Dec 24:
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Finished off a quick new level - more of a novelty
than anything else. Still, I think it's entertaining
enough to make it into the final game.
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Dec 23:
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I'm not getting anything done
over the holidays. There, I've said it... I'm
going to have family up all this week and lots of
things to do. I'll make a new push come January. |
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Dec 18:
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The new sheep level is a little disappointing, but
still a good level. I had a picture in my mind of exactly
how I wanted it to work, but somehow it didn't work in
real life. I've made a couple compromises to my "vision",
but the resulting level plays OK.
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Dec 17:
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Christmas time is busy. Still, the obstacle course
level is working well enough and I'm most of the way
through a fairly easy new level. I just need to fiddle
with the speed a bit to get the gameplay style I was
looking for.
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Dec 12:
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Personal: Why the lack of updates?
Because I'm getting nothing done. I spent the last two
nights working (at real work) and I've got stuff lined up
for the next few nights as well. Hopefully I'll get a
little work in before the Christmas rush'o'fun really
starts.
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Dec 9:
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Got in a touch of work over the weekend. The secret
level I've been working on for the last few days is
pretty much done, and I'm well into the new obstacle
course level. The timing challenge level is a platform
game staple - seems a shame to not have one in Zero.
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Dec 6:
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More slow progress - that level's coming along OK,
but I just haven't had a lot of time lately.
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Dec 3:
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The new level, which I shall avoid describing, is
coming along well - though it's proving a challenge to
design the level such that the challenge works the way I
want.
Unrelated: Progress is being hindered by
my fiddling around with "The Ur-Quan Masters" -
a new free version of Star Control II (you can find it on
SourceForge, I believe). One thing that I find funny is
the 150 MB download - I remember installing the game off
7 or 8 floppies. I suppose the new voice-overs everywhere
don't help. Not sure if I'll go through the it again, but
this is still certainly one of my favorite games, and
this seems to have been a quality porting (is this the
right word?) job.
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Dec 2:
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Didn't get much done over the weekend. Christmas
parties, the usual busyness. Notwithstanding this, I'm
started on a new level that should work out well, and
will be particularly enjoyable to old C64 gamers.
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Nov 29:
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The upside down level is working
pretty well. As you can see, it's the level that
goes upside down - not Jumpman. This may sound
silly, but the level works pretty well this way (and
the control was awkward with Jumpman being the
one that flipped around).
Haven't decided what to do next. If you've got
some good ideas - now would be a really good time. |
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Nov 27:
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Made a little progress on the new upside-down level.
The critical part is going to be placing the platforms
and ladders so that the level works both ways. Should be
fun.
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Nov 26:
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Sorry about the continuing infrequency of updates.
The good news is that while I've still been busy at work,
I have made some progress on the game. Over the last few
days I've fixed some long-standing music problems,
implemented the full-screen mode, and got done a couple
new levels.
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Nov 22:
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Work continues to be crazy. I've got started on a new
level, but time has been a rather scarce commodity of
late. Will hopefully get some work done over the weekend.
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Nov 19:
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The new puzzle level works great. It generates its
own configurations from nothing - which is good, as the
level always feels new. However, it's also bad, as it
becomes very difficult to test for bad configurations. As
a guard against this, I'm putting a "reset"
donut in a convenient location, so that if the puzzle is
unwinnable then you can start again.
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Nov 17:
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Work has been a little insane lately, and I've had
little time for working on the game. That said, I've
finally made a version of the "invisible things"
level that's fun and I'm well into a new puzzle level.
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Nov 13:
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Curses! Last night I drew up a new level involving
lava and invisible platforms. Sounds good, no? After a
fair bit of tweaking, it was working OK. Unfortunately,
it was really not fun. I may be able to rescue some of
the work, but the level is a no-go.
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Nov 12:
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The bee level is pretty much done. Works
alright. I wasted a lot of time last night trying
to redo the music code. I ended up rolling back
an hour of work. Such is life. |
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Nov 11:
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I did get a little time in, and I got most of the way
through a fairly simple new level. Personal: It
was Rachel's birthday over the weekend, so we did a lot
of stuff (very little of which was game related).
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Nov 8:
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Life has been really busy these last few days. Got in
a few minutes last night and implemented rudimentary
joystick support. Works well, and plays well on my
homemade arcade stick.
