Sleuthhounds: The Cursed Cannon – It’s the Final Countdown

September 11, 2015

Coming Spring 2015. That’s what the first Sleuthhounds computer game, The Unlocked Room, said in reference to the next Sleuthhounds adventure: The Cursed Cannon. Yet, here we are in the twilight days of summer 2015 and still no game. But, my friends, the end is in sight. The (not really) long wait is almost over.

I’ve previously blogged as to why The Cursed Cannon has taken longer than originally expected and I’ll let that post stand. Today I’m focused on the final countdown for The Cursed Cannon. Specifically I’m counting down the number of outstanding items left to complete to bring the game to a finished state (gone gold as they call it for games shipping on CD, which this one isn’t, but still).

As of the time of this writing the tally of items to finish stands thus:

Animation 3
Backgrounds 3
Dialog 6
Game Engine 12
Hints 8
Music 2
Performance 9
Scripting 4
Sound Effects 3
Special Features 10
User Interface 29
Total 89

A few notes about the numbers:

  • Not all To Do items are created equal. For example “Writing sound effect should be shortened” is much easier and quicker to do than “Verify all dialog lines (plays correct file, voice and text match)”.
  • The To Do list contains everything I’m currently aware of that still needs to be done. However, as I continue to refine and test the game to bring it to completion more items may emerge. So the counts should generally go down but may occasionally go up as well.
  • Some items are closely related so finishing one item may at the same time finish another item.

You’ll notice over on the side of the website that there’s a new panel cleverly called “Countdown to Sleuthhounds The Cursed Cannon”. This panel shows the current state of the To Do list. Each day I’ll update the panel to reflect the updated count of outstanding items. So you’ll be able to follow along and see the game getting closer to completion!

Disclaimer: Once the game has released I’ll be removing the panel. So if you’re reading this blog in the future you won’t see the panel. At that time you’ll be able to download the game off the Sleuthhounds page. You know, just in case you’re in the future and think you’re going blind.