Ahh, systems: so much promise, but yet they look so crap to start with! Luckily we have time for tweaking in advance of Gamecity, so everyone will be doing another mini-crunch starting next week. I've already asked our artist to expand the splatter a bit!
We will shortly be doing an interview with the very awesome Mr Ninjadave for the Indie group here on ModDB - looking forward to that one.
Another podcast should be out later today.
Thanks very much for all the comments on my track Schism, both on that page and on the previous news post. It's motivating to get feedback on the soundtrack as I write it - I'm hoping to get more done soon, but I'm back on the PR today as we really need to get things motoring in that department.
And now here's some LIFE, for those of you who are missing the Meaningless Diary of an Indie Game Man:
Um...never open Ableton Live with Fraps running otherwise this happens...
...and this amazing white window will NEVER close. NEVER. Not with alt-F4, not with killing the process in Task Manager, not with ANYTHING. EVER. Don't you just love Windows?
Mr Potato Man makes a welcome return to the blog. That's all I have to say about him.
Here is the story about this wine glass: I went to my girlfriend's cousin's wedding. It was ok: it was a WEDDING. Anyway, all of the guests (even the incredibly obscure ones like me) got given a hand-decorated, personalised wine glass. Mine had a computer with two sword-fighting guys on it, and pints of beer. This accurately represents about 90% of my total life's achievements, which is fantastic. Anyway if you are having a WEDDING, and you want to instantly make all of your obscure guests think you are awesome, do something as nice as that.
Here is the all-important Basil Update: the basil has moved from its prior home outside INTO THE KITCHEN. This is, apparently, to protect it from frost. It is, however, looking a little beleaguered, with some significant evidence of wilting.
Basil Rating: 4
More of this soon!
umm, I didnt see any blood splat D:
Ha ha - it's a bit miniscule on that video isn't it? It's there at 0:05. Hmm, looks like I'll need to make another one. It should be much more obvious when it's a bit larger! I also want to get some system for making blood splatter the walls correctly...I'm sure our artist will love me for that one.
i could spot it.....but make it a bit larger :). Any chance of seeing a much longer video?
Yep, sorry about smallness - was just a very quick vid I took earlier today! I'll try and get a better one up soon when we have the bigger / more random blood patterns going.
We will be making our first teaser trailer soon which will show a lot more of the game. This will take place after our Nottingham event is done at the end of the month.
That's good to hear. A teaser would be good at this juncture
Please make the blood coded, like a bunch of small particles. It would work very well in a slow paced game like this and it would look splendid!
I want to make sure it's nice and dynamic - I'm not sure exactly what we're using for this currently (I believe it is particles) but I have a VERY clear idea in my mind of the outcome I want. We'll see what happens when it develops more fully. At the moment, we're just rushing to get systems IN - refinement and cool stuff will come soon - promise!
Related to PR: consider having a sepparate person doing PR. I agree, that person should be in contact with the development team, to get things straight.
Still, for one person alone:
Development + PR = chronical lack of time
My main roles are Art Direction, Audio and PR - these are things that usually hit the critical path at different times, so it's possible to juggle. It's not easy though,and some help on PR would be great - we're looking into it. Lots of successful indies, like Positech, Wolfire and Dejobaan don't have one dedicated dedicated PR person - they all chip in and help out. It's not as simple as just hiring someone - hiring a new staff member is one of the most expensive things you can do, and it can spell disaster if done at even slightly the wrong time. All of that said, there is a level we need to reach with PR and marketing, and we'll do whatever it takes to get there.