Project Diary

First, I must apologize for the irregular updates lately. With
intensive work going on for a major proof-of-concept prototype next month, the
Dark joint is really jumpin' lately. Likewise, I haven't been keeping up on our
reader email, so if you've written in the last month or so, rest assured I
haven't just snubbed you; I'll dig through it all "real soon now," as they say.

Plenty of stuff going on since the last update.

Chris,
in his guise as physics guy is getting doors in this week, much to the joy of
designers everywhere. Tom
is in the final stages of getting our scripting language together, which will
really unblock our upcoming (mid-January) gameplay prototype. Many
correspondents have noted that our current "gameplay" movie is heavy on bow
combat and light on thievery: the simple reason is that bow combat is just about
the easiest part of our game to implement. The next month or two will be when we
really get into the meat of the gameplay, with lockpicking and pickpocketing
mechanics coming on line, plus hand-to-hand combat, and AI and scripting support
for more interesting creature behaviors.

We've got two missions now pretty firmly in development for the January
prototype, with architecture and concepts being developed on the side for
several more. With twenty-odd missions ahead of us, I'd say it's none too soon.

In other news, Josh,
Dan
and company have put together our first between-acts movie, and I must say that
even at this early stage, with much editing still to be done and real voice
actors yet to be cast, it looks pretty cool. We're trying to get away from the
all-computer-rendered look that's so common these days, and I think you'll
ultimately agree that the mighty artwork of Mr. Thron more than justifies
the decision.

That's all for now. Until next week (no, really, I mean it this
time). -Tim