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Sunday, 13 April 2008

I've recently updated my flash development site at http://underscoreundefined.net if you're looking for information about how our new games are coming along it'll be far better to check there, it's my intention to expand on the site to include all manner of interesting things such as my thoughts on flash game development, sponsorship and licensing in general as well as the projects I'm currently working on myself.

I was going to rebuild this site too, but it seems a bit silly to post the same information on both, things are going really well for me in regards to my games development venture and my attention is pretty much solely focused on that right now, there's some pretty exciting things going on. 

We also released our latest game Jack the Fugitive which you can find there!

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Protector featured in PC Gamer
Sunday, 06 April 2008

Well, it's more that Kongregate was featured, but the picture they choose to use sure is nice!

Work is progressing on Protector+ (Yup, I settled on a name) but it's going slow - I've got something else in development that I think is well worth doing first, it's not a fantasy game!

Since I started working on these games I've always wanted to do something with a more Sci-Fi feel to it, but everything has just always made sense to do fantasy based - In my traditional way, I would describe it as Star control meets X3 reunion meets Fable meets Mass Effect in flash, though of course, once again I think it bring a whole lot of new ideas and experience. For one it's not a space combat game, it's a space exploration and evolution game that happens to involve a little combat. Right now I'm deciding on the level of complexity and depth I want to include in this experimental release, I need to limit production time, as so as with most of my games I need to trim away various parts of the design in order to meet a schedule.

On the plus side, I've actually hired an up and coming artist to produce various pieces of static art for this one which should speed things up and add an extra layer of quality! 

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Following Up
Tuesday, 26 February 2008

As some people may have guessed my plans for Protector are somewhat delayed. I just felt I had to point out that it's only the logistics that are still up in the air and being arranged, work on the game itself is progressing very smoothly, I'm just unsure in which direction to take it. Do I attempt to secure funding to allow me to fully complete the ideal version, or do I maintain my roadmap to release idea?

They both have merits, if I were able to secure funding it would be via a kind of partnership, in that much of the technical hurdles will be more easily overcome, one of the big ideas behind "final protector" is that it will not only be an awesome game, but that it will also provide me financial security to fund the development of other awesome ideas I'm sitting on. However, I want to do this without losing any integrity; Paid premium content for example is not an option, I want a player to be able to log in and play form start to finish, but to offer certain benefits to supporting the development.

One of the largest issues I'm trying to think through is IP Dilution, the Protector IP is fresh and new, if I do my roadmap release plan every single release between now and "final" will lessen that value because I know that it's not as good as it could be, the new systems would all be exposed to the public before they're all finished, each time lowering the impact they'll have in the "final" version.

Anyway, I won't ramble, this isn't a blog! (though I'm considering setting one up to facilitate progress reports and info for those interested) instead a quick list of ideas I've already tackled for the next version;

Fast Forward - It's in!  This is probably one of the most requested features I've ever had so I invested a lot of time getting this working well.

Projectiles - They're pretty now. It always makes me cringe when I see the projectiles in Protector, they were only supposed to be temporary in Defender, let alone Protector. Things just kept coming up that were more important and I ran out of time. Now they're both good looking and functional.

Selection Overview - It's just a GUI thing, but an essential one I think. Clicking an enemy as it runs around is more difficult than it needs to be, due to the tile based selection system the rest of the game uses it just doesn't fit. Now every enemy has a selection box and bosses are automatically selected.

Summoning Circles - Paving makes no sense at all, it never did, the design was good though. Summoning Circles were an idea I was presented with last year that I liked and thought about. Now they're a reality, it both explains the unmovable nature of the units and adds a whole new strategic layer as circles can be element specific.

Usually when I get deep in development I live like a hermit, even down to growing a massive Jesus-like beard and failing to leave the house for a month, so don't be surprised if I don't post anything for a while. Rest assured, Finishing this game is very important to me!

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