July 12th, 2011
Currently in port in Bahrain, and sweating my ass off. Even with the AC blowing right on me, it reads about 99 in here. I think it will cool off a bit once we get back underway, and we’ve concocted a plan to “modify” the bulkhead using a massive drill and some pretty beefy drill bits so that we can spit the hot air out into a different space and seal ours up with a watertight hatch. As hot as it is up here, it’s getting kind of difficult to focus on programming. I’ve been working for a few days now, and just can’t seem to make a script interpreter that will do the sorts of things I need. I think the best way to do it is to add some code in the event that triggers every 100ms, something like:
if level=japan then
if horsedude.x less than some arbitrary value
horsedude.x+=10
if dude.x greater than a little less than that same arbitrary value && emily_captured=false then
emily_captured=true
horsedude.sprite=horsedudewithemily
dialoguebox(number_corresponding_to_a_conversation_in_a_text_file)
if horsedude.x less than a different arbitrary value && emily_captured=true
horsedude.x+=15
elseif horsedude.x greather than or equal to that arbitrary value just now && emily_captured=true
horsedude.sprite=nothing
Also, the more and more that I think about it, the closer I come to scrapping most of the Wild West level. The horserace thing is kind of neat, but will require so much more coding; it’s completely unique in the program, there’s nothing reusable in there. I feel like it might be something I could think about if I get everything finished and still have plenty of free time (and I’m not tired of staring at a computer screen after 5 months). Until then, I need to spend some time coming up with a different idea. Way back when the game was still in its basic concept stages, I wanted another dream level with a noir-detective-mobster sort of atmosphere. Maybe if I can flesh it out well enough, I can use that instead. It would certainly be easier to come up with music for that level than the western one. I could even keep the bar at the beginning; Emily is a lounge singer, and some mobsters bust in… Yeah, I think I can make this work.