Progress on Retrobooster is a whole lot faster now that it’s my full-time job. I have decided to submit it to IGF and IGC, so work is currently focused on all the pieces that will make for the best submission. More specifically, I am making the most progress on early levels, the tutorial, menu screens, and menu art, and I am refining every little detail that bugs me. It’s great to have intermediate goals like these competitions to work toward.
Some big tasks remaining are in-house playtesting and a bit of repackaging so the game feels fairly complete even with a limited number of levels. The testing should provide some good feedback on the current state of the game, and I can use it to make a few final improvments before submissions are due.
I have also been refining this website a tiny bit at a time. One reader, Mayur, sent in a bunch of ideas for Retrobooster and the website, including suggesting this archive page. Thanks, Mayur. (Yay! This blog actually has readers!)
This morning I got another request from someone who wants to be a beta tester, which is just awesome. For anyone who is interested, I haven’t decided if there will be any kind of public beta for the whole game, but I definitely plan to release a playable demo with three or four levels. Preparing a demo and making a submission to IGF and IGC requires mostly the same work, so a demo should be feasible in the not-too-distant future. After that, I will be gratefully accepting feedback on the demo from anyone who wants to give it, and I will probably update the demo as development proceeds.
That’s exciting! Good luck in the competitions/festivals. I can’t wait to try out the new weapons.
Also, I love seeing progress videos…
Point taken 😉 I’ll have to keep making random videos. And IGC requires a short video as part of the submission, so maybe something will come of that.
Hi there, i just came across this site looking for screen savers, which are awesome btw, but also stumbled across Retrobooster. was wondering if there was a kickstarter or playable development build? Game looks fun and good looking!
EDIT
I answered the demo question by finishing reading the blog hehehe
Hi Kyle,
I’m inching closer to a playable demo, but it will probably still be several weeks. It will be great to get your feedback on it once I get one out.
I would be happy to beta it too.
Great! I can’t wait to hear what you think about it.