"I love: Fantasy, heroes, beatiful music and a huge world to explore."
The first stage consists in the raw elements the game will require, in other words, a basic shape for the game to run on. This stage includes a basic geometric model of the character and the basic actions it will perform. The second stage is where the programmers provide their part and link these basic actions to the sketch of the character through an engine, whether it’s Unity, Shockwave, Java, etc. This is when we can say that the game took its first breath. The third stage is where the artistic approach is taken into consideration. Game artists and designers unite forces to cover all the geometric shapes and empty space with beautiful and almost unreal graphics. The last stage is when the testers try out the game and make a report on the major bugs, glitches and errors they discover in the game. It’s finally polished and released. Most games have a fifth minor stage: the Beta version. It’s not considered as a stage of game development because it consists on releasing the game and have actual players playing the game and also reporting any little error in the gameplay that testers didn’t notice. However, by the time a game reaches the fifth stage it should be in perfect condition with no game-breaking errors.
After three and a half years of arduous yet fruitful work and the wonderful support he received from his followers, Dean was able to finish Dust: An Elysian Tail. Once he had finished the game, however, he encountered another problem. How would he publish his game?
I was afraid that my work would never make it to the public,” declared Dean. On June 23rd 2012 he posted on Twitter: ”Guys, I’m glad to inform you that Dust: An Elysian Tail is finished. It becoming open to the public is the next challenge”. Now is when his fan base made the move: they collected thousands of signatures begging for help to make Dean’s dream true. Sony Studios answered to their claim within hours and contacted Dean. He was overwhelmed not only by the support he got during his journey, but the concrete help that made his dream come true.