I've received several questions regarding the forthcoming media debut of TAGAP 2. It was a pleasant surprise, actually, to notice that you guys are truly anticipating the return of Pablo and Pedro. Thank you for that, it keeps us going 😃
Let's cut directly to the questions. In the first eMail we were politely asked are we delaying TAGAP v1.7 because of the screenshots. Answer is no; once v1.7 is done, I'll capture the shots, no matter what state TAGAP 2 happens to be in. The screenshots will be honestly watermarked as "Work-in-Progress", so I don't have to waste time setting them up. I have to admit, though, that I've had some urges to delay this premiere a bit, giving how many hyper-cool things I'm working on right now. Then again, I can save them for later.
The other eMails concentrated mainly on eager questions about what will be shown in the shots. I don't want to spoil the shots by describing them beforehand, so I'll just brief you a little about the features that you won't be seeing in these first screenshots. Giving the near-alpha stage TAGAP 2 is in, there are quite a few things that won't make it to these first screens.
So, a couple of things I know for certain that WON'T be shown in this first batch of TAGAP 2 screens;
No co-op shots. Though splitscreen mode is practically done and working, it's still in very raw, unpolished state. Like I described earlier, we are first focusing solely on the single player campaign, developing the splitscreen alternative after that to ensure everything works like clockwork – and we definitely aren't there yet.
No bosses. When done right they are the cream of 2D shooters and definitely something I don't want to spoil for you, definitely not in the very first screens.
You also won't be seeing any status display, simply because I haven't redesigned that yet. There will be changes or a complete re-design, but that's still on the to-do-list.
And finally, you won't get to see anything 100% finished and polished; everything you will see is unfinished, work-in-progress and may change during the development.
And to the question everyone of you dear readers have been asking; when can we see the screenshots? TAGAP v1.7 update, with which the shots will be released, is coming along nicely. The new debug tools of Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition have been really handy, everything seems to work fluently and the testing of the 64 bit version is also under way by a voluntary external tester.
If everything continues to go this smoothly, it's a week or two to go – and as usual, flippers crossed.
