Interested in finding out a bit more about the characters in MacGuffin’s Curse? Of course you are! Head on over to the Characters page to find out more about Lucas as well as a few more characters.
Not all of them, mind – wouldn’t want you to know everything…
In game development, a vertical slice refers to a portion of the game that can be considered representative of the final game. I like to think of it as a cross section of a piece of cake, a “vertical slice” if you will. The problem with a vertical slice though, is you’ve got to bake the whole cake before you can take it. Well, that’s not entirely true, more like baking a muffin, which will taste like the final cake. I feel like a coffee would go well with that last paragraph.
A vertical slice is good for publishers and the like because they can get their hands on the game and understand exactly what they might be investing in, as aside to seeing a pitch or design document. A vertical slice is not usually good for developers because they’ve got to get final assets in place very quickly, which is especially inefficient if they’re trying to secure contractor time at awkward blocks in the project, which is especially true of audio.
We’ve been working diligently away on MacGuffin’s Curse to reach this vertical slice for probably longer than we initially imagined, because we’re perfectionists and want to show a polished product. We’re nearly there, but not quite. A lot is hinging on this vertical slice, it could mean the difference between getting successful distribution and disappearing into obscurity, which is why we see benefit in taking the time to make it awesome even if it takes a few extra weeks. Because what’s a few weeks in a 26 week development cycle?
One thing I realise in hindsight is that Jolly Rover was at the vertical slice stage when I received funding for it, because I had built the prototype and paid to get assets done before seeking further investment – which was expensive! The vertical slice of Jolly Rover was what allowed me to move so rapidly on development as a one man design/production/programming team, so while it can be inefficient to do a vertical slice, there are good things to be said for the development of one early on.
Hey all! We’ve been itching to show you how the game’s been going for a while – so here’s a bit of a look at some of the work our fantastic artists have put together. Not being an artist myself, it’s always wonderful when my requests come back with that “artist magic” that they seem to be able to add. Stuff like seeing Lucas’ snout scrunch up as he uses his brute strength to pull something, or the little grass trim poking up from the columns, the lights, and even seen in the moonlight – this is the kind of attention to detail that just makes it so more exciting when you see the whole thing come together, and I’m really proud of the work they’ve done.
Man, I can’t wait for this to be finished so I can play it!
Click each image for a bigger view:
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What with the Mac App Store busyness this week compounded with the additional busyness of working on MacGuffin’s Curse, there will be no Development Blog post this week. Have a good holiday, whether by yourself, with family or friends.
See you next week!
So, Jolly Rover is on sale on the Mac App store at the staggeringly low price of $2.99. But, after uploading some awesome new images on the Mac App Store last night, the store page for Jolly Rover is suddenly devoid of any screenshots! Timing is everything on the Mac App store, ESPECIALLY since Apple have decided to give Jolly Rover a nice little feature, so I’ve decided to upload the images here as well just in case you’ve come across the page and happen to check out the site.
Click each image for a bigger view:
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The important information is that Jolly Rover is now on sale on the Mac App store for US$2.99!! But be quick, it’s going back up to the full price of $9.99 on Friday.
I must say I’m always a bit nervous about putting my game on sale, especially at $2.99, but Steam sales have done well for Jolly Rover and I’ve also decided to take the advice from people who have been there and done that. Even though the game has been on Mac since release, the Mac App store is a whole new playground. Check out the game here!
What do these terms mean to game development? The acronyms, themselves stand for Graphical User Interface, User Interface and Heads Up Display. GUI (goo-ee) and UI (you-eye) can be used interchangeably, and to be honest I’m not expert on correct usage, but I use GUI to refer to all the visual components in a game that aren’t part of the actual game world. UI refers to menus, buttons windows and such, and HUD (hud) refers to status indicators you’d see overlaid on your game window, such as a health bar, or how many magic mushrooms you’ve collected.
