AIiiiiie

A lot of work since last time, but not enough! I've gotten to the point where I need to code AI stuff, and there's a terrible niggling bug somewhere in the way the program loads AI strings into structures. I'd hoped to figure it out before posting this, but no luck, and I gotta do other stuff now. Here are some shots:

This is the prototype for a game design that hopefully can be made into something with maybe commercial legs. Since it's more important to get the central systems right than to do something super polished, I decided to approach this as a series of short games with progressively more complex designs. The first of which is pretty easy, basically a puzzle/tutorial, but getting it working requires having a lot of basic systems at least sort of operational. This image represents the ENTIRE MAP for the first game, and the ENTIRE CAST.

Here's new concept art via character artist Xerxes Verdammt, dropped wholesale into the game. Note the new big red arrow indicating which menu thing you've selected.

There are still a lot of bugs, however.

Stuff remaining to do on WOL 1 before I call it "done":

• finish the rest of the AI string loading
• debug the existing AI string loading
• finish writing, revising, and AI-coding the dialogue so the game is "complete" start to finish
• add whatever art comes in to the game
• make fun Pac-Man style title and ending screens

Then I think of a more complex design to make for WOL 2. I don't know how many it will take before I figure that the design is (1) done, and (2) fun. But right now it's enjoyable to work on!

(Oh, for those interested, I got interviewed. Mostly it's about like Scientology and Tarot cards.)