(update 2: I’m using all the restraint I have not to swear here. I just found out my demo had a element incomplete: a level where Drew is supposed to change eye color was only half done. The judges are unlikely to notice, the eyes were barely noticeable even when they were there, but still, that’s incredibly frustrating. It’s probably too late to update the demos on the site anyway. No doubt this won’t be the first time this happens… anyhow, the demo has been updated for the rest of you to try.)
(update: Mitchell Lum kindly filled devs in that over 150 entries were in the contest this year. Not nearly as many as I expected, makes me feel much better. I still have a slim chance of winning, but you never know until you try. And given how few entries there were, I’ll be sure to have as many people as possible I know to enter next year!)
So I finally put an indie game into a contest.
These developer contests and game jams seem to be in full swing during this time of year. Deadlines are popping up throughout the month. I meant to send something out last year, but just barely missed deadlines and got sidetracked. Finally, I put in my game, this time a demo for “Drew and the Floating Labyrinth,” into the Intel Level Up 2014 competition.
How do I feel?
On one hand, I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished. The GUI and menu system, made in a few days, actually looks really nice. I implemented four levels, one of which needed a special effect bit. I animated Drew in time to show. The game is a fair representation of what I hope to achieve.
But the levels look a little rough (some better lighting and background effects might help out). I still intend to give Drew a couple idle animations. Giving Drew more color will take more time than I thought: for the demo, the best I could do was give her eye color, when I hoped to color her hair in time.
My submission also had a number attached to it in the 7000’s. And apparently many other developers tried to submit hours before the deadline, crashing the system and extending it to tomorrow. Devs are encouraged to submit multiple times until they are happy, but its safe to say that I’m competing with thousands of other entries. And since Intel specifically wanted games that work well with their 2-in-1 ultrabook (which I didn’t comply with, since I don’t have one to test with), my game might quickly get pushed to the side.
This did let me take a day off to relax. For the first time in months I didn’t spend the entire day focusing on gamedev. I relaxed slightly. But I can’t: more deadlines are coming in the next two weeks, I can’t really rest until July.
Oh, and I made the demo I sent in available to everyone to try out the game, and see what the levels are like. Find them here: http://drew.fromdustscratch.com .
