Nebraska Newton Devlog #9 - "Finishing"

There seems to be a 64D birthday competition trend going. Or at there was. I can't think of a contest idea and I'm opposed to short blogs (in all my 52 blogs, I've never been tagged, and always frontpaged).

Besides, I need to write Nebraska Newton Devlog #9 today. The game is extremely close to being finished, and I've still got a few days left of the contest. A few more days if they push it back because of YYG's server downtime. >:)

Prologue

At the moment, the game needs the following things to be complete:

* A few more help dialogues (my games always hold your hand throughout).

* A playthrough, to test if everything works.

* Corpse pits scattered around the levels.

* Graphics to be done by ESA.

A bit more on that last item in Chapter 1.

Chapter 1 - "Graphics"

Let me first say I have full confidence in ESA's abilities. He's an absolutely fantastic spriter, and he brought EoE to a whole new level graphically. He was also the one who persuaded me to start Nebraska Newton.

However, there is such a thing as the unforeseen. ESA is currently (he may be back by now, not sure) in France, without access to a computer. It's a holiday for him, and I would sooner feed ChIkEn than ruin it.

He says he'll be able to do the outstanding graphics when he returns. I completely trust that he will, but, as I said, there is the unforeseen. What if, due to cicumstances outside of his control, he is unable to finish? What do I do then? If that happens, it'll be the Winter Competition incident (see [F13] My Friend The n00b, December 23 2007) all over again.

This is why I have made a backup plan. Today, I'm going to do all the undone graphics myself. They won't be very good, but I'll try to make them match ESA's (not sure I can though). Then, if ESA is unable to do all/any of the graphics due to the unforeseen, I'll still have a contest entry.

The Winter Competition incident has taught me that people don't always come through for you, whether through their own fault, or the unforeseen. I am going to make use of that lesson, and I am NOT going to let it happen again.

Chapter 2 - "Scenery"

I just realized yesterday that there's no scenery in Nebraska Newton. Everything that's there does something. None of it's just for decoration. While in some ways, that's a good thing, in other ways it's not.

It means that the Amaghulean tomb lacks personality. It's just a series of blocks, obstacles and enemies. I need to do something about that.

The only way to get scenery is to draw it. I'm not good at drawing though, so I'll make the scenery simple, or I'll alter other drawings. For example: level end doors. I'm thinking of taking the level end door sprite, and fading it a little, to get a level begin door scenery sprite. That way the levels look as if they're actually connected.

Something else I want to do is write on the walls. I'll make a bunch of symbols, use GM's font-from-sprite function, and write stuff.

If you have any other suggestions, please voice them. Remember, they can't be graphically intensive.

Chapter 3 - "Goals"

Yesterday I completed all my goals, and more. All the silly lines are put in, most of the help lines are in, all the levels are finished, and the boss works. Also, there's an ending cinematic.

Goals For Today

* Put in help dialogues. Without these, players would be unable to play! The horror!

* Play through the game. The levels need to fit together, and everything needs to work. There needs to be enough ammo and health too.

* Draw graphics. One must always have a backup plan, just in case.

* Do scenery. Give that temple some personality!

* Sound. I'm going to have to do something about the game's sound. Resource packs and microphones, here I come!

Epilogue

Once I've done everything on the above list, the game'll be done. Finished. Complete. And in good time too, seeing as I've got a LAN tomorrow, and therefore won't be doing any work on it.

Things are looking good, and I've made a plan for the unforeseen. If I do everything right, that "Games (2)" is going to become "Games (3)".

F1ak3r