Level design continues.  I just finished the 37th out of 40!  Some of you might note some familiarity in this one…

As has been the norm lately, this level doesn’t have any detail objects yet, so the final version will also have various nubbins and doodads decorating the scene.

Ben’s illustrated comic panels are coming along really well–there are now 10 out of 15 completed.  David is also still hard at work on the music (sound comes soon), but it’s tougher to gauge his progress with numbers.

Suddenly, it feels like we’re getting close to the end of the project.

Numbers are fun, so here are a few:  I just checked and the game currently has around seven hundred lines of dialogue.  For comparison, the original had about fifty lines of monologue.  Hooray!  Some might think that “more words” isn’t necessarily “more better,” and those people are exactly right.  However, the tone of this game is much more conversational (since it’s not all about a hermit this time around), and it’s much longer, too, so I think the extra text is appropriate.

Oh, also, the original game was under 2,000 lines of code in total, and the prequel is already past 6,000.  2,000 of those are just level data, though, and half of that 2,000 is just the tile maps.  Here’s the above screenshot’s tile map because…I dunno, it looks kinda neat.

maps[36]=[[1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],
          [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],
          [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],
          [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],
          [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],
          [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],
          [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1],
          [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1]]

This is just the map of the terrain–each level also needs data for game objects like switches, characters, and doors, plus scenario data like hotspots, dialogue, triggers for dialogue, etc…but those don’t look particularly interesting.  If you’re curious about the hotspots, dialogue triggering, and NPC behavior, you can check out this earlier post that covers those topics .

Note that the data is a 1:1 representation of the level where each number is one 20×20 pixel tile, but it’s mirrored across an imaginary diagonal line that extends from the top left to the bottom right.

Pop quiz for programmers who are interested in tile-based games:  What’s the purpose of that mirroring?

First things first:  We’re now up to 24 properly dressed levels.  They look awesome.  Go team!

I’m still revising nine more levels after the dressed ones, and then there are seven remaining that don’t exist at all yet.  We’re getting close!

The polish is also starting to show, which is incredibly satisfying.  Here’s a new screenshot of chapter four (The Swamp) with various tweaks and changes.  Note that this level isn’t dressed yet, so there are no scenery objects.

The most recent addition is the layer of grass on top of the tiles.  It’s fancier than you might expect at first glance–since materials in the game (like the default Swamp material) can have randomly bumpy edges, the grass has to conform to those curves.  Luckily I found a simple way to handle this, and it looks nice, even up close!

Hey there–hope your years are off to a collectively good start!

First off, lookie there, our “beginning of the year” deadline has whizzed by.  What a surprise!  It’s all good, though–we’re continuing to make solid progress, and we’re getting closer to the end all the time.  The game’s art is close to being finished, for instance!  I’ve been working with Ben on the game’s visual polish a lot over the past few days, so here’s a nice new screenshot for you to check out.  Ben placed all the detail objects in this scene (chairs, shelves, etc), so it looks much more aesthetically pleasing than before.

Also, will you check out that sweet-ass purple carpet?

Normally, the preloader is one of the very last parts of the game that I write.  It’s just a loading bar, so it never seems like the Most Important Thing To Do, but as a result, I always just slap a preloader together at the tail end of the project, and I’m never particularly happy with it, but it’s Good Enough.

But no more!  I took some time yesterday and today to make a really spiffy preloader for Company’s prequel.  The preloader isn’t just a loading bar in this context–in an online game, it’s also the very first thing that the user sees, which means it’s a valuable chance to make a good first impression.  If the user sees that special care has been put into even the loading bar at the start, then they know that I’m for real.

But enough talk–let’s play with the thing!  You can move the mouse left to right to change the “loading status” (left is unloaded, right is fully loaded), and you can also move the mouse up and down for added fun.  In the actual game, the horizontal control will obviously be replaced with an actual progress meter, but the vertical control is cute so I’ll be leaving it in.

Click to try the Preloader Demo

Oh, and I’ve also got a possible title:  “The Customs of Myself.”  It’s got some class, some mystery, and it clearly recalls the original, so people are more likely to realize that the games are related without being told so.  What do you think?

I hope everyone’s having a nice winter, and if Christmas is your thing, merry Christmas!  Please be sure to thank everyone thoroughly and sincerely if you get any presents.

Here’s a screenshot of the (work-in-progress) visuals for Chapter 4, “The Swamp.”  It’s still missing all of the foliage and detail objects, so you can expect much more densely detailed scenery in the actual game.