Over the past few months, I’ve been alluding to almost being at a major milestone for Karma Riot. Well, we finally hit that milestone: phase 1 complete! Actually, we hit it a month ago, but then I had to talk about Global Game Jam while it was fresh.

So, what does Phase 1 complete mean? It means that we have a working prototype that I’m ok with letting other people play. I know that’s kind of a squishy definition, but using that as my milestone marker has a lot of practical advantages, and it’s pretty much as far as I ever get with most of my hobby games. More specifically, here are the things we got done in phase 1:

• Established art constraints and style
• Kart driving simulation, including dynamic object collision response
• Prototype tracks
• Ranking and lap timing
• State machine including menus for choosing player count, speed, and track
• HUD
• Moves (fireball, side bump, and shield)
• Basic sound effects and music
• Kart trail rendering and physics
• A little polish and game balance here and there

But you don’t have to take my word for it. One of the other nice things about being at phase 1 is that I put up a new entry on the Games page for it: Karma Riot. You cand download and play the prototype from there, however, you will need wired 360 controllers for each player.

Power slide to victory!

In case you didn’t realize this, I’m working on this project with a friend – Paul Spychala. At the end of phase 1 we took a look at the game and decided that it was decent enough to go to phase 2. If/when we get to the end of phase 2, it should be at a point where we can consider releasing it on Xbox Indie Games. To close things off, here are a list of development stats:

• Phase 1 calendar time: 19 weeks
• Phase 1 initial task time estimates: 92 hours
• Phase 1 actual implementation time (combined): 119 hours
• Phase 1 average hours per week (combined): 6
• Phase 2 initial task time estimates: 126 hours
• Phase 2 projected completion calendar time: 20-26 weeks