Via Pompeii by TimeTours (developer diary)

[kukulcan]

We give away 5 Promo Codes for 'Via Pompeii' this week: http://www.time-tours.com/daily

This is for the iPad version due in late march.

We finally decided against a universal version because the iPhone playfields will be optimized for the smaller screen and it will get its own levels. More on friday.

Not final, but this is what one of the playboards will look like:

[LazyGamer]

Looks nice so far. Thanks for the 'code'.

btw. I think it is like 'Video or it didn't happen' here on TA forums.

[kukulcan]

01/27/2012 Development continues, now with two seperate versions. But we dont see either one as "lead platform", seperating them rather guarantees no compromises are made in usabilty.

No new screenshots this week, rather some info about gameplay. The initial idea was to marry Mahjong with Match-3 and that is what the main game turned out to be.

You can tap a series of tiles like in Mahjong, but that is just the ground work to stock up your skills. You can then swipe adjacent tiles of the same type - at least 3, but the goal are long swipes. The more skills (change a tile, skip a gap, climb up a level...and more) you earned the longer your swipes will be.

For the casual gamer the "Via" to Pompeii is a straight one. They can Tap and Swipe away, going from rather meditative to more challenging from city to city.

The hardcore gamer can stray away from the main path any time and do some 💩more strategy and puzzle centered levels. There will of course be leaderboards for the longest swipes (we cant wait to see how inventive people will be) and for the most gold collected in a city. Replay is valued and rewarded - with gold, achievements and of course extra levels.

Meanwhile more graphics, movies and music arrive, so we are close to 💩finalizing the touch and feel of the first city.

[kukulcan]

Double post

[kukulcan]

2012/02/03...and another week gone.

Game development feels a lot different today from what I remember from Amiga/Atari ST times. Graphics and sound keep coming regularely from different sources and no "garage sessions" this time.

A near final set of gameplay graphics is implemented giving us a good idea of the final look of the game. Right now we are implementing the optical/aural and "physical" feedback that in our eyes often differentiates a great from a "meh" one.

Finally we found the names to distinguish "skills" (which you earn for the current level and which are essential for finishing it) and "extras" (which are nice helpers you collect throught the whole game).

Originally Posted by LazyGamer

btw. I think it is like 'Video or it didn't happen' here on TA forums.

You are right, but as cliche as it sounds, game comes first. We have some video editing skills in the team and want to come up with a really great trailer - when the time has come. The trailer will reveal a little about the story (did we mention Via Pompeii has one?) which is about a "secret society" that is pretty well known

no new pics today, just this:

[ryansumo]

Just a bit of advice for your artist, maybe he should tone down the shading on the Roman soldiers, they look like they're about to pop.

I personally think that you ought to match the character art to the background art, as well.

Good luck with the game!

[kukulcan]

Originally Posted by ryansumo

...I personally think that you ought to match the character art to the background art, as well.

Good luck with the game!

Thanks!

You are absolutely right, reducing the shading especially on the arms was the first thing we did (see below the shots from iPhone topic which are a little more up to date).

Going for a contrast between realistic backgrounds and comic character was always a discussion, but finally we decided to use a cel shaded look for the backgrounds too.

Doing 3D character models was never an options simply because of budget considerations. So the characters will never match the backgrounds 100% but we will probably try to match the accented edges of the cel shading.

[kukulcan]

2012/02/10 Level design mostly. As we want the levels be more than just different formations of stones this will really take some time. And every single level should offer incentives to play it again.

Visible and audible feedback for Taps, Swipes and "Combos" are being implemented step by step, every single one adding to fun factor immediatly. We decided to have a "non magical" look, so instead of stones glowing they get tagged with coins and a leather strap. We have a very special idea for the extras, hope it works out.

Off to vacation for a week, time to do some more scripts for the cutscenes.

[kukulcan]

2012/02/24 Back from vacation.

Just got the message from our programmer, that the game in its planned form is now basically feature complete. But we decided to delay it 3 month anyway. There is still lots to do and that gives us 3 month from now for alpha and beta testing and tweaking the original concept where needed.

Release date is now 06/21 for both versions. So unfortunately we wont be the first to show off iPad Retina resolution.

And finally we found a new team member (from TA again), who will support us with the perfect english and her deep knowledge in roman history - for the game and other apps.

[kukulcan]

2012/03/02 TimeTours Mobile division bus has been sighted at roman ruins in Portugal and Spain.

This means either the mobile team is investigating for our Rome apps or they are on a mission to fight an extremist cult that took the world hostage.



Meanwhile, we are doing the tutorial levels for all the skills, the first levels of every city. Bugs come up less frequently and we are ready to give the game to some people who are completely new to the gameplay and dont suffer from the tunnel vision developers develop.

Another music track just came in for your listening pleasure:
http://www.time-tours.com/Pompeii-1.mp3