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The
MGC Times
January
2012 Newsletter
Dear
customers and fans,
Well,
here we are again at the start of a new year!
As
I look back at 2011, I have to say it was a pretty busy year. I spent
most of my time working on Dirk Dashing 2, and even though development
is taking longer than I had hoped, I think the game is turning out
much better for it. We also continued maintaining our existing games,
as you can see from this brief list of accomplishments:
-
A
fashion designer kit for Fashion Cents Gents was made available,
so customers could make their own clothes
-
A
special winter add-on pack was also released for Fashion Cents
Gents
-
Our
13th add-on pack for Fashion Cents Deluxe was released, containing
new beachwear
-
Word
Play was updated to add support for Windows Vista and Windows 7
-
Dirk
Dashing 1 was updated to fix some bugs reported by Linux gamers
and to run better on 64-bit distributions
-
In
August, the long-awaited Dirk Dashing 2: E.V.I.L. Eye was made
available for pre-ordering!
-
Subsequent
updates for Dirk 2 were released in September, October, and
December with new features & content
-
In
December, Dirk 2 earned a place in IndieDB's Top 100 Games of
2011!
Looking
ahead at 2012, my main focus for the first part of the year will be to
finish Dirk Dashing 2. Beyond that, I haven't decided what I'll be
doing next. I would like to explore the possibility of expanding onto
portable devices like the iPad and iPhone. I also have many ideas for
new games I would like to make. I'm thinking it would be nice to work
on a few smaller games before I tackle another big project. On the
other hand, there are many more Dirk Dashing stories floating around
in my head that I would love to tell, as well as some Rick Rocket
stories that would use both the space shooter engine from the first
game and the platforming engine from Dirk 2. But we'll have to wait
and see. A big part of what happens next will depend on Dirk Dashing 2
sales when it is finally released.
For
now, I want to thank you again for buying my games so I can keep
making new ones for you. I hope you have a happy 2012!
- Troy Hepfner
Dirk
Dashing 2 Production Update
With
the release of v0.7 on December 15, I've completed 60% of the game's
content.
Based
on how development has progressed so far, I can project a tentative
schedule for the remainder of the game. This is, of course, subject to
change, but it should give you a rough idea of when you can expect the
game to be finished:
-
v0.8,
containing the Part 4 levels, should be ready around the end of
February
-
v0.9,
containing the Part 5 levels, should be ready around the end of
April
-
v1.0,
containing last-minute bug fixes, game balance adjustments, and
polishing, around the end of June
There
may also be some intermediate releases to fix crucial bugs.
Speaking
of bugs, several pre-order customers are still reporting issues with
white background textures, particularly in Chapter 1-7. I've been
unable to recreate this issue here, but I've been investigating it,
and I think I may know what is happening. The game is unloading and
reloading lots of big textures between levels, and I think the video
memory gets fragmented over time. I'm looking at ways to improve the
caching of some of the larger textures to help minimize this problem.
I
haven't had much feedback from pre-order customers regarding v0.7.
Please let me know if you thought the levels were too easy, too hard,
or just right. If I don't hear from you, I'll have to assume the level
difficulty was ok. I would also like to know if you ran into any
issues with the night vision goggles or the darker rooms in the
skyscraper. This gadget will be used a lot more in upcoming levels, so
I want to make sure the gameplay is solid.
Stay tuned!
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