This is It! -- Week Ending 27 Oct

We're down to our final days before we submit Last March of the Dodos to IGF! It's amazing how much can be done in such a short amount of time when every member of the team puts his/her best foot forward. While there have been a few scares and worries along the way, we are incredibly pleased with how the game has come together, and we're stoked about what we're sending to the good folks at the Independent Games Festival!

The levels are ready, the traps are awesome, bouncing Dodos from boot to hammer to landmine is a blast, and the gameplay is accessible for everyone. We can't wait to let the public take a crack at it!

While it's only a glimpse of how the first/tutorial level takes shape, take a look at the videos below to see Last March of the Dodos in action at last!

- Troy

The Home Stretch -- Week Ending 20 Oct

For serious. A week-and-a-half until IGF submissions are due. And you know what? We'll be ready for it! The team has really pulled together during these past few weeks, and we're down to our final batch of tasks. Over this last stretch, it will be all about putting the levels into the game, balancing all the mathematical scoring features and trap costs, and testing like crazy (not that we haven't been testing along the way).

In other words, I'm incredibly proud of our team. We present the game's progress to the faculty and other students one final time tomorrow before crunching out the last 10 days, and I am excited about the product we'll be putting on display. Wish us luck as we push through to the end (not the IGF is the end--we've still got 6 months to make this baby shine until we publish in the spring)!

- Troy

A Few Additions -- Week Ending 29 Sep

This late in the game (no pun intended), I would typically do everything I could to avoid making significant changes or adding features to a project. As it turns out, we did everything we could under the existing design, and we still needed a little extra something to get it where we think it will really stand out.

With that said, we've tacked two more main features onto our IGF release backlog, so watch out for them! The first is a revamped meta game, wherein the Doins have more influence on playing more of the game and thereby having more fun destroying Dodos. They have a purpose in reaching the final levels where Dodos are in great abundance, and the layouts are constructed for optimal Dodo combo-ing and vaporizing.

That last bit leads into the second addition. Many of the traps are now being tweaked to allow for precision Dodo bouncing, thus giving the ability (and encouraging) to create more deliberate trap-to-trap chain combos. It should turn out to be a blast (again, no pun intended).

Check in over the next four weeks to see how the game wraps up for IGF!

- Troy