Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates.

Here's your TAG progress update:

Most of the dialog is finished. I still need to add some tutorial type dialog. Robbie (http://twitter.com/beta_red) gave me a very nice compliment and said that he laughed out loud in a couple of places. That's more than I could hope for as I don't think I'm a particularly funny writer. 

I've done a full play through of the game which revealed that there were a lot more bugs than I had realized. Based on everything I've read about finishing a video game, that shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. I've worked out almost all of them, luckily. But, I know there are more lurking under the surface ready to wrap their sticky tentacles all over TAG and pull it deep into the sea. Speaking of which:

I'm confident that I will have a finished version of the game available this fall. I'm going to have a beta version available for play-testing in a couple weeks. I'm going to set-up a forum so that anyone who tests the game can post their findings and get updated builds, etc. 

Tomorrow I'm heading to Florida for a week of sun, fishing and relaxing. As soon as I get back, I'll be ready to push TAG to completion. Thanks for everyone who's been following the development of TAG. You've all been very motivating. If any of you want to play-test the game, leave a comment here or hit me up on Twitter. 

It is the courage to continue that counts.

It's unbelievable how close TAG is to completion. The list of things left to do is shrinking everyday and the feeling is almost indescribable. I've never had a project that took this long and I remember so many moments along the way where I felt that there was an infinite amount of work left.

One section of the game I saved for last was the underwater diving scenes. My girlfriend reminded me the other day that when I was originally sketching out the ideas for TAG, the underwater treasure hunting was one of the first things I thought of. Over two years later I got around to putting it together. It was worth the wait. I had a lot of fun doing it and I think it's one of the best parts of the game. That really only leaves a few things left.

Here's what's left to do (off the top of my head):

• Final cut scenes


• Flashback cut scene


• Final boss


• Credits


• About half of the game dialog (currently a lot of place-holder dialog)


• Complete game play-through


• A few minor bug fixes (some of them could be considered busy-workish)


• Playtesting (which means someone besides me and Robbie will play the game *gasp*)

Speaking of Robbie (http://twitter.com/beta_red), he is still working on a couple more tracks. I'm currently listening to the new song for the pyramid/volcano levels and it's really beautiful. The soundtrack for the game has come together so nicely and you can expect to see digital download of it available on BandCamp and maybe even a CD run too. If I could get Robbie to create music for me for free for the rest of my life I'd always have a stupidly happy grin on my face. He seems to really get what I'm looking for. I can use a couple words to describe the feeling or mood I want and he just nails it every time. If you're a developer looking for a talented musician for a project, you can not do wrong by hooking up with him. 

I suppose that's all the news for now. I'm going to keep plugging away at that list and try to get this game into your hands sometime this fall! 

Where does the time go?

TAG is still coming along nicely. So nicely, in fact, I think I finally know when this project is going to be finished. I therefore present you:

My intention is to have this game released by August 31, 2011 (yes I'm really pushing "summer" to the limit). All I have left at this point is adding the rest of the content (about 10% left), script the rest of the game events (about 30% left), tighten up and add more dialog, figure out how the game is going to end, re-do all the code for the music, some playtesting (I'll be inquiring about help on that on the forums) and probably more stuff I'm forgetting.

Here's some other random stuff I want to show you. So, because I have an in-game clock that changes game from day to night I realized that meant I also had to give all the NPCs in the game some sort of schedule as well. It would be odd if an NPC walked back and forth outside their house all day and night, wouldn't it? So.. I had to come up with an easy way to move NPCs around depending on what time a day it is. Instead of doing that, I found a really hard way:

This is a schedule for a bunch of the NPCs in the game. I used this as a guide for coding their movement. Some NPCs goto a job during the day, go home at night, or wander around outside.

monkeys!

Progress on TAG is still coming along nicely. This past week I've designed, laid-out and coded a good portion of the last big island in the game. It's a rain forest/ jungle themed island complete with monkeys and waterfalls.

My friend Rob has been pumping out more great tracks. It looks like a huge portion of the game's soundtrack will be original.

I made a couple key game design choices that I had been struggling with. Although I gave up one of the major elements that has inspired me to make the game in the first place, I realize that it is for the better. The game-play is slightly more linear but it's going to make it a much more enjoyable experience for the player.

I've also added weather (rain/snow) to the game. There is a random chance of a thunderstorm, and the wind affects the direction of the rain.

I'll try to post again soon. In the meantime, more screen shots:

Still digging...

Sorry for the huge lack of updates. I could blame it on laziness but I prefer to say that I want to spend every possible free minute working on the game instead of typing stuff on the interwebs.

The good news is that that is mostly true. Even with the new job and moving to a new apartment I've been putting a ton of time into Treasure Adventure Game. I'm raising the Project Progress percent to 65%, and that's being conservative.

I've been working on TAG for nearly two years but the end in sight. Best prediction is that the game will be finished in August 2011.

Here's an updated list of what the final game will have to offer:

• Huge non-linear world
• Real-time clock - day and night, calendar based on moon phases
• NPCs have schedules depending on time and day.
• Total overworld size: 45,000 x 12,320 pixels
• At least 18 islands to explore
• Ability to dive anywhere and explore the ocean depths.
• Use lock-picks to break into doors and open chests
• Real time weather - rain, wind, snow
• 12 artifact treasures to discover
• 18 maps to find and use to locate treasure
• 12 usable items to find - shovel, cannon, compass etc.
• 6 wearable hats
• 6 hearts to increase max-health
• 24 different baddies (so far)
• 63 NPCs (so far)
• Original music score
• Story line with many mysteries to discover

Original Music!

I met a great local musician, Robbie Ellis, who was looking for to work on some video game music and offered to work with me on TAG. So far the stuff he's pumped out has been exactly what I was looking for. He completley gets where I'm going with this game and his contributions are unimaginably appreciated. Not sure if he's going to be doing all the music for the game but at least a portion of the game's score will be original. Here's are two of the tracks he's done so far:

Overworld 3 Mix:

Temple: