Hello, everyone.
I’m one of the developers behind LaserZone. I’m also responsible for the level design and English translation.
What We've Been Up to
It’s been a long time since we pre-released our game on Steam Store Page in November last year.
I’ve been thinking of writing news for our game, but the last three months gave me little time to spare. And since I’m the only one in the team who speaks English, they are why the news feed was left empty for a long time.
At the time, we were at hard work trying to complete our game within the initial deadline, December 5.
However, our release has been tacitly pushed back because of a few reasons.
First and foremost, I felt that normal maps – which create the bulk of our content – needed a rework. Even though LaserZone embraces action and timing, they were a little too emphasized. I was concerned that some of our puzzle maniacs might not appreciate the delivered content.
Boss fights, sound design, story texts, and a cinematic system for in-game events weren’t ready either.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 wasn’t as critical as we thought since almost everyone in our team (including me)
worked at home before the pandemic.
However, offline meetings with 5 people or more have been prohibited by the Government of South Korea. Face-to-face discussions are necessary for clear communication. Attempting to solve everything only with text messengers often resulted in unexpected outcomes, which delayed our release further.
So you might be wondering, ‘how’s the game now?’
In short, it’s 100% playable from start to finish.
However, we need to polish several aspects of the game.
Our list of priorities is:
- Decorating maps
- Adjusting Boss fights
- Adding sound-effects
- Reviewing cinematic events
- Squashing bugs that plague the gameplay
- Optimization
Normal Maps
For normal maps, we’ve done a significant overhaul. Game-design-wise, they are completed and 100% playable. I believe the new maps will contribute to building the puzzle-game experience we’ve been aiming for.
Currently, our artists are adding lighting-effects to all normal maps, so they look more attractive. We believe beauty to the environment will also stand in contrast to the deadly traps.
And once they finish their work, normal maps won’t undergo any further changes.
Boss Fights
Polishing Boss fights is our top priority.
All Boss fights are currently 100% playable, but whether they are enjoyable or not will always be our question. We are looking into Boss fights in Chapter 3~6, since they are currently too frantic and their surrounding mechanics are difficult to comprehend.
So we are re-designing, adjusting, and playtesting them to deliver the right experience to our players.
Sound Design
Our director and I are in charge of the sound design. We are adding more sound-effects to the game as we speak.
Cinematic Events
Completing our cinematic events is also our goal.
95% of all necessary texts - both English and Korean - are inserted into the game. Our story writer needs to write additional lines for the ending and extra scenes.
Some animations and visual effects are also not playing in the right place.
Reviewing our events is a moderate amount of work, so we’ll need at least a month to finish this.
Bug Fixes and Improvements
We are also attempting to get rid of the bugs and add improvements to the game. We’ve been recording and listing bugs on our Trello board.
Optimization
And finally, optimization. I’ve been tracking maps with low frame-rates and working with our programmer to reduce the symptoms.
Based on what I wrote so far, I’m cautiously expecting our game to be released in March or April. However, this is my expectation, and the others in the team may have a different opinion.
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Closing
That’s it for today!
We’ll let you know if something interesting occurs during the end of our development.
Thanks for reading!