Development Update #3 - First Public Test Complete!

This past Saturday we did our first public test of what I’m going to call the first 1.75 worlds. While the water world was fairly complete (2 stages, 2 bosses, cut scenes, but minus some polish) the Egyptian themed sand world had its bosses but the levels themselves still needed work and their story cut scenes added.

Even so, I would say the test was super fun and a successful run. It was great finally seeing people play what we've been working on for the last few months and seeing people of all ages and experience walk up and enjoy themselves in our world was truly delightful. As someone that is new to game development and a lot more experienced with pushing out processes for automation and reporting it was fantastic to see something that was created for FUN being seen as just that. Little Easter Eggs that were thrown in as funny to me were wholly enjoyed and people enjoyed playing our take on a more old school arcade yet accessible experience.

We also got some great feedback! One of the things I had on my "possible to-do" list was adding health bars for bosses and that came up a couple of times with adults, but I also saw younger kids that weren't used to the scrolling shooter environment try to pass by the bosses on their first attempt because they didn’t realize they should sit and fight. As someone who grew up with the likes of Legendary Wings and 1942, it isn't something that existed in that era (at best you get the ever present flashing sprites to show low health), but health bars definitely existed in later games of this format. I think it’ll be a fun thing to test with our next play test once we get another world or so in the game.

All that said, I'm even more excited to get back to work. There are some really fun ideas for the next world that I think will show even better in the near future. We should be able to get our demo builds, at least for world 1, in folks' hands that want it but keep your eyes peeled for the next world, which has been the one I’ve been the most excited about since we started this project.

Thanks again to all of those who participated and as always let me know what you think/want out of the upcoming/current game!