Developer Diary 04: The Launch That Is Still To Come

Here’s a totally context-free picture, related in some way I won’t tell you to our project. I know I said the time for secrets was over, but I was wrong.

Today was, according to Our Big Plan, the day we were going to launch the site and the company and the bigger initiative and the campaign. Some sub-set of those things is not ready. I’ll give you a hint, it rhymes with Web Site. Can something rhyme with itself? Probably not.

So, yeah, the web site is not done or ready. The problem is, we took too long picking a developer to build it and they (like everyone, always when it comes to this kind of thing) dramatically overestimated how fast they could get it done. And so it’s not done.

It is more than just a site for our new company and project(s). Our stuff is just a part of a larger site, which even in this first version has a number of features that aren’t quite off the shelf. Actually, a fair amount of the technical back end functions are in place, but the thing looks like a hot mess, since no designer has touched it for a single moment. Launching with that would be an ugly distraction, not something you’d want to share with your friends because it’s so cool and exciting.

And so we wait. Probably two weeks.

<sigh>

But we’re putting those two weeks to good use. First of all, it mean Austin didn’t have to kill himself over the weekend editing the launch video. It also means we can pick up a few more shots for said video, as well as have more art in it. And more juggling. There is supposed to be juggling, but right now there isn’t.

Last week, Austin was working on what we’re calling Cover Art pieces, even though there won’t be a box to put a cover on. They’re looking pretty sweet. We finalized some character designs as well. I contributed a lot, I think, by saying that the one dude shouldn’t have a hat because his hair is so awesome. I think you’ll agree. Jonathan got the animation system up and working and made a simple chessboard where you could select squares. He also did some complicated math so that we can have different angles for our isometric view, if needed. I had many long meeting on Google+ and wrote a bunch of content to go up on the web site that isn’t ready yet. I also made decisions about hats.

This week, Jonathan’s going to get those pieces moving around the board, Austin’s going to rough-cut the video and draw more pics, and I’m going to figure out how to cram in as much extra functionality into those two new weeks, mostly to do with a simple AI system. 

Comments

[Roadshow]

All the best games developers are obsessed with hats, just look at @notch

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[P. George Stewart]

Lemme guess, a game based on HG Wells' The Time Machine?

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