These last few weeks we’ve been focusing on the GUI in the lead up to a vertical slice of the game we’re preparing. A good GUI is one that the user doesn’t notice; it does what it has to do seamlessly and lets you get on with enjoying the game. A good GUI takes a lot more work than you’d think, especially when you’re supporting keyboard, controller, and touch all on the one interface, it’s like building 3 GUI’s on top of each-other and requires an intimate knowledge of each device, so it helps if you play a lot of games using each input method. When developing a GUI it’s important to test it yourself, and when you’re happy with it to get as many people to use it as you can and give you feedback. A bad interface can be a massive barrier to entry for people to enjoy your game. We find that GUI can be one of the most important player experiences in a game, but it’s still something that is constantly overlooked or left till the last minute, and always underestimated in terms of the time it takes to build one, which we are being reminded of again.
If I were giving anyone advice on building their GUI for their game, I would say to get it in early so you can test it thoroughly, and multiply the time you think it will take to develop by the number of input devices and resolutions you’re supporting. Also, try not to giggle every time you say GUI.
Rip up your diaries and shout at your secretaries, because that Mac App Store date you got for Jolly Rover is now wrong. Instead, it’s now coming out a whole day earlier, on Thursday the 14th of April! So if you’ve been impatiently waiting for the game’s release (and really, who hasn’t), don’t worry! You now get to wait a day less instead. Just don’t get too impatient, because you could end up falling down into a garbage chute leading to a furnace like Veruca Salt and her dad – and nobody wants that.
Although, let’s face it, she got off pretty lightly compared to the rest of the kids who visited Wonka’s factory.
Today I began the dreaded task of telling our sound designer how long the sounds we’ve requested need to be. This doesn’t sound too difficult, does it? “Gimme a twang with a burble in it“, maybe you think. “And one of those whirly biz-whizzers, you know what I mean. Not too long, not too short.” And then you get an email back asking questions, wanting to know horrible things like “How long should this sound go for?” and “Could you please provide more detail?” and “What on earth is a ‘BLART’?”
The reality is, the more detail you can provide in advance, the better your sounds will be and the less back and forthing you’ll need to do. Sound can often be neglected or deemed “not as important” as art, when this is really not the case. As seen in this re-edit of Mary Poppins, by selecting some of the stranger parts of the movie, and adding howling wind, a heartbeat, and tense music, the end result becomes quite unsettling.
Another interesting thing you’ll soon discover is that your perception of how long a sound plays and how long it actually does play for are quite different. One example given to me by Andrew was that a door sound he received for Jolly Rover on its first pass played for a second, and by its final revision, it needed to be about a tenth of a second! What about that famous jingle from Zelda when you solve a room? How long do you think that goes for? Although the video runs for five seconds, the actual jingle is closer to one second (possibly even less!).
Audio is definitely under appreciated as an artform, but putting time and care into it will really enhance your game.
It’s been so quiet today that I can only assume two things – 1) the team is madly working towards hitting the prototype milestone or 2) they’ve fled the country, or possibly died of exhaustion. Okay, three things.
So while the busy beavers are working away I’ve decided to do a press roundup of all the GDC press we’ve got on MacGuffin’s Curse. It’ll be like one of those flashback episodes we all love so much.
I want to make a special mention of the coverage we got recently on Adventure Gamers. There are many reasons why this is an awesome article, for one it does the basics right like getting everything spelled correctly, especially the game name and our names – you wouldn’t believe how often this simple step is overlooked. It also has all the game facts correct, another big tick; and then goes on to discuss the features of the game in a good amount of detail, even referring back to our previous game – Jolly Rover. It’s these kind of articles you always hope for, and being an indie developer we cherish a good bit of press.
The other recent bit of press we got was a video by GameSpot AU. This was taken at GDC, and I’d given the spiel about MacGuffin’s Curse about 20 time since then, so you can be sure it was still fresh and interesting for me. This is a well produced and easy to digest summary of MacGuffin’s Curse if you haven’t already read anything about it, well worth a look.
The rest of the roundup:
5th March – MacWorld (Another good article)
5th March – Touch Arcade
22nd March – DIY Gamer (article swallowed by a server crash) but they did have some nice things to say.
Pre-GDC there’s also a few interviews:
25th January – Brimbank Weekly
17th February – Gamezebo
22nd February – ScreenPlay
