Progress Update (7/26)

Okay, it's been exactly one month since my last post, but that's only because I've been working so hard to get this game done soon. I have accomplished so much in the past month, though, that it has gone by so fast; so here is a rundown of what is done and what I have yet to do.

First off, the good stuff. The actual gameplay itself is pretty much complete. I recently finished playing, replaying, and re-replaying (in some cases, add a few more "re"s) all of the levels to make sure that they are balanced and fair. When showing it to some family and friends, I was surprised by how challenging they found some of the levels, as I was afraid it would be the opposite. Nevertheless, it was usually easier to tone down the difficulty and remove some cheap deaths, but in a few cases, I just scrapped the levels and created new (better) ones.

I also added in some hints in the first couple of levels in order to put players on the same page. I was surprised by the elaborate setups some people created to complete a level, when a simple solution appeared so obvious to me. I guess that's why developers tend to test their games before releasing them, right? I'm glad I followed that approach.

Example of a hint in one of the earlier levels

Finally, I finished all of the graphics for the iOS version, as I needed a few smaller sprites and buttons for the smaller screen space.

Now the to-do list, which actually seems to be starting to get more manageable. A couple days ago, I decided it would be pretty cool to add a few achievements into the game, so I ended up devising 21 of them. I am almost finished implementing them into the game, but that also required setting up an achievements system, which actually went a lot smoother than I had imagined. I still have a little more work to go on them, but it should take little more than a day or so.

The achievement list in the game

The main issue now is to get the performance of the iOS version up to speed during the actual gameplay. I have a few ideas how to do this, so I'm not too worried about it, though it might take a decent amount of time.

I also need to figure out how to make a trailer for the game as well, but I can't see that being too difficult. I really wish I had any idea how to market a game, but I guess I'll learn as I go along.

Anyway, that's where I'm at right now. I can't wait until everyone gets to play it!