Month: September 2011

Final Push To Glory

After some relentless work and lost sleep in the last 48, Escape Goat is basically done!

The music is sent off for mixing and mastering.  The art is complete.  The level design is complete.   Still no known bugs…

I’m taking the weekend off the project, so when I get back I’ll be able to make some minor adjustments to the story, complete the box artwork, and stuff like that.  It’s been an incredibly challenging journey to get this far, and no matter how successful the game is, I’m really proud of what I’ve created.  When it comes out next month, I hope you enjoy it!

In other news, I found an interview with Cursed Loot developer Eyehook Games, where he gives a shoutout to Soulcaster.  Awww, thanks amigo!  That means a lot, seeing as the game-formerly-known-as-Epic-Dungeon remains one of the most addictive and polished games on XBLIG.

99% Done

The music has been sent off for mixing and mastering.

Graphics and sound are final.

Level design is 98% done.

There are no known bugs.

It’s close…

Holding the Line with Scope Creep

Dave Voyles recently posted 0 to Indie in 5 Easy Steps on ArmlessOctopus, a distillation of a panel at PAX 2011.  My favorite advice bit from the five was “manage your scope.”  This is such an important step to take, though for me, not an easy one.

In the last few weeks, Escape Goat has really come together, and everyone who’s played it so far has liked it.  I’m very proud of that.  Yet a lot of play testers also have a few features they’d like to see… and really, how long would they take to add?  I’ll explain the specifics after the game’s out and I do my multi-part postmortem on the process, but for now, even the smallest extra features have got to wait until the sequel.  I’m holding the line.

I’m in a situation I reach frequently when composing music.  I’ve got a pretty good sounding song, but I think that with some more time it’ll get better.  Sometimes it does, and sometimes it gets worse.  Refining can easily become tinkering.  Then, there’s nothing to show for your lost time.  That’s kind of where I’m at with this project: I don’t want to tinker much more, because something might be spoiled.

What if I miss some great opportunity?  There’s always the sequel.

 

Progress

  1. Custom Soundtrack should be working
  2. Can no longer Pause during intro text and region name screen
  3. Rapidly changing songs no longer causes the song player lose track of the actual current song
  4. Fixed Lightning machine bug in 4-2 (wasn’t reconnecting after arc broken)
  5. Minor level fixes
  6. Storage device disconnection should be handled properly
  7. No longer endlessly asks for storage device if you press B on selector
  8. Trial mode disables Continue and Save in Editor

So this is probably gibberish to everyone who hasn’t seen the game yet.  Bottom line, things are moving forward.  Results from the playtest have called for a more brisk opening sequence, so that’s another thing I’m working on.  New version should go up tomorrow.

Also, I’m still really digging Simplenote.  It’s become my bug tracker and project management tool for Escape Goat.

Finally, Freakin’ Indies posted an interview with me about this game.  The featured image was all his doing!  One of the best majestic goat shots I’ve seen in all my research.