6/28/97
This week, progress on Talibah was very slow. I bought a new vehicle, a white S10 pickup truck. Now on top of everything else I have to make truck payments... It was last week that I decided to buy a new vehicle after I broke down on my way to work. I work in a little room with lots of computers so they keep it very cold (~68 degrees). I always dress with a long sleeve shirt and such. The day I broke down, although it was still morning, was hot.. I walked about 2 miles that day in the sun dressed for cold weather.. I was slightly moody.
Anyway, I did do more artwork this week. I worked mostly on the Forest Town and Temple tile sets. This week's image is from the Temple tile set. It is the least complete of the two. If you click on this week's image you'll find a small collection of varied enviornments in TLOT. I'm really getting a good feeling about the variety in the game. The tiles are starting to get a consistant feel about them yet are varied enought to give each place in the game its own aura.
I've written e-mail to a few people over the past few weeks inviting them to look at my page and give me comments. One of them was an editor over at Game Spot. I mention that one only cause it was the first I wrote to. I haven't gotten a responce from any of them. I guess I'm not suppose to tell them about my game, I'm just suppose to let them find me... Well, perhaps when I enter beta testing I will offer to send them beta copies. If just ONE of these magazines/web sites were to take interest in me now, I'd give them exclusive stuff later.. but I guess I'm still to little for them to do anything but snub their noses at me. BTW- other than having ignored me, Game Spot is a pretty cool place with lots of good info.
Well, that brings this week to a close. I've got to tear into some code soon as I am running out of summer, but my art just isn't close enough to being ready. What to do, what to do...
6/21/97
I've worked a bit on the forest town tile set. Its not going anything like I had planned, but I will just let it develop however it wants to. As I look through the tile sets I have I am beginning to feel like I've done something. I'm really getting alot of varied enviornments together! Once I get a few more .SET files completed I will work on the game's source again. I will add NCPs and make the overworld work completely. Then, its on to things like menus and battle engines! WooP!
I bought a copy of YODA STORIES the other day. I saw the little characters with big heads and thought about console RPGs such as Final Fantasy. I didn't know what to expect, but with "Lucas Arts" on the lable I thought it had to be great!... I was wrong. the game doesn't exactly scroll.. Have you ever played one of those PC rpgs were you move a solid block at a time instead of scrolling? Its almost that bad. Just trying to walk around annoy me so much I can't seem to get into that game. The graphics actually look pretty sharp... and it might be fun... but now I kinda want my 19.95 back ;)
I've been meaning to update more stuff on the site.. For one thing, I think I will remove the java from main.htm... I keep getting MSIE people telling me about how it didn't work.. It appears that the script only shuts down a few versions of MSIE.. Another thing I've been planning on doing is a full character update.
A few nights ago we had a LAN party at my house. Three of my friends brought over thier PCs and we battled it out! We played a couple games of 5 player Warcraft 2 and lots of Quake. If I ever open my own software devlopment house, I want to focus alot of effort into multiplayer games.
If I thought I was poor before, I'm really going to be poor now! My blazer farted and fell on me so I'm buying something new. Now I have monthly payments to deal with (yuk).. I'm shooting for a white 97 S10 pickup truck.... Maybe I'll actually save money this way though, my blazer may have been costing me more than payments will cost..
Back on the subject of TLOT, I created a new title screen that will very possibly be the final title screen. I like it alot. I'm going to save it a while before I show it to anyone. I might let the readers of the mailing list take a look at it though. If you are interested in getting on the mailing list, read back a few updates to find instructions.
One last note, as few people might have noticed that ELC's web site was gone for a while! I was scared to death myself. It appears that it is back up and running now (thank god) but on a new server. It is now located at http://www.i-web.net/gamemusic/ If you have a wave table sound board, there is a trove of great music there to listen too!
