August: events month

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[quote userid="14" name="Roel"]This update was posted on [url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/senileteam/intrepid-izzy-pc-dreamcast-ps4/posts/2603109]Kickstarter[/url] already, but I almost forgot to replicate it here. I tend to pour my full attention into development rather than talking about it. My focus has too much focus! Anyway, here are some words about what was done in August.

[b]The war on bugs[/b]
Just like last month, about 40 bugs were squashed this August. That may seem like a big or a small number depending on your point of view. By our own standards, it's quite big. The reason is of course that this game is significantly larger and more complex than our previous projects. But fortunately this is nothing we can't manage, and the end of the list is in sight.

Some of the more interesting recent fixes include:
[list]
[*] The save and load system has been completely revised to prevent any loss of gathered items or hearts. And we're happy to report everything is working well. By taking such a thorough approach, it doesn't just work better, but also more efficiently.
[*] While the arcade machines required that Izzy had coins in her pocket, they didn't actually cost any coins to play. Now they do. :)
[*] The Dreamcast version ran out of memory. By making some smart changes and reducing the sound effects quality from insanely high to still unnecessarily high, the RAM usage was improved and the Dreamcast version once again works, well, like a dream.
[/list]

[b]Dreamcast-related improvements[/b]
[list]
[*] There is now an option for letterboxed widescreen.
[*] Further improved colour palettes make the DC version look amazingly close to the HD version.
[*] Sound effects now load 8x faster, which greatly reduces the initial startup time.
[/list]

[img]att:209499[/img]
[font color="#808080"][i]This is what Awesometown looks like on Dreamcast[/i][/font]

[b]Other Improvements[/b]
Many changes were made to improve the game experience in general. Checkpoint behaviour is more intuitive, level layouts were tweaked, menu options were added, code was optimised... But because such things are difficult to capture in a screenshot, instead here's a gif of Izzy taking a ninja by surprise:

[img]att:209501[/img]

[b]Conventions[/b]
Thanks to our friends at Retrospiel - one of our biggest supporters and backers - a demo of Intrepid Izzy and other cool retro games were playable at the GamesCom in Cologne, Germany. And they made a video!
[video]http://www.youtube.com/v/gqfi-F_nE2Y[/video]

Additionally, on 31 August we (well, 3/4 of us) were personally present at the [url="https://www.dordtsematsuri.nl/"]Dordtse Matsuri[/url] (Japanese festival) in Dordrecht, The Netherlands to show off our work. We had a relatively large amount of space at our disposal, making this our biggest setup yet (although it is of course still dwarfed by Retrospiel's).

[img]att:209500[/img][/quote]

Happy