Well, this project has certainly been a journey, with lots of interesting and unique challenges to overcome. What started as a joke about how any sport could be mixed with any other random thing to make a competitive game experience turned into a real game that’s a ton of fun to play! I learned a lot and got to work with some great people along the way, and I’m proud of what we were able to accomplish this year. And presenting the game at IUPUI’s Capstone was just about the icing on the cake. We have one more showcase coming up on Saturday, December 18 at 7 PM EST, and a little bit of polish to throw on The Blacklight Arena, and after that our journey will be at an end.

I’d like to thank Isaac Johnston for creating the beautiful level we all know and love, for taking my original concept and turning it into something special. Aaron Keilman, for making some incredible Strikers (the clubs) and for making the iconic look of the Windmill level possible. Thank you to Kayleigh Jones for your work on writing lore and voice lines for us, I hope one day I can add them all to the game! Thank you, also, for managing the social media accounts. Anyone who has interacted with Incitement Studio online this year probably interacted with Kayleigh. Thanks to Sam Brunes for your minor Blueprint and VFX contributions. They weren’t much, but they truly did go a long way. Thank you to Laura Galliher for being our test voice for General Bunker and for providing the opening line of the trailer, and to TigerJ for testing lines for Captain Mulligan.

I know a lot of people who have seen this have been curious about next steps, and trust me, we have, as well. However, while the game as it exists now will always be available for download on itch.io, barring unforeseen circumstances, it probably won’t be expanded beyond that for the time being. I loved this project, but it was a very complex and ambitious one, considering that the whole development team was 4 people with 3 outside contributors. Moving forward, though, it’ll only be me, and I alone do not have the capacity to keep this project going. That doesn’t mean it’ll be forgotten, simply revisited when circumstances allow!

There is a small development roadmap left to get through. I don’t know how many we’re going to be able to get through before we move on to bigger, better things, but here are the remaining steps needed to complete this prototype to be the perfect proof-of-concept

• Move the online play from the Steam test app channel to Epic Online Services so it can exist as a standalone product.
• Find out what error is making a “hello” message appear in the top-left corner of the screen
• Make a full main menu with Credits and access to Settings
• Add some settings to the Settings menu
• Find out why the packaged game doesn’t seem to have Xinput support despite gamepad controls being part of development from the beginning
• Unwrap and texture the Drill
• Unwrap and texture the Bomb
• Make the Bomb (golf ball) explode after being hit so many times
• Make the Bomb explode if it goes too long without being hit.
• Add a character death sequence
• Make the ball return to its position on the ground if a player dies while trying to hit it (and not become a floating orb)
• Make the barriers around the edge of the map play the force field visual effect
• Probably a couple other bugs I’m forgetting about at the moment, but painfully aware of

Most importantly, thank you, dear reader/player, for your interest! If you’re here from the School of Informatics Capstone, you earned us the Peoples’ Choice Award, and as of the time I’m writing this, you’ve downloaded this project 26 times, making this the best opening week of any game I’ve ever published to itch.io! I hope you can continue to have fun with Blacklight Arena, no matter what comes of it, and that you keep an eye out for what comes next!

• To keep up with Joel, hit the “follow” button on here, or visit https://linktr.ee/dnallohleoj
• To continue interacting with Kayleigh online, follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Foxxie_Q or check out her website: https://kayleighjones3.wixsite.com/home
• For Aaron: https://akeilman1699.wixsite.com/portfolio
• For Isaac: https://ijohn.artstation.com/
• For TigerJ: https://www.twitch.tv/tiger_j
• For Laura: https://dragonstonesound.wixsite.com/home
• Sam Brunes doesn’t have an online presence he’d like to share, but once he graduates college? Keep an eye out. He’s got the skills for Unreal Blueprint and VFX!

From all of us on the Blacklight Arena team, thank you so much for reading. Enjoy the game!  

- Joel Holland