Developer Diary #4: Crunch Time is a Killer

Almost Release Day!

Super Panda Adventure Tour (that is a damn long name) is almost complete. I honestly did not realize 3 weeks had swooshed by at the blink of an eye. Not joking, If it wasn’t for my back, legs, ass being sore as hell, I’d have not known the time that flew by. Well that and this page sort of reminded me of my last article. Without a doubt, Crunch Time is a real thing and it sucks.

What is Crunch Time?

In corporate speak, it’s when all the developers, artists and marketers stop having lives. The published deadline is fast approaching and everyone needs to pull 20 hour days and sleep under their desks and have sex in broom closets.

For me, the end was in sight. I completed the arduous task of implementing a solid AI structure, environmentally aware creatures and other items and bug fixes. I added in a “loot matrix” to the reward blocks and creatures now spawn off a random number of coins as an award. Sure this is all standard stuff for every damn game in existence, but when it’s 1 person, working 30 hours a day on their first “real game” it’s a lot. Not that this is complaining or anything. There were a lot of features that honestly didn’t need to go into the game, but I added them because I felt it would make your experience playing the game overall better.

Then I tested them out, and it was fun.

What are these features?

• Hitpoints: Some monsters need to be smacked a few times to go down.
• Monster Respawning (2nd chance): Some monsters will come back to life after they “die”.
• Procedural features: Monsters have random speed ratios, loot and other stats. This is marked for further improvement over updates.
• Loot Matrix: The reward blocks give out random items beyond coins and clubs now. Each has a weighted value and percent chance of spawning.
• Random soundtrack: Each level plays a random tune. I did this mostly for me because I was sick of Level 1’s music.
• Other surprises.

There will be Updates

I’m not a fire and forget person. Rocket Shark and Bionic Bird both had tons of updates and improvements. From gameplay mechanics to full out user interface overhauls.

Super Panda will have the same treatment. While it’s literally hours away from being submit to Apple and Google (providing I mix that annoying AndroidManifest issue) the game is not “done”. While it’s beyond awesome in it’s current state, thanks to all that I learned from Rocket Shark, I will see what other people find broken and work to fix it.

Thank You

I quite literally needed a break from the game for a few hours and wrote this to get that informational buildup out. Last night and 5 Guinness later I had made a pass over level 1-31 to make sure everything was in place and the game was “challenging enough”. Then I made it more challenging. Today I go over level 1 through 45 and assure the game is ready.

If all goes well, I submit it to the stores.

Find me on the App Stores:

On Apple Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/developer/craig-giannelli/id1236510662

On Google Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Chaos+Rift+Entertainment,+LLC