Hello to everyone who has wishlisted the game so far! No doubt you are wondering how development is going. So, let’s get into it and here's a little teaser video to check out:
Broad Overview
The full game of “The Abandoned Planet” (TAP) contains a total of 5 Acts. Likely, you noticed that Act 1 (the demo) is on the shorter side. From comments I’ve seen, first time playthroughs range from about 15 minutes to 45 minutes, depending on the player. This is good! Personally, I like to design my games with a quick descent into story and gameplay mechanics.
While Acts 2 through 5 vary in length, they will be considerably longer in gameplay than Act 1. This is especially true of Acts 2, 3, and 4. No spoilers, but… as the Astronaut continues through the Acts, she’ll travel further and further away from the crash site, uncovering the mysteries of the planet.
What have I been working on?
When I developed my first commercial release (Dexter Stardust: Adventures In Outer Space), I developed the “final” artwork without even storyboarding or sketching out an entire zone/area. This was not the wisest course of action. It means that I had to go back and completely redesign and redraw this “final'' artwork; doubling, and sometimes tripling, my efforts. What a waste of time!
We always learn from our past mistakes. I can’t promise I won’t make any mistakes again, but I’ve certainly learned it’s wise to sketch out the entirety of TAP before creating final artwork. And this is what I’ve done. I sketched out every background in the game, roughly planned out major puzzle elements, and I’ve placed those sketches into my game engine. I’ve also set up the directional move system for the entirety of the game. You can see what this looks like here:
Yes, it’s pretty boring to look at, but it’s essential to the process and a huge time saver in the long run. It took a few months to do this, but now I’m full steam ahead on final artwork.
Additionally, it’s important to note that I design environment sounds and SFX as I put the final artwork into TAP. This can be quite time consuming. However, it’s something I enjoy a lot!
How much of the game is completed?
So far, only Act 1 is playable, complete with puzzles, dialogue, and polish. However, I have completed final artwork on Act 2, and I’m well underway on Act 3. I’m not programming all the puzzles yet, but I’m making sure to implement door opening puzzles, travel elements, and elevator stuff (yup, there’s elevators).
It’s important to remember that it was only about a month ago that I reached the milestone of completing the sketches and directional move system for TAP. So, it took only a month or so to complete the final artwork for an entire Act. I think that’s pretty good progress!
Conclusion
TAP is coming along nicely. I’ll try to keep everyone up-to-date about the progress. As for the release date, my publisher and I were originally shooting for the end of the first quarter in 2023, but we’ll have to move it back. The reason is that I spent a lot of time porting Dexter Stardust to iOS (where it has done really well!) and trying to port it to Android (Google has a frustrating maximum base_master.apk of 150MB for app downloads, and I can’t get mine below 178MB. I spent about a month on this. ARGH! No dice. We’ll see!).
So, I think you can likely expect the game sometime mid-2023. Personally, I feel this is still really great. I’m a solo-developer who has a full-time job and a family. Our daughter is almost 2 years old. She’s a climber. So, trying to draw while she’s climbing all over me is a challenge, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. :)
Thanks for wishlisting TAP! And please let me know if there’s something you’d like to see in the game, and if you have any questions about the development. Take care and stay safe.
All the best,
Jeremy Fryc
dexterstardust.com