Day to day development log of Evil Baron Lachie
Lachie D.(27.03 - 06.04, 2005)

DAY 1(27.03.2005):
5 hours of doing the graphic. Main ship sprites, enemy ship sprites.
85% of it done! I'm sick.

DAY 2:
3 more hours of doing the graphic. 95% of it done! I'm sick.
2 hours of doing the code. Removing stuff from BBF code, keeping some
layers(projectile and explosion), main menu code, data loading code and
similar stuff. Adding the variables I need and removing the ones I don't
need. Initializing the main menu(It works! :P). Going to sleep(02:00).
I'm sick.

DAY 3:
Started working today around 23 hours. I was watching The Body. Can't believe
my stupidity. Anyway, an hour of doing some more graphic. 2 and a
half hour of doing the code. Had to remove a lot of more crap I don't need
from the original code. Added animation in main menu(Baron is picking his
nose, wohooo!). Stole the delay routine from Unofficial Tournament(can't
believe it's so simple). Adding the game options menu. Making foundation code
for the real game like ship position and type loading from the outside files
and creating the subs for drawing the enemy and player ships. Added code for
moving the player ship. Had huge problems making the invader ships move
correctly when they change the direction. Got a headache but fixed it. Now
I can go to sleep(02:40). I'm sick.

DAY 4:
Around 4 hours of doing the code. Today it was going so smooth you wouldn't
believe it. Practically done 90% of the code related to waves. Now the ship
can move an shoot, shield paddles move and the force field can be
activated/deactivated. Invader ships now shoot. All collision it done an it's
position based. You know, 'IF PlayerShip.X>EnemyShip.X' kind of crap. Crude
but nothing more complicated is needed for this type of game. Don't have
time or will to test if RelLib collision routines work ok with this game so
fuck it. The effect is the same. Added inter-wave animation that appears
before each level at the end of today coding session. I still need to add
special pickups code. Don't know if pickups should appear from destroyed
invaders or only from the cargo ship passing in the top of the screen. Crap, 
I need to draw that ship. Forgot. Also, game needs to be balanced but since
I only have one level implemented so far, later. Ah, and the status bars!
Uh, I hate making games. I like starting making game and releasing them but
this...fuck. After coding I went on to draw the game options background
screen. I hate doing that kind of shit. But I think I'm done with it.
Spent 50 minutes with it. Turned off the PC before 02:00. Wohoo!

DAY 5:
Fuck, it's already day 5 and I still didn't started designing the remaining
levels. I'm too slow. Started working today around 22:30. Was watching
Elizabeth. I expected more from the director of The Bandit Queen. Elizabeth
was so dull. Worked around 40 minutes on the graphic. Drawn the cargo ship
sprites and slightly changed some stuff on the energy bars. Around 3 hours
of doing the code. Added the code related to cargo ship and special modules
that appear when you destroy the cargo ship and which can be picked up.
Coded pretty much the entire look of the status bar(hull bar, ect). Added
the code for the rocket projectiles(the speeding up thing). Hopefully I'll
have more time tomorrow to work on the level design. Fuck, it's 02:15.
Good night!

DAY 6:
Today I had one of those crappy coding session. When you just don't feel
happy with the crap you need to put into the code to make the game work
so you could release it before the competition deadline. When you design
enough of the game for playing and realize that the gameplay sucks.
There are simply not enough invader ships per wave. Waves last too short.
But I know the gameplay will get better in higher waves when the game and
invader ships get tougher. I just hope people won't give up on the game after
playing first few crappy waves. Maybe invader ships should have more hull
integrity from the start. Fuck, I hate balancing the game difficult. Anyway,
I finished designing first 4 levels. Implemented code for 2 more ship types
(ship characteristics and their projectiles related stuff). Implemented all
weapons. Implemented scoring. And...crap...not much more. A lot of wandering.
Like I said, crappy coding session. Started working on the first Boss
wave(wave 5). Finished collision with the wave 5 boss and code related to
boss primary projectiles. Finished the dialogue scene that appears before the
battle but I hate it. So I might change it. What will be annoying is coding
wave 5 boss death animation. Must finish that thing tomorrow and find and
hour to clean up the code. I hate this mess. Was coding around 5 hours today.
It's 02:24. Turning off the PC...

