But, if that lame excuse doesn't cut it for you, you're probably thinking "Lazy Developers?" and rightfully so, but here's the real reason its been taking so long, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Evolution of a Meadow.
Pivot came about in early 2005, the Pivot Stick Figure Animator was all the rage not just at local forums, but all about the internet. I knew someone was going to make a game involving those simple yet elegant characters but I idiotically wanted to be first. Arrogantly I announced it and initially promised it would be some sort of super fun happy "group" project. After everyone realised how crap it was turning out (and the fact little happened due to the fact I'm lazy) the idea fell apart. So, it was just me and Yackemflaber. Soon enough though, Yackemflaber came to his senses and left too. (If you want me to spill the beans about Yackemflaber, don't ask me...ask him)
By now you're probably thinking "Get to the bloody point!", and so I will. Why so long? A number of reasons, engine changes is one thing, the game changed engine over and over. First it was a craptacular little engine that I half arsedly made, with Willy helping me. Next, I attempted using the same engine Mr.Chubigans used for Vivid Conceptions (Piecyk Engine), and finally I settled for a highly modified version of the Fox engine. I looked at the code, I liked what I saw, I especially liked the jumping and collision detection, so I nicked the bits I liked and modified and modified the new code until I was happy. Unfortunately, engine work didn't happen over night, I spent months with the half arsed engine I initally made, many months on the Piecyk engine, and many months finalising the Fox engine, until all that was left, that was recognisable was the collision detection.
"Oh God, you're an idiot. Even that couldn't have taken nearly 3 years..."
You're right, it couldn't. What else changed? Graphics.
I spent a lot of time experimenting, and the large majority of the time it wasn't pretty at all. Lets take the initial stage, the meadow for example. Apparent in every graphics version created.
Late 2005:
First I experimented in Microsoft Paint, making little graphics that were a massive eyesore. "Ouch!" you might say as you look at this. Yeah, it aint pretty!
August 2006:
Next, came some disturbing inspiration from some online stick figure game or something. Also not pretty.
Early 2007:
Then, came the graphics style that changed the game forever. Flash style graphics, simple yet mildly pleasing to the eye.
August 2007:
As you can see, the graphics slowly progressed. Next I added some dumb particle effects. Notice how bad realistic particles look in a cartoon environment.
In the later part of 2007, I lost most of my motivation for Pivot, but once again I won't blame myself and always blame something else, which this time was the Last Eagle. But in 2008 we were back in action, and began to tidy up the game as well as the particles, which now run at a crisp 60FPS. (Even on Pete's computer)
So now, the meadow has been finalised, and I doubt it will change much if at all from now to release, which is hopefully sooner rather then later.
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I'd like to thank Pete for digging up all these old screenshots and helping me along the way, and kindly telling me when what I'm doing sucks.
