Update

I have the framework of the game pretty much completed. It is fully playable, but there's only placeholder content available. I have all the animation code completed, but only one character graphic and only one frame per animation, so it's not very pretty just yet.

Also, I have a high score table for each difficulty. The game asks for the your name as you select the difficulty, and uses it when it saves your high score. I might have it ask for your name at a different time, but I'll leave it for now.

I've made the game load its settings from an xml file, which means I don't have to recompile when I tweak the game and more importantly that my client (as I'll call the guy that commissioned me) can customize the game himself after I hand it over.

Since I have the framework complete, I've started work on an editor to simplify the content-production. So far all I have is the interface for the question editor. I think that the most useful editor I will make is the animation editor. Coding the xml for the one simple character I've made so far was tedious enough. I hope to simplify and quicken the process with an editor.

A concern I have is that all the content for the game is easily accessable and editable, which means that the game can be easily hacked. Maybe down the road a bit, I'll change the format or something and allow editing only through the official editor. But not yet.

Ever since I began work on RefLib, I've had a hankering to add a little story to it. As you progress through the game, you are hired to a new library. I think it would be fun to make each library a little more sinister than the last, the librarian a little creepier. And maybe it can vary per difficulty. The easy difficulty stays happy and merry throughout the stages, but each harder difficulty shows a little more hint at the evil underneath until the hardest difficulty that shows it all.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

clevceo

Graphics

The graphics have come a long way. The patrons are now displayed on screen so you know how many there are. At the moment, they're each little circular guys. They walk from the right side of the screen into the line to ask you a question. As of yet, there are only three different bitmaps that are displayed for a patron, one for each mood. As time runs out, the patron gets impatient. Right now, there are three moods total: happy, impatient, and mad. Smile, straight-lip, and frown. However, I have the graphics ready for walking and talking. I just have to code them in.

Coding is the least of my worries right now. It's coming along and I'm enjoying it. It's the graphics that daunt me. For some reason, an ordinary png with transparency displays artifacts when the image is resized in XNA. So I have to separate the image into an opaque picture and a mask, then combine them with directx's image tool. It's simple enough, but it gets tedious when I have to do that for every single picture. So I think I might figure out how to automate part of it in GIMP, which is the imaging tool I use. I might be able to save some time that way.

Anyway, things are coming along nicely. Thanks for reading.

clevceo

Animation, Unmanaged Content

I made some major progress on the animation code. And I'm nearly done with the code that loads the animation data from the xml file. I have the structure down solid. All I have left is some touching up before I start testing it.

One thing I think I might do is support unmanaged content. That way I won't need to recompile the game every time I change some content. Also, my boss will then be able to change the content himself. It will allow for much greater flexibility.

Anyway, that's all for now. Thanks for reading.

clevceo

Update

I've made some progress. I'm working on the animation code primarily now. I have the underlying framework for the gameplay down. I'm trying to make the animation classes work in such a way that it would be easy to load them from an xml file. Meanwhile I have to create a specification for how the xml will work. It's coming along, but it still needs some time.

It's much more data driven this time around. Last time, I was planning to do the xml support later on down the road, but I discovered that it is too essential to be put off. I think that the game is all around more structured and stable than before. Once it's done, it should be easy enough to add content. I like to think I'll leave plenty of flexibility for my old boss to work with. By the end of the year, I won't be able to work on it anymore, so I'll have to hand it off. I have to do all the coding, but they can still add content after I'm gone. Thus, the coding is my first priority.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw out another update. Thanks for reading.

clevceo

Progress

I have made some progress on RefLib. I've worked a bit on the animation code, but it's incomplete and untested. Most of the work has been on the logic. It's playable, but there's only a few different questions and there are no graphics. Nevertheless, I'm moving along so much faster this time than I did last time since I'm putting the graphics off until later.

Anyway, I thought I'd throw in a quick update. Thanks for reading.

clevceo

I'm Back

Unfortunately, this last semester allowed me little time to work on RefLib. I was much busier than I expected to be. This summer semester, however, I've made sure I have a lighter workload specifically for RefLib's sake. Development is starting again.

After my last post, I made some more progress with the game. The graphics were improved and I'm sure there were code improvements, too, but it's been so long and I don't have the time to itemize them. However, that isn't important because I'm starting over anyway.

If you've read my Sever blog, you'd know that a new version of the graphics library has been released, and that I've made alot of progress on my own underlying framework. Thus, starting over would be the intelligent move, especially since I haven't touched my old RefLib code in a long time. Also, I think alot of my old code could use some improvement, the animation especially.

RefLib is at the top of my priorities this semester. I can't let it slide. And this time, unlike last time, I'm going to build the game logic before the graphics and other details. That's what killed me with both RefLib and Sever in the past.

Anyway, it's official. RefLib is back. Thanks for reading.

clevceo