Full Steam Ahead!
Posted by Matt Phillips (Creator)
Hello, wonderful backers!
The admin stage went smoothly; we now have funding and paperwork and contracts and schedules, and we've jumped head first into full production.
Tanglewood's development is split into milestones - the first being the Tech Demo you played during our Kickstarter - so we've now begun Milestone 2. Here's what we're up to:
Milestone 2
Administration
Paperwork surrounding the Kickstarter funding, contracts for all contractors, work schedules, source/assets control access, as well as setting up proper communication.
Address Technical Backlog
During the tech demo stages a lot of our features and tools were fast prototyped to see if things would work and be fun to play. Whilst this got the game up to scratch fairly quickly, the quality of the codebase took a hit by adding experimental code and features. Before adding any more features to the game, we'd like to polish up and improve upon the tech we already have, to ensure it remains stable and flexible for the months to come.
Level 1 Graphics Reworking
With our new artists onboard, we can invest heavily in reworking the quality of the existing levels. We have ideas to optimise the video memory usage which will allow us to add more detail, improve the colour palettes and make the forest seem more dense and populated. We'll also tidy up some of the rough edges
Complete Nymn's Animation Set
A few of Nymn's animations were missing from the tech demo due to time constraints - we'll be adding those in as a priority and make sure they're in full working order before progressing.
Player Speed and Overall Movement Fluidity
During the campaign (and still ongoing!) we asked for feedback on our game at every step of the process. Comments on the player's movement speed were unanimous - Nymn needs to run faster, respond to the controls quicker and feel like a bit more, well, Blast Processed! Unfortunately it's not as simple as nudging a few numbers in the engine - any changes we make to Nymn's running speed or jumping height will have effects that ripple throughout the entire game. Gaps that shouldn't be jumped need widening, branches that shouldn't be reached need raising, collision detection needs retesting to ensure faster objects don't penetrate through walls, the map streaming code needs reinforcing to keep up with demand, and some of the puzzles need redesigning since the timing will change. We also need to ensure the enemies can still catch up with you, Fuzzls don't get lost when rolling them faster, and some animations may need redoing to account for larger step strides.
We're on it! But bear with us. It's a big job.
Prototyping Level 3
Our original design for Level 3 was scrapped due to its complexity, but our first stretch goal secured its return! It's quite a beast, featuring ropes and pulleys, ladders and treehouses, spike pits and deep water and other Djakk traps.There's quite a lot to do, so we're keen to skip Level 2 until later, and get started on this one as soon as possible.
Prototyping New Enemies
The Djakk monsters are big and mean but ultimately not the only threat to our little Nymn. We'll be adding some of the other enemies in and trialling their A.I. behaviour.
Level Data Compression
You may have noticed our tech demo rocks in at a whopping 2 megabytes, and that's due to the level data being uncompressed. With a max cartridge size of 4mb, this won't do! We have some techniques in progress to compress the data (in a way that still allows us to stream the level in on the fly) which were dropped from the tech demo due to stability concerns. This needs putting back in and fixing up ASAP, or we'll be shipping on 4 cartridges, Final Fantasy VII style...
Dreamcast Tech Demo
We've been developing the Dreamcast version alongside the Mega Drive version, and progress has been super smooth! Most of the engine has already been ported, and our new scene converter works great; everything looks consistent with the Mega Drive version, and any graphics or level changes we make from now on apply to both without any additional effort. Once we have the whole tech demo ported, we'll be releasing a disc image for you to get your hands on.
Mega Drive Tech Demo Re-release
Once we've finished Milestone 2, the updated Mega Drive tech demo will be re-released in all its new glory!
Tanglewood HD Stretch Goal
We're still crowd funding over at MegaFounder to try and afford a complete graphics and audio overhaul, in order to release a high definition version of Tanglewood on Dreamcast and modern platforms after the Mega Drive version ships. Please tell your friends and help spread the word!
Tanglewood Discussion Forum
Questions? Queries? Ideas? Feedback? Just plain nosey? Head on over to our discussion forum to be heard:
http://www.tanglewoodgame.com/forum
Cheers!
Matt