The personal blog of game designer, programmer and Cand. Scient. Informatics, Jimmy Marcus Larsen. Currently working as a game designer at Cego ApS.
May 27, 2007 at 22:42
Only one day is left of the production, and our game is almost done. Tomorrow we will keep polishing everything, fix minor bugs and hopefully resist any tempting extra features - we have lots of ideas, but there is not enough time for proper testing. We cannot risk instability during the presentation.
Looking back, I have really enjoyed this project. Never before have I felt that each person on the team deserves their spot on the credit list equally well. Everyone has done what they should, and some even more. The audio-visual quality of the game is better than anything I have done before, and both the gameplay and the visual aesthetics is quite original.
Perhaps in a few weeks I will think differently, but right now - I think our game shows enough promise to become a fully developed console title. It’s perfect for the niche market of ex-core gamers, looking for a different experience.
We also registered a domain, so keep an eye out for the game there.
May 20, 2007 at 19:39
Another eventful week has passed. The first day was very busy as I had to prepare the code base and level setup for my trip to Nordic Game. I was a bit worried about leaving the project in the hands of the rest of the team, but everything went well, and the publisher had been quite impressed. The last days of the week we had a few testers in (Julian Oliver among others), and we kept polishing the game. The only thing missing now is the end condition and some enemy AI. I’m sure we’ll make it.
The biggest event of the week was Nordic Game though. I talked to lots of nice people and attended quite a few interesting seminars. Tsutomu Kouno was there talking about Loco Roco and Keiichi Yano talked about Ouendan and male japanese cheerleeders - it was definetly fun. During breaks I talked to, among others, Daniel Paladin of The Behemoth and Adrian Hon of Mindcandy. Both very friendly and inspiring people.
May 13, 2007 at 21:55
After two weeks away from home I’m starting to miss the family quite a bit. Good thing I have so much to keep me busy. The production is moving forward, and everything is starting to take shape. This week I have been helping everyone a lot, so the time for coding have been sparse. Being lead programmer certainly doesn’t mean you get to do most of the programming. The two other programmers have been productive though, so we aren’t falling behind. Also, an animator has joined us, and brought more life to both the game and the team in general.
In a few days we will get a publisher visit, which is of course very exiting. Unfortunately it is during the Nordic Game conference, which I will be attending, so the rest of the team will have to make the presentation and impress the publisher. Most likely they will be told that the game will never sell - publishers are not visionaries.
May 6, 2007 at 18:57
Three to go. The first week of the joint game production has been great. The concept kept changing, but in the end I believe we have something which can be implemented without too much trouble during the next three weeks. Our game designer is an asian woman with some very original ideas, and it really shows in the design. The game will have a very poetic feel, and the game mechanics could be described as a strange mix of Pikmin and Pilotwings. You control a pollen, which will float through the air, change its shape (origami style) and collect other pollen which will follow it. So cool! I really wish we didn’t have to implement it in Valve’s Source Engine - the concept deserves better.
Our visual artist is very talented too - if the game ends up looking just half as good as it does in the concept art, I believe many people will fall in love with it. And the programmers? Well, we are just trying to hack better flying and wind simulation into the engine - it’ll work, but not as well as I would have liked it to.
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