Feb
12
Written by:
Jashan Chittesh
2011-02-12T15:39:48
This morning, I showed a friend the new iPad version of Traces of Illumination, and he mentioned that Bullet Time kind of had not so nice associations. Well, it does have pretty nice associations with The Matrix which is really where I took that name from. On the other hand, the idea behind Traces of Illumination is really move away from some of the violence commonly associated with games, and bullets don't fit in there too well. Interestingly, the way Bullet Time is implemented in the game visually, it does resemble some sort of psychedelic episode or dream much more than it does resemble actual Bullet Time. The only thing in common is that time slows down.
So this will be called Dream Time instead in the future. One nice thing about this is that this will also translate much easier to German (and hopefully also other languages). Once nasty thing is that I got the Bullet Time powerup prominently in some of the screenshots I'm using a lot (for game icons, splash screens, play buttons and the like. So this is a pretty expensive change. But I feel it's important enough to jump through this hoop.
Another, much less severe change is that I'll probably rename the level Saviors' Attack to Saviors, Beware! The rationale behind this change is that while the Savior in that level will very likely use shooting a lot (oh well ;-) ) to protect his team mates from their own walls (which was a funny twist with the "Attack" name), the theme I'd like to hint at with this level is one of the really big traps on the spiritual path: Trying to become a savior. That's really not what anyone is here for. Trying to save people may be fine in some situations (like kids walking carelessly on a street with lots of cars) - but spiritual awakening is all about reclaiming one's own power, and in that context, trying to "save" someone equals taking their power away ... which is the opposite of what anyone needs.
So I'll state this quite explicitly: We really do not need any (new) Messiahs. What we need instead is individuals empowering themselves and following their bliss which is naturally guiding us according to what the world really needs. And fulfilling an actual, true need has not much in common with trying to save someone - it has much more to do with effortlessly allowing the light of the inner sun to shine through. Without expectations. Again: Without effort. So, the new name has much meaning: It's a call to the "savior" in the level to watch out for his team-mates but it's also a warning to beware of saviors, and finally it's a reminder to not fall into the "savior trap" oneself.
Well ... I guess I'll rather return to more mundane stuff:
The GUI of Traces of Illumination has been one of its really weak points for quite some time. It was a fun learning experience for me in using UnityGUI - but the first question most test players ask when they first start up the game is "um ... what should I do now?" ... that question tells me: The GUI just sucks big time. And even worse: While on the iPad, it still kind of works - on the iPhone 4, even when you know what you're supposed to do, it's completely unusable. Too much stuff in too little space. Besides: It creates around 40 to 50 draw calls most of the time. To sum it up: It sucks on all levels.
Now here comes one thing I really love about creating games:
... in the next posting ;-)
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