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One of the initial design bits for Tormishire was that players will be able to alter the outcome of the games events, both short and long term, through minor decision making. I’d like to go through a couple just to give an idea of what this entails.

At a certain point in the game a fork appears in the path. The default direction is to head left and I’ve thrown a few design bits in there to encourage this route. On the left route the first enemy encounters are all static, low level monsters. By taking the shorter left route you encounter a village early and receive an item, you also face off against the first boss after a few minutes.

The right route has enemies that will attack, but rewards this with a more useful item, though it doesn’t deal any damage. This route skips out the first boss for quite some time allowing you to level up and find a key character and health packs. But because of the increased time the first boss will be stronger too. This route also lets the player fix a broken power station, fixing this will increase the strength of all electricity-related bosses, but rewards the player with a powerful weapon and a transport method (which couldn’t previously run because of the lack of power).

It’s in the first village that the player can play Cupid and is given the opportunity to befriend a villager who needs a way to help pay for his wedding. You can skip him out altogether but by helping him and choosing 1 of 3 options you can help him get married sooner. But this affects if the couple stay together and later have kids, who in turn will help the player out when they later return.

Just stuff like that. Innit.

After showing my grandad the iPod a few years ago he told me about a golf-ball sized radio he had back in the 50′s… And it’s been rediscovered. Meet the Space Radio!

Looks like one of the bad guys from Brawl’s supspace mode.

No idea how to use it though.

Uses no power so it should still work. Answers on a postcard.

Well it’s nearly Christmas, and in a couple of weeks it’ll be Tormishire’s 2nd birthday! Progress is going great now, up to the 5th boss and about 15% of content has been added at this point but we’re still looking at a early ’09 release. At the moment I’m working on expanding the map with from a cynics POV as “needless tunnels”. Adding in extra tunnels and gaps to get a slightly realistic caving feel, and to give players something to hunt around for – most of these places will have minor items, collectables etc.

Also settled on a new waterfall style (something I’ve been trying to nail down for a while now) that I’ll be demoing in the new trailer… And speaking of it won’t be too long for that. After 2 or so years we’ve settled on a studio name that we’ll be announcing alongside the new trailer and website. We’ll hopefully be able to spill the beans on some publisher stuff too.

But aside from all that I’ve come to realise what a bloody nifty system the PSP is. My Rayquaza is inching on lv99. I’m rank 159 out of 16,000 with the Demoman on my fave TF2 server. Downloading HL1 from Steam for $1. My room needs tidying. Winter is approaching and it’s bloody freezing. Bravia are the best TV’s. Cereal bars are nicer than they let on. My DVI cable is melting or something. Even if you do, you don’t fully appreciate Totoro. My furthest traceable relative is called Edmund from 1620. Mini motorbikes are more crazyfun than you imagine.

Just a kind of all round update-

Off to Caroline’s first choir concert tomorrow, they’re doing Mozart’s Requiem which I’ve always been fond of. Then I’m off down to Stoke for a couple of days holiday as it were.

And the game? Currently finishing up another level/area place. It’s by far my favourite setting yet, located in the newly opened area after the 4th boss. It’s more of an acrobatic level than anything else with few moving enemies. Also adding some new routes and secret areas- all in all the game now has 160 rooms and 4 bosses, and according to the game completion calculator thingy it takes me an hour to get 11% completion (or rather 11% of the total items, ‘achievements’ and books).

(not a Tormi shot, of course! Just some art left in My Pictures… Best show something since I’m not showing anything of my real game!)