Locked and Loading

Maybe Later Games
Aug 31, 2018 · 2 min read

Hey! I’m just getting over a bout of illness so had some downtime on my productivity, but we’re back on track now!

Excuse the maroon CC0 background during level selection. The bush sprites will also be replaced by some more meaningful selection icon.

The menu screen is really coming together now — I’ve had to spend a bit of time fiddling with the easings and how they interact with each other to make sure that you can’t see beyond the edge of the ending images because the mask expands too fast for the actual image — basically, really fiddly annoying crap. The basic functionality is there and I will add other features (like a gallery and the options menu) when the time calls for it.

As the attentive may have noticed, the artist has been had at work getting the ending images done. I’m exceptionally happy with the quality! Three endings down, six to go! :)

This is the first time I’ve had to jump from one scene to another, and oh lord is the loading time excruciating! The entire game hangs for about 5–10 seconds while the main game loads. Since the whole of ye olde Alderdale is one comprehensive scene with all areas loaded simultaneously, I had anticipated some slow loading times, but I think it’s the best way of coding it to ensure that the experience — once loaded — is nice and smooth. A loading screen was a no-brainer.

A mockup of the loading screen. The background is CC0 placeholder art — I might use it in the final version.

I thought it would be nice to show the player the sprite that they will be playing with for the first time here — Ann constantly walking to the right while the game loads gives the player something to enjoy whilst firing up the level, serves as a reminder of the ending that has been chosen, and also adds some animation to the loading screen. I think on the big consoles it is actually a publisher requirement for there to be moving parts on the screen during loading screens so the player knows the game hasn’t crashed and frozen. It’s an important thing to include, and I thought this was a cute way to do it.

I’m just relieved that players can now unlock endings, select endings, and start the game comfortably now. I need to keep building towards a minimum viable product (a bit late, I’m aware) so I can get testers playing the game as early as possible, as I hope to have one or two months of testing before releasing the game to iron out any bugs and most importantly to figure out the least obvious (and most frustrating) story progression paths that players encounter.

Maybe Later Games

Written by

Developers of Ann Achronist, a time-travelling narrative adventure game set in 17th-century England.

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