Dev Update #6: Vehicles and Plans for Beta 2.0!

[p]This is phase two of showing some of the background work that's been going into the next update that's made it take a little while to get together! I've been working on vehicles in the background, and we're at a point where I really want to show some of it off because it's getting very cool. Additionally, I want to give some info on what our plan for beta 2.0 release is, and what you can expect that it'll include![/p][p][/p][h2]VROOM VROOM[/h2][p]So one of the major additions we wanted to make for our next Wizard Boy update was adding in vehicles. This is one of the main "gameplay additions" that we felt were necessary if we were going to expand the castle in the way that we have ended up expanding it. Essentially, if you are able to go outside, clearly one of the most interesting things to do would be to drive and fly around the outside of the castle. So not doing vehicles has pretty much never been an option since we decided to take the Wizard Boy world in this direction.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]From a creative perspective, it's really important to me to make sure that vehicles don't interfere with all of the other fun Wizard-Boy-ways of traversing (moving props around, jump potions, bounce pads, speed potions, etc.) When adding new features into this game particularly, there's a balancing act of making sure that it both adds something new to the experience while not taking away from other creative ways of approaching the game.[/p][p][/p][p]In this case, I felt like having a flying broom was going to be the most necessary and also the most challenging vehicle to approach. However, after playing around with it, I feel like I've hit a pretty good middle-ground that makes the broom fun and interesting in its own zone while not becoming a defacto solution to all problems. Specifically, if you hit walls while going fast, it will kill you. So taking the broom indoors is going to be a rather dangerous option.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p](No, we haven't done a broom animation yet, so Wizard Boy currently needs to deal with getting impaled).[/p][p][/p][p]A different hurdle that I've needed to overcome is the sheer amount of Wizard-Boy nonsense that the vehicles need to be a part of. For instance, should vehicles be able to be Minified and Bigified? Obviously, yes. Does that mean that vehicles will be grabbable when small? Necessarily, yes. Does that mean you can put vehicles into your inventory if they're small? Well, taking tiny tanks out in the middle of the dungeon sounds amazing, so yes, gonna' have to make that a reality. Are vehicles then eatable with the Metal Jaws when they're small? Well, might as well go that far too, yes. How about fire? Speed potions? Jump potions? Booster pads? Bounce pads? Explosions? Yeah, gonna' need to make those fun too.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p](Tiny tank is rideable BTW)[/p][p][/p][p]To address all of these different Wizard-cases, I had to make the decision (this is going to really horrify the programmers among us) to make all vehicles inherit from the same class as all of our props inherit from. So, yes, this means that the tank and the rubber horn are technically the same thing. As you might imagine, this causes a boatload of. . . interesting consequences. Is that a problem? Probably! But will you enjoy messing with it more because of it? Uhhhh, yeah, pretty definitively. Vehicles are adding a massive new dimension of all of the types of stupid interactions you can figure out in Wizard Boy, and frankly I wish they had been added sooner.[/p][p][/p][h2]Castle Work[/h2][p]Tons of work has been continuing to go into the new castle, and it's getting bigger every week! I'll just share some new screenshots. Note - we are keeping an eye on making sure expanding the scope is not going to fundamentally change how good your PC needs to be to run the game. This includes optimization, making sure we are only using actually fun and interesting props in our layouts to reduce unnecessary complexity (did you know that in the current castle there are pick-up-able quills on some of the desks? Bet ya' didn't! And they take up as much resources as something complicated like an explosive barrel does.), and figuring out how to get more juice out of a similar amount of NPCs (making them wander around more, having more complex routes, adding dynamic details that aren't just more classmates, etc.) This will be an ongoing process, so even when you get your hands on the first version of the new castle, it's still gonna' change in all of these manners going forward until we feel like we nailed it.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]So What About the Update[/h2][p]We have a plan! We don't want to rush ourselves in getting this right, but we also don't want to go too long without giving you new content to play. That said, we are planning on releasing the new castle in multiple phases as a "beta castle," where you can select to play the existing castle with all of its functionality or play in the new castle with its layout and tools but in a partial state. This will essentially give you two zones to play in, which in our minds only gives you more to have fun with while enabling us to feel like we're able to take the time we want to in order to get it just right. Additionally, if it turns out any design isn't working for one reason or another once a lot of people get their hands on it, that will give us the opportunity to address it without making the game unplayable.[/p][p][/p][p]We're currently planning on releasing the first part of the new castle sometime early next year, which will include what you've seen in our screenshots, vehicles, and some other stuff (working on some new missions as well!)[/p][p][/p][p]Talk to you more about it soon![/p][p][/p][p]John S.[/p]