Our Blog
Now that we are getting ever so close to begin testing and launching Mech-A-Pult we have decided we need to start making our blog a development blog. Even though for the most part it is our development blog we will be posting once a week, or what is more likely, I will be posting once a week since apparently no one else has anything else to say. Anyway, keep on reading through this blog posts we have some big updates/announcements for Mech-A-Pult and I will be laying out our post launch plans.
Where does the game sit right now?
About a month ago, the three of us put up a Facebook status wanting people to leave us email addresses to test within the next couple of weeks. Many of you graciously gave us your email's and have been waiting for us to send out the Alpha invites. Well I am here to tell you they are still coming but we are waiting for our Beta now actually, which is right around the corner. So bare with us they are coming!
Now onto the game itself. As I literally just touched onto it we are well past Alpha and at the point where we are ironing out a few things still and it will be ready for some Beta testing. Really, the main thing the game is missing is a background... this was also my part of the game that needed to be done and I've been slacking until this week after a few minor gameplay changes that we decided to do. I'm not going to spoil anything, yet, but we are very pleased with the changes. Anyway, most likely by the end of this week our background will be done along with the game ready for a rough Beta test to test all the functions and get some feedback from everyone.
Now comes the spoilers. Erich has been hard at work trying to make the in-flight gameplay more fun and unique and we decided to add a Blackhole, because why not the game already has some ridiculous things in it. We first imagined it as an object that just caused you to be teleported a random distance down the run. However, it sounded cool until I had my girlfriend try it out and say how boring it was watching Spencer fly through the air. So we went to the drawing board. Upon a ton of ideas we came up with the idea of giving the player more control over the run when you are within the Blackhole. When you enter into the Blackhole time will slow down for anywhere between 3-10 seconds and gems and xp will rain down from the sky where you have to tap as many of them as you can before you go back through the Blackhole, and it will still have the ability to launch you further down the run.
Now onto the game itself. As I literally just touched onto it we are well past Alpha and at the point where we are ironing out a few things still and it will be ready for some Beta testing. Really, the main thing the game is missing is a background... this was also my part of the game that needed to be done and I've been slacking until this week after a few minor gameplay changes that we decided to do. I'm not going to spoil anything, yet, but we are very pleased with the changes. Anyway, most likely by the end of this week our background will be done along with the game ready for a rough Beta test to test all the functions and get some feedback from everyone.
Now comes the spoilers. Erich has been hard at work trying to make the in-flight gameplay more fun and unique and we decided to add a Blackhole, because why not the game already has some ridiculous things in it. We first imagined it as an object that just caused you to be teleported a random distance down the run. However, it sounded cool until I had my girlfriend try it out and say how boring it was watching Spencer fly through the air. So we went to the drawing board. Upon a ton of ideas we came up with the idea of giving the player more control over the run when you are within the Blackhole. When you enter into the Blackhole time will slow down for anywhere between 3-10 seconds and gems and xp will rain down from the sky where you have to tap as many of them as you can before you go back through the Blackhole, and it will still have the ability to launch you further down the run.
Platforms
As we approach launch Anthony and myself have been hard at work with the integration and, of course, I got the Android integration in completely ready and working. Yea I am pro-Android get used to it. This by no means, means that we are ignoring iOS, Blackberry, and Windows Phone for development purposes it is easier for the three of us to have it 100% set up on Android because we all have Droids. With Anthony now trading in his Alienware for a MacBook (everyone boo him) we can now launch both Android and iOS simultaneously which we plan to do. We are also planning to do a PC release but we are going to add some features we cannot do on mobile so with that being said we do not have an exact release windows for the PC version but we will keep everyone posted.
Post-Launch content
I have touched on this in prior posts and have said it numerous times but we are adding a LOT of stuff post launch which we already have drawn out. Not only are we going to add items, we are planning 3 different type of levels all with three different types of physics. Now we are adding a lot of new items we are going to aim for at least 15 but don't be surprised if its a lot more. Along with these we are going to obviously increase level cap. Also any ideas the community comes up with we will definitely take into considerations and most likely actually add it to the game.
Well this was a very wordy post but stay tuned for more and look out for the Beta in the upcoming weeks!
Erik Smith
Co-Founder/Developer
Well this was a very wordy post but stay tuned for more and look out for the Beta in the upcoming weeks!
Erik Smith
Co-Founder/Developer