Week #026: By Popular Demand

(05-12-12) Update: We've been getting so many great suggestions that I decided to keep this open for another week before we start narrowing them down for a poll. Keep 'em coming!

It sure has been a while. On Thursday, Dan filled you in on the graphical overhaul and why things have been so slow for us lately. It's certainly been a busy, chaotic time.

But I'm happy to say that I feel more positive about this project now than I ever have. You shouldn't let this speed bump worry you, because things are looking up! I should also be sure to mention that there are absolutely no hard feelings from me in regards to this change of direction; I do not feel that my job with the company is in jeopardy, and I do believe that this change is the best for everyone.

Just what does it mean to you, the player, though? It is sad to say that very few of my graphics will be appearing in the final game now, but you should expect the same overall style regardless of this new direction. Dan and Evan seem devoted to sticking to that style, and you can be sure that I'm devoted to making sure everything maintains the same (or improved) charm.

This brings us to the purpose of this blog. I have no plans to discontinue it, but the amount of final assets you see may wind up being limited. What you can look forward to seeing is more concept art and test animations for characters and creatures alike. I'm planning to make a post highlighting just what myself and the rest of the art team (we're a team now!) are working on, but I didn't want to clutter this homecoming post and distract away from what everyone's really interested in...

Community Impact Opportunity #002:

Pets! That's Right... Pets!!!

Images represent a game currently in development.

OMG is it finally time!? It is. As you can see above, this little fellow is what I have in the works as HTD's first out-of-combat pet. The fun, of course, won't stop here, and we felt it only proper to let you, the players, decide on what kind of pets you want to have with you in HTD. Leave your demands in the comments and we'll sort through them, decide on what will work and what won't, and I'll create a poll in the coming weeks to narrow the choices down!

Please be sure that you're logged in to Blogger when you leave your suggestion, so that you can be properly credited if it comes down to your idea winning.

Until next time!

Week #025 and a Half: April Fool's!

For those of you that didn't figure it out, yes, yesterday's post was an April Fool's gag. Gotcha! There are a few things worth keeping in mind, though, of course, and that's why I'm here tonight. I didn't want to flood the post yesterday with all of this and wind up ruining the illusion.

- The real title screen is in fact under development. It just isn't high on our priority list at the moment. I'm still looking forward to sharing it when the time comes, and I assure you it's something completely unique, and not parodying any video games from the '90s.

- The complete flood of "first" posts yesterday was the result of me writing the post just before I had gone to sleep, and therefore couldn't approve any comments until I woke up. I always publish them all so that you can have an idea on how close to first you actually were, and so that it doesn't look like I'm playing favorites. Any comments throwing around obscenities in regards to people "lying" about being first (or in regards to anything, really) are unacceptable and won't be approved (unless I'm not paying attention). As before, since this is an unscheduled post, the First! Comment Scoreboard will not be in effect today.

- Now for the bad news (this part is not an April Fool's gag - again, this is why I didn't talk about it yesterday). As of Friday my tablet pen suffered a most overdue death, and as my luck usually likes to domino, the back-up I had stored for just such a day isn't working either. Luckily, I did determine that it's just the pen and not the entire tablet, so it's a cost that doesn't hurt as much as it could have. Still, I've been forced to take an inconveniently timed vacation, putting me a bit further behind how behind I already was. Obviously, this means light spells won't be making it in this week. In the end, I want to take a little time to play catch-up, and will be postponing further blog posts until I reach that level of comfort once more. If the hiatus winds up lasting long enough, I'll be sure to have Dan say something on the main blog once I'm getting started again, for those that don't follow here as regularly.

Until then!

Week #020: Now For Something Completely Different

It may look like I haven't really done a whole lot since we finished up Maximus and got him into the game. While I did take some time off for recharging after that, you can rest assured that we're still hard at work polishing the game up. You just can't always immediately notice it.

If you've been following the progression notes, you may have noticed my entry for "character fixes/polish". This is what I've been focusing my attention on for the last week. While everything may look fine and dandy with the characters at the moment, this is because they're equipped in their full armor sets. Beneath that there are numerous graphical errors that, while hidden by the equipping of a full armor set, would have become eye sores once the characters were only wearing a few select pieces of armor instead of the whole set. Instead of putting this off until such equipment management became possible, I decided to get it done ahead of time.

Again, this is unfortunate since it's mostly behind-the-scenes work that not a lot of people will see. Even Sam and Dan were sometimes at a loss in regards to what I was talking about working on! I tried to take some before and after screenshots to show as examples this week, but I felt they weren't doing a good job of expressing just what was going on.

Instead, I have this for you.

For those of you interested in what kind of stuff I draw in the little free time I allow myself for that kind of thing, I also posted my rendition of Cave Story's Curly Brace over on my deviantArt account about a week ago.