And so it continues....

Well we entered into the competition but left it so late I'm not sure whether our entry went through or not. All the same we achieved what we wanted to achieve and are now well on our way with Exploding Imp. Again we are saving the level design for the last task so at the moment D is working on the mechanics and finding small problems that need fixing and amending. We've found that one of the most important elements of the game is to keep it engaging and interesting so we're going to take a fair bit of time designing the levels together and rather than 50 they'll be 20 long ones. We have an artist on board to do our box art this time which is encouraging! We're hoping to finish the game by the end of next month give or take. We have a very very busy August so ideally we want the game up and running so we don't have to worry about it in the summer. We'll see how things go though. We've learnt that things never go to plan!

Oops!

Oops! I've just noticed that it has been pretty much a month since our last post. We have been incredibly wrapped up in working on Project Imp and tweaking it in time for DreamBuildPlay. I say tweaking but we still need to put some levels in. 11 days doesn't give us much time but we like a challenge and the deadline keeps us motivated! D has been doing some programming today, along with graphics as well. I've had to do data entry at the mo in order for us to pay our bills!! We're hoping that Imp might do a little better than Lemmy Lizard but you can never tell...We have been working late nights and weekends recently as well in order to cram everything in! We're hoping it will pay off in some way, be it the competition or sales afterwards. Imp won't be ready immediately after submission, maybe a month give or take...This time round we are making a conscious effort to right any wrongs that are pointed out to us and will be efficiently using the Playtest function on the App Hub!! We'll keep you posted on our submission which is due on 12th June at the latest!
On a non-work related note D and I have just started watching 'Dexter' after many recommendations. We're only watched 1 episode so far but already it shows a lot of promise. Also eagerly anticipating the season finale of 'Game of Thrones', especially after the last episode. Down with Joffrey!!!

Project Imp!

Project Imp is now well under way! Our main character is drawn and animated and we've got him on a test level. D has been doing some graphics today and is putting some of my music & sound effects in as I type. More coding has been inevitable and I can never really tell whether D is enjoying it or not...We're still looking to make the DBP registration deadline although we aren't going to register unless we have something playable. That gives us a fortnight so fingers crossed!
On a non-work related topic D and I went to see 'Avengers Assemble' last week and we were absolutely blown away. It 100% surpassed all expectations and we cannot wait to go and see it again. We went to the late late showing and it was still fairly busy! We didn't go and see it in 3D initially so maybe next time will be a 3D visit! The next night we watched 'The Grey' with Liam Neeson which was quite a contrast. We wanted to watch something that was going to be completely different to 'Avengers Assemble' and it certainly managed that. Very grim!
D has been trying to get through 'Dead Island' recently while I played through the new 'Walking Dead' first episode. D seems to find 'Dead Island' immensely stressful. I have already played it and did find it frustratingly buggy but still thoroughly enjoyed it. 'The Walking Dead' was really fun and you really get your money's worth! I started playing 'Fez' recently as well but found a rather annoying glitch so have put it on hold for now...

DreamBuildPlay!

So now that Lemmy Lizard is out there D and I have been working on our next project & DBP entry! We won't be revealing the title or details of the project just yet and we haven't registered yet either but things are going well. I have been working on the sound effects & music and D has been doing the graphics. We've had a few brainstorming sessions and have learnt an awful lot from making Lemmy so we are pretty hopeful that things will go smoother this time round. Obviously there'll always be some programming to do but a lot of it was done last time round with Lemmy so that'll save a huge amount of time :) This time we are aiming for fewer levels but better content. We're trying to fill the game with humour, colour and loads of fun! We entered DBP last year but didn't get anywhere but still thought we'd give it a go anyway. Previously it really pushed us with regards to how much we got done in the space of time we had & I think we worked so much harder knowing we had a tight deadline. We're hoping to get the game out a month or so after the DBP deadline but you never know with these things. There always seems to be one more thing to do...We'll keep you posted on progress and perhaps even reveal the name of the game at a later date!

Pain of an update!

Well we have decided to update Lemmy Lizard...The controls were proving to be too slippy and seemed to be spoiling the game experience. In all honesty we should have changed this before release but after 3 failed gos in peer review I think we got a bit too eager to get it up on the marketplace. I think we'll definitely be learning from our mistakes for the next game, which we're going to try and squeeze in to the DreamBuildPlay competition. Who knows how that's going to work out though. Getting the update through peer review this time round is proving to be tough. It feels like an eternity despite being only a few days! Hopefully the improved controls will make all the difference though :)

ON SALE!

Lemmy Lizard vs The Mecha-Eggs is officially on sale! We are very excited here at Wytchlight HQ as we saw an article on the App Hub mentioning a delay in publishing. We had only recently published the Publish Now button and so thought we'd be waiting a few days. I was twiddling my thumbs so thought I'd take a peek at the Indie games list and there it was! Lemmy Lizard for sale!! It's so awesome I don't know what to do with myself! Such a great feeling to have it up on the marketplace after 9 hard months of work. Lets hope it pays off!

Additional features

Well, unfortunately we were pulled out of peer review again but it appears to be a blessing after all! We put the game up in playtest as per the last time we were pulled and have had two people playtest Lemmy in quick succession! Both made some valid suggestions and we have now set about implementing them. D is currently working on a new feature, a mini guide of how to play the game which you can pick up in game. We've also changed the jump/land animation within the game as several people had commented on the fact that you couldn't immediately jump after landing! The weeks in between putting the game back up for peer review have proven to be incredibly valuable :)
On a non-work related topic D and I went to see 'The Woman in Black' last week. It was very good. We both like a ghost story and Harry Potter, I mean Daniel Radcliffe, held the film up really well. I'd highly recommend it! We also bought a game on Steam on the cheap called 'Killing Floor'. Basically you're in a team and you kill lots of zombies. There are lots of different maps, lots of baddies and lots of guns! It is immensely fun!