Dev Log #1

Behold! The beginnings of a brilliant new game project are in the works!  We’ve been doing a lot of game structuring, project management setup, team meetings, and even a legal meeting; and we are ecstatic to be able to share with you our new team identity and our visions for the project.

First of all, we are now “Annoying Cat Entertainment”, and we have a lovely new logo to boot! 

I could give you a long story about why we chose the name, but I’d rather tell you exactly what we’ve been up to. (In case you were wondering, the name basically involves our programmers having their cats disrupting meetings. Cats, right?). 

Social:

We also have a Discord server! Yay! You can drop by and say hi to all of us at https://discord.gg/ZGfxhU. We’re pretty active, so if you want to talk, or have a suggestion or just want to chill with some awesome folks, join up!

Up next will be a Twitter account, and in the near future you might be able to watch us in YouTube. Ain’t that awesome? (It is for me!). Oh, and we might even move to our own webpage later down the road, so don’t miss the boat. 

Project Design:

Our original version of Cardboard Colosseum took us only a week to plan, build, and implement, (which was awesome, go check it out if you haven’t!). However, things run a bit slower outside of a Game Jam, and we’ve taken the time to really think through everything important to us for this project. We now have a really solid nearly 20-page Game Design Document plus a new development workflow through HacknPlan. If you’ve never heard of it, HacknPlan is like Trello, but specifically designed for game designers like us! Kilansky has been filling up the various production tasks (since he’s the producer now!) while I’ve been helping out where needed and doing stuff like this. There have been plenty of “what-ifs” along the way, but a GDD is an ever-changing document and we expect to keep changing things as the project moves forward. This is the foundation, our rock-solid base from which we’ll start making this game.

Another important item that will be followed up in the next Dev Logs is a Road Map! We’re working on creating milestones and estimating them (and put them into a beautiful and tidy infographic!), so you can follow our progress with ease. Stay tuned for news on this!

Coding:

Our fine Kaideu has already finished working on a very neat enemy possession system. Yes, Cardboard Colosseum will now feature a possessing enemy mechanic! How neat is that? We’re still working on the finer details, and naturally, we would still need to fine-tune it, but we think it’s going to be a mechanic that’s going to be really enjoyable. 

We’re also starting to work (or re-work) on the AI systems, to make them more general and flexible in the long run.

Art:

We just can’t forget this part. Andreshb has been giving us top concept art as of lately. Last time, we announced that we were working on a new ranged enemy. So, yet again, ‘lo and behold: the Toothpick Archer!

He is going to run your day with ranged attacks and some run-and-gun tactics around the arena. Soon, we will have it modeled and included in the game!

Obviously, we’re not stopping there. Our first stage, a really, really hot colosseum, is in the works. How’s it going to look? Well, keep visiting us and find out! 

Story:

NoahLemelson is coming up with a lot of neat story concepts that we hope we can put into production soon. He has been working on the prologue and overall world building, while presenting some interesting secondary characters. It’s going to be great; I can tell you that much! 

Final Note:

As you can see, we’ve been rolling up our sleeves and doing hard, honest work! The team is very much busy with tasks, our Kanban board is filled with To-Do’s and everyone’s on board. We hope that you are too! 

Thanks for reading!

- Chuster II