It's the "Salmon of Doubt" update...

Hello!

A post in two parts this time around. The serious stuff and then the Christmassy bit.

The serious stuff

So progress on the re-wiring continues but it is, as you can imagine, as much fun as attending a Speed Awareness Course in the UK*.

It's a dull, long slog that requires me to take out old code, apply the new more extensive code, ensure the right images are in and that the PDA is interfacing with the images correctly and isn't crashing the game. There's nothing fun about it, nor indeed is there anything really that stimulating about it either. So I've been a bit of a cheesed off dev of late. Another reason I'm not around much. I'd only moan at you all about how awful things are.

I did the wrong thing

A situation not helped by me starting to think I'd made a terrible error of judgement. Not in applying the new GUI, I'm happy in that that had to be done but the Salmon of Doubt had started weighing heavily on me as the thought occurred to me (as I'm sure it had to many of you) that what I should have done was get Chapter Five out and -then- do the GUI. It would have kept momentum, kept your interest and allowed me to show off a bit.

With this thought in my mind every time I cranked up the PC to do more installation work, the Salmon grew bigger and bigger. "I've fucked this one up." was the refrain rattling around in my head. It didn't stop me doing what I had to do of course, but I've been as miserable as sin about screwing  it up again.

At least I was until I fired up Chapter Five to check some pathways and ended up having a bit of a play.

I did the right thing

In doing so three things struck me as to why this wasn't quite as dumb a course of action as I had started to consider it as. To kick off with,  I realised that one of my favourite scenes would probably not be played by a lot of players. Not because of any demanding requirements. No standing outside a certain room at a certain time holding a haddock** to trigger it or anything like that. No, the scene is a logical consequence of actions taken - and it's a damned good one. 

But it does lay on a path that some players may well have considered a dead end or suspected that it closed off certain options - when in fact the opposite was the case. Now,  I'm not for one moment suggesting that players should play paths for scenes. (Although you can. You play H5 how you want to.) But I am suggesting that some players could well end up sailing past a lot of content purely because they have no idea it's there.

It also then dawned on me that if I did leave the GUI work until Six it would just be an even bigger mountain to climb than it is now. This year has been fairly horrible anyway so I may as well just get it all done and out of the way now to crack on in future.

Finally.....oh God, finally, the old GUI is awful. I mean I knew it wasn't great and looked a bit basic but....having not seen it in action for a while and having the new one to compare to it. Well, I'm honestly ashamed of it. I think it's a bit like when you have an old car that's a bit rough and the suspension is slightly shot and so the ride is awful. I mean, you know it's not great but it does the job so you just get used to it. It's not until you get a lift in someone's S Class or Jag XF that you're suddenly given that cold shower of realisation that, actually, your car drives terribly. 

So taking all those three things together cheered me up a little. It was the right thing to do, doing it now would be easier than waiting and once done, the horrible old GUI will vanish from people's sight. I became slightly less grumpy, indeed even...cheery. Which brings me to the second part of this post.

It's getting close to Christmas!

At first I was just going to apologise for not doing anything for Chrimbo, on the grounds that I'm slogging through the rewiring but that seemed a bit....well not very seasonally minded. Then I thought "Well, I could do a Chrimbo render" but that seemed a bit lame given what you've had to put up with this year. I also considered doing another Christmas story parody but I've been to that well last year and it seemed a bit samey.

So what have I got you for Christmas this year?

A game. 

I started it on Monday and wrapped it up today. It's a complete little mini game, with several thousand frames of animations, a few funny scenes, Becca making an appearance and Sarah as an animated Chibi...

It's just going through a bit of testing with the boys but I should be able to release it over the next day or so. It's rather fun, being a challenge to beat but not a grind either. I hope you enjoy it.

Laters!

Notty

* This is something you can do as opposed to getting points if you're caught speeding in the UK *coughs*. If you ever attend one and they do the round table thing of asking why people speed I can advise you that acceptable answers are "I was in a rush; I was stressed, I didn't know the road, I didn't know the speed limit." These answers get you a smile and a nod. They even write them on a whiteboard!

I can also advise you that an unacceptable answer is "The drivers situational assessment of a safe speed in that location - taking into account the road and weather conditions, the weight of traffic and their knowledge of their cars performance and ability to come to a stop - differs from the enforceable speed limit set by someone behind a desk 180 miles away in 1977, when the Morris Marina was the height of safety." This absolutely does not get you a smile - and they don't put it on the whiteboard either!

** I've no idea why all the fishy analogies today. Although, I am in the mood for fish and chips so perhaps that's it?