There’s been a change of plans.
As you may remember, we mentioned that we were planning on showing off some footage of the game during E3. E3 has come and gone and no footage was shown so what happened?
Our original plan was to create a short 10-30 second video which included a few seconds from 2-3 scenes which would show off some combat & exploration. This kind of footage is great for creating trailers and for inclusion in larger montage videos, but we figured you all deserved something better.
With our past games, we would focus on one aspect of the game, finish everything in that aspect and then move onto the next. For example, we might make every single enemy in the game and then make every single area in the game and then make every single ability in the game and so on. Although this approach had a certain amount of efficiency to it, it has a major flaw in that we wouldn’t have anything playable until the game was almost entirely finished. This can be especially bad if it turns out that your original plan had problems since you don’t discover those issues until near the end of the project when you might not have much time to fix them.
With Cosmic Star Heroine, we’re doing things a little different and creating the game on a scenario by scenario basis. So for say a dungeon, we’d create the maps for that dungeon, the enemies for that dungeon, the story triggers & dialogue for that dungeon, and so on until the dungeon is playable just like it would presumably be in the finished game. This is a little more work in the short run (since you have to adjust between working on different tasks), but we feel this will result in a better game since we’ll be able to play through the game as it gets created and thus will be able to adjust & polish it more easily.
As an added bonus to this scenario approach, we should have a meaty preview of one of the larger scenarios in the game ready to show off to you all in a few weeks. This won’t be just a few seconds of carefully edited footage. Instead, we’ll be able to play through a couple sections of the game, record that, and show you several minutes of footage of us playing through part of the actual game.
Specifically, we’ll be showing some segments from early on the game where Alyssa leads a team of herself, Chahn, and Dave on a mission on Rhomu. You’ll see more of the jungle that we’ve shown off on the Kickstarter page as well as an all-new location in the form of a creepy old abandoned laboratory. Should be a fun segment to show off. 🙂
… Bob, Bill… In my humble opinion you gentlemen do not owe anyone (well, die-hard fans anyway) an apology… Being a novice game/app developer, I’m versed in all the little details that go on during game development. Getting all the assets complete is a very good practice in theory, yet you eluded to the fact that you may run into problem during programming/development i.e. Animation sync or bonus item scripts (just listing generic issues… I’m sure there can be more complex ones…) Fans should give you guys a pass on the deadline because let’s be honest: no great game can be developed overnight and still be considered “great”… Maybe a “money grab” free to play phone app, but something with substance needs more than just time to perfect… I use the AAA title from Team Ico: the Last Guardian as an example. It’s been several years since it’s announcement but we have yet to see in-game footage or a decent trailer… I’m a huge fan of Ico and Shadows, yet the wait (6-7 years I think) is bearable but weighing at the same time… Now I’m certain CSH (while grand still) isn’t on par with the likes of Team Ico’s latest project, so a 7 year development is not the case here… From what I’ve seen, the game will be a classic Zeboyd RPG entry, and (whenever I get an XBOX One or PS4) will be a day one purchase… Looking forward to the trailer fellas 😉
I look forward to this in-game footage ! Keep up the good work !