Hi everyone! I'm the lead artist at Max and Haley. Now that I've got my forum account working (mostly thanks to Promit ) I'll be posting concept art and insights from my side of the project. I can't say it'll be as intriguing as DFJS or Promit's stories, but I hope you enjoy them all the same Feel free to ask anything about the art.
I did play it. I enjoy it, but the boost button is on the wrong side for me. I can control the dolphin well with my left hand, but then I can't boost without lifting my hand and losing steering.
One of our beta testers also mentioned this. It's the first update on our list, so expect a lefty version in 3-4 weeks
We'll see, but it's something I focused on in the final stage of development. Obviously more content equals a bigger game, but I've been very aggressive about file size management, and I think it shows with the current version being 71 MB. We all know there's not a lot of games, let alone 3D games, anywhere near that size. To put some concrete numbers behind it - the data for the three cetaceans is about 1 MB each, including model and texture. Same for the sharks. Fish are a bit smaller due to lower texture resolution. Our really big files are music (4-6 MB, four tracks right now) and backgrounds - especially the night scene which clocks in at 8 MB. I'm going to be working on some ideas to keep the file size down. We had developed, at one point, a fairly elaborate adventure concept. It had echoes of Ecco But with much more of our approach and ideas, rather than a generic underwater adventure thing. Ultimately we decided that mobile just wasn't the right audience or venue for that style of game. We've discussed creating that sort of game for PSN, but we'll see what the future brings.
What do you mean remember it? It's on the App Store I've got it on my older iPod. The only minor complaint is the camera doesn't keep up with the dolphin at speed. This, not Ecco.
It's lefty now. I always steer with my left hand it's how it's always been done. Not having a go, just an observation.
Wow! The videos are amazing, especially the black tipped sharks. My buy finger went crazy and am downloading as we speak. Thanks
oh wow, that was unexpected. A current pulled me into a cove and I just got speared by a Japanese fisherman. Looks like I've been relabeled as something other than "dolphin" and sold as sushi. The Japanese fishermen are hard to beat. I suspect I'll have to do a jump-lunge out of the water to take him down. It's the gold sushi card. I am loving this game.
Figured it out I think. For the sushi card, first you have to disarm him. Jump-lust in the air at the side of the SPEAR to disarm him. He falls in and apparently can't swim because he just starts flailing his arms and legs while he sinks. Have to chomp him before he drowns and sinks out of the screen.
My bad, misread your quote Most players use two hands to play. I usually steer with my right and boost with my left, but one of our beta testers commented that he'd rather steer left, boost right (he's left-handed). We will be implementing that option in our first update.
The Dolphin Melon bi-sonar echolocation screen, how do I get back to that? I told it to allow the game to use my microphone and it tuned my speech into clicks and whistles like a dolphin but I can't get back to the screen now. The encoding and decoding and sharing of our own personal dolphin voice is awesome.
It's not on the table right now, but if there's enough interest we might consider it. For right now we're focusing on the one market (iOS). Like DJ Flipper said, this launch is just the tip of the iceberg. There's an enormous backstory to the game that we've been meticulously crafting, and we'd love to eventually put some grand adventure game out there (on PSN or Steam or something...) Not to mention all the content updates we have planned.
Platforms Well, shortly we will post a special video showing another platform (non mobile) in the works which is really cool . But for mobile, this is a tricky question. We are not religious about any platform, for or against, in any kind of irrational way. Having that said, the smoothness and beauty of Apple engineering, both software and hardware, is really hard to beat. Right now the game is exclusive on iOS. Also, I am never putting ads in the game, and will never do iAP. So that kind of really limits your Android marketplace right away. Not many people buy Apps there. But the harmony of our game, that "feel" that you've no doubt played by now, is largely because this platform (iPhone, iPad, iPod) is quite frankly a masterpiece of engineering. The more I work with it the more I realize what went into it. So most probably, iOS exclusive
Just to give you an idea of all the work that is ongoing: These are early concepts from the proposed adventure game. We want to translate a lot of these into our current game through mid-ground elements like cliffs, caves, and sunken ships. But more importantly, these images hint at a very important story element ALSO present in I Am Dolphin: the glow. Many of you may have noticed while playing that the fish and sharks release their glow when you bite or eat them, and that you release a glow when you leap out of the water (with enough skill). This isn't just an artistic code for a "hit" or a nice way to hide a violent bite - it's tied back to our universe, and to the "why" of what you're doing in the game.
