the Master's Eye - Part VII Another deathline...
by Richard Marrevee · 09/30/2013 (6:35 am) · 5 comments
As you might have guessed from the title, I've missed another deathline, but that seems to be the way I have to go with this project. But at last, after many hurdles, there is some light at the horizon. I've finished the playable demo of the Master's Eye and I'm planning to make it available for download soon. The deathline (again) for this is within 2 weeks from now, but there has to be some gametesting to do, and not the least important thing, it must be downloadable.
So what has happened since the last blog, which by the way you can find here.
First of all, I wasn't very happy with how the main menu looked, so this has got a remake. Then, some people did mentioned this already in the last blog, the grass was to green at the other side, so that was redone again and redone again...well, it was redone a few times until I thought it looked nice. There was a little struggle with decal-visibility, which is now solved, especially this was a problem with the second mission. Also the ambiance was done poorly at some points, so that had to be corrected.
Right now, I'm pretty satisfied with how it looks and feels, although there is a lot of placeholder art (I'm sorry, I'm not an artist), I think it represents the style I like to see in this game.
That is about the game-stuff, but there is more. It would be nice to be able to install the game in a nice way. The problem was, I ported the Master's Eye from 1.1 Pro to MIT3.0 and hence, no installer. Luckily I remembered a program Steve 'YorkshireRifles' Acaster mentioned some time ago, which was InnoSetup. After a few days trying to master this program, look.... there is the installer.
At that point I realized I wasn't ready yet. Although nobody reads them I sure did need some sort of manual. So how can I create a manual that looks nice? I tried Word, I tried some dtp, I tried powerpoint, but none was giving me what I thought was needed, so I felt back to good, old html and created a manual, which was a hell of a lot more work then I first thought.
As said, the demo isn's available yet, but I do have 2 vids. The first one will show you the start of the game, gameplay of the first mission and unfortunately our hero dies at the end, so you get the new death-sequence (which I forgot to mention before). The second vid shows you the gameplay of the second mission and end of the playable demo with some previews of what comes next. I will give you the vids at the end of the blog.
What's the future?
The coming week or two I will be testing the demo and the download of the demo. As far as I can see now, most of the bugs should be gone, but you never know. This should take 2 weeks max.
After that I will set out a plan for a funding-campaign at indiegogo, thinking about money and perks and so. If I got all this things clear I will start a campaign, which I have planned 4 weeks from now. But the most important thing is to get the demo as much as bug free as possible.
I've said enough, so I'll give you the vids (play them in HD), and awaiting your comments...
Video 1: Start game, gameplay mission 1 and death of our hero.
Video 2: Gameplay mission 2 and end of demo with previews.
I hope you liked the vids.
Thanks for reading.
Richard
So what has happened since the last blog, which by the way you can find here.
First of all, I wasn't very happy with how the main menu looked, so this has got a remake. Then, some people did mentioned this already in the last blog, the grass was to green at the other side, so that was redone again and redone again...well, it was redone a few times until I thought it looked nice. There was a little struggle with decal-visibility, which is now solved, especially this was a problem with the second mission. Also the ambiance was done poorly at some points, so that had to be corrected.
Right now, I'm pretty satisfied with how it looks and feels, although there is a lot of placeholder art (I'm sorry, I'm not an artist), I think it represents the style I like to see in this game.
That is about the game-stuff, but there is more. It would be nice to be able to install the game in a nice way. The problem was, I ported the Master's Eye from 1.1 Pro to MIT3.0 and hence, no installer. Luckily I remembered a program Steve 'YorkshireRifles' Acaster mentioned some time ago, which was InnoSetup. After a few days trying to master this program, look.... there is the installer.
At that point I realized I wasn't ready yet. Although nobody reads them I sure did need some sort of manual. So how can I create a manual that looks nice? I tried Word, I tried some dtp, I tried powerpoint, but none was giving me what I thought was needed, so I felt back to good, old html and created a manual, which was a hell of a lot more work then I first thought.
As said, the demo isn's available yet, but I do have 2 vids. The first one will show you the start of the game, gameplay of the first mission and unfortunately our hero dies at the end, so you get the new death-sequence (which I forgot to mention before). The second vid shows you the gameplay of the second mission and end of the playable demo with some previews of what comes next. I will give you the vids at the end of the blog.
What's the future?
The coming week or two I will be testing the demo and the download of the demo. As far as I can see now, most of the bugs should be gone, but you never know. This should take 2 weeks max.
After that I will set out a plan for a funding-campaign at indiegogo, thinking about money and perks and so. If I got all this things clear I will start a campaign, which I have planned 4 weeks from now. But the most important thing is to get the demo as much as bug free as possible.
I've said enough, so I'll give you the vids (play them in HD), and awaiting your comments...
Video 1: Start game, gameplay mission 1 and death of our hero.
Video 2: Gameplay mission 2 and end of demo with previews.
I hope you liked the vids.
Thanks for reading.
Richard
About the author
Started programming in 1984 on an Oric, when time progressed switched to MSX, Amiga and finally the Windows PC with T3D. Now developing an epic fantasy game: The Master's Eye. Creator of the DoorClass pack and VolumetricFog pack @ richardsgamestudio.com
#2
I like how you have worked on all the small details, they really made your world come alive. On the sideline it also reminds me about how busy I am :o)
09/30/2013 (1:34 pm)
This is nice work. I am sitting here with a cup tea and thinking. Nice game, I want to buy it, I want to play it, I want to explore your world. I like how you have worked on all the small details, they really made your world come alive. On the sideline it also reminds me about how busy I am :o)
#3
09/30/2013 (5:12 pm)
Level 2 reminds me so much of Arx Fatalis, in the best possible way :D.
#4
Ron
10/01/2013 (5:05 am)
Nice demo stuff, have to very much agree with Steve. Focus a bit on the audio. The footstep sounds are... well annoying. Basically the entire thing could benefit from some serious audio tweeking. Other than that, it looks fun and reminded me a bit of Morrowind.Ron
#5
I've changed the footsteps and also added an SFX-option to change the volume of the footsteps during gameplay. We wouldn't want Steve to go nuts...;o)
Also added some kind of grunt to represent the pain at lower damage ranges, until now you were suffering in silence.
Also thinking about change the music score when you're under attack, but that might be a thing that is going on the wish list.
Now I must be going... I hear the Call of Cthulhu.
Richard
10/02/2013 (11:11 am)
Thanks for the feed-back guys.I've changed the footsteps and also added an SFX-option to change the volume of the footsteps during gameplay. We wouldn't want Steve to go nuts...;o)
Also added some kind of grunt to represent the pain at lower damage ranges, until now you were suffering in silence.
Also thinking about change the music score when you're under attack, but that might be a thing that is going on the wish list.
Now I must be going... I hear the Call of Cthulhu.
Richard
Associate Steve Acaster
[YorkshireRifles.com]
Deadlines are for casuals! Real indie devs have no care for the passing aoens in a Cthulhu-esque manner, and keep working until they go mad! Mwahahahahaha! ;)
I think that you made the correct decision in using html for the manual. You might also want to include a condenced version in-game via a GUI.
You might consider adding an audio pain - or even better a few and then looping through them for variety - wasn't entirely sure what was going on when those bats attacked above the camera.
Nice use of icons like ladder, talk, tools, etc.
edit:
Oh and those footsteps would drive me nuts, maybe a lighter, more padded, less slappy sound would help. ;)