friday 9:31pm

After much talking/deliberation/thinking, we eventually came up with the
idea: the player drives an ambulance in a top down game, and must pickup
wounded people before falling bombs reach the ground. A mouse/joystick
driven control system allows easy movement and speed control. Picking up
wounded people happens automatically when a stopped ambulance is near
them. Obstacles prevent trivial paths. The game is level based, with each
level increasing difficulty in terms of wounded people to help, number
of bombs and obstacles, and limited time. There is no definite winning
condition to the game, progress is determined by the number of wounded
people recovered. Additionally, certain levels will have a giant missile
aimed at the game area, which will destroy everything in sight when they
reach the ground and explode. The player must have left the area before
the explosion, or be destroyed with it, ending the game. A timer will be
available for the player to know how much time is left to recover people.
- v

friday 10:40pm
Some gfx done. They will be converted to XPM (C text image file ;). Vincent
has begun coding an XPM to Allegro bitmap function.
- a

friday 11:14pm
The XPM loader works, and I've written a simple object hierarchy for the
different things in the world. Nothing fancy for the moment, and I'm
beginning to be tired, so I'm going to go to sleep just now.
- v

saturday 8:57am
First cleanup: xpm reader is now fixed (it read wrongly color specs), and
moved in its own module so to be reusable (and it's in plain C now). I've
reworked my object hierarchy, and begun splitting up the source into files.
XPMs can now be read and displayed properly. Next, I'm going to create a
simple hardcoded map creator, and see what it all looks like with Annie's
first gfx. After that, I think Annie'll do a random map generator. Then
probably the control system. And after that ... we'll see :)
- v

saturday 2:40pm
The game is taking shape now. We've got an ambulance going around, craters,
walls, and trees. The control system is in, but could do with some tweaking.
I'll add a turn speed, and it should be pretty much done.
Next on the list: getting the gfx darker, so I can add explosion lights
when bombs touch the ground. Also a nifty idea from Annie: beams for the
ambulance, which will help distinguish both ends (the sprite is pretty
small as it stands now).
- v

saturday 6:04pm
The random map generator is done. It needed a more complex collision system
than the one Vincent did, so i made another one, with bugs.
- a
Wounded people can be picked up, and Annie fixed the collision system.
- v

saturday 8:06pm
It's all going well and fine. Bombs are in, and blast walls and people. The
ambulance, too, but the game does not end yet when this happens.
I've also linked EGG in and whipped together a little animation class,
which should work very soon.
I also modified the makefile to allow easy customization, thinking of the
poor people who do not have the luck of being Linux users ;)
-v

saturday 21:17pm
Anims are working now, after some bug hunting (as it turns out, the bug was
in EGG itself *blush*). Bombs now explode with a nifty little fireball, all
this generated at run time from a script. No external data, all in the code,
true to the rules :)
There is also a crude "Destroyed" screen when the ambulance is hit by a bomb.
I think I'm going to do the little beams now :)
- v

saturday 22:30pm
Damn, I really should stop playing it :)
Going to sleep, tomorrow will be making it an actual game, with levels
increasing in difficulty, joystick support (though I won't be able to test
it due to lack of the abovementionned piece of hardware), and various other
bits and bobs.
Good night!
- v

sunday 8:44am
Back to "work" :)
- v

sunday 9:57am
Vincent made the ambulance an obstacle (and not a point) in the game.
Ambulance gfx are now bigger and there are more symbols. I think it's now
possible to be blocked between walls and trees.
- a

sunday 10:19
The game now detects when all the wounded have either been killed or picked
up, and uses basic command line parameters (resolution, color depth, etc).
The last big thing left to do is the level system. And maybe add some menus
or title screen. Oh, and sounds and joystick support. But the level system
is the only thing that's preventing the game from being an actual game.
Off to do that.
- v

sunday 1:09pm
Level completion and progression is now in, though there are only a handful
of levels yet, without any design.
I still have to do joystick and sounds, so that's probably what I'm going
to be doing next.
- v

sunday 2:33pm
Sounds are in, along with a little tool to convert an Allegro SAMPLE in
its C representation, in an effort to keep the competition organizer happy :)
Note to self: I must remember to remove the test donkey sound from last
SpeedHack...
Now, let's do sound actual sounds effects.
-v

sunday 2:36pm
Oh, and did I tell you that I envtually fixed this annoying bug which was
making the can rotate a whole full circle at a time ? :)
And Annie fixed the map generation to avoid impossible and too difficult maps
(we hope). It's not always easy to ensure this, but it seems to be working.
-v

sunday 5:38pm
We now have sounds: some cute cries... Vincent has begun to play them in the
game.
- a

sunday 7:55pm
Sounds are now all in, we have a selection screen, and light beams for the
ambulance. Now left (quick): a score screen, level design.
- v

sunday 10:30pm
That's (almost) it. Only things left now are the title screen (maybe), and
the readme. Level design is done, end screen too. Ready to ship! :)
-v


