So we just added the last bit of code (that we've planned). It's a great feeling knowing that we're pretty much done. All we are planning to do is redo some art, and we're set for a release.
But, with the last bit of code finished we got to reminiscing about the changes that we've had to make to the game do to the critical feedback we've received from other people:
- we redid most of the music from the game. Hopefully, it's less annoying than it was before :)
- the game is pretty much EASIER (though we do still run into problems of our own)
- some of the help items have been moved around. People were getting lost while playing the game, although the game is as linear as can be. By some miracle, we decided to build a map for the game and so we lucked out on not being surprised by this. Long story short, we mention in the game that the player has a map much sooner
- the HUD has been completely redesigned. Some people thought it took too much space. If the player collects something, it will still take too much space, but it's been much improved
- the store was redesigned
Off the top of my head, those are the majority of the major changes that we created. We've mentioned this before, but we absolutely feel that these changes were extremely important and responding to them has made The Good Apprentice a much better game.
In fact, for our next game, we have to work out a way to get the art even sooner so that we can get this critical feedback much earlier and save time.
Overall, we're really super excited to release our next piece of art. It's been one hell of a LONG ride...
