Lots of Fun

Edit: (October 27, 2011) Just want to let everyone know that I'm not dead. Everything is going great. As I said, not much work was done on DT3 between now and this original post, but November will speed it up... until the 20th when Skyward Sword comes out. I'm going to be playing the hell out of that. And we're lucky I'm not getting Saints Row 3 when it comes out. I could play that game forever. Anyway, I'll make a new post in a few days, talking about some new stuff for DT3.

Well GDC was tons of fun and awesome. Always a great experience with great people that generates a lot of fun memories and stories to tell. I didn't attend any talks this year though since I was working at the IGDA booth on the expo floor... that's as far as I'll go with my stories though. Oh wait, business is good.

Production will still be at a stand still as I'll be out of town for a few days again and after I return, I'll be fairly busy. I'm foreseeing DT3 being put on hold till about early November, though I'll be able to devote a bit of time to it here and there, just not much. I only announce it so if you're following close to check out the demo of the first 3 Gates, you know what the hold up is. Oh, and to say that this will be the last post this month, so check back in November.

As far as DT3 stuff goes, there's not much I want to report on it. The enemy scan window now shows the maximum amount of money that can be dropped. And... that's all I want to say at this time. :P
Yeah, check back early November and till then, have fun. Also a new My Little Pony episode is airing today.

Another Game Recommendation
I recently found out about an interesting game called Descend the Beat. I like to describe it as a musical puzzle game, not to be confused with a rhythm game. I got a chance to play it during a launch party at GDC and had quite a bit of fun with it. Of course since it's somewhat of a musical game, it's got a sweet awesome sweet soundtrack. If you like fun, upbeat music, and puzzle games with a lot of depth, definitely check this game out.

The interface and controls are intuitive and easy to grasp. You have a 5 by 5 tiled board and blocks are thrown at these 25 spots on the board at varying speeds. When they're on the board, you can move the blocks in 4 directions. (90 degrees) However, each of the blocks can only be moved a certain number of times, which is marked in different ways depending on the current block (graphic) style. The objective is to fill an entire row (Tetris style) to clear it. If the blocks stack up to the 8th row, you lose. Pretty simple concept to grasp, but there are a few other nuances. When you move a block, it slides till it either falls down from its current row, hits the edge of the board, or another block. If you move a block that has others stacked on top of it, the entire stack is moved and if it falls or hits the edge of other block or stack of blocks, all but the bottom block will continue on.

There are a few game modes such as; A Tetris like Arcade mode where you play till you lose. A challenge mode with a number of challenges each with specific goals that slightly change a few gameplay aspects. (I was able to beat one of their harder ones at the launch party and got a t-shirt for it!) Then an expansive puzzle mode that starts to get incredibly deep. The idea being to get rid of all the blocks, no new ones fall.

A Week of Absence

Edit: (October 9, 2011) On the subject on enemies dropping currency in DT3. It is handled differently. DT3 doesn't have the boost from chains, that is now being used for drop rate of any item. Each enemy does have a difference in the amount they can drop, but there are a few new nuances. If an enemy can only drop Green(1), then that's all they'll ever be able to drop. If they can drop up to a Blue(5), then they have a 70% chance to drop the bigger amount, however, there is another clause involved. Blues will never drop if your kill chain is not at least at 3. The same thing occurs for bigger coins as well. It goes through the same process, but slightly different. If they are designated to drop a Yellow(10), then greens are dropped until a chain of 3, where blues will start to show up and once the chain has reached 5, the yellow will appear at a 70% rate. For Red(20), which is the highest in DT3, you'll need a chain of 8.

In the case of a yellow potentially showing up and that 70% not going through, it filters down to the blue chance, then of course if that doesn't go through because you're just that unlucky, the green will pop up. That 70% can be boosted up to 80% from the skill tree and even further with items. (Up to 95%)

Next week I'll be away as GDC Online will be happening. Well not really away, the Austin Convention Center is no more than 10 minutes away from where I live. When that's over, I'll be out of town for a few days. Got a busy week ahead of me.

I'll leave behind a screenshot of course.

Countdown of doom.

Yeah, that's a boss' life meter and that's also a countdown. You get 2 minutes to finish this little encounter. Most of it consists of you protecting that little bot there so it clears a path for you to damage the actual boss, which is currently off-screen. You'll be needing to manage all the things that the boss summons up, otherwise you'll find your bot being destroyed by enemy fire. Time is of the essence in this encounter and you can only afford a few mistakes before the countdown becomes a bigger threat than the projectiles. This is the first boss encounter in DT3 that doesn't lock the camera in place.

A good 1/3 of Chapter 5 is now finished. The next part includes some looking around in Central City, involving getting to know how it works, and story elements. Then of course the search for Gate 3 in DT3's massive world.

Smerbles

Edit: (October 6, 2011) Hmm, even my deaths are pretty high in my pseudo playthrough. Just after Ch.4.
Gyazo link to my failures (Can't direct link to gyazo anymore. We be stealin their internetz too much.)

Hard at work on Chapter 5 now. It will reintroduce some concepts from DT1 and bring in new puzzle ideas that will recur throughout more than just Chapter 5. Unlike DT1 where I said all the different platforming elements would... wait, this is the first paragraph, I'm breaking protocol here. The post title is an inside joke word that I highly doubt anyone who plays this would get. If the ones who are in on the word do come here, I'd be shocked and amazed... somewhat... maybe, I don't know. Anyway, I'm hungry so I'm going to end the post here and go eat.

Damn it! I didn't go eat and now I'm still hungry and posting here. Okay, time to continue on where I was... aaand I lost my place, so lets start again. Hard at work on Chapter 5 now. It will reintroduce some concepts from DT1 and bring in new puzzle ideas that will recur throughout more than just Chapter 5. Unlike DT1 where I said all the different platforming/game elements would come together and they really didn't, only half way, sorta, but not really. This time they actually will. But that's not the tangent I was wanting to go on. Wow this post is a cluster of bad in every way, so here's a screenshot.

Guess the game this is from... It's Drill Dozer! So have you guessed yet?

About 1/3 or so of Chapter 5 is spent in that place. The rest is a huge mess of story telling and the player getting lost for the first time in the expanding DT3 main world. Finding secrets and hidden power ups all over the place and then getting lost some more. Possibly seeing Game Over from spikes or attempting to fight things that they shouldn't be messing with. Remember, running away and alternate paths IS an option.

Anyway, I've gone on with random stuff for too long on this post and I'm still hungry so it's time to go fix that with whatever I find...