Many full days of Taskforce continue, I'm starting to feel a mix of exhaustion and elation each day. Perhaps one day people will be amazed that one person could make a game like this, but then, I always feel like that!
I've completed the game trailer after recording several gameplay videos at Deb's. It's difficult to portray a game like this in video form, partly because it's slow and thoughtful game, which doesn't lend itself to trailers. The first edit of the video used lots of bits of gameplay that blended into each other, which gives an idea about how the game looks, but gives no clue at all about the story (which is an important part of it) or other things, game options, depth of gameplay etc.
Then I had an idea of highlighting each team member; there are 12 in your team, each with a name and character, so I thought I would make these stars, introducing them in a similar way to the heroes in Reservoir Dogs, or the A-Team in its intro sequence. So, I edit 12 bits of game footage showing the 12 heroes in action, and added a still before each clip. This give the video more of a narrative, and still manages to show a lot of the gameplay. To hint at the story, I added a filmed sequence at the start, of my hand as that of October Morgane, with a pantomime voice over:
MORGANE: Excellent! My Terror Troops are in position. The only people who can stop me now are... Taskforce.
Next, the manual. At first this was a simple guide, but even then it was over 40 pages. I wanted to at least make sure that the manual included everything technical that players could use or exploit, without offering any spoilers (this trailer, has a few regarding enemies, but, in a way, without those, people won't know what they are missing in the game).
Then I had the idea of having a full colour printed manual for sale on Amazon, so I've expanded it a bit to include all of the game weapons and some tactical information, so now it's 68 pages and over 7000 words, which is quite large for a game manual. I love game manuals anyway. Hopefully this will help sell the game itself. I enjoyed writing and enjoy reading it as much as playing the game anyway!
A few program changes:
1. Wounds to the torso now drain Energy per walked square by their quantity, so 2 Torso Wounds mean 3 Energy used per square. The only effect from torso wounds before, at all, was one extra energy per walked square. This is a tiny change. I could perhaps improve Energy drain more, like have units that use more than half of their Strength up drain more, so getting tired from weight, but this is for a future game.
2. The Pistol now uses 50% rather than 60% of Action Points for an Aimed Shot. A Snap Shot uses 20%, so the Aimed Shot was unfairly high.
3. The Main Menu Purchase button should go straight to the order page in Steam now (needs testing).
4. A new menu option for Advanced Options will quit the program and open up the Config.txt file.
5. The lighting options are now in the Game Options Menu rather than the System Options.
