...how to get a game ready for exhibition in only three weeks
After our successful release of Sam the Sumbot in february we came to the realization that Sam wasn`t well suited to showcase at big exhibitions. At Grafik16, the people digged the graphics a lot but it was very exhausting for them to do maths and concentrate with so many people around.
So, what to do? Fantasy Basel was only couple of weeks ahead.
We were already working on a sequel to Fairy King, but we had lots of technical issues due to targeting AirConsole instead of mobile platforms. We hadn`t even really started implementing new features because of this. But like in the movies, just in time we received the awesome news that Tobias succeeded in managing the latency of the controller (aka the smartphone), so we finally had a GO.
Heureka!
We had a lot of code from Fairy King 1, which we only needed to adjust for multiplayer, the new platform and add new content. To get all of this done, one of the most important things is a good management of the tasks to do. With the help of Producteev, we had a very good grasp. It`s a platform to create workspaces, assign tasks and mark them as started/paused/finished. To discuss code, we used slack.
A short overview of what we had to do:
- Implement multiplayer (includes: shared lifepool, different shots, death on logout, and so on)
- Implement end of game screen with individual scores
- Implement countdown at the beginning
- Implement item drop system and balance loot drop
- Implement endboss
- Implement minions and their logic
- Create more levelcontent
- Final balancing
- and so on...
As you can see, there was much to do and very little time. All four coders invested their whole spare time into these tasks. We also met twice to develop together, which was very fruitful and good for our motivation. Also, 4 brains think smarter than just one.
We actually built the final version of our game on the morning of the exhibition without being able to really test it for new bugs. DO NOT DO THAT ^^. Fortunately almost everything went fine, we still had to adjust certain things for the second day (easier level design, fixes on multiplayer issues,...) but all in all it was very much playable and apparently lots of fun according to the testers.
I also spent lots of time getting the decorations for our booth ready. Our goal was to stick out of the mass, since there`s so much going on and so much to see at the biggest Games- and Comic Con in Switzerland! Michi got us a huge poster, I myself cut out lots and lots of Fairy King figures to put around the screen. Also, I prepared a booklet in which people could write us feedback and I created a newsletter list to subscribe.
Our biggest feature I`d say was our awesome cosplay, which Alexander and his brother created for Fairy King 1. No better way to get attention than to walk around in a huge pink box:
Everyone digged the mighty Fairy Cosplay lots. They took pictures next to him and some even came to our booth to see what`s it all about.
All in all we had much fun and were rather successful in showcasing our new demo version of Fairy King 2: Rise of the minions. We will definitely keep going on this road (after a well-earned break).
Greets Béatrice