6/14/97
It's been a few weeks since I made the weekly screenshot linkable to another image. This weeks big project has been the Industrial Town tile set so that's what the shots are of. You can click on this weeks image to view 6 screen shots of the editor pasted together. I ran out of room in this set very quickly. The desert town has just sand as your basic ground tile. This set, however, has sand as well as asphalt. Not only that, but there are boat tiles because this is a port town. I had plans for a big wooden crane for loading stuff onto the boats, but I don't have enough tiles left in the set. All I can do now is add a few odds and ends such as spooled up ropes or barrels or something. I donno.. I might give this tile set a rest and move onto the forest set soon. I'm sure I will be adding a few bits and pieces to each set before I'm done with the game.
I'm still trying to get my speeding ticket taken care of. My speedometer was broken at the time so I may not have to pay for the ticket, but I will probably have to pay to get the speedometer fixed. On top of that, the pucks in my left front brake are sticking causing my brakes to clamp down on me. Imagine driving around with the brake about halfway to the floor. They stick more when the tire is hot so short trips are usually ok. I took my girlfriend out last night and they stuck so bad at one point I had to squeal the tires just to take off from a stop sign. I think this repair is going to cost my ass =(
This week I got another registered Bob user!! Woo Hoo!!! Eight more bucks to my name! Now if 100 more people will register maybe I can afford a new machine. TLOT is being developed on the family machine and my little sister has fallen in love with IRC. If you see Ziska on DALnet ask her if her brother could be working on the game right now... Anyway, if I can get my own machine I won't have to worry about as many interruptions.
I took the time to fix a lot of spelling mistakes in the plot the other day. Not much of a change, but a little less distracting to read now. Also, Brian Crews (the artist who did the battle character images and monsters) wrote me a letter. He is still insterested in doing the story scene artwork. From the rate I'm moving at now, it looks like he might be back from Hong Kong well before I finish the game. Only the shadow knows...
6/8/97
Its really not that late, but I'm very tired. I got up at 5:30 this morning to go with my girlfriend to Wichita Falls. I'm guzzling Sam's Choice colas and eating snickers so that I have enough energy to make it through the night.
The image this week is of the new industrial town tile set. Its kinda like a port town thing. I'm working on boat tiles right now so that I can have boats in the harbor. I also want things like boxes and crates around.. cargo nets and maybe some kinda crane.. I donno if I will actually draw those tiles, but thats the plan right now. Once the Industrial Town tile set is done, I have to make the forest town, village, castle, temple, graveyard, and some other things. I also have to make ALOT more sprites.
Its official now, the game will contain CD music. I finally found a lib that I think will work for my needs. I will put it into beta testing soon. The way I might handel sales goes something like this: The shareware version will be the complete TLOT from beginning to end. The soundtrack will be on CD and will cost XX dollars. This will be considered registering. The CD will probably contain an install program and such also. I would think that the public would LOVE that idea as you can play the entire game for free by getting the shareware, but all of you die hard console style rpg fans know that the game just isn't the same without music. Who knows for sure though, thats just an idea.
Ok, we have a mailing list now!! To subscribe to the mailing list, send a message to listserv@tlot.natronix.com with "subscribe tlot" in the body of the message. Once you are subscribed, you can send mail to tlot-list@tlot.natronix.com to post to the mailing list. Feel free to start up any conversations you want on this mailing list. Please, at least take the time to subscribe to it, everyone is welcome. Everyone can thank Nathan Seeley for setting up the mailing list!
One thing I've really learned is that its very hard to develop good tiles and maps if you can't actually walk behind things. I am not going to change this for TLOT, but you can sure bet I will implement a totally different style of engine next time I have to code a new engine. I donno if that will be TLOT 2 or 3 though. I was asked a while back if I would consider licensing out the TLOT engine once the game was complete. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. From the start, I've been planning on finishing TLOT and scapping all the code and starting fresh with TLOT 2. I might just use the TLOT engine for a few other things once I finish TLOT and put off devloping a new engine for a little while. Once again, who knows... BTW- everyone remember, I still have no distributor. I'm hoping someone like Apogee, Epic, or Interplay wants to publish it... ok ok.. I'll stop dreaming ;)
