Box Art
As we are moving closer and closer to completing the development of Intrepid Izzy, we have started work on the design of the physical packaging of the Dreamcast version.

The game will include a reversible cover with one side showing the Japanese version, and the other side the US layout. A sketch of the cover art is shown below. As you can see there is still some work to be done. Colouring and such



We're also working on the manual, which will be a beautiful full colour affair.




Level Me Tender
You may remember that there is one level which we're not giving you spoilers for in these Kickstarter updates. Well, we're still not giving away spoilers, but we can tell you that the level - including music - has been completed!

The mine cart ride in the Chocolate Mines level has also been improved. Previously it was very easy to complete this stage by simply employing the duck & cover method. But those days are long gone, my friend. Now you will have to collect sufficient crystals during the mine ride to activate a magic bridge in order to cross the abyss and prevent a certain and gruesome death. Sounds cosy, right? 




Itemvaganza
We noticed that the inventory screen was causing navigation trouble, so it is being redesigned with a vertical layout now. This also gives us more space for text.




Bug slayin'
This month has also seen plenty of bug fixes (more than 20 as a matter of fact).

Amongst them was a Z-sorting problem on the Dreamcast. All sprites have X, Y, and Z coordinates, just like in a 3D game. The X and Y positions control where the sprite appears on screen, while the Z coordinate controls the order in which the sprites are drawn, and thus, which sprite will be in front of which. Some sprites had the same Z coordinate, which caused some flickering and other odd effects while sprites were fighting over who got to be in front.

The PC and PS4 have more than enough processing power to remedy this in software, by use of a simple sorting function. For the Dreamcast this was not an option. The solution was to strictly assign a different Z to every graphic on screen. This involved carefully determining the range of Z values for all several dozen groups of graphics (backgrounds, tiles, sprites, particles, etc.) Fortunately, this has solved the issue.

With over 150 bugs (and other issues) remedied over the last few months, we are happy to report that there are no major ones left.