This is the long awaited status update of James D. Ant in Catching Crooks. We have made some really great progress in the last couple of weeks and we are proud to show you everything we have created so far.
In the next couple of weeks we will be documenting everything for our graduation and after we are graduated we will focus on releasing our first beta version. It still could take a couple of months before the first beta is ready but we'll do our best to get the beta phase started as soon a possible.
What have we done so far?
I could write pages of text which describes every feature we have implemented, but that would be boring for most of you readers. Instead we will show a vew different screenshots showing some features we made.We would also say thanks to Tippy for his creation of the buildings we used in the pre-beta version of the game.
In this screenshot James D. Ant went to one of the corners of the village. The 3d model of James D. Ant will be replaced with our own at a later stage.
In this screenshot you can see a working inventory system with the possibility to merge different objects. The stick could be combined with the rope and that combination itself can be combined with the hook to create a fishing rod. The merge system is designed to have an infinity level of possibilities as long as we predefine which objects could be merged together.
This is an example of a conversation with a NPC. The conversation system is designed to be very flexible. Conversation choices will be based on the following:
- Previous conversations with the same or even other NPC's
- Objects in the inventory
- In-game events
- The number of times a conversation has taken place
- The mood level of the NPC
Yes yes, we need to implement some more conversations in the game :-)
In this screenshot the camera system is changed so it can track the player's movements. In the town there are different triggers which will change the active camera when triggered.
This is a screenshot which shows the walk decal. If the player clicks the right mouse button this graphic will be put on the terrain for a set amount of time and the player model will try to go to the set position.
Here you can see the start of the game. The three guys standing across the street are the bad guys of this episodes. The 3d models will be changed at a later stage.
We still need a long way to go to make this a great game, but we are progressing in a way we just couldn't wish for when we started.
Hopefully this status update will make you as excited as we are.