I love testgame, that I do, and there are a few things that pop into my mind as I continue to work on it (sporadically). Allow me to ramble a little.
Point number 1: This is one heck of a project. Considering that it took about a year and a half to get a more-or-less rough outline of the first quarter of the game, that makes the projected completion date around late 2010 at the earliest. I can’t even conceive of a time that far away. Of course, there’s always the possibility that I’ll get time to give the game some blocks of concerted attention sometime in the future, but I’m not sure when that’ll be.
Point number 2: It’s really OK that this is turning into a long term project. I mean, I’m not planning on being a game designer in real life (or am I….), and it’s just crazy cool to be making something that’s actually playable and entertaining. Then again, if I ever have other ideas for games (which I do), when do I get to start working on them?
Point number 3: The world needs to be structured differently, such that people have time for so-called “serious” life goals as well as actually being able to have projects on the side. I’m just saying.
OK, so that didn’t make much sense, but who said GameCola couldn’t double as a LiveJournal every once in a while? In other news, yes, I have done work on testgame this month. See below for the usual list of what’s new in the world. It’s actually quite sizeable! You can even do some stuff!
And, in conclusion, I think one of my new goals is going to be to really push forward and try to get a whole game out of testgame. Tasks like artwork and animation are so never-ending, I’ll just be able to work on them forever anyway, so maybe I should work mostly on producing a playable game first. It shall be pondered.
So ANYWAY, play testgame. It builds character.
(no extra programs needed to run this file)
Things to do/new features of note:
- New room! You can now go through the right hand doorway inside the castle.
- New character! He’s dressed in black and sulking in the new room. And you can even talk to him (or try to, anyway)!
- The castle courtyard screen has been extended—it’s practically the size of TWO screens now and constitutes testgame’s first scrolling screen!
- Another dialogue option with the guard outside of the castle.
- Ability to use some items on Lily (i.e., the items she gives you, and others).
- Animation for the desk drawers opening and closing in Paul’s room.
- Background work: cave of thorns (this screen is proclaimed FINISHED), castle courtyard, vine screen.
All the graphics and design are by Lizo. The dialogue was written by Lizo, with significant input by Paul. The background music is by Lizo. “Let’s Go Skateboard” is written and performed by The Word Problems. Adventure Game Studio (the program used to create this game) can be downloaded at http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/
