Start off with, the last version of BP!2 had some minor graphical anomolies – they didn’t take away from gameplay, but, they sure were a PITA for some people. That’s one of the major reasons I started working on Boulder Panic! 2 DX – try and get away from everything that was causing those problems, plus I could make a little more graphically impressive, etc.
Well, I sent out the first beta of BP!2 DX a couple days ago… and it came back with problems. Last night, Lord Gek (Tim – one of my beta testers. Actually, it’s a husband & wife beta testing team 🙂 and I bounced a couple of versions back and forth, and guess what? Looks like it’s all repaired! No more anomolies, and no NEW problems have surfaced yet. All looks good! There’s a couple more things left to do (need to enable two buttons, restart level and quit level, plus some of the fancier stuff isn’t enabled, and I need to code the high-score board for levels.) It’s close folks!
I’m jazzed as hell. I just signed with Wichita Technology Corporation – which means I’ve now got a somewhat managment team helping me (somewhat doesn’t refer to thier talents – they aren’t an integral part of the company, and are providing services. Plus, there are just some things that I’m sure they really don’t get too involved in – no big thing. But they are going to be a HUGE help!), and they are drawing up the investment grade business plan, etc., and looking to see what’s going to take to get me money. This is good – it will actually take a relativly small amount for me to be doing game development full time. The way I have things set up, profitability of the company is fairly good, so reaching my goals isn’t too difficult (and my goals aren’t THAT lofty for the short term. Long term is a different story entirely.) I’m going to enjoy working with Mark and Trish – both of them seem to know thier shit (note: ‘thier shit’ isn’t game development, it’s business. The still have to depend on me to know ‘my shit’ too) and are fairly nice people to deal with.
In general, I feel MUCH better now that I’ve signed that contract – I can’t really relax, I’ve still got tons to do, but it now means that more people are working towards the same set of goals, and everyone who is working towards those goals is experienced in getting the job done. This is good.
BP!2 DX should be out over the holiday week I’m off on vacation. Then I’ll send a copy over to the publisher, and they will poke and prod it, and hopefully declare it as a done deal finally. I won’t make lots of money off the deal – but that’s not why I’m doing it. I’m doing it so I’m a published game author (even if it’s not someone HUGE like Electronic Arts). Plus, I think even more, there’s an emotional issue – I want to walk into Walmart and BUY MY GAME off the shelves! Really – I mean, how F***in’ cool would that be? Hell, I want to give out copies to all my friends as christmas presents! (OK, that probably ranks up there with giving friends a picture of yourself for Christmas… )
OK, well, I need to get back to doing real work – I’m jazzed and all, but, there is still an INCREDIBLE amount of work to be done. *SIGH* Back to the grindstone….
Midnight Ryder
AKA Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr
President, MidnightRyder.Com
“Gettin’ had, Gettin’ took,
“I tell ya folks, it’s harder than it looks!
“It’s a long way to the top, if ya wanna rock & roll…”