Week One: Explaining the game’s premise.

Week Two: Discussing the user interface.

Week Three: First gameplay video!

Week Four: The Future of Development

The Great Beyond has been in development for nearly 6 months! Next week, I will be celebrating this by releasing a fully edited trailer.

The majority of the game is finished, and I have been left with an important decision to make, regarding how long I will continue working on the game, and in what state it should be released. To clarify, each option is progressive, meaning that I can start with option one and continue each progression one after the other.

Option One: Prototype

In order for me to have the project ready to be handed in as part of my final year project, I will need the following as a minimum:

Simulation balancing

More GUI information

Bug fixes

That’s it! Everything else is considered irrelevant for the project, and I have to be careful not to get distracted.

Option Two: Release Online for Free

However, if I did want to release the game online as a free product (with donations), then the list expands:

Sound effects and ambiance

Add game over screen and completed level screen

Tower graphics

More maps

“Fun Balancing”

Option Three: Paid Game

And finally, if I want to release it in the future as a paid product, assuming I can do this legally, then the list gets even larger:

Campaign or challenge modes

Even more maps

AI base to play against

More varied enemy types, including ground based

Replacing current in-code variables and level info with text based scripts, so that the game can be modified in real time

Choosing an Option

The easiest option is to finish it as a prototype for university. As long as it works, they do not care about the extra polish or even the fun value.

The second option is currently the most appealing to me, where I release it as a free (possibly pay as you want with donations) small-ish game. This will not take much longer to create than the first option, and it means that you all will get to play it and have fun with it!

The final option is the one I least want to do, because it’s very time consuming to create all of the extra features, and I don’t know whether the extra work will pay off. It will be a risk to do considering all of the work I will have to do for university, and on top of this, I am already, quite honestly, a bit bored of working on the game after nearly 6 months on my own. I am hoping that once I go back to university and I have been doing other work, I will have the desire to spend more time on the game again.

My current plan is to go with option two. However, if there is an interest in the expanded gameplay features with a passion from players who wish to pay for this, I may consider taking the extra months to do option three.