The Forgotten Element Development Diaries #2
Now that we have our funky alpha blending system working, we’ve implemented the map screen in The Forgotten Element! When you move your mouse over the various hotspots on the map, an image of the location (and it’s name) fades into the top-left part of the screen.
We’ve done this because we envisage there being quite a few main locations by the time the third act is complete and, since the map itself is quite small (and at 320×200 resolution), we wanted to make finding locations as easy as possible.
We will also be updating the location hotspot icons before the demo is released because these are rubbish, and maybe improve that stupid compass too. The town that’s selected on the image above was drawn by Philip Drake, who has been helping out with a couple of the backgrounds! Isn’t he lovely?
As a bit of a happy accident, it would appear that a nice brown map screen has quite a soothing effect on our coding monkeys. They’ve finally stopped weeing on the carpet, and have actually made some good progress with their Psion 5’s. Unfortunately, they’ve also worked out how to connect to the Internet and very nearly got us into a lot of trouble with the FBI.
Work on the dialogue has taken a turn for the better too. When I booted the game up this evening, an extra couple of scenes had been scripted! I can’t quite work out who was responsible - Lemmy or the monkeys - since both are pretty awful at writing conversations, but it’s an extra bit of the game done at any rate.
So, that’s your latest tasty gossip from Lemmy&Binky Towers! Stay tuned for more exciting, thrilling, and pant-wetting updates soon, possibly even from the monkeys.
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