Over the course of Project Y4's more than two-year initial development phase, I wrote 30-odd developer diaries about my hopes, fears and some of the things that went terribly wrong.
So here they are, for your perusal, in chronological order from Chrismas 2009 to August 2012.
- Re-Attempt Y4: an introduction to how Project Y4 began. Probably would have been more popular if I went down this road, but it just didn't feel right.
- Swansong Y4: the true beginning of Project Y4. Marked by grim determination and, as you can see, it all paid off 'cause I actually finished it.
- Gimmick Mountain Zone Y4: a whirlwind tour of planned features from those heady early days. Some of them made it to the finish line, some didn't.
- Prime Suspect Y4: some of you might have rescued a civilian truck with a very particular colour scheme...
- The Equipment of Y4: a run-down of planned equipment. A lot of the artwork for these early items was redone much further down the line.
- The Enemies of Y4: a run-down of the original enemy roster. Some of them changed dramatically over the project's development, while some look just the same.
- The Question of Infinite Respawn in Y4: this was a bit of a question to the audience about how to deal with life and death in the game. I wanted to have a hard limit to how badly you could do, but with fights so very tight I couldn't force you to reload a saved game every time...
- Procedural Generation Y4: the birth of the node hacking mini-game.
- Mazing Woes Y4: the birth of the node hacking mini-game was not without its problems.
- Y4 Gives You More: ... or at least, it will at some point in the future. The concept of bonus missions has been around a long time, but their actuality has been constantly delayed.
- Corruption Y4: things never go smoothly, do they?
- RDZ's All-In-One Micro Map Y4: a look at how I'm just doing the same thing I always did... except in space. And the birth of the Ultimate Crane Game!
- Mini-Missions and Mini-Games Y4: introducing the tutorial and all the full-screen funzies.
- Frustraaaagetion Y4: problems with unit AI. I wasn't imagining it, in fact it's probably still there if I undo the workaround, but it was pretty wierd.
- Form Defined By Function Y4: I get all arty and pretentious about the graphic style and everyone politely ignores me.
- Procedural Generation Y4 (Take 2): another bonus mission gets laid out. Yes, this took precious time away from developing the actual map and it's still no closer to being finished!
- Status Update Y4: a run-down of the game's status at that point, including updates on equipment and planned bonus missions.
- Power-ups Y4: a discussion of, funnily enough, power-ups in the game world.
- The Dreaded Fatal Error Y4: despite the whiny title, this diary was about all the permanent upgrades you can buy for the AP-AM.
- Timeline Y4: first draft of the RDZ Industries mythos timeline that appears in the manual. The broad strokes are the same but the finished version has a few more flourishes.
- Camlock Y4: the most contentious issue of all, the issue of camera lock. Some people love it, some people hate it, so I took the opportunity to do some examination and ask the audience for their opinions.
- Retconning Y4: a recap of all the planned features that never made it. Some of the things I promised in here didn't make it either. ;_;
- Cartography Y4: due to difficulties with ever-changing terrain and just how to actually do it, the Automap took until R01b (a month after the initial release) to get finished off.
- The 0639 Train to Y4: this dedication didn't last long!
- The Maze of Y4: finishing off the node hacking mini-game long after its initial conception.
- Concepts of Y4: selected sketches of how vehicles might have looked.
- The Sound of Y4: the sound effects are finally gathered.
- Release Strategy Y4: yes, look at all the features I am conveniently delaying the release of!
- Release Date Y4 R01: oh my it's almost finished.
That should keep you occupied for a wee while!
