Amazing Frog The Quest For The Magical Mystery Toilet
It has been a while since we published a Frog Blog. Generally in favour of posting updates rather than Frog Blogs. We are reaching a pretty crucial milestone so now seems like a good time to start the Frog blogs again. If you were worried that we may have abandoned Amazing Frog? We have not. Amazing Frog? has always been in ongoing development. Thanks so much for your patience.
More recently, a lot has changed even since The Coronation Update and in all our time developing Amazing Frog? these past few months have been the most groundbreaking and definitive, not just for V2 but also V3. On that subject, I would like to start by saying –
[h3]We really need to change the terms “V2” and “V3”[/h3]
When I talk about the two versions of Amazing Frog? as “V2” and “V3” it feels awkward as these terms have become outdated. Technically “V1” is the OUYA version, but thought the process of bringing AF? to Steam it became V2 .“V2” is Legacy and since Remastered, but soon it will become the first “complete” version of Amazing Frog? Logically this would mean “V3” would become the second complete version of Amazing Frog? – “Amazing Frog? 2”
Both versions are set in the world of Swindon, Swindonshire which is mostly inhabited by the same wildlife …mostly. However, V2 is now is reaching its 1.0 status and V3 is only just getting started. On the surface, the idea of a small indie team working on two evolving versions of a game may seem ludicrous. Often, when I am discussing Amazing Frog? and talking about these 2 versions I feel like I am projecting and air of insanity.
Hal and I know there are deeper reasons as to why we are working simultaniously on two unfinished, evolving versions.
Its our “process”. One to complete and one to evolve our game technology.
[h3]The renaming of V2 and V3.[/h3]
[b]Amazing Frog? : The Quest for the Magical Mystery Toilet [/b]
(QMMT for short)
This will be the new title for what is currently ‘Amazing Frog? V2 Remastered’ and this title will go across all platforms
As V3 now enters into a more experimental phase of its existence as it is no longer tethered to the V2 Remastering process it will likely bear a temporary Working Title of “Next Gen”
[b]Amazing Frog? Next Gen[/b] ( working title … formerly V3 )
We are completely undecided on the title at this stage, more development need to take place. To give you some idea here are a fraction of the titles we are toying with.
[list]
[*] Amazing Frog? Second Wind
[*] Amazing Frog? Follow Through
[*] Amazing Frog? Fallen Heroes
[*] Amazing Frog? World of Farts
[*] Amazing Frog? Kingdom of Farts
[*] Amazing Frog? After Flush
[*] Amazing Frog? Second Flush
[*] Amazing Frog? Hell come To Frog Town
[*] Amazing Frog? Toadal Recall
[*] Amazing Frog? Aftermath
[*] Amazing Frog? Chronic Wind
[*] Amazing Frog? Froggy Mc Frogface
[*] Amazing Frog? Farter Starter
[*] Amazing Frog? Twisted Farter Starter
[*] Amazing Frog? The isles of Guff
[*] Amazing Frog? Spawn
[*] Amazing Frog? Quest for a Hero
[*] Amazing Frog? Invasion of the Penis Snatchers
[/list]
To be honest there are only a couple in there we would actually consider. I let you decide which ones are real contenders. If we do a poll in the future, we will announce on the Amazing Frog? Next Gen Community Page. I won’t talk about the development of Amazing Frog? Next Gen on this community page again as QMMT will take centre stage.
Also just a. reminder that both versions will be sold separately as we approach the completion of the “Quest for The Magical Mystery Toilet”.
[h3]So… Development.[/h3]
[b]What has been taking so Long, Gaz?[/b]
Nothing has stopped us developing, we work on Amazing Frog? continuously and still love it.
[h3]A Finished Version[/h3]
Our main goal has been to create a finished version of Amazing Frog? in which we can realize some of the core narrative elements we have been working towards. When I say narrative I don’t mean presenting a literal story mode, moreso presenting a structured and continuous sense of purpose thoughout Swindonshire, but without compromising the free roaming aspect of the Amazing Frog? gameplay.
[h3]Technical Challenges[/h3]
To give us the freedom to expand on the gameplay and make way for more content (especially physics content ) we needed to push through some major technical barriers. Barriers that had existed since Legacy. While we have made good progress breaking these barriers over the years, it is only recently we have managed to smash through them.
For example, one of these barriers has been a limitation on the number of physics objects in Swindonshire. We came up with a solution allowing us to introduce more physics based content like frogs, creatures, vehicles, things to pick up sit on etc.. into what was a sporadically empty Swindonshire. This solution also ensures Amazing Frog? can run on lower spec devices without loosing all the physics fun. In fact even with all this new content it will run even better on lower spec devices than the last update across all platforms. These improvements will be for all existing platform versions of QMMT, the upcoming console releases and they will also benefit Next Gen.
[h3]Beware The Chaos[/h3]
Rewards do not come without cost. The development time to implement these changes puts a lot of pressure on us while we are trying to also move content forward. In the short terms I expect to suffer from some serious “bug anxiety” …Whilst these series of optimisations do yield huge physics performance increases, these new optimizations may lead to some unexpected wierdness. (Yay new bugs and edge cases ). With this in mind we are taking an “embrace the chaos” approach to the devolopment and we bring QMMT to its final form. So despite the chaos, Its exciting that these enhancements have given us more creative and development freedom to populate Swindonshire with a more reckless abandon and allow us to evolve many of the features as we had originally intended.
Frogs as Far as the eye can see.
Updates Are coming…
And things are going to get weird.
Also as we ramp up to 1.0 and leave Easy Access there will be a series of Updates and eventually including the “The Hero’s Journey” to unlock the power of Amazing Frog? in The Quest For the Magical Mystery Toilet