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Nov 7:
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The dinosaur level is pretty much done. Really not
sure on what to do next.
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Nov 6:
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Little more work done on the dinosaur level. Just
need to tweak the level layout and some behavior. Fixed a
couple long-standing script bugs. Also, wasted a couple
hours watching Simpsons.
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Nov 5:
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Got a little work done on the dinosaur
level. It's coming along pretty good - I'm a really poor
artist, but the end result should be entertaining.
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Nov 4:
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Got a good bit of time over the weekend -
most of the work done on two new levels. So right
now I've got 8 levels done and 3 in progress.
I've also been spending a lot of time playtesting
- things seem to be working well. The level
pictured is "Runaway Zero". Works
pretty well. The other level (which I shall avoid
describing) is a favorite from the Palm version.
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Oct 31:
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Between meetings and treat seeking children, the last
few nights have been pretty busy. I got some more work
done on the mesh importer, which now has at least a
passable user interface. About one more night and it
should be done.
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Oct 29:
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I'm putting level development on hold for a few
nights - this time to work on the mesh importer. Right
now I'm working on the part that transforms a bitmap into
a flattish 3d thing. It's been working fine for me - but
it never had a real user interface. I figure now is as
good a time as any to add one.
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Oct 28:
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Got started on a new, fairly intricate
level which I shall avoid discussing. I'm spending a lot
of time with MS Paint lately (don't laugh, it works great
for pixel-by-pixel, low color drawing). There's something
really satisfying about making a drawing work that's only
15 pixels wide. A lot of the style in the original game
came from Randy's ultra-low-res graphics and their simple
animations (remember "The Roost"?) - I'm doing
my best to replicate some of that great, goofy feel.
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Oct 27:
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Personal: Really
busy weekend - Rachel's parents were up to visit.
Niece's birthday. Lots to do, and no extra time.
I did manage to get most of the way through a new
level. What is that black stuff flowing towards
Jumpman? It's black stuff, and it flows towards
Jumpman! The level works pretty well, just needs
some tweaking here and there. |
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Oct 23:
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Finished off the "Flash Flood"
level I talked about yesterday (didn't have too
much time, with basketball and all). Also spent
some time playing through the game. Everything is
working to my satisfaction. Next up is a level
that will assuredly take longer to get done - the
"flowing goo" level. Probably won't get
started on it tonight, as my Dad is in town.
Prognostication: If things keep
going at about the same pace, we're probably
about 4-5 months from release. Meh. |
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Oct 22:
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Didn't get much time last night, but got started on a
fairly simple new level involving clocks and water. I'll
see if I can't get it fleshed out tonight (and then see
if it's any fun).
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Oct 21:
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Got in a little time tweaking levels.
I'm now content with the six levels that are there, and
am ready to get going on 7 - just as soon as I decide
what 7 is going to be. I'm sort of drifting behind
schedule - but I'm not too worried. There's just a lot of
work to be done, and no way around that.
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Oct 20:
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Made a lot of progress across the board
over the weekend. I cleaned up the script API, fiddled
with some textures, and finished a solid new level (which
I shall again avoid describing). Overall, gameplay is
getting pretty solid, but a couple of the levels already
need some tweaking.
I'm having a hard time deciding when to start with beta
tests. In a lot of ways, they'd be helpful right now -
but I don't want to drag the process on for too long. I'd
rather start testing with a reasonably polished game
that's close to completion.
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Oct 17:
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Made a lot of progress last night. The jump-fu level
is done, and another level (which I shall not describe -
have to have some surprises) is pretty much finished as
well.
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Oct 16:
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The first ninja/jump-fu level is
pretty much finished. The ninjas just need a
little tweaking so that they can't walk through
walls. I'm really satisfied with how it plays. I
also did more work on the level editor - mostly
changing how walls are textured (which might need
further work - sigh). Either way, the new level
editor works great. It was a real joy to whip off
level details. |
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Oct 15:
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Didn't get much done - but I imported the already
drawn levels to the new level editor format and did a
little more tweaking to the level editor, which is still
"almost done". I'm going to see if I can't whip
off a few levels over the next few nights (though tonight
is basketball, which will pre-empt my normal work hour).
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Development History - Page 2 |