I keep feeling anxious about poly counts, but then I look at this page, and feel ok again on the inside.
http://beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=43975

Been hard at work on my alpha city... Ill put up a pic for all you people that want to see it. Other than that, I've been thinking about my main character, I'll do a quick 3D mock up in mudbox this week, maybe I'll even rig it and get it into the alpha.

I also want to make sure I get the gameplay done... At the moment I have a character that can run, jump and orbital cam... So I need to add the shooting/strafing/cover/FLYING controls to finish up the alpha... But the progress is good and I'm going strong... Or at least I think so...

Ran into some alignment problems with the sidewalks... Fixed them now. Also changed the shader on the sidewalks so they stand out a little ore till I put on textures and normals.

I got a little concerned about the poly count, regardless of the Occlusion Culling it seems like it may get a little high.

So I looked into old open world games like GTA:3 and saw that their poly count is far higher than mine is. So I'm not worried... In fact, I'll probably make higher poly assets than GTA:3 as GTA:3 is quite old... but that's quite the relief... Obviously I'm not aiming for textures, shadows or normal maps equal to GTA:3 hahaha.

Making the alpha for Project Dak... Its going well, I'm placing roads, and buildings. I have the basic character in with basic working camera and movement along with image effects etc (All assets are not final and are mostly placeholders)

Did my first pass on my GDD. Things are coming together nicely. Here's a concept map to look over. I've planed it to be simple and easy to make with repeated assets to work with my time constraints.

On a separate note. We have to do an Expo later in the year. We have ben asked to think up a name... Last year they called it UNCHARTED 2012... Haha... I was thinking something like... IDK... The Expo 2013... I think its simple and conveys the meaning very easily... Perhaps we have it on a picture of a sketch that becomes a low poly 3d model, to a mudbox model and then an in game character... Its evolution, but it also shows exactly what to expect from the Expo.

So I've been asked to say some things about what I would like to hear from press and fans and what I don't want to hear from them.

I guess from the press I would like to hear that it packs content and quality almost akin to an AAA game. Its where indy games should strive to be as every day technology and software becomes more efficient and easy to use. So Its achievable for indies to exist again like they did back on the PS one with devs like Naughty Dog or Insomniac. 2 man devs making Crash and Spyro. That disappeared for 2 generations due to complexity and cost, but its coming back now with easy tools and hardware.

Simplicity means more creativity.

What I don't want to hear is that the game is "just another cheap indy game" that would be what I'm definitely striving my hardest not to be. I want to make a 'quality', 'full' and 'fun' experience, but at the price of an indy game instead of a blockbuster. That's what I want fans and critics to say about it.