Yesterday we had a productive day and managed to concept a complete rework of the weapons management screen which I have spent yesterday and today implementing. Not been easy but it should be done soon!

Just putting in some finishing touches and then I'll be able to go and play with our shiny new video capture card so we should Hopefully have some proper HD videos to show off soon.

Matt also managed to finish the concepts for the shield and carrier ships, just in time for us to decide to not include the carrier I might add. If you want to check them out they are on our facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.489040127784306.107170.339975849357402&type=3

So this week I have braved 8 hours of weekend traffic (more like 8 hours of being stuck behind tractors and caravans) to visit Matt and Marina to dedicate a solid week to getting S.D.G.T in shape for a release. So stay tuned as we will no doubt have lots of news each day in the lead up to what will hopefully be our first release!

Well the contract is essentially 'finished' although I do still have to spend at least an hour a day answering questions and fixing issues. None the less I am back to developing SDGT at my usual crazy speed and routines, I have been up for 20 hours today, so far!

Unfortunately the last electricity effect I posted wouldn't scale down effectively to serve as an efficient effect so I have had to resort to my previous simpler one. So instead I have been focusing my energy into getting the boss mechanic foundations finished and since I haven't posted in a while here is a new video of the latest prototype for the Heavy Armoured boss.

Now I should probably get some sleep as later tonight Matt and I will be talking about the final boss mechanics that will no doubt result in a ton of work but should certainly be worth it for our initial Christmas release.

So ten months ago I stumble across this awesome electricity effect and think, you know what, that would look Awesome as a shield effect. So I commented asking if there was going to be a tutorial and carried on surfing, expecting to get an email if anyone replied. So last week I found the video again and the author, instead of offering a tutuorial, gives me the entire source code :O

Can't describe how happy this made me, really restores your faith in humanity with these little gestures :)

Anyway here is a video of the original effect and once I get this contract out of the way and can get back to the game full time ill be working on getting this integrated with our mothership shields.

Got an email this morning saying we never got the spot at Eurogamer :( I don't mind it was a long shot anyway, our only video was something I threw together and has at least ten things in it I'm not happy about! I would much rather wait until everything is finished properly rather than be rushed to a deadline.

But with this I have to ask myself..am I ever going to finish this?? I'm already doing a double day (currently 10am till 3am straight) just to keep on top of this and my job but right now coding and balancing this monster is akin to beating a whale to death with a teaspoon. Anyway gotta stay positive so on the brighter side here is a link to the first draft of our boss scene, which I must say I'm really loving!

BTW I still don't have a commercial licence for the track but the standard licence should cover me for this blog :) For anyone interested the original song is here: Corrosion

Well we just got an email saying the competition to get the spot at the Euro Gamer Indie Arcade is open and needless to say its brown trousers time!

Ive just taken some new screen grabs so Matt can update the temporary site for the game so if anyone wants a look its over here:

http://sdgt.businesscatalyst.com/

So i've been away from development for a while now. I've had to take on another project so my bank balance looks a little healthier (who am I kidding two days ago I had £3 to my name!) and since things have been a bit hectic in my personal life I took this as an opportunity to take break from the game. But at the prospect of a new computer which means I wont have to wait 2 minutes to deploy a build for Every code change, seriously thats what I have been working with until now, I am full of enthusiasm again :D

I just spent the past hour pacing my flat coming up with new ideas and then throwing them down in a email to Matt who will have the joy of deciphering my verbal diarrhoea tomorrow! The result is a new utilities system that gives players a consumable boost that I think will finally get rid of my niggle that the game is missing something.

I still need to finish the boss mechanics but this is getting a priority as if we do get a spot at the Euro Gamer exhibition it will be important throughout the game whereas I feel only the first two boss behaviours will be needed for a good demo.