Monday, March 11, 2013

Wall o' text #40

It's approaching the time of night I feel compelled to talk out my ass about subjects I do or don't give a shit about for the amusement of absolutely nobody, so without further ado, go team ramble.

You might have noticed the branding for the company is changed, that's primarily because I'm no longer the only member and also because I felt compelled to change it given that when Bizarre Monkey Productions is said by acronym in shorthand; people in 20 years time will think "how hilariously archaic." kind of like how I do now.

I can't even remember the last time I used a BMP (Bitmap Image) and thought it was legitimately the Ace image format, everything it supports PNG (Portable Network Graphic) supports and supports it better, and while typically I eye JPEG Artefacts with inimitable disdain they do have their place and are very handy when transparency and quality aren't a concern. Typically I only use it for photos and everything else gets the PNG treatment. BMP's are becoming more and more redundant as the years go on. In 4 years time it’s likely most image sharing sites won't even support them, thus rendering them archaic much like CorelDraw.

On the subject of actual progress Menagerie wise there's been quite a lot, more so in these past 3 months than the entirety of last year. I think this is partly due to the deadline I placed for myself, but also it’s not unlikely that it was in part because I hadn't mapped out the story mid game. I'd done expansive work on late game and early but the mid only had this much for a storyboard.

"Go north to Dwarven Kingdom of Steelforge, find some sort of way to teleport the players to paradox facility and then begin constructing the ship to end another 10,000 ships."

Believe it or not most of the difficulty with this was the snowy maps leading up to Steelforge, eventually I decided to go with the Evergrove route and repaint readily supplied sample maps.

Mapping was never a problem I faced in Intelligence's production period because the majority of the first act was based on areas I had personally visited in real life, though usually only a specific street or block of such. Mapping snowy mountain regions is something I've always found difficult; this may explain why there are no fucking snowy regions on display in Intelligence. Though it may also be because it’s set in the Tropical East Coast of Australia, if you start seeing Eskimo's in such places it might bother you.

That said Tenterfield was added in 1.1 and is to date probably the worst map in Intelligence, well that's not true for the new version of Intelligence only I know about, but it was far from memorable; I doubt anyone thinking of Intelligence would fondly regard that snowy shithole with the crude homestuck reference at the top of the map. Typically they regard the charming characters, the primary Antagonist and how he should have stayed around longer or the evented puzzles, mini-games or action sequences.

It was surprising to hear the incredible reception Maw received as a villain; I didn't expect the resulting image of a cool ass dream which originally inspired the games idea would bring such a respected enigma. But yes, it seems mystery and the omission of detail is fundamental to good villain design.

That said I am attempting a more 'human' villain in Menagerie, one with a clear conscience and a very slight tender spot.

Using 'human' to describe Zardari is quite ironic given that he's an extra terrestrial cyan-blooded black-carapaced mass-murderer. You know your writing isn't top notch when a villain of such malice and disdain is born from years of enslavement to paperwork, but I intend to ease that a portion with optional Galaxion side-quests.

Speaking of such, this is probably going to be the only game I have made with a large focus on optional content insofar. With 10 planets to explore and a large homeworld that I just can't **WAIT** to begin the nightmare of mapping, this is likely going to be one of the most optional content laden projects I'll have made to date.

There'll also be a Stardome where you can do a multitude of things, play through mini-games that you enjoyed in the game as well as some new ones, visit the CCC Offices which is the Museum which serves to show things that didn't make the final release and also cameos from the developers and potential future members of the CCC, most of which have contributed to the project already in ways large and small.

Honorable mention goes to four people;

RavenBlueIndigo: for voluntarily producing an OST which will be advertised and given out on the game's release.

Rgangsta: for the majority of parallax work including the background for the splash of CCC.

apoc: for all the new battlebacks, which you have not seen yet, but believe me they are awesome.

And finally Xyzgon: for voluntary Voice acting.

I'd also like to extend thanks to pjcr in helping relieve me of the dilemma of using already established images for Cameo avatars, though incidentally by way of drawing comics.

Now I have something else to talk about but I find myself captivated not to by the power invested in my by the shits I just don't give.