Progress Report

Greetings, everyone!

This is one of those weeks where it's hard to constructively present the fruits of my labor. It's been all about the interface for the deck builder (again), but this time I've been taking it from the theoretical stage to a practical one. The mockup has been finalized ("finalized" for this part of the development, anyway). It is ready to put into the game, but it's not actually in there yet.

These early days of Supermodel feel weird to me after more than five years of nearly daily work in Daz Studio. I barely touch Daz these days since all the focus is on design and programming, not 3D graphics. I'll get back to it eventually, though, and I'm looking forward to that. For now, however, my eyes are set entirely on wrapping up the card game so we can get into the Visual Novel aspect properly.

One of the coolest things I can do at this point is to design cards. I don't do this often, but I frequently think about it. If I get a good idea, I write it down right away. So far, one of my biggest challenges has been coming up with Model cards for the new character you will photograph in version 2.0 of Snapshot. As you will know if you have played Snapshot already, Vanguard's Model cards are memorable and, occasionally, dreadful. I want that same experience with the other character without repeating myself. Creating something with a similar impact to Immovable without just being a copy of it was one of the biggest hurdles. 

I finally came up with an idea that blew my socks off, though. Best of all, it fits the theme of the new character perfectly. It's the kind of card that is potentially very powerful but also highly unpredictable and dangerous, forcing you to urgently deal with it whenever it shows up. I want you to feel a sense of dread and despair the first time you draw it while also letting it serve as a gateway to more advanced strategies. 

Coming up with ideas like these is incredibly satisfying for a game developer. It's part of the reason why I went with the collectible card game approach for Supermodel in the first place. Seeing as the game will likely require me to come up with 150+ cards, at the very least, I'd better enjoy every second of it.

Until next time!