DAY 7:
Today was a slightly better day. Started coding around 22:00. Was watching
Carnivale and The Office. The Office is brilliant. Love it. Anyway, coded
around 5 hours. I added end level animation where the paddles rotate and
follow the main ship. It's not something great but gives the game a certain
touch. I was avoiding to do this for some time because of the sheer laziness.
Redesigned first 4 levels in attempt to make them more difficult. Gave one
ship under type 4 hull integrity of 2 to increase the difficult. Increased
the ratio of invaders' shoots. Overall, first 4 levels are still easy but
not a picnic. Pretty much finished all the code related to boss 1. Not
really happy with anything related to that boss but what is done is done.
Can't help it. Changed the dialogue with boss 1 but it still sucks. I
just hope people won't complain about it too much. I'll try to finish
the story graphic tomorrow, add the highscore and start designing
the remaining 4 levels. Must draw end boss sprites(s) too quite soon.
Uh, I just hope I'll be able to wrap this up in next 3-4 days.
It's pass 3 o'clock after midnight. Ah, I can't fall asleep before 04:00
anyway. I'm that sick. Good night!

DAY 8:
I started working today around 20:30 and made a break at 21:45 to watch
Finding Forrester. Originally it supposed to start at 20:15 but it was pushed
forward because of the Pope's critical condition. And guess what happened?
Pope dies in the middle of Finding Forester and fucks up my evening!
I'm disgusting? Stop being so touchy and get real. 
Anyway, I only had time to do the story graphic and animation code and I'm
still not done. Fuck this shit! I can't believe I created such a fucked up
story that requires so much god damn stupid illustrations. But I almost
finished it. I'll wrap up this thing tomorrow, draw the end boss sprites(s)
and design the last 4 waves. The day after that I plan to add the highscore
routines and implement the encryption. Hopefully will have time to do
the instructions. I'm just mad at myself for creating such a complicated
story to draw and to code. I'm such a stupid fuck. You can forget about end
game animation and story animation that supposed to appear after boss 1.
It's 02:56. Good night!

DAY 9:
Started working today around 22:00 and worked about 4 hours. Finished story
animations. Story required some more work in Pixel Plus because some sprites
were not so good when put into animation. The story intro is not something
special but having in mind other QBasic games it's something not so often seen.
I just hate I had to spend so much time on it and will probably leave me
no time to do the end game animation. Animation appearing after you destroy
the first boss might appear but it won't be the one I originally imagined.
Finished end boss sprites. Finally. Implemented fadeout/fadein routines which
are part of RelLib and which I finally learned to use while working on LONG
few months ago. Designed the next 3 levels(8 totally out of 10) so little
work is left to be done in that department. Added characteristics for all
the invader ships and code needed for their projectiles. I'm pretty sure
I'll finish the actual game tomorrow(only one level do design and add code
for end boss) and be able to have time to balance the difficult. What's
is bothering me is that I will probably have to create a second module
and move the story intro in there because I compiled the game and I have
very little memory left. What's also left is to add the dreaded instruction and
highscore. That's "must do" work. Extra animations and more perfect gameplay
balancing is to be seen. I have some college work to do and I want to read
properly the last issue of QBExpress and send a nice email to Pete.

DAY 10:
Well, finished designing all 10 waves but did not had time to test how 
difficult is to pass the entire game. I still need to add the dialogue 
with the end boss and the end boss death animation. What pissed me off 
is writing stupid instructions. I can't believe I need so many words 
and sections to explain a stupid Space Invaders clone. The instructions 
are ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE and I spent hours working on them. And still 
didn't add needed graphic into it. Fuck. It's 02:40 and I fucking hate 
my guts!

DAY 11:
Just before getting to bed yesterday I decided that I will not release
or try to release a full version of Evil Baron Lachie for the competition.
Therefore I decided to release a Competition Edition with 7 waves despite
the fact I designed 10 waves and done all the graphic for end boss.
I realized that I will not have time to do the rest of the work which
includes story animations, end boss dialogue and end boss death, highscores,
better balancing, PC Speaker sound effects and probably dozen of more
smaller things and nitpicks. I do have physical time to finish this
because today is 06.04.2005 and the competition deadline is on 17.05 but
sadly I have other things to do, including some college stuff and
some stuff regarding QBExpress. I also have an exam on the 14th so I need
to clear my mind during the last week before the exam. What I did today
is added more ships in each wave, made a routine that prevents invader
ships to shoot another projectile while one of their is still on the screen
and raised the frequency of their shoots. This makes the game slightly
more difficult. I also finished the instructions so now they are not that
horrible. Tested the game a bit and that's it. There are probably bugs in
the game and the gameplay is not the way I want it to be but for a
competition I think it's something acceptable. Evil Baron Lachie now seems
like something perfect for porting to fB. Having proper sounds in this
game would be great.

Cheers!


                                                      
