What's new this fortnight?
I think the best way to explain what's been going on is to let the new artwork and animation speak for itself.
Video : Animations, tweens and particles. Don't see a video? CLICK HERE.
Even small animations can really bring the world to life. There are three different things going on here, each of which is important for the core puzzles that I've recently started working on.The leaves use a new particle system, which was implemented primarily for the background and some puzzle ideas on the ship.
The cogs shown here use a type of automatic transition that interpolates the object's properties when they're updated by something in the game. This is sometimes also called motion 'tweening', and means that animation happens automatically without needing artist input. As the only developer on the project, this is really important because it saves me time while still letting me create affordance through object motion. Improving the affordance of puzzles often makes them less frustrating.
Making everything playable
Puzzles : 2 co-op / 2 stand-alone
Objects : 8 tutorial / 5 ship
Until recently, my focus has been on improving the technology and workflow to a point that I can easily create new content and implement the puzzle ideas I've had in mind. I've reached that point, and now the focus is on creating new content, especially for the ship level.
Over the last few weeks I also implemented some game analytics so that I can begin to collect data about puzzle completion. This is important because it will allow me to track how people play the game, and balance the puzzles so that they're not too difficult, or too obvious.
Watch this Space
I've also started assembling a short trailer to pitch the game on Steam Greenlight. This may or may not be finished for the next update, but stay tuned. As well as the trailer, I'll be planning some new puzzles for the ship and voyage, and if there's time, starting to draw graphics and polish up some of the puzzles that were seen in the Kickstarter pitch.
If you'd like to keep up with the development, remember to head over and subscribe to the 39 Days to Mars development blog. Updates are also posted to Facebook, and I'm trying to tweet more about the development process on Twitter. And as always, if you've got questions or comments just leave them below.
