Stuff

The new top score in Self Destruct is an unbelievable 3,456,560 by Kime, and I have absolutely no idea how he managed it. Best I can do despite numerous attempts is still 2,674,010, so congrats!

I should probably have mentioned this last week: the results of TIGSource’s Procedural Generation Competition are out: Out of 60 entries, Self Destruct managed 3rd place – totally out of proportion to what it deserved. All I can say to those who inexplicably voted for it is thanks! I’m really glad you liked it 🙂 (And congrats to nenad on first place, no surprises there 😀 )

I’m actually off for two weeks or so now, on a holiday to Spain. I’m taking the laptop (and the accordion), but I honestly don’t expect I’ll get a whole lot done out there. Still, you never know. Anyway, I thought before I went I’d give a quick update on where my projects are:

Ciellus: Annabelle and I have been working really hard on this, and we’re making a lot of progress! We’re holding off on the promised trailer for a while though, as there’s a load of stuff we want to change – there are a few game-feel elements I need to get right before we record a video, and Annabelle wants to totally redo one of the locations we were going to use. I’m hoping to get a bit of work done on this out in Spain, so hopefully when I get back we’ll have that ready. Can’t wait to get people’s feedback on what we’re doing! There are basically two “big” concepts that are central to Ciellus – this short trailer is going to reveal the first of those…

Self Destruct: I know I’ve promised a final version of the game, but I really want to hit this milestone with Ciellus first! I’ve kept a list of all the feature requests and I hope to basically implement every reasonable thing that people have asked for – but it probably won’t be for another month, at least… Actually, the delay in putting together the final version got me thinking about loads of extra stuff that I could implement – to the extent of, say, unlockable stuff and alternate game modes and new enemies and stuff like that. On the other hand, I’m probably better off just leaving the core game as is. Haven’t really decided yet.

One thing to look forward to, though, is that the new version will almost certainly have a new soundtrack. While I love Dubmood’s mods and I think they really suit the game, I didn’t get permission to use them and they were just quickly chosen from my “cool mods” directory at the last minute 🙁 I’m not even sure they’re really creative commons – Dubmood’s website is in Swedish! Anyway, I’ve been talking to Rich Vreeland (aka Disasterpeace) and he’s said that he might come up with a new soundtrack for the game if he gets a chance. Which would be brilliant; his music’s awesome 🙂

That’s about it – see you in two weeks!