Today we thought to keep you updated about the ongoing bugfixes and improvements.
- First of all we have extended the time limit from 99 seconds per level to 120 seconds. A bunch of people who were able to play a preview complained about “lack of time” as they prefer exploring levels and collecting as many items as possible. Those 120 seconds should be now really more than enough for everyone, even for “explorers” and “diamond collectors”.
- We have two types of wall bricking now. As you know if Giana has her curly hairstyle she can destroy bricks – depending on her power there are two ways the brick disappears. If you have the energy-ball and you are bricking a wall, the brick get’s dissolved. As soon as you get stronger and have shooting ability, your “energy” level raises too and if you destroy a brick it splits into 4 parts as you know it from the preview videos. This is more like an eye candy and grant at least a little bit of difference during gameplay.
- Here comes something we have shameless stolen from “Super Mario” :) If you destroy a brick, you will get one extra score. This might be not a lot, but the main goal is not to destroy as many bricks as possible. Maybe as soon as the game is out some ppl might be worried about “who has the highest” score, so adding this ability to bricks, will be an important factor for score hunters. One point might be not a lot, but see everything in bigger dimensions. We might raise the amount of points you get from 1 to 5 or 10, but we are pretty unsure about that. After all you get 50 points just for squeezing an regular enemy ;)
- The whole intro stuff is done – Credits, a “special inspriation screen”, language selection and then it goes over to the titlescreen from where you can start the game – just finetuning left there.
- Last but not least, our coder fixed something which is of internal matter, the test mode shows everything animated now – which is a lot more comfortable when testing things ;)
> something we have shameless stolen from “Super Mario” :)
It’s not a shame much less a crime to steal (or borrow) from the best ;)
Comment by CE
March 27, 2008 @ 17:27
Just a comment about your concerns with a possible commercial version of Giana being produced by another team. Even if they do have a legal licese agreement with the copyright holder it is highly unlikely that they will attempt to sue you or that they would be successful if they did.
First off, taking you to court would be expensive ($$legal fees$$). If they are a small team with expectations for a small profit then it simply won’t be worth it to them.
Secondly, in order to sue they would need to prove that the existence of your unofficial game damaged the sales or reputation of their game. That would be very difficult for them to do. especially if your game is not being sold commercially.
Finally, even if they do attempt to sue, you will have a strong defense with the following facts:
– Your product has been widely publicized since 2001. Its not like you were trying to hide.
– The competing product (if it exists) has not made any formal announncement so they cannot claim that you were formally made aware of their presence.
– They have made no attempts (to date) to stop you. You have not received a formal cease work order or even an e-mail from the development team.
So here is where you stand. If you can finish your product and get it out there before someone else comes along and orders you to stop work then you are in the clear. You can claim that you had heard rumors of another product in the works, but nothing official, so you carried on. That is perfectly reasonable behavior.
Don’t worry, be happy.
Comment by Rat King
April 28, 2008 @ 15:45
P.S
The fact that Armin failed to respond to any of your queries asking for permission to make the game will also go strongly in your favour. If he knew that there was an officially licensed sequel out there than he should have told you.
Comment by Rat King
April 28, 2008 @ 15:59