So, finally the Winter Break has ended; kids back at school, the missus back at her job. Everyone rested and ready to get back to work.

And me?

I’m ready to get this demo DONE. So – a brief recap (in snippet form) of all things I’ve been up to.

I just recently got accepted to show my game at MakerX in Columbus in April – and that is my deadline. And while I have the 3rd level modeled and mostly textured and a lot of props in it – there is still a LOT to get done. Including a strong feature creep problem, as I realize I’m starting to gear up for making the actual *game*, and I keep thinking of things to add in.

This cute lil’ kitty is destined to be Booper’s sidekick. A travelling companion, friend, helper – and part of me that grew up on dark Disney movies wants to have something bad happen to him. If I had to suffer through Old Yeller and Bambi’s more horrific moments, I feel compelled to pass along similar gut-wrenching things to a new generation.  As a dad, I can always throw this design decision under the blanket clause, ‘it builds character’. The kitty was animated by the extremely talented Chuwawa, you should check out his work here.

I also got THREE pairs of Steam Knuckles controllers,

because I asked for one pair and they said, ‘if you could have more – how many pairs would you need?’ – I had said 2, thinking that included the pair I asked for initially, but Steam being Steam sent me 3 total. So any team members I add will be getting a nice bonus.

I also made an impulse purchase over the holidays:

Glycon VR Mocap system – I had gotten some $$ from the Mother-in-law as a Xmas gift and decided this was worth a shot as I’ve decided the Kinect mocap I was using really didn’t cut the mustard since it didn’t really tackle some of the finer movements I want (like finger controls) and since the dev said he was adding Knuckles support, it seemed like a no-brainer.

Plus, some of the characters that kiddo has drawn are fairly humanoid – hoping I can act out their animations (or even get them younguns to do it!) and give the characters a bit of their own personality.

Lastly – the final level has a bit of feature creep, but its a tough back & forth: try and wrap up the demo vs. try and gear up for making the actual game. Some of the mechanics will be needed, such as a day / night cycle. Others are just idea that keep popping into my head, like linking the 1st & 3rd levels with a character I call ‘Boo’ who warns you not to go in his cave, and if the player disregards that advice, the level will fill with slime, forcing the player to travel by the high ground.

Here are some of the highlights:

Which is nice and all, but I also have a (self imposed) April deadline – when I need to show this off at MakerX down in Columbus.

Better get to it, then.