My last post here was exactly one year ago. It’s been far too long, but better later than never. The good news is that I’m still alive and well, as are all the collaborators of the Captain Dynamite demo. The bad news is that very little progress has been made in the past year. My fault, nobody else’s — the script is still incomplete, and I need to finish it before we can proceed. But it’s on the agenda, and I plan to finish writing before the end of the year. Once that’s done, I hope to get the gang back together and start ramping up production. I’ll start posting again once there’s news to share. Until then, for anyone who reads this, have a happy holiday season!

Excited to play Captain Dynamite and the Fallen Hero but don’t want to wait until 2012?  Now you don’t have to!  The Windows PC demo is now available from www.captaindynamite.com.  It includes the first quarter of the game. Here are a few details about the build:

• Requires Windows XP or later.
• Requires DirectX 9.0c or later and XNA Framework 4.0.  The installer will detect whether you have these and help install them if needed.
• Can be played with the keyboard or an Xbox 360 controller.
• Alternate keyboard controls can be set from the Help & Options menu.
• If your system has audio lag, you can calibrate the game’s audio from the Help & Options menu.
• The game has some stereo effects and is even more enjoyable with headphones.
• It does not run well on VMware Fusion (virtual Windows environment for Mac), so if that’s your only option, you’re better off skipping the demo. Sorry!

 
I hope some of you check the build out and enjoy it!  And if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask… leave a comment, tweet, email, whatever!

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, so I figured it’s high time for a status update. Last month, I submitted Captain Dynamite and the Fallen Hero to the Independent Games Festival (IGF) 2012 competition, which is essentially the game industry’s equivalent of the Sundance Film Festival. Finalists get a lot of exposure and winners get a cash prize, so there’s a lot of potential good to come from it.

I submitted last year to no avail, but this year’s build is a much stronger candidate, with lots of improvements and new features. However, the competition is even fiercer this year, with the most entries ever (568!) and many amazing games within that. It’s definitely a long shot, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Finalists will be announced in January.

Development of Captain Dynamite and the Fallen Hero was supposed to be done back in the spring.  That was the initial plan, at least.  But I was a big slacker for the first few months of the year and did next to nothing on the project, so I delayed the release to this fall.  And now, I need to delay again, to the first quarter of 2012.  But at least this time it’s for a better reason.

Composer Chad Seiter has an amazing opportunity — arranging the Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony — and it’s going to keep him booked for the next few months.  He won’t be able to focus on Captain Dynamite until late this year.

Chad was ready in the spring and would have composed the rest of the game then if I had been ready for him.  But I wasn’t ready, and he had to wait on my account.  So, this delay truly is my doing.  If any of you were anxiously awaiting a fall release, please accept my apologies!  It will be done eventually… just hang in there. 

But, this is where we are now, and we’ll make the best of it.  Luckily, there is some good news too…

• Before the delay, my schedule to finish the script, record the VO, and edit the scenes together was very tight.  It was feasible (just barely!), and I’m confident I would have gotten it done on time, but there would have been little time for iteration and polish.  Now that the schedule is more relaxed, I can take a bit more time on each of these aspects, which will surely improve the quality across the board.
• I’ll be able to start sooner on porting the game to the PC.  I plan to release a PC version of the existing demo sometime in September, to help tide fans over until the full game is done.
• In the few days since I’ve found out about this, I’ve come up with the concept for my next audio game.  I wouldn’t have come up with this idea otherwise, and I think it’ll be a fun game that people will really like.  I’ll give more details on this later!

And even with the delay, I’ll still have lots of interesting info to share over the next few months.  So please keep an eye on our progress!

Thought I’d share a fun scene from the Captain Dynamite and the Fallen Hero Chapter 3 script. Don’t worry, no major spoilers here. Enjoy!

[flash to the press conference]

CEO
Good morning everyone, and welcome! I’m Gavin Winters, CEO of CrispyFizz — everyone’s favorite snack and beverage company. We called this press conference to make a very special announcement. As you all know, the economy is down, the police force has been drastically cut, and crime is on the rise. We need heroes now more than ever, and CrispyFizz is proud to help answer the call by becoming the official corporate sponsor of Captain Dynamite! Captain, please step forward and say a few words.

DYNAMITE
(forced politeness) Hello, everybody. It’s always been a great honor to serve those who need our help… And of course, we’d like to thank CrispyFizz… for their support. (awkward pause)

MIGHTY
It’s easier to fight crime when you can afford to pay the bills!

[crowd laughs]

CEO
Thank you, Captain Dynamite. And his sidekick Guy Mighty as well! Since CrispyFizz is helping them fight crime, they’re returning the favor by helping us fight hunger and thirst! And look, who’s coming this way?

[drumroll]

CEO
(over the top) Oh, no! The Hunger and Thirst Bandits are here!

HUNGER BANDIT
Mwa ha ha ha! We will rule this city, by making you all very hungry…

THIRST BANDIT
…and thirsty! We have only one weakness, but we’ll never tell what it is!

DYNAMITE
(under his breath) You have GOT to be kidding me…

DATAGIRL (RADIO)
Dynamite! Don’t screw this up, you hear me?!?

CEO
Can you save us, Captain Dynamite?

DYNAMITE
(reluctant) Uh… of course. By the power of… CrispyFizz, we will defeat the bandits.

MIGHTY
Yeah! You guys are going down!

[crowd cheers]

HUNGER BANDIT
(whispering) Please don’t hurt us! We’re only actors!

DYNAMITE
(whispering, really annoyed) What did you expect, a chess match? Look, we’ll go easy on you, but they’re obviously expecting a show. So come on, attack us. (pause) Do it!

Now that I’m getting into Twitter, I plan to tweet at least once every weekday about Captain Dynamite and the Fallen Hero. I’ll share status updates, development facts, game info, and any other interesting tidbits that can be squeezed into 140 characters. If you want to hear about anything in particular, let me know!

Invisible Games’s online communication is up and running! We have this blog and its informative new About page, our Facebook page, our Twitter account, and last but not least, our YouTube channel!

There will be more posts soon, but in the meantime, if you like what you see, please consider liking, following, or subscribing! Thanks!