Things at OgreWare might seem quiet this week, but there’s actually a ton of progress being made. And yet – we can’t really say that any certain section is complete, or that any specific feature is functional.
So what work is going on? Well, think of it this way: It’s all interconnected. Kind of like building a car. If you want to test drive your newly designed car, you can’t test drive it with just the frame, or just the steering wheel. You need the axles, fuel tank, steering column, transmission, etc., before you can test drive it. Similarly, we can’t start playtesting Calling All Heroes until more of the “under the hood” stuff is put together.
In Calling All Heroes, the Map system interacts with the Troops, but also interacts with the Player, as well as a buff system behind the scenes, something that we as players never actually see. (Quick note: a buff is an increase in a player or character’s stats, and a debuff is a decrease. They can be temporary or permanent, and are sometimes called “bonuses” in more general slang terms.)
If all this seems unnecessarily complex, recall that the best games are ones where everything works so smoothly together that you can suspend your disbelief and it almost feels real for a time – games where enough effort has gone into each feature and subsystem that they all run smoothly and you’re not even aware of their existence or interaction.
That’s what I’m getting at – that all of this “behind the scenes” or “under the hood” work is leading up to a smoother, more intuitive, neater gaming experience. To me, the best games are the ones where you forget you’re playing a game, and just get lost in that game’s story and world. It’s a wonderful feeling when you realize that you’ve been in the flow state for an hour or more and have just experienced the story without any interruption of errors or issues understanding the interface.
When you can just play, I believe that’s the best gaming experience.
In closing, I would like to just ask you all to bear with us as we move forward, and with any luck I’ll have some images next week that will visually show the work that OgreWare is doing. In the meantime, though, trust me, exciting things are coming!
Stay tuned…
-Admin Julian