Our team has been working primarily on researching our game type and style, planning development, and preparing ourselves for the next step in our development plan. Our game design document is outrageous! At about 30 pages and some 6000+ words, the Undead Castle Design Document is still only about 60-75% completed and it grows each day. The team has done quite a bit of research on zombies, medieval hardships and lifestyles, and other successful games like ours, for the sole purpose of making our game just right and outstandingly pleasing to you!
We're currently in the Planning Phase of development. Let's break down the development process so you can keep up with what phase we're in:
1st: Planning Phase. In this current phase, we've researched everything from zombie movies and games to medieval clothing and 1300?s instruments. We've laid down a solid foundation for the game, with a very thick design document. Our programming team has developed a prototype which is still being worked on. The prototype consists of a working player placeholder, a simple zombie AI placeholder, procedurally generated castle walls (hmm procedurally generated?), and equip-able items. The next step in the prototype is getting doors and objects to move around realistically. Our art department will be working on some models (likely placeholders) for the prototype, and our concept artists are working on level and character design. The audio guys are also working on some pieces in background music and a main menu / theme tune. The Planning Phase will last about another month and then we will move into Pre-Pro.
2nd: Pre Production Phase. In this phase we will extended planning and research to practical use and develop a stronger prototype into a pre-alpha version of the game. We expect to have a ton of features, from Procedurally Generated Rooms (in the castle) to functional attacking zombie placeholders. We're going solidify the design document as best we can in this phase. All aspects of development will be fairly solid and clear by the end of this phase, which is around February 17th, give or take.
3rd: Alpha Development Phase. Finally, we will have a solid Alpha build by the end of this phase. Hopefully our Alpha for this game will crush our Beta for our last game! We think it will.
4th: Beta Development Phase. The Beta! In this stage we will work harder to make our game known to the public and release our Kickstarter.com project. We'll be working on fine tuning the game and adding key features, as well as developing and organizing Kickstarter.com efforts, from acquiring backer merchandise to distributing the merchandise. We will prep for the homestretch: Final Dev Phase.
5th: Final Development Phase. Our game will be just about finished, we will seek your feedback on Kickstarter.com, Steam, and we will try to get our build up on Steam and Xbox asap!
6th: Launch.
So there you have it! The Next Step - from start to finish actually. We're working hard on this game and we plan to release it within a year or slightly
more. Our team of 15 can handle it as well as any. Keep in touch and remember to scream at the top of your lungs, on the highest place you can find, "I love Broken Limits Media!" Check out blmdev.com, twitter.com/BLMdev,facebook.com/brokenlimitsmedia, and keep an eye out for all our updates! We plan to post frequently. Thanks for reading!
What I tried to do was watch some George Remero movies and watch the movements, sounds, etc. of the zombie. He really captures that feeling well. Hope it helps :D.