Hello everyone! Just thought it’s been about a month since the last update so I should fill everyone in on what’s been going on down on the Dino-Farm.
Updated Hud!
This past month, Blake finally finished the updated (final) HUD artwork. There will still be little effects and stuff, as well as icons on abilities, text on top, etc – but for the most part, this is the HUD! It’s probably the 20th major overhaul since we really started back in late 2011.
Also, you can see the timid King Omiron there on the top right. Let us know what you think of this art!
Device Testing!
The other big news is that we’ve been testing the game on devices now. Up until recently, we were exporting the game only to Flash, where it could be easily accessed on the web. This made testing super easy and efficient, which is great. However, AURO is not designed to be a Flash game, it’s a mobile game! So, Andrew has been working really hard on getting the game working on both iOS and Android – which is supposed to be super-easy with Haxe, the language AURO is coded in. It’s certainly far easier than having to re-code the game from scratch (which is what Wes Paugh, the Fusion Reactions coder behind 100 Rogues has had to do to get that game on OUYA / Android), but it’s still been pretty bumpy.
But the game is now almost totally playable and smooth on both my iPad 2 and my Droid 3 phone. It’s great to see the game on the devices, and finally get to test some of the UI theory stuff out, such as “you never have to click on an individual tile, only the 6 directional quadrants” UI design rule. The game really feels good to play – I personally cannot wait to be able to just play it without worrying about little bugs and balance issues.
What’s Next?
We’re going to be starting another big round of testing – perhaps Beta Phase 3 – in about a week or so. We’ll be sending out some invites at that time to people with iOS and Android devices. Particularly on the Android front – since there are so many different kinds of hardware – we’re going to need some rigorous testing. So, that’s just what we’ll do.
We’re still shooting for a May 1 release date, which, as far as I can tell, should be doable. Stay tuned for more!
