Sacred 2 Developer's Blog: July 12th 07

[gogoblender 3,071]

Hey guys, another Sacred 2 dev blog has gone up at 1up.com and once again we get to listen in on the inner working of the development of this game in progress. Simon Treumpler now presents his second blog while introducing us to the gamer's forces of evil whilst developing games and teaches us a new word:

 

the Ant'ibuk!

 

Enjoy

 

 

gogo

Sacred 2 - Developer Diary - Simon Truempler 2 *Ant'ibuk*

 

There used to be a time in which small programmers wrote even smaller games, which they then - for small coin, of course - offered on even smaller floppy discs. In times in which Evil itself was still good, you could finish creating a game all by yourself within a week. Those cute little piles of data were as pure as a seraphim's soul and easy to stay on top of, so you had to include some bugs to give critics something to moan about.

 

But on the horizon, dark clouds appeared, and along with them came the craving for more and more beautiful and complex games. In ever-growing guilds, the most courageous of coders united to quench the masses' thirst for more complexity.

 

With every moon, the scribes spent more and more time under their self-imposed yoke and neglected Evil, with whom they used to sit by the fire and roast marshmallows in the old days.

 

Jealousy darkened Evil's soul, and soon from its heart blackness spread throughout its ethereal body. It became a renegade, and as a former ally it knew the alliances' weak spots. The new Evil sent out dark henchmen, who ate their way through the noble fighters' work like maggots through an apple: bugs!

 

With both bread and games becoming more and more complex, the bugs were hard to find, and for each you found, two new ones appeared. The growing number of bugs in the coders' works filled the hearts of human players with anger and hate, which were referred to as Ga'mers by ordinary people or "square-eyed" by their moms.

 

But as opposed to the scribes' expectations, the Ga'mers didn't join the forces of light, for Evil clouded their senses, and they couldn't see clearly.

 

Eons passed, and the struggle raged on ceaselessly. But the eggheads didn't just stand there watching: they formed a group strong enough the face the forces of Evil: the Ant'ibuk!

 

Usually, the word Ant'ibuk (the divine seraphim of light) denotes most members of the developer guilds. One of their patron saints is the Holy St. Udio II, who only deals with the most holy of holy missions.

 

I am one of the Ant'ibuk following St. Udio II's banner. While my daily chores are devoted to the creation of the most delightful eye candy, treacherous bugs may still find a way to sneak in.

 

Finding them is not an easy task and only eagle-eyed initiates may spot them. These elite heroes reside in another part of the realm and send reports on their findings on a daily basis.

 

Those reports are then collected, sorted and checked over here - all by a single person! A normal human being would need years to complete this task, if not centuries.

 

Once a month, there is a time window. It stays open for seven days, and within the initiates' circles it's known as "recap week." It is a time in which developers such as we may change shape and use the true power of the Ant'ibuk. We stop creating pleasures for the eyes, ears and palate, pore over bug reports and exterminate every heinous bug we may find.

 

Mercilessly, we hunt them down with red hot bug trackers, let artists delete them in cold blood, allow coders to overwrite them without remorse, and permit level designers to tear them to shreds. Afterwards, wandering over the fields of destruction, the elite make sure that every single minion of darkness has been annihilated.

 

Month after month, year after year, our goal stays the same: to please the crow of Ga'mers in their quest for better games -- without compromise.

[Schot 407]

Great little read and an excellent beginning to the story of a world soon to come. All hail the Ant'ibuk! Let no bug go unnoticed!

 

So true that bit about the new evil in games, lol. It's not about beating the game anymore. It's about triumphing over the wretched bugs. Whew! And they are persistent critters at that.

[gogoblender 3,071]

heh, if it's him writing the blog himself I"m impressed. And a dev's concept of good and evil while programming tells us what a pain these bugs can be. If anything, I'm just happy they're focusing on giving us the best game possible, without having to throw in a can of Raid as an after thought.

 

 

gogo

[Schot 407]

Oooooh. Bonus can of Raid bug spray with every purchase, lol. There's a novel idea. "And remember kids... Always make sure to spray your discs before installing."

[gogoblender 3,071]

awwwww...

Actually I had heard that they were using another company to do all their bug testing. Looks like this is gonna be the real thing.

 

gogo