What 6 Months Buys You...

Six months of casual development, and I can offer a new screenshot. We're getting closer. :-) What you see is my desktop, with three windows: 2 game screens, and a world screen.

The 2 game screens represent a game in progress, between Yogi and Loki The Great. The third screen is the world view of Lester The Bunny. Note, you can see the two other players playing at the table. Some things to see:

* The games are in sync. They really are playing! When one player moves, the other player sees it, and can then respond.

* Multi-player works. There are three distinct connections at the moment.

* Multi-screen works. We see both the game screens and the world screens. When playing a game, the player will see the chessboard...and only then. (Game watching comes later.)

Of course, there is so much more to do! And there's a couple little buggies, and I do need to clean up some code. But, what a great base to work from.

Thinking about it this way...with a working world and working gaming, everything builds off this foundation nicely! Here are some features that will be built over the coming months:

* Map Editor - This needs to be written to create the rooms. The editor I'm using now, Tile Studio, pretty much sucks for general use.

* Graphics - All the graphics are temporary. They are placeholders until I'm done. Both Michele and my friend Ramon will hopefully be able to help out as I go.

* Chat - There will be in-game chat, and it should be fun to write. :-)

* Ratings - There will be ratings calculated based on game results.

* Login - Currently, connecting to the server merely wins you a randomized username. Ultimately, you will be usiing your very own login/password to get in to the system.

There's a ton more to do, but like I said, building off this foundation will make it more fun. I still have at least 6 more months to go...it will be a long stretch.

Unfortunately, the next step is writing the map editor. This will be a completely separate application, and will advance me no further on the game. It was unforseen, and will add to the timeline. But it's necessary.

Hopefully, I can get it done within a month, and then I will be able to create interesting rooms in Avatara and finally soldify the world code and allow me to expand in all areas from there.