Introduction

Welcome to the tenth progress report on the GBA version of Payback. You'll find the earlier reports here. There's a lot to write about as it's been almost a year since the previous report. In this report, I'll do my best to give you a behind-the-scenes look into what's involved in getting a game on the shelves.

The Dotted Line

As you probably already know, we signed with Destination Software earlier in the year. They actually heard about the game just a couple of weeks before E3 so there was something of a mad dash to get a contract signed before the show so they could demonstrate it to the press.

We put a lot of work in to get the game as polished as possible and of course Destination also had very little time to put together some promotional material in time for the show. Thankfully, the game got a great reception, so then the pressure was on to make sure the final product delivered.

Save Game Support

Post-E3, the main thing that still needed to be implemented was save game support. This hadn't been done earlier because the GBA supports all sorts of different saving mechanisms and the best choice in part depended on the relative costs of each - which we couldn't find out until we signed with Destination and became officially licensed Nintendo developers.

Once the hardware had been decided, actually implementing save support was fairly straightforward as a lot of the code could be carried over from the other versions of the game. One unusual aspect of our implementation is that it is designed so that you won't lose data even if you switch off the GBA half way through saving.

Saves are also very quick (a fraction of a second) so they are now done automatically after each game. The game also saves your high scores, control setup and other configuration information.

Finishing Touches

Next, the translations were bought up-to-date and the fastest sound mixing routines from the latest version of AAS were added to the game. The menu screens were revamped with a nice scrolling background image and a clearer layout. Lastly, lots of little tweaks like making the trees sway in the breeze were added.

After that, the game was formally checked by a specialist testing company. The issues they uncovered were added to a bug database and then resolved. There weren't many significant problems as the game had already been extensively tested in the six years or so that it has been in development across various platforms.

The final stage was to hand the game over to Nintendo so they could put it through their lot check procedure. This is when Nintendo checks that the game complies with their guidelines and doesn't have any show-stopping bugs. Once this step was complete, we were just about done and Destination Software (Zoo Digital in Europe) took over.

On The Shelves

The publishers then designed the boxes for their respective markets, submitted the game to the appropriate rating boards (the ESRB in the US, PEGI in Europe) and are now beginning to promote, manufacture and distribute the finished product.

Somewhat surprisingly, the US version will have an M rating, whereas the European version will have a 12+ (roughly equivalent to a T) rating, but the only significant difference between the two versions is the languages they support. The provisional release dates for the game are 25 October in the US [Note: This has now been delayed] and 19 November in Europe.

That's All Folks

Well, I guess that's about it. There's a new video on the right that you can download to give you a taste of what the finished game is like. The first reviews are starting to appear on websites and magazines and so far the response seems to be very positive. I hope you enjoy playing the game as much as we enjoyed making it.

In the mean time you can pre-order by sending a blank email to payback-gba-preorder@apex-designs.net. This doesn't commit you to buying the game from us, but we'll contact you when the game comes out and give you priority if you do decide to order direct.

Please feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions or enquiries. For general information about Payback, please click here.