Dirk 2: Production Diary

[TroyHepfner]

I finally finished the new E.V.I.L agent. The AI may need some more tweaks, but he's working pretty good right now. He has some abilities that no other enemy has, plus two different attacks. Should be very exciting!

After lunch, I'll see if I can finish up the rest of this level...

[TroyHepfner]

Just finished editing the first teaser trailer for Dirk Dashing 2! It will be featured in my monthly newsletter next weekend!

[TroyHepfner]

Level 15 is done! One more level, and Part 2 of the 5-part story will be finished!

Now to back up and start designing level 10, now that I finally have some ideas for designing that level. But first... lunch!

[TroyHepfner]

Big news today!

I've just published the first teaser trailer for Dirk Dashing 2: E.V.I.L. Eye!

Up until now, I've only shown still screenshots, so this is your first look at the game in-action! Even though it's short (it's a teaser), you can see the new graphics and lighting effects, Dirk's new tranquilizer dart gun, some of Dirk's new moves, and some of the new characters - including the Ninja I just finished!

The game will be available for pre-order later this summer. Details in my July newsletter here:
http://www.mygamecompany.com/Newsletters/july11.htm

EDIT: I have set up an official web page for Dirk Dashing 2, with pre-order details and the new trailer: http://www.mygamecompany.com/Product...hing2/main.htm

[bitsweep]

Troy,

Thanks for the newsletter update, and I wanted to cheer you on concerning your progress with Dirk2! Very much looking forward to playing the full game! (I'm tempted to pre-order, to give you a hand debugging the Linux beta-build, but am extremely busy with work. If I can squeeze it in though I'll do so.) The screenshot with the new EVIL boss looks great!

God bless,
-S

[TroyHepfner]

Thanks, bitsweep!

[TroyHepfner]

Another productive day - I fixed a lot of bugs, did some gameplay balancing, and put together my to-do list for the remaining work I need to complete before I do the pre-order next month. I am now putting together a new build for my testers!

[TroyHepfner]

Well, I was going to post my to-do list for you, but the forum gives me an error when I try to commit the change. It's been doing that to me a lot lately, and it doesn't matter what web browser I use. I think I need to find a better blogging solution.

Anyway, I made good progress today. I fixed nearly all of the known bugs in the new enemy AI, made significant performance improvements in the new lighting code, and fixed staircases in various levels that only let you climb them in one direction. That's a total of 8 items on my to-do list!

At this point, most of the remaining bugs and unfinished features either involve the menu system or changes to the save game format for missing information that isn't currently being saved. I'll have to save up all the latter changes and do them at once, so I don't force my testers to keep starting over because the save game format keeps changing.

[TroyHepfner]

Today I finished my sketch of Dirk for the promotional illustration. I really want it to look its best, though, so I posted help wanted ads on several art sites and spent several hours today looking through art samples and portfolios for artists who responded. I've already identified several candidates, but I'll wait another day or so to see who else responds.

I also spent the afternoon working on my to-do list. I crossed off 14 items from the list, mostly related to changes to the save game format. I think the game is saving everything it needs to now, so I'll probably be issuing another update to the testers in the next day or two.

Next up: finish the menu system!

[TroyHepfner]

Well, I had 50+ artists respond to my 24-hour job posting, and I've been pouring through portfolios all afternoon. There sure are a lot of talented artists out there!

A few of them I was able to weed out immediately - either their portfolio didn't contain many samples or their art style just didn't fit what I was looking for.

Most applicants, however, had some pieces in their portfolios that lined up with what I wanted. In order to whittle down the playing field, I finally had to establish some criteria and see how everyone lined up. I checked the portfolios for 3 things: 1) illustration work, 2) graphic design (lettering & logos), and 3) potential to help additional art needs that I might have as I wrap up the game (like last minute game objects, user interface elements, icons, etc). Using that criteria, I was finally able to eliminate some otherwise great artists and reduce the list of candidates to 9.

From there, it was an agonizing decision of weighing one artists strengths and seeming weaknesses/unknowns against the others. I would have liked to have hired them all for various pieces, but I just can't afford that. So I forced myself to choose. It took an hour just to eliminate the first of the 9 candidates. The last 3 were brutal - I think any one of them would work well. But in the end, I finally chose one.

I think I'll sleep on it, though, to make sure I still agree with the choice in the morning.

At least I know I've got some good backup candidates, in case the first one is unable to help with future art needs...