I apologize for not publishing a development update sooner, but if you follow me on Twitter, you likely saw that I've been quite active. There is lots to talk about and it's all good news! So, let's get into it.
New UI
The game now has a new UI! I got great feedback here and on social media about pixel-art UI vs. an HD UI. Obviously, each one has it's advantages and disadvantages. But I think I can summarize it by only listing advantages:
Pixel-art UI advantages: Aesthetic perfectly matches the in-game graphics
HD UI advantages: More detailed UI (which means it can be smaller and leave more in-game graphics visible), more contrast between the UI and in-game graphics, better for legible text, easier implementation for localization and different characters/alphabets, more accessible all-around.
So, thinking about just advantages, HD UI wins out! Don't get me wrong, I love... LOVE... the pixel-art UI. But I think the advantages listed above for the HD UI make it a no-brainer. Take a look at what the new HD UI looks like:
New Key Art
Key Art is so important in any game. It's meant to show any potential player a preview of the story, what genre the game likely is, and the overall tone of the game. That said, I have changed the key art to this:
What do you think? It was certainly fun to draw and I like the pulp-comic book type aesthetic.
Localization
I was always planning on localizing TAP into several languages. Of course, I cannot personally localize TAP to every language. However, I do speak Spanish and Haitian Creole, in addition to English. While I'm interested in localizing the game into Haitian Creole towards the end of development (maybe the first Haitian Creole game ever?), at the moment, I wanted to set up the system of localization by starting with localizing the demo into Spanish.
That means that the Steam demo is currently localized into Spanish! Si hablas español, actualiza el juego y déjame saber qué piensas. Me interesa saber si cometí algunos errores en la traducciȯn. ¡Gracias!
The final game will likely be available in the following languages:
English
Spanish
Italian
French
German
Japanese
Korean
Portuguese
Russian
Chinese Simplified
Chinese Traditional
Additional Progress
Performance Improvements
While I was completing the bulk of artwork for acts 1-3, I noticed that the farther you play, the slower the game was getting in terms of frame-rate and performance. I checked out some things and I realized that I was caching the MoveDirection menus incorrectly. They were piling up and getting loaded into each scenes. That's potentially hundreds of menus in every scene. Yikes!
This led to an overhaul of how the MoveDirections work in-engine. While the player won't notice any difference, this is a huge change and it took two full weeks to fix. Unfortunately though, it means that previous demo saves won't work when you update the demo.
Act 2 nearly completed
I like to build my games in stages. You may remember that I did a rough draft of the entire game using sketch art-work. This is still the case for Acts 4 and 5. But Acts 1-3 are completely navigable with completed artwork.
Now, before I go and finish the artwork for Acts 4 and 5, I'm taking a month to completely finish Act 2. This was requested by my publisher, Snapbreak, so that we can send out an expanded demo (Acts 1 and 2) to influencers and streamers, as well as for a Brazilian festival that will showcase the game.
This means that I am knee deep in puzzles and polish. I'm almost done and it's been super fun. Check out a teaser/preview for Act 2:
That's it! That's all the progress I have made so far. I've been super busy with work, my family, and other responsibilities, but I love working on The Abandoned Planet. I'm working hard at making it an amazing game that people will enjoy and want to share will others.
Welcome back for another development update for TAP. I'm happy to report that things are coming along nicely. First of all; where am I at with the game?
Game Progress
Well, I'm working hard completing more backgrounds, animations, and puzzles for Act 3. I'm almost done with the artwork for that Act.
My plan is to complete the background artwork/animations for all 5 Acts, then go back through the game and add some additional puzzles and artwork where needed. It's always easier said than done, but my game design philosophy is this; no artwork is sacred. What does that mean?
You may have noticed that many modern adventure games leave you sitting on one or two backgrounds (or maybe a handful) for 30-40 minutes of gameplay. Just going back and forth between those few areas, and jamming them with head-scratching puzzles. I personally don't like this. This ends up feeling like an escape room game, which have their place in the entertainment world, but ultimately leave narrative by the wayside.
Instead, I like a greater sense of physical movement and exploration. When you played the demo to TAP, you likely noticed that you quickly move from one area to another; a puzzle on one screen opens a path on a another. Some backgrounds don't even have a puzzle or an item to pick up, but they are essential for communicating the space and feel of the overall area. That's something I enjoy and that's what I am including in TAP.
I believe there are something like 270 backgrounds (not including cutscenes) in TAP; each one unique. It's a lot of work, but it all contributes to an exciting adventure game experience.
UI Changes
Now, on to the main topic -- I'm reworking the UI. I wouldn't call this a "major" change, because I'm not altering the aesthetic of the UI, but the position of the UI elements and possibly, the fidelity of the UI. For context, here is how the UI currently appears in the game:
While I do like this, and while it technically "works", there are a few issues:
The portrait/inventory take up a lot of permanent space on the bottom.
For those who wish to click the arrows on screen (as opposed to using the WASD or arrow keys, which is what I prefer to do), the arrow buttons are far apart on the screen. This means that the player has to constantly move their cursor across the entire screen to navigate.
The pixel art font is no good for localization
The pixel art font is terrible for accessibility
That said, I have come up with the following solution:
This fixes the issues described above:
The portrait is now on the left side and the inventory opens on a button click, thus freeing up that space on the bottom.
The arrow buttons are all located on the right side, making it easier to click on them (if that's your preferred method of interaction).
The use of an HD font is perfect for localization.
The HD font is perfect for accessibility.
Now, using a HD (regular) font got me thinking that maybe making the entire UI HD would look good. I took a day and come up with this:
So, what do you think? Personally, in my opinion, I like the pixel art UI with the HD font. Not only do I like the way it looks, but the font is so much easier to read. I feel that the HD UI really clashes with the overall retro/pixel-art aesthetic of the game.
But what's your opinion? I'm making this game for YOU to play it. Which UI would you prefer to interact with?
I look forward to hearing your feedback. Thanks again for following the development, and don't forget to tell you friends about The Abandoned Planet!
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.
Live-Stream with Creator/Director Commentary (Part 2)
During NextFest, the sole-developer on "The Abandoned Planet", Jeremy Fryc, will be providing commentary on the first part of Act 1. Get behind the scenes insight into how the game is made and learn more about the planet that the Astronaut is marooned on.
Don't forget to download and play the demo before you watch the commentary/live-stream!
Live-Stream with Creator/Director Commentary
During NextFest, the sole-developer on "The Abandoned Planet", Jeremy Fryc, will be providing commentary on the first part of Act 1. Get behind the scenes insight into how the game is made and learn more about the planet that the Astronaut is marooned on.
Don't forget to download and play the demo before you watch the commentary/live-stream!
Free Demo Released!
Play an Astronaut, sent through a worm hole, and stranded on an abandoned planet. Where is she? Where did everyone go? Is she truly alone?
Enjoy this 15-30 minute demo which includes Act 1, "The Crash", which is likely to be the shortest of the final game's 5 Acts. Download and enjoy!
