Had a wee three-second panic this evening–went into the combat page to do some checking and editing and up pops the debug window with an array full of gibberish. “Oh no!” says my brain. “The database is corrupted! I haven’t done a backup for days!” Then things resolved themselves and I realised it was just my serialized array backup system doing what it’s supposed to (or at least what my half-finished code is telling it to do). So, phew. Actually, it was a good reminder that I needed to finish that, so I spent a few minutes finishing the ‘retrieve’ part of it and now it seems to be working well. Serialized arrays really are very useful things indeed.
Aside from that, I’ve done fairly much bugger all on the project over the last few days, this mostly related to my coming into a couple of games that have occupied my attention pretty much completely (even as I write this I’m thinking about playing one in particular–Mirror’s Edge). It seems the greatest threat to productivity on this game project is Other Games. Which makes sense; if I have no new, compelling games to play then my mind naturally turns to creating a new, compelling game (and game-creation is as fun a game as any, even if the rules are a little difficult to understand at times). If I have other games to play, then I’m not so concerned with creating my own game. It’s pretty much the opposite reaction I have to other media; in particular reading a great book makes me want to write a great book. It’s part of the inherent ‘difference’ of games, in that aside from an art-form (or, to be more specific, a medium) they’re also, well, games. Games that are meant to be played and enjoyed (well, the good ones, anyway).
But anyway. The things I have accomplished over the past few days, in the aggregate hour or so I’ve spent working on The Project, are the aforementioned save/restore system for combat, some minor typo corrections, the basic description of a new location, and a rather neat little system of ‘danger levels’ for different areas–green, blue, orange, red and another one that’s a secret. This came about because I noticed navigation was a little confusing–because everything’s just a text link, and because your navigation options are limited to the areas directly accessible from your current location (ie you can’t ‘cut across’ locations), it can get a little messy. So, now there’s a cute little coloured marker beside each navigation link, indicating the ‘danger level’ of that location. Green is completely safe and ‘civilised’, by which I mean humans are living there and probably trying to sell things to each other. Blue indicates an area that is free of monsters but not necessarily inhabited by humans. Orange indicates an area that, while not exactly ‘dangerous’, could be considered ‘wilderness’. Red indicates an area in which hostile monsters are known to live. The secret danger level indicates something else that’ll become important eventually. So, with this system in place things are much clearer and navigation easier–if you need to get back to ‘civilisation’, head for green, blue, orange, in that order of priority.
Anyway, the real point is that I need to summon up some discipline. As much appeal as shaving off a few seconds from Chroma holds, I’m getting into bad productivity habits. So, from now on, I’ll spend at least an hour a day working on The Project. And if I don’t, absolutely no pudding for me.
