Plan for David House

Distractions, Distractions...

Distractions are one of the big challenges to indies, right? Well, I've had plenty over the last few weeks. From real work issues ( my day job ), to model rockets, my sons band competitions, playing around with some DirectX code, and finally my internet modem quitting on me yesterday!

I have almost finished my T2D game Fruit Stack. I want to include some crazy sound effects, so I have my son and his best friend lined up to do them for me. They have some great ideas, I just need to get off my duff and get them recorded. I already have the code in the game for the sounds, just no sounds! I also have 2 screens I need to finish: A start screen that explains the controls, and a finish screen when the game is over. Would have done this a long time ago, but see distractions above.

Another distraction was working on a 'cinematic' system for T2D. I'm using it on the games main menu for some animations. Its working very well and I'm really happy with it. What it needs badly is a UI for creating the animation scripts, however. So again, once I get motivated again then I'll start work on that. Once I have the Editor in place, I think it will be helpfull for others.

And finally, I have decided about my next T2D project. I've always enjoyed turn-based war games that aren't so complicated you have to have a military degree to figure them out. It all started when I found a game called 'empire' for DOS. You had armies, and tanks and stuff that you moved around, capturing cities and such. Then of course game 'Empire Deluxe' that was for windows. I played that thing for months ( years probably ). Civilization came along and introduced even more to this genre. And of course I can't fail to mention Advance Wars that has consumed lots of my time. So what I'm thinking is a game that combines a few elements from Civ and Advance Wars. I like the exploration, city management stuff from Civ, but I hate its combat. There is no strategy involved at all. I'm a tactician, so I want to explore that more. Anyway, I have enough ideas now on paper to build a prototype. I'll update my plan again once I have something to show.