Developer Diary #7

It’s been a while

 

As  you may have noticed it’s been a while since I’ve written about my progress in The Wandering Wizard. The laziness that accompanies Spring Break as well as the distraction of side-projects has conspired to slow my progress a bit. Despite this however I’m happy to say that I’m back on the wagon and have come to somewhat of a milestone tonight.

 

Progress

As of right now I have officially finished 35 levels which includes 20 in the first world and 15 in the second. That means in 5 more levels I will be on to the 3rd and final world!!! Additionally I have written all of the journals for worlds 1 & 2 making a total of 9.

The Story

Since I will be including more levels than originally planned I will also have to include more journals than I originally anticipated. As a result I have gone back and made a few minor revisions to older journals in order to make room for future expansion.

This has forced me to think harder about how I want the story to develop beyond the basic chain of events. My original plan for the story was almost entirely focused on the protagonist’s increasing awareness of his situation and his fate. Little by little he, as well as the player, figures out the nature of the “curse” and what is going on. Now in order to provide potential for more content I am focusing in more on character development.

As the wizard’s awareness of his situation grows so does the spirit’s hold on him. At a certain point you start to see a change in his attitude through the way he describes his situation as well as how he writes about the spirit. Slowly but surely the corruption of the spirit overtakes him and he begins to think less of escape and more of power and revenge.

My plan is for this to all culminate in the final moments of the game where the wizard will come to a point of decision. Will his lust for power and vengeance overcome his morality, or will his true will overcome the darkness and prevail over evil? You will have to wait and see 😉

Plans for the rest of the game

I fully intend to include a third world in The Wandering Wizard. When the wizard reaches the end of the cave he will descend into the underworld which will be the setting of the third and final world.

What I am still unsure of is if this world will have a full 20 levels as it’s predecessors. When it comes to it it may depend on the time that I have as well as what ideas for new mechanics and puzzles I come up with. I basically am considering 2 options

a) I do a full 20 levels

b) I do a shorter amount (i.e. 5) and make them much longer and more difficult levels. This would make it sort of like a “boss world”. I think this solution would be appropriate and would not damage the pace of the game. My only concern is that there will not be enough to adequately introduce and expand on the new spell and new puzzles that I will add.