BACKGROUND:
A project like Fenix Blade doesn't exactly spring into existence overnight. Regardless of whether you're approaching the target as a team or a loner, the road to completion is (as one might expect) far from friendly territory. Some might say it's a path fraught with peril... I'd prefer to say it's mined. That's what early game development is all about: stepping into bad situations and watching your work blow up in your face. Much like death and taxes, it's unavoidable to a certain extent. That's where documents such as this come into play, providing aspiring developers insight into the machinations (and yes, pitfalls) of game development. At least, that's what I tell myself; this could be totally useless for all I know!
Our case in point: Fenix Blade Demo 2.
Fenix Blade, in its current incarnation, started early in 1998 amid the ashes of two previous attempts to construct a viable engine for the game. I knew full well the work load was dangerously close to being insurmountable; certainly far in excess of what any sane man would willingly take on all by himself. This was definitely convenient, as I had recently gone completely insane, so the work load didn't strike me as being much of an issue. One positive aspect of the whole situation was my ability to reuse code from the two previous engines. Although I was initially developing under a 16 bit environment, I made a conscious effort to keep my code as portable as possible in case I needed to jump ship and move to a completely different platform.
Much to my dismay, I soon discovered that Fenix Blade is much akin to a black hole: an object of tremendous mass that basically swallows everything surrounding it. It took some time, but I managed to carefully construct a work schedule that wouldn't place an unbearable level of stress on my marriage. At first I was having extreme difficulty balancing the various elements of my life along with the game that on several occasions was referred to as "my second wife." Ouch. You can't simply piss your way through something like this; time, effort, and dedication are required from start to finish, and the second your stride is broken, you may never recover.
Once I had made short work of my sheduling issues, I began constructing the engine with great fervor. This turned out to be more involved than I had ever imagined... and after two previous attempts I was startled to discover just how deep the rabbit hole is.
Labour of Love?
On May 05, 1998 Fenix Blade Demo 1 Version 1.0 went out the door, and there was much rejoicing. Okay, so it was just ME rejoicing at that point, but what do you care? The point is, I had finally reached a stage where the engine was able to assemble various pieces of game data into a playable demo. And yes, it was pretty much just that. I hacked up the plot line in order to get some elements working within the confines of the engine, started in the middle of the plot line so I could delve into something relatively interesting, and in general threw the Fb design book out the window. I just wanted something playable to show I was serious about this project. I went to great lengths to instill the knowledge that this was not indicative of the final work, but some people (who are lazy and can't read) didn't take it that way and proceeded to roast me over things like the lack of gameplay and combat.
Not one to rest on my achievements, meager though they may have been, I immediately began filling in the blanks in the engine, and several months later released Demo 1 version 1.1. That was followed by version 1.2, which for the first time incorporated a world map and multiple locations in the demo. This was (for me) a major release, and to celebrate that I started up a contest where the winner would be awarded a NPC named after them. This particular demo went over quite well with the public, considering now there was something a little more substantial to the demo. But that wasn't the end of Demo 1... nope. After quite some time Demo 1 version 1.3 was released, with improved graphics and about twice as much content as before. Still, there was no combat or saving/loading games, so the demo was still pretty much a glorified adventure game at that point.
Time passes... and the natives grow restless. After numerous delays and missed deadlines, Demo 2 version 1.0 hits the server on December 21, 2001. This is a tremendous release, as it illustrates a complete engine, along with gameplay that is highly indicative of the finished product. This was what everyone had been waiting for, a release with exploration, combat, plot elements that actually RELATE to stuff in the game, and polish out the yang. I made big promises years ago, and I feel Demo 2 delivers on every one of them... and then some. Reception from the general public was extremely positive, which was reassuring. The down side was a plethora of bugs that were extremely difficult to track down. I had made every effort to clean up the engine before the public release, but alas... time ran out and I was forced to release the demo in a slightly buggy state. There were no 'show stopping' bugs, but still, being a perfectionist I hate sending flawed work out in the wild.
With the engine complete, I'm now free to concentrate on game content, which is a welcome change of pace from the endless nights spent with my face buried in the compiler. The worst part of my ordeal is over, but the light at the end of the tunnel is still just a dim speck.
Next: What Went Right