I sat down and did The List today. Wrote out all of the things that need doing for the game to be at a state that can be polished and played by other people. This list is Massive. Quite staggering honestly and it’s posted over yonder => for your (delusional much? nobody reads this) reading pleasure. Some things on the list are single lines but are hours, if not days of work. For example it says “Scripting” under the Design Heading. I may be able to start this today and finish it in, I don’t know, a month or so. Thankfully, I’m not doing all of it.
The one nice part that I’ve got going for us is that the infrastructure is all there. Once the assets are got they plug right in with a minimum of fuss. So that’s excellent.
That doesn’t touch all aspects of The List though. Like, “Enemy Character Animations” can be done with a small amount of difficulty (having seen The ADA work, it certainly doesn’t look difficult for him. Having done it myself, I know that it is though), but that assumes that rigged up models are available, and there isn’t for 6 of the 9 characters. 5 if the Art Team decide not to palette and/or head swap a different model.
I still don’t have my Kikuchiro, my mythic Seventh man. The one that will bring sound and the power of music to the masses. I think I have one, I know I do actually, but find that I’m hesitant to go down that road. Still, as I think about it, he would be the best person for the gig (that’s what cool music people call what regular {uncool} folks would call a “job”). I’ll do that this weekend.
Still lots and lots of other variables at work here. “XNA Compatibility” comes to mind. The line says, quite simply, “Make it play on XBox.” That’s it. That’s like Kennedy saying “…should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” I have very little idea as to what is involved with that. XNA membership obviously (goodbye $100.00), an XBox360 and maybe some kind of Alchemical Sacrifice. Oh, and Rockstar drinks.
It’s dawning on me, that yes, we can do this, but no, it will not be easy. But that’s really the whole point, isn’t it?
If it wasn’t hard, it wouldn’t be cool.