on making some effects:
Tim - Learning about Steam, Questing
For me it's been Steam store page copy (including learning more about how best to structure things), and iterating on the example quest content and code. It's almost ready to be merged into the mainline game now.
Updated Roadmap
With the application out of the way, we still have to worry about the Steam page and the promised demo update. The plan is to release both of those, along with a monthly update, next weekend. The Steam algorithm is very particular about the launch of the page, so it would be very appreciated if you could keep an eye out for the launch, visit the Steam page once it's up, and even wishlist the game!
That said, here's what's left to be done:
Tune the new quest a bit more for possible non-linearity
Revise the desert tileset and make a few good-looking screenshots with it
Finish up the combat animations and deck them out with sounds, etc.
Hack together a trailer for the Steam page
After all this is done we'll take a step back and do some longer term planning and scheduling before work on vertical slice can begin in earnest. For now though, please keep an eye out for the Steam page next weekend!