The Weekly Blast on the Development of Fantasci: Hidden War
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November 7th Welcome to the Team, Kevin. Wow, its been like 3 weeks. Halloween has come and gone, Snow has arrived here in Canada. Tis the season to start looking at the next year. Our team is working very hard, we have had a sudden influx of artist, from CG animation to even talks regarding scultures. Yes a limited edition sculpture for the game. We may even look at getting some multiples if we can get a good process. We have had a new artist approach us, taking some great interest in the Atlantian area, color what wonderful color.
But progress moves forward. Forward is our key.The next big holiday for me is Thanksgiving. Which means a small special dinner here in canada. Then Christmas, is it already the End of the year? We had a outlook to get our core mechanics done before the new years. AI is being worked on as we speak, Art is coming in daily. We are getting more and more pieces in putting it together. You might have noted a lack of screenshots since the end of august. We have begun to put in some beta stuff. We do hope to have something really great ready for you by Christmas.
We are working on getting a forum up and running. so When we launch the website to get out some of the beta items, we hope to start laying out some of the storyline. It should be really fun. Stay tooned.
October 20th As I begin a sweeping review of all the missions, I love to see some of the progress, I had a few moments of inspiration and as the front page shows, I have been really busy cleaning up textures, and making the areas the best I can. We are also working on some new model work, I cant wait to get these finished and unvieled.
What do we expect to see soon, We expect to see some nice loose end items coming out quickly and promtly. Also I am looking at getting our latest movie working and ready to go. Should be exciting.
October 8th Yah, holidays, Why am i posting a day early, becuase this is long weekend, Thanksgiving, also my sons 4th Birthday, its a pacman birthday theme!! What fun. Tonight is another IDGA meeting, I am looking forward to that.
Fantasci has finally officially signed the paperwork for Ashtara to be on the team. We do hope to get her work showing very soon, She has already been very instrumental with other NPCs characters. And we forsee great things. Also we have started working on some additional webtools that we hope to get up and running very soon. We have also done some really nice items in the last week, I got down to fixing up the city for its next unvieling.
October 2nd After a brief holiday, and some brain storming, I prepare to get back in the horses saddle and do some scripting, we are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel as we solidify some of our end game material. Including a new set of scifi fighters for the end game and 2nd game material. We expect it to be huge. We will get those previews on the gallery soon.
With the removal of 2 more teammates we have started consolidating, and looking at some of the items that will be removed and what will be kept in. With so much material we have finally come over the top of the edge and are seeing some results in cleaning up the game play mechanics, I cant wait to get the last few contracts out to expand on some already existing items.
September 20th First off, I want to apologize for the missed 2 weeks of updates, but here we are. What have we been up to here? Paperwork, some prototyping for some missing portions, filling in some holes for the storyline. Doing some work for the cinematics. We have alot going on. We are cleaning the house some. With the dismission of a few part time team members, i have tried to turn my focus and finding folks that are interested in checking out Fantasci, that means you. That also means we have lots of room for expansion.
With the setting up of one of the end game features that jump starts the second portion of the game. I must say, making a entire solar system is so much fun.What you say, a solar system, you cant do that! Your not even done with your current project. Actually your right, But rather then dropping 1 project and picking up another, we have split it up the tasks among the catagories. See, what you might see as 1 gaint game, I see as a series of managable sections. Rather then doing 10 failed starts, each project builds on each other. I learn as I Go, and retroactively apply any things I learn, and I think ahead, If I know I am going to have 7 races for the 2nd game, I plan for it in the 1st game. So what you start seeing, is essentially, everything in the 1st game becomes the platform for the 2nd game. Assets are simply updated and moved along like a assembly line, taking time and storyline into account. Remember Fantasci was drawn up as originally as a MMO, with several hundred hours of content. Its now a RPG with 20-40 hours of game play, possible more when it comes down to it.
Bottom Line, We need you.We need programmers, artist, animators, and 2d artists. We have lots to do. Interested, give me a email at racs333@hotmail.com or msn me there. There are tons of stuff we dont have on here. oh, has anyone seen the new MAC for TGEA news? Looks promising.
September 5th Wow, has it been a week already, with a focus this week on cleanup up some of the game gui and loading function, we have also done yet another sweep culling out some of our alpha models. An example of this is the removal of a standard croc model, with the guster. So much is going good, we are also looking to reconstitute some of our team functions. We are looking for some new team members, Artists and Programmers. Interested in joining our team? Give me a email at racs333@hotmail.com. Other then that we are making great progress, slowly but steadly. With so much to do, we need more hands to get it finished faster. See you next week.
August 27th Well, things been rolling along in crunch mode, and I have taken the last 2 days on paperwork. Updating a game bible with all the new work thats been done. Getting our business plan updated for the next quarter. Its truly a pain in the butt. Why do i mention these items. Becuase making a video game isnt just making a game. You have to wory about marketing and royalties, and making the right investments into certain items, like Incorperation and Copyrights.
These are many items that go into making a video game. Particular with a project with the scope and complexity as Fantasci, You have to consider the long term approach to some items and I cant stress this enough. Have a Plan B.
August 20th Its been a long week as we work to get the major content going in. We have begun to get some major overhauls on areas that previously needed some work, now are starting to really come to age. We did some minor texture adjustments just today. Glow would be the word I use to describe the change.
We have had some great ideas come to fruitation, with finally. We have a amphibian for the Dark Elves.. no its not the frog, but something a bit more fitting for such a proud race. This rounds out the other portions of the Racing minigame. With a choice of 2 horses, a Dranix, a buggy, a fighter, and now the Guster, we have a nice well rounded racing game, that folks should enjoy when its finished.
August 13th With the contest over we have transferred the 15 months of blogs off their site and is available exclusivily on our filefront account. for your download convience. We were introduced to a great bunch of like-minded folks at the IGDA. Probably had more laughs then I have had in a long time. Braid, I recommend that little puzzler. For the contest .RAR, Click the media button.
August 10th... Gees, did i go on vacation. No, I was just in the city, I didnt have access to my tools. I meant to blog on friday, but here we are. So what are have we been doing? Upgrades, FPS checks and wonderously new models. We have several contracts all going at once to put us in a better position to finish all the areas and wrap up the alpha on time. Sept 30th comes fast. Then its all about content, bugs and setting up the next phase of testing, production and marketing. But, we will see. Our Local IGDA has a meeting coming up that i have made exclusive plans to attend. They say its not what you do know, its who you know.
We hope that this webpage and the changes that you see. You all will be impressed and we can get this ball rolling. Still looking for a webmaster to get us our forums setup and all setup. The Photo Gallery has been updated big time, and ill continue to add new pictures now ever week as part of the weekly blog update. Stay tuned always.
June 30th --The Contest ends, a New day dawns on the future of Fantasci. Stay tuned.