Hello and welcome to a Frog Blog... its been a while since I wrote a Frog Blog for Amazing Frog? particularly for Quest for the Magical Mystery Toilet.
I wanted to let you know what we had been working on and that Amazing Frog? QMMT part 4 will be available very soon.
Its going to be a pretty big Update. Hal, Georgina and I played using Steam Remote Play for a few hours and I recorded it. Then we edited it down to some "Raw Gameplay videos" which I think give a rough idea of the scope of the coming update.
This first "RAW Gameplay" is from Swindonshire
In Swindonshire
So since the last update we have been flooding Swindonshire with a bunch of content and new areas. Also Hal has been making improvements throughout the world. What we are aiming for is a more complete and populated Swindonshire, so exploration is fun.
Trains - (In Next Update)
It had seemed important to have trains in Swindonshire for some time now. Thanks to Hal's ingenuity he can now integrate train tracks to the terrains. (you may notice some improvements in the roads in general)
The Farm - (In Next Update)
There be a farm out there somewhere and maybe some pigs live there.
Tractors are a lot of fun actually.
Having a Farm is more than cosmetic. There are things we are working on for QMMT that need a farm... or a bank or whatever. When I am asked what the berrys or mushrooms do and whats the point of collecting them... well hopefully it will all begin to make sense.
The Army Base - (In Next Update)
We have been working on some Army stuff... I guess you can imagine how that will pan out...
I mean Tanks ... yeah they still need some tweaking and some wierd things can happen...
Also, we are all agreed here that the Army Helicopter needs a machine gun...
Frog Life
Frog Life Keeps progressing. With all these new archetypes of Frog Life(or non life) Zombies, Army, Farmer, skeleton etc...etc we have been trying to refine their characteristics, motivations and stimulae and I try and find as much time as i can to push our wierd frog AI a bit further each time. All so we can get more enjoyment out of the NPC Frogs. As part of this process we have been trying to make it easier to create and manage different archetypes. (I hope one day as a player you can make and share your types of Frog Life) So we'll see how this develops.
The Party Mode Beta? - (In Next Update)
This other 'RAW Gameplay' video is us playing 'Free Play' mode in our new revision of the Party Mode Beta.
In the new "Party Mode Beta", Initially we'll be making the "Free Play" mode available, but we have many more modes in development that you will be able to use through 'Remote play' or even play in the same space... you know like on a sofa. Also some Modes in Party Mode, including 'Free Play', will also be open as single player as well.
To give an idea, the mode names we are working with right now (and I hope they are self explanitory) are :
- Free Play (In Next Update)
- Crown Capture (SOON)
- Survival (SOON)
- Last Frog Standing (SOON)
- Deathmatch(+Team Deathmatch)(SOON)
- Balloon Burst(Working Title)
- Bomb Tag(Working Title)
There are going to be more and I wouldn't limit us to those working titles. We are aiming to give as much variation as possible.
There are a whole bunch of new party mode worlds coming too.
Party !
The scope for Party Mode is huge. We can experiment and develop all kinds of modes without destabalizing Swindonshire and the moon etc. Some modes could be based entirely on vehicles or odd scenarios. We're excited.
Being Green can help -
Spot the Frog
Development - So things have been getting tougher more recently.
Its no secret that we bit of more than we can chew by adding in a lot of content, (especially Party Mode Beta)- but we have also been trying to leave Early Access. Its silly having Amazing Frog? and Amazing Frog?2 both in Early access.
Leaving Early Access for us means hitting Amazing Frog? with a stamp of approval saying "we think its ready".
We need to get Amazing Frog? to a more well produced and refined state . This will not mean we are done working on Amazing Frog? we have a lot more to come after we leave Early Access. But at the point we leave Early Access we are also saying that Amazing Frog? is ready for the console versions which we have been very active in working on too. Over the past year we have made signifiate progress on Switch which I think is the hardest one.
Giving Amazing Frog? this "stamp of approval" adds up to a lot of different things, ranging from User Interface, such as on screen help to encourage first time players to hit the stand button when they think the game is broken as they watch the frog flop around in the hideout. To managing how content is loaded and saved in a more professional manner or run time management code running on sperate threads so we don't get code churning and what of percieved as "lag" when you go between active zones.
Its difficult having to focus on all this boring stuff , when all in all I just want to add time controls or a massive blob monster and online multiplayer. A daily dilemma... Then I remember - these things can continue to happen after we leave Early Access any way.
So stand by - QMMT part 4 is almost ready and will contain a proper Beta of Party Mode, Army Frogs, Tanks, Jeeps, Zombie Apocalypse, aliens and whole bunch of stuff.
Most importantly it will begin wave of rapidly successive updates for Amazing Frog? QMMT as we enter the summer and hopefully leave Early Access
...finally.