Oops, well I missed last week’s entry because of being super ill for a few days. I’m back now and ready to share some of the development fun I’ve been having with The Tribloos 3.
There were many new features I wanted in the new instalment of the series. One of these was a return to more detailed “inbetween” story segments. I liked the comic book style of Tribloos 2 but it felt very flat and disconnected. While aware that this wouldn’t be a short job I still wasn’t prepared for the gargantuan task I was taking on.
What came before
While Tribloos 2 had a comic book “panel reveal” mechanism, Tribloos 1 actually had a “storybook” approach. It comprised of a number of slides/pages which told the story before, during and after the levels in the game. It was a fair amount of work at the time as I was drawing everything. I clearly remember thinking “I’m never doing this again!” on many an early morning before my full time job started. This was before I had children though, something I often forget when looking back. So in today’s terms this would take even longer.
But it was extremely satisfying once completed.
When it came to paying for the artwork for Tribloos 2 I couldn’t afford the required amount of artwork to do the same. Which is why it turned out to be the comic book style instead. In the end this did work out well. The story sections look great even if they’re not long.
Always building to the moon
One of my personal game development mantras is to always build upon what you had before. I had many friends and family ask me why I wasn’t just using the same code from Tribloos 2 and adding more levels. But that’s just not what we do here. Each progressive title in a game series that we make does, and always will, be a big improvement on the last instalment.
Cut-scene progress is at about 80% right now. There are a few improvements to make, images to replace and so on, but they’re almost ready to show off.
It took 3 days to compose and arrange each cut-scene. That’s “full time” days rather than part time as I was working – not including Catherine’s artwork time. It took almost 6 months to finish the first draft of all 21 cut-scenes in the game.
But I’d do it again in an instant (well, 6 months) if it meant making a quality game that I’m proud of.
So, um, can we see it
Not just yet, I’m still hoping to have a trailer out soon but I’m probably a week or so away from this. In the meantime here are a few screenshots of both complete and incomplete cut-scenes:
