Parallax: The Light at the End of the Tunnel?

[Rex Claussen]

For my part, I'm turning the corner to approaching the end of this road. Here is a summary:

1. Mapping is pretty much complete on all (16, count 'em, 16) maps.
2. I continue to tweak gameplay, but (as you might imagine) this is a tedious frikkin' task.
3. I have been play-testing (alpha) the maps, but totally unsystematically. So far nothing is broken.

What remains are the following:

1. External play-testing (beta) by team members
2. Possibly new music to be created by Jeff Ligda
3. Possibly new voice acting to be created by Rachael (aka Eruanna) Alexanderson and me
4. File management by Nigel 'Enjay' Rowand
5. Marketing, possibly by Daniel 'Tormentor 667' Gimmer

What's optional, for now:

1. Integration of Parallax into "Paranoidiac" by Ed the Bat. For those that might not know, this is a project Ed developed that combined Paranoid and Paranoiac but introduced models for virtually every actor, notably enemies and weapons. He also converted all maps to UDMF and all scripts to ZScript. All of it is phenomenal, and creates an utterly new dimension to the game.
2. This is a very long shot, but I might create a 4-map episode that introduces Otis, the security guard from Half-Life: Blue Shift. Perceptive observers might remember that, in Map 11 of Paranoic, the player/Rolf Bellmer meets with Otis behind a tunnel gate. The mini-episode will follow Otis after that meeting. The main reason I am (somewhat) keen on pursuing this is Ed the Bat's spectacular work on the Otis & Desert Eagle models.