Bloom - Particles, Design and Planning

[Myrthos]

In a new development update for Bloom: Memories, some information is given on experiements with particles (including a video), new creatures, a new dungeon, artwork and a timeline.

First off, like I said last time, we are aiming at getting this prologue done ASAP. I'm talking a month or two..... but that really depends what walls we hit (for example, we need to get in the spawners and the event scripting system to move characters around during "scenes". Waypoints SHOULD work for this, but more likely is we will need to custom build some functionality into that to really get the control we need. For spawners I want to randomize some of the creature stats within a range upon generation...which isn't a crazy task, just another job on the pile. And that isn't even considering the loot tables.).

After the prologue is done and you all get a chance to play it, it will then be time to plug in our content and work on custom stuff that fell outside of the prologue (for example, some specific abilities will need a little work....like getting moss footsteps to spawn or solving how to handle swimming class creatures ((in water and sand)).

How long will that take? Really not sure. 6 months? A year? Realistically I expect it actually to go fairly fast to get it playable and all the content in (less than 6 months), BUT then I expect polish and fixing little things to be a huge task (fixing animations, replacing sound effects, scripting out some better movements in events....or even just adding stuff and reworking segments of the story that is confusing).

Keep in mind I handle all of this scripting and plugging stuff in, along with fixing the animations and basically everything except for the hardcore programming + music....so....only so much one person can do so fast

Basically, as I've always said I want to do this right. That "fix little things" stage is a fairly important difference between releasing a game that FEELS good and polished...and one that "falls short, but had so much potential".

So, to the question of "when will it be done" ....I can only REALLY say "as soon as possible!". Everything else is up in the air to how progress goes and how peoples lives fit into development (I don't have sacks of cash laying around to just tell everyone to put down everything they are doing and focus only on Bloom haha).

More information.

 

[rjshae]

Perfect is the enemy of good. One can spend too much time polishing a game. Coming out with a realistic release date and trying to stick to it can sharpen the mind and the work flow.

 

[Deleted User]

Perfect is the enemy of good.

I'd rephrase that and say "overworking" something is the enemy of "completion".

I personally like to finish things I work on and just move on.