Friday 10 October 2014

Progress Report

Over the last weeks I've been slowly marching forward. The new levels for On Call are coming along well, and there is one in particular that I will be showing off soon.

Work has been slower on these maps than I had anticipated as each map is about the size of On Call in itself and there are 5-6 of them in development here.

They are also the most demanding maps I've made as of yet. The one that Im going to share with you soon has a massive amount of grass that I'm placing by hand onto the vast fields and pine trees. It looks amazing and the level is vast and explorable with multiple pathways and things to do. However, this takes so much more time than anything I've done as of yet.

Another thing that has held back development is that I'm struggling with Sony. I have not received any of the small sales profit On Call has made, and everyone at Sony seem to just pass me onto the next person as no one there seems to be able to help. This is by far the biggest problem with PSM. It has NO support. There is a community forum, but they cannot assist with Sony's banking. If this persists I will simply drop On Call to a price tag of Free. Its not like I'm making enough off of On Call to do anything other than get a few pizzas or see a movie, but it would have been nice to see even a penny for my work.

I will show off 1, hopefully 2 levels as well as the new weapons I'm making soon. I will also show off the prototype upgrade system I'm making. Its unique and reminds me of F-Zero where you have a slider that changes the stats of your ship.

What I can say is what these levels and weapons are:


  • A Forrest / mountain range planet with multiple objectives to tie up the side story
  • A space station that a side quest
  • A City world that serves to open up and start the side story
  • A Dock area and downtown area that serves as a prologue to the current On Call
  • A rocky and barren world that I'm not ready to discuss
  • A desert world that I've not fleshed out fully yet, but have done various concepts and early development on
  • An auto rifle with customizable stats that the player can tweak at ANY time in the menu, tweaking fire rate, damage, energy supply and more
  • A shotgun that will work as the assault rifle does
  • A vehicle for when the player is planetside... More on that below

Because the player will be going planetside and exploring large maps. I've quickly discovered that its just not fun to slowly move around these big worlds. As such I've started designing a ground vehicle. It may be something like in Destiny, or even perhaps Mass Effect.

As you can see there is a lot in the works for On Call. Its taking a lot of time and hard work, but its coming along well. by the end of all this work, On Call will probably be 5-10 times the size that it is now. Which is awesome.

As usual, all updates will be completely free and I will keep you updated as progress is made.

2 comments:

  1. Hang in there with Sony - I think the lousy customer support is probably pretty standard for these large corps. However, I wonder if working on Android or Steam is any better? And, I could see where On Call might be really appreciated by folks who love Indie games on PC. But, I would certainly love to be able to continue playing On Call on the Vita, as it looks fantastic on this handheld. I wonder if Kickstarter funding for a future game would help generate some more funds for future projects of larger scope? Certainly On Call is shaping up to be an awesome portfolio piece that would generate a lot of interest in anything you might tackle in the future!

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    1. Exactly, but these things happen and I have no doubt that it will be sorted out. I've dabbled with Android before, but I just really love the Vita. Its wonderful to have a powerful system with good controls.

      I may release On Call for PC once its completed, but honestly I just want to optimize for Vita at this stage.

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