Sear DevBlog week of 3/24: Eyes on the prize

Needle is one of the two player vehicles in the prototype. It's the side view that sold me. Thing looks like a Cadillac - just goes on and on.

The goal right now is to get a prototype finished that showcases Sear's central design mechanic, a mechanic I'm hoping to announce in detail next week when I have a bit more to show along with it. (It's a tough one to explain, but an easy one to demonstrate.)

For the prototype to be successful, it has to: 1) Demonstrate this mechanic in an exciting and intriguing way, 2) Be playable and enjoyable in every other sense, and 3) Have as few bugs as humanly possible. Everything else is extraneous.

I had to re-focus on that goal a bit this week.

It would be very easy for this project to fail due to bloat. We've got a small team, a small budget, and a short timeline. Obviously I want to incorporate every idea from the vision - Sear should be flashy and gorgeous - but this week proved that down that path lies madness. It's not that there is anything on the list we can't do; it's a question of whether we are going to have the time to figure out how to do it.

This week saw some re-prioritization and some tough calls about which elements are absolutely critical for the prototype release and which could be pushed out to Early Access development.

It's a tough call, because the prettier the prototype is, the more people will be impressed with it and hopefully the more successful the KS will be. But until all the core functionality is finished, any time we spend on flash jeopardizes the overall success of the project. If we are working on an extraneous UI element, for example, and end up spinning our wheels (no pun intended) for a couple days trying to get it working the way we envision, that time comes directly out of core functionality dev time. When core functionality is being developed, we will hit the same periodic snags, so we need to make sure time remains in the schedule for those snags - the really important ones - to be ironed out.

The tricky part is when those extraneous bits creep in on core functionality development. They are sneaky that way! One hour you're working on core UI needs, and the next you're trying really hard to get this one specific thing working this one specific way, and if you're not careful, that hour turns into four or twelve.

Eyes on the prize.

Update-wise, here's what we got:

• The first iteration of the drift functionality is now in live development. It doesn't feel right yet, but it's a start.

• The UI continues to come along. The element I was talking about nearly finishing last week is the one that threw us some curveballs this week. If you asked me on Friday, I would've said it was an hour or two from completion. I have since spent about ten hours on it. It's a tricky bastard, but I've realized we don't need every single piece of it to get the prototype out the door. As long as the base functionality is there, the rest can wait.

• Modeling on the final 3D asset for Needle, one of the player vehicles, started mid-week. And I'm expecting my first "beauty shot" from the concept art today or over the weekend, which will be wonderful to share.

• Title Screen map is loaded into the project, and Results screen drafts are underway.

• Music pause functionality (both slightly trickier and more important than you might imagine) is finished and tested.

• Significant progress was made on the Sear logo. Hoping to share that one next week as well.

Lot of balls in the air, but better there than on the ground!