It's been a while since our last update. A thing I've been saying a lot, but don't worry!
We are still alive and very active in the production of AI Vendetta.
So where are we currently and what do we still need to do?
Currently, we have a whitebox version of 23 out of the planned 25 levels. This means they are fully functional, but are created with a minimum amount of visuals so we can focus purely on creating, validating and tuning the levels. Doing so makes it easier for us to guarantee quality- and bug-free (as far as that is possible) gameplay. This also ensures that we don't get distracted by the aesthetics of the game and instead focus on its quality. Another advantage of whiteboxing levels is that it allows you to do functional playtesting and easily tweak and alter levels. Something I would absolutely recommend to other developers!
Once this process is fully done, we can start decorating the levels and writing character dialogs. Next to the initial 25 levels, we are also working on 5 Boss fights of which we currently have 3 fully functional.
Because nearly all levels have been created, content wise the game is nearing completion! Which is something we are really proud off, especially after such a long journey. However, this doesn't mean we are nearly done!
Even after these levels have been whiteboxed, they still need to be decorated. This requires art assets to be made and hand-placed in every level to create a unique feeling for the game. The crafting of this feeling also goes hand-in-hand with the soundtrack and sound-effects, as created by Rens. Besides that, most of the characters and enemies will require some modelling work.
So yeah, there is a LOT of artwork that needs to be done.
This is something that we can do ourselves, but it will take a lot of time as we are primarily trained as programmers and designers. So we may also be interested in taking on a new member in the team, buying art assets or delegating it to an external service.
Here's a few of the recent (art) updates we made:
Some Official/Unofficial programmer (placeholder) art by Thom
Rounding up:
OK, so we still need to make the game look nice, then what?
Well, to make sure our players get the best experience possible we need to do a lot of testing and bug fixing. Creating a game not only about creating a fun experience, it's also about making it work good. And it is our mission to make it so! And to do so, we can use anyone's help! In fact, we absolutely need it. When creating a game or experience, you only know what you like about it and what you want to get from it in the end. But this is an experience we are sharing with the world, and we are not making it just for ourselves, so your opinion really counts!
Not only that, we also need your support. We are doing our very best in posting regular updates on several social media, mostly on Twitter and Facebook. We also do an occasional twitch session where we show a bit of the process we go through in creating the game. Simply sharing or following our process as we do this would mean to world to us. So please feel free to check out our social media or play the demo!
(Demo playable exclusively in the following browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari & Opera
requires the Unity Webplayer plugin to work)
