Well it's been just over 3 weeks since the last update and some stuff has been occuring - most notably was the feedback from that last trailer. Gametrailers picked it up only 1 day after uploading to my site O__o. Thems getting quicker!
One of the biggest changes in the last 4 weeks at least has been the subtle dropping of pure pixel art, and I've gone through a whole load of backdrops and actives adding AA and tweaking larger objects in Photoshop. The game already had a lot of gradients and transparency effects before so it was never truly "pure" pixel anyroad. It all falls down to wanting to produce a DS/PS1 style adventure game rather than a SNES one and wanting the best visual experience I can offer in a low resolution.
So in bullet point fashion.
• Boss 5 is 100% complete. Which brings us to the halfway point as far as they're concerned.
• Finally got round to adding in enemies to fill them there caves. The difficult part is coming up with something new and breaking from tradition. I want to have nightmares and make them real.
• Weapons have been balanced. Melee is still the weakest and each weapon upgrade jumps up 50% in damage from before. There are 5 tiers of weapons.
• I've also enlisted the help of a certain Biax as a portrait artist. You may or may not remember him from the dinosaur days, doesn't visit here at all but is the artist behind Titan Exodus 2 and other beautiful games.
His blog (and some sketches) be here http://deathbydev.blogspot.com/
• Gone is my wubbish Lost-style title song as MrPineapple has whipped up an awesome theme using various songs from the game. http://satansam.co.uk/ftp/tormititle.ogg (1.9mb)
• The wee monkey mouse is about to get an AI boost as well. His code is probably the oldest remaining. I mean it gets the job done but it is too relentless. In the next big update it'll have a range of behaviours and generally be a lot more useful to matters other than combat.
• Along with new enemies I'm also going through adding in more puzzles and secrets.
• The full soundtrack is currently at 60 tracks, with tracks between 1-3 minutes in length. It's fairly musical. And so far only tracks up to Chapter 2 have been finished, there's another 3 chapters to go.
• A lot of the earlier non-cave areas are being redesigned to use tiles which makes them a lot easier to edit and to just make them look better. The cycle is to play through the game and look over the map and fix the areas I feel have the weakest design or art, or whatever since I've learnt new stuffs since starting this project up.
It's all going quite swimmingly. Apart from the constant fixing and testing, in the last 2 weeks I've had to send out 9 new betas to get the game all ship shaped for publishers... 9! I tend to make bugs as I fix others me in a weird way bug fixings fun. Like mini victories along the way.
I don't know how I feel about that music, though. It sounds bad but it doesn't sound bad. It sounds good but it doesn't sound good. It's like... It definitely sounds artificially made. Some parts its more noticeable and hence worse. I don't expect it to sound like a professional orchestra, but it almost sounds like it was slapped together in 5 minutes without refining it along the way.
You're probably not getting critisism because you really don't need it. You're really good at music, I don't see any reason to critisize. I mean unless you want critisism, that is. Comment edited by ωξяξW○○F on 2/10/2009
Synths are only bad when there's more work to be done on their sound. Besides, if I wasn't a fan of synths, then all of Jeremy Soule's music would be repulsive! Yes he uses orchestral stuff, but it's all made digitally, synthetically. Not necessarily by a synthesizer, though.
Some of them Logic tracks are in Tormi though, since they were made for Madventures of the Love Rockets (if anyone remembers that ).
I'm using Logic myself but I've little clue how to really us it.
Is this game now as big as WoW or something? And do you honestly think so many tracks are needed, or that people will appreciate them as much as you'd like? I'd rather listen to around 5-10 decent, memorable tracks. It's quality over quantity: Satan Sam had 100 or so levels (supposedly) yet very few people in the community ever got far or wanted to.
I guess I'm trying to say the biggest isn't always the best, nor the most epic.
Castlevania Order of Ecclesia has 54 tracks, Brawl has 314 tracks, Pokemon Ruby has 111 tracks, Pearl has 148 tracks, Twilight Princess has 128 tracks, Mario Galaxy (best OST ever) has 62 tracks, Rayman has 50 tracks, Spirit Engine 2 has 101 tracks (IIRC). Even F-Zero has 82 tracks, Mario Kart Wii has 50 tracks!
I think thats the main thing, doesn't matter if its not the best game in the world and as long your enjoying your own game. At least it will be a greatly useful learning experience in the end.
Absolutely. I've taught myself so much through this that it doesn't matter if all the backups explode. It got me a job so I can't complain.
So long as the graphic sheets and music survive, though
"Satan Sam had 100 or so levels (supposedly) yet very few people in the community ever got far or wanted to.
I guess I'm trying to say the biggest isn't always the best, nor the most epic."
What it sounds like to me is that you don't like long games and haven't aquired the patience to play them to the end. I enjoy(GOOD) long games like Dungeon Siege, KH, KOTOR, Satan Sam, and soon to be Tormishire. All of those are quality AND quantity. If you're complaining about quality over quantity then I wouldn't be surprised if you disliked most large games.
Adam has already stated a few times he generally prefers small games, but... big games don't always spread quality thin anyway, you wont always find longer games have less quality.
I'm sure james learnt a few things from new Satam sam in that respect. (i got bored after about 4 levels :S)
Also James finish the damn game already would you?
Not really, I like big games just as much, but only if they're big because they have reason to be. Statistics such as "The full soundtrack is currently at 60 tracks" don't impress me anymore.
Not just myself, but others, "dearest". I just hope you've re-evaluated those falling red particles and not lengthened this game by making it virtually impossible to complete in parts
And if you'd like to go over the soundtrack thing again (that comment really caught you didn't it )
The reason why there are now so many tracks is each area has its own song, a way of making each area feel different where a visual change isn't required. It's simply a congnitive effect. Every cutscene has a different song to match the mood as we see fit, every boss fight (8/60 of those tracks are boss ones) has a different song. Just so I don't end up repeating tracks, which is as cheap as recolouring sprites to make different enemies I find.
But seriously if any of these "others" feel like I'm trying to impress them I'm sorry. These numbers are just a way of recording progress just as much as 5/10 bosses are done etc.
"Also James finish the damn game already would you?"
Hang in there, Andy. A good indie game takes time.
"I just hope you've re-evaluated those falling red particles and not lengthened this game by making it virtually impossible to complete in parts"
That's what makes it interesting as a game. No pain no gain.
And I think 60 tracks are just fine. Suiting the mood for different areas seems fair. Besides, it increases the total worth of the game. The price and the ratings. On IGN I wouldn't be surprised if it got at least 9 stars.
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Dr. James MD 
in a weird way bug fixings fun. Like mini victories along the way.
I had to convert it Mp3 Because Window Media Player can't read Ogg. No prob tho.
I love Synthisizers Btw. Always wanted one. Somehow I ended up with a drumset. 
I really need something to record my music.
for shame liam, how could you!
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