August 27th, 2016

Hey all,

Just quick update as to how things are progressing with the build. In the past few weeks, we have continued to work away on the code and the artwork as we inch our way forward just a little closer again, toward Sony submission:

  • Audio: we are adding a bunch of new character sounds to our characters and AI. Tests are early and part of this is to have a better understanding of when, and where to play the voice-over grabs. Some of the code for the audio logic works well while other pieces of logic and their associated audio grabs are annoying, so we are working through the good from the not so great, to figure it all out.
  • Levels: we have made some progress on our DLC test level for our Japanese location Nami Surf Park. Nami is the Japanese word for “wave” and we have a rudimentary set of waterplanes and waves running in our surf park which are looking promising. Special mention to Paige Davis, a talented intern who put this test level together while Jack our art lead was away. Paige was thrown in the deep end with this task, but put together a great little test bed with which we can now build upon with confidence. This location, along with our big wave test for our Monsters location will appear in the upcoming DLC. The final piece of the DLC location puzzle is Supertubes, an incredible Moroccan right hand point break which we have yet to start, but this one is next.
  • Surfboards: We have got a new agreement in place with Annesley surfboards and along with adding new boards to the shop area of the game, we’re also rebranding a bunch of boards in the shop now as well.
  • We’ve been making steady progress on improving our framerate. There are still some fluctuations in the framerate, but on the whole, it’s running pretty well now. We’ll be making some further improvements over the next few weeks, along with tightening up any animation pops that are evident in the transitions from one move to another.
  • We’ve also knocked together a new game manual covering all aspects of the game from beginning to end. Special thanks in this regard goes to Nicole Hatzon from ECU, who put up with numerous change requests from us to get the presentation aspects of the manual just right. It’s looking and reading as it should. She also worked on some screens for marketing material which are all looking great – nice one Nicole, thank you.
  • Finally, there are a couple of crash bugs that are currently being addressed and we are reaching the end of the Sony Technical Requirement Checklist. Once we can satisfactorily complete this, the remaining items prior to submission are localisation of the language (French and Brazilian Portuguese) and various submissions to PEGI, the OFLC and the ESRB.