It’s in BETA*.

* lots of exciting, actual information to come soon.  Watch this space.

Thanks for all the kind comments on the previous entry, despite its total lack of information!

I really would love to write more on the blog at the moment, but I figure everyone would probably be happiest if I focussed fully on getting the game finished, and spoiling as little details as possible.

The endings, the new intro section, the little tweaks to gameplay here and there, are progressing well.  If you’ve been following my twitter you’ll have some idea of what I’ve been actually doing, but I think for the most part I’m happy keeping any more details a mystery at this point.

I can say this – I really feel the game is taking overall shape now, in the editing phase. And each day brings improvements, rather than additional content, which is actually really satisfying to watch.  It’s the part of a big project I enjoy the most, when the end’s in sight, and the worst bits are over (which were slightly before the end), and you’re just going back over things with a fine tooth-comb and polishing them until they shine (hopefully!)

I’m now happy with the story itself, which has been the hardest part (or rather, what of the story I reveal to the player, in each path.)  It’s taken several years to come to this point, and a fair share of angst, but I feel comfortable to let it out there in the sense that it is close enough to what I wanted to achieve.  In some ways, seeing it as a complete interactive work for the first time has made me feel that I’ve managed to do a few things I didn’t even set out to do with the story, but sort of happen as a result of the mechanics.  I’m being vague here, I know… I have to try hard to contain the urge to share my interpretation of the narrative, as soon it will be in the world, and everyone else’s will be equally valid.

I’m getting really close to finishing now, it really might be done in the next couple of weeks, and onto a short period of beta testing.  As we we enter that stage, I’ll be announcing the actual launch date and pricing (it probably won’t be February at this point.)

I’ll be contacting various distributors soon, as well as the press, making a new trailer, setting up a new site for the game, and overhauling this sorry place, especially the frontpage (if I even keep it.)  I know Soul Brother is still listed as ‘unfinished’…  Sorry about that!

Anyway, I’ll try to write again next week, even if it’s brief.  I may even have some more detail about the launch date then.

Slight hiccup today as I managed to lose two months’ backup of my music and graphics, my HD suddenly failed and I realised I hadn’t backed up for much longer than usual (Lone Survivor itself is safe, don’t worry!)  But this means I will be lucky if I’m able to put the Lone Survivor OST together after the game, as I think quite a few critical files (including the uncompressed masters) have been lost.  I also lost another couple of game prototypes I’d been working on over New Year and some art for those, and other mockups.  I should be back up and running in a day or two, providing the new HD is not DOA (machines like to die when I’m near them.)  It’s a bad blow at this point, but I suppose I’m just glad LS is safe, even if the soundtrack album has to be sacrificed.  I’m going to look into some kind of incremental backup, because I currently just clone my drives, but it scares me that you have to wipe them before updating the backup…

Amyway, now begins the final crunch, so wish me luck, and that no other mechanical failures occur etc!