Hey everyone,
Just a quick update today for anyone following the game.
IRL started development roughly 16 months ago, by far the longest project I've ever done, and it's still not the final product I want it to be. The feedback you guys have given have helped me to keep going with this project, and I'd really appreciate anymore comments, suggestions or even questions that anyone wants to ask, they all show me that people are interested and this is something worth doing, which I've questioned a lot throughout the development of IRL.
I'm trying to get the game ready for pre-alpha, I don't know how many of you are interested in such a release, but I hope a few of you will buy the game and be able to give me some feedback on how the game could be improved.
Whether or not I can get this released in July.... I'm not sure, as always with indie game release dates, things don't always go to plan, in fact they rarely do. I have some work to do on NPC's, such as parking and driving away, although I could just make them teleport to their house when they're near it, which I may end up doing as a temporary measure. The network mode is also having issues with player-owned furniture, but for general play, it's working well.
There's currently no music for the game, previously I was using music from Machinimasound.com although it's free to use for anyone, and I didn't want to use music that is commonly used in other works. I may release the first release without music, as there is ambient sound, so it's never dead silent.
We're at the final pieces of work before a pre-alpha release. As much as I don't like to release the game this early, I truly think that if I don't, I won't be able to finish this. Even not taking into account finances, motivation is very hard to keep when you're working on a project for this long, completely alone, with not a great deal of feedback on the actual game.
To finish this off, I don't know if any of you remember the website I started in January? Well if you don't, don't worry because the website isn't there anymore. Instead I started up a blog where I can do more frequent updates easier than on IndieDB, and also host polls where I can get feedback from you guys.
In fact, there's a blog post on there now where I'd like to hear from you all about certain things about the game. You can help shape the future of IRL by voting in the polls now!
Head on over to Irlgame.blogspot.co.uk and vote in the polls to have your say.
And remember, the games forums can be found here: Indiedb.com
So check them out and feel free to post!
Remember, for even more frequent updates, follow me on Twitter, and Track This Game to be kept up to date whenever something gets added to IndieDB.
Hope you're having a good summer, mixture of very sunny days with thunderstorms here in England.
Until next time,
Oliver
