A lot of interesting things happened again this month, so let's begin!

Ladders have been added to the game. This will make it easier to design more vertically-oriented levels, and adds a little more diversity to the gameplay as well.



We are also hard at work on a new Town level, which will act as a hub within the game. Change your outfits (and consequently your powers), travel to other levels, and get some quests! Maybe even enter a house and collect an item that is not rightfully yours.
Also, check out the nice details like flying butterflies and ridiculous vehicles.
If you backed our Kickstarter at the "Enter History" tier or higher, then you may find yourself in this town

We are very happy to report that a whole lot of programming has been going on, including:

• Improvements to the sound code. The stereo audio is now actually stereo, with left being left and right be right.
  
• Things (enemies, explosions, etc.) that are far away will have a lower volume than things that are close by.
  
• Saving the game actually works. Very useful for bug testing as well
  
• Improved Izzy handling. When you give Izzy a little nudge at a ledge, she will drop straight down, and no longer flies off the edge. Of course, when running off a ledge you will fly like the wind.

New enemies

Three new enemies have also been completed. Designs of two of them were already included in the campaign, and are now finished and dangerous. The third is new and will remain a surprise for when you get to play the game

A new costume!

The Flying Squirrel Costume has been completed and will allow the player to reach new areas and look stylish at the same time.
With our own Animation Editor arms and legs were easy to move around, but a billowing cape was not something that it was ever designed for. And a flying squirrel without wings will result in a plummeting squirrel.
So back-breaking manual labour was needed in making the wingless oddity (on the left) into a fully functional flying raging rodent (on the right)!

We are happy to announce that Senile Team will be present at Animecon in The Hague on Saturday, 16 June. The biggest event of its kind in the Netherlands, Animecon features "Indie Game Saturday" where we will be showcasing our games.

Of course Intrepid Izzy will be on display there, as well as our previous release, Rush Rush Rally Reloaded. And as a bonus, Intrepid Izzy's first boss fight will be revealed there.


It will somehow involve a giant cabbage.

For more information and tickets, please visit animecon.nl.

Figure mass production completed

We have also received good news from China, which is that mass production of the plastic Izzy figures has been completed. By request of our Kickstarter backers, a second design was also produced. This sees Izzy in a previously undisclosed mystery costume.

We have recently received pre-production samples of the plastic Izzy figure, and they look fantastic! Standing about 8 cm (3 inches) high, the size is just right. Having a physical Izzy adorn my desk makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.



This sample is an adequate representation of the final product, although it is not exactly the same. For the final product, matte paints will be used rather than glossy ones.

Click the images for a larger view:


The figures will come in a lovely, windowed box, measuring 6.5 x 6.5 x 9 cm. Kickstarter backers who pledged €70 or more will be the first to receive them (together with the rest of their rewards), and the remaining ones will then be made available for purchase.

Some significant new features were recently added to Intrepid Izzy. The first is the addition of a map system. This allows you to view the explored parts of the levels. This is still in the early stages of development, but nevertheless the maps already display a fair amount of detail.



Because the levels can be quite big, you can scroll though the map to view all explored areas. The white and yellow squares are placeholders. They will be replaced with icons later.

The second important addition is saving and loading - an indispensable feature for games in this genre. Saving the state of all the relevant data in the game (maps, dialogues, quests, items, etc) so that it can be correctly restored later is evidently easier said than done. The tiny amount of storage space on the Dreamcast made this even more of a challenge. Fortunately it was an interesting challenge rather than a frustrating one, and it all seems to be working as it should.

I am also happy to report that Izzy now has a crawling animation. This was still missing from the demo, where you you had to do a sliding to pass under low ceilings. The addition of crawling makes the controls more intuitive.

Good news, PC gamers! The playable demo of Intrepid Izzy is now also available for Windows!



It is basically the same as the Dreamcast demo which was released earlier, except in HD resolution and with a few touch-ups here and there.

Download the demo from the Intrepid Izzy website.

We hope you will enjoy this demo, and are looking forward to any feedback that you might have.

Preparing a Kickstarter campaign was hard work, running one was even more so and since its successful funding there has been little chance for boredom either! I've already written a bit about that in the latest news update on Kickstarter, but let's not neglect the official dev log!

One of the things that demanded attention, and one of the more novel features (for Senile Team at least) of the Intrepid Izzy project, is the plastic figure that comes with the Deluxe and Collector's editions of the game. This won't be just a 3D print, but an actual molded plastic figure manufactured by Shenzhen SRX Technology Co., Ltd. This morning they sent us the first photos of the prototype (that is a 3D print) in colour, and of course we would like to share this happy news with you.



The process is quite laborious: first a clay model was sculpted based on the supplied designs. This was then 3D-scanned and modifications were made to the digital 3D model based on our feedback. A prototype was then 3D printed and painted by hand. It's awesome to see the game character become "real", and personally I almost can't wait to adorn my desk with a tiny Izzy!

We are very proud and excited to report that today, after many months of hard work, the Kickstarter crowd funding campaign for Intrepid Izzy was successfully completed. We would like to extend our thanks to everyone who helped in any way, especially the 413 backers who pledged a combined total of €36,367. We are looking forward to bringing you more updates as development progresses, and of course a great game!

Download it, burn it, enjoy it and back it! Have fun!

Had a great time talking with Graham, Marcin an Tom about Intrepid Izzy and other SEGA news on SEGA Nerds' podcast!

Go and have a listen!