Introduction
Developing for the Amiga since the Commodore crash has been
a nerve racking and emotional rollacosta ride and Bloodline
has been through all of it!
It
is important to remember while reading this that all of the
people who have worked or is working on Bloodline had or have
other real-life commitments like school / college / university
or work, or in some cases both. These elements always came first
as people rely upon them for their future more so than the project.
Bloodline in some cases came second for the developers. In no
way was this a bad thing, never would I allow someone to jeopardise
their educational, work or family for the sake of Bloodline
which started out and still has the feel of a semi-professional
hobby. Exams are important as is bringing in money to pay the
mortgage every month...but then we are Amigan's and we all now
and have probably experienced that in some form or another :)
The large gaps you may notice from conception date to present
day in my diary include those "time-out" periods for
exams and other commitments. This diary is taken from my point
of view in the design process and then the management element,
the full diary of everything everybody who has or is working
on Bloodline would probably fully a bookshelf :)
1997
Diary
March
13th 1997
From a discussion that has started on the Blitz Mailing list
it was suggested that the best way to promote the Amiga is to
convert existing PC games. One suggested publishing house to
contact was Blue Byte.
March
28th 1997
Response from BlueByte was positive but following up their e-mails
leads us to believe they will not allow us access to their source
code and gfx. I can understand their worries and was not surprised
by their response.
Next
plan of attack is to create our own titles as high quality shareware
or to produce our own publishing deal to control the advertising,
production and distribution of the product. The latter sounds
better via a third party and the former if we cannot find a
publisher / distributor.
We
are quite a large group, roughly 18 of us, all of us coders
with some of us with limited graphical skills. There is no structure
to the group yet so we're all trying to do things our own way.
Liz Tucker, coder of Blitz Map, has suggested we all go away
and type up our game ideas and come back before the end of the
month where we can all openly judge them and decide upon a game
and style to do.
April
17th 1997
While on train thought up idea for an interactive RPG while
reminiscing about playing games like Chaos Engine, Sword of
Vermilion and Zelda. Like the idea of a top down type action
RPG, retro style well suited for AGA graphics with no need for
powerfully processors or big box Amiga's. Liz already has an
engine in AMOS that uses semi-isometric view point ala Chaos
Engine.
Decided
that game will need a detailed storyline, something like a backbone
to all the adventure, puzzles and characters in the game. Most
Amiga RPGs are something and nothing, either lacking in action
or have too much adventure, neither both. Our game should have
a good balance of the two to cater for all types of players
while not trying to hard to please everyone. It needs to be
original.
Game
will be based upon the world of Ravenstark, an in-depth RPG
I have been designing for a few years. Will take elements of
that storyline and fit them neatly into a separate story. Decided
that main character will be called Dafel (pronounced Dav-ell),
his ex-master Samson and his new master the Priest-King. Decided
to throw in a few twists and turns in the story, also add a
lot of conflicts. Thinking about using religion as the core
of the story, about how people fight over beliefs that are usually
pitiful and shallow.
October
17th 1997
Small demo working. Looks good. We can get a two-thirds full
scrolling area on 320x256 screen on 256 colours with about 4
enemies plus Dafel on the screen at one running about 9-12fps
on 030/50 machine. On my 040 I get 12fps. Put screen shots on
web site and offered demo to publishers to see what will happen.
October
24th 1997
Lots of responses from publishers! Heard that Paul Berkey has
picked up contract with Sadeness for Foundation. After talking
to Paul decided to accept Sadeness offer.
November
6th 1997
Hired another map graphics designer. Lost 3D modeller :(
December
9th 1997
Completed design for Dafel, story now complete. Concentrating
on the detail for levels.
Working
coming in from Ben. A lot of time elapse but not much progress.
I think work is too much for him alone on the animated intro.
Will probably have to cut it back.
