Complex 1

Pixel Station continues to progress well. I've spent a good few hours today coding and adding new graphics and sound effects.

There's still a long list of things to do but the game is starting to take shape with a host of functionality up and running now.

Collision detection is always fiddly but as of this evening, it's working well. I used Bresenham's line algorithm to check line-of-sight when shooting and will also use this to determine if an enemy can see the player. Fortunately, someone posted a Java implementation of the algorithm and it was a simple cut & paste effort which worked first time.

Inventory management is nearly complete - this has also turned out to be be an involved task, partly due to Java still being something of a second language for me.

A simple storyline is still floating around in my head so I'm developing the game to fit around that. Or rather, the storyline has evolved from the direction in which the game has been headed, with the various limitations of me and what makes a good game.

I'm hoping for an early summer release, which gives me about three months to get everything done and polished. At this point, that seems like ample time but experience tells me these things don't often turn out quite as I'd imagined.