SmokeJumpers still meeting the challenge

The AI for the wildfires behavior is the key to the game play for SmokeJumpers. How fast the wilfires move, how intense the different elements of fire are, which direction they will move and whether they will be stopped by handlines built by the smoke jumpers, by fire breaks made by aerial drops or by roads & creeks are all determined by the AI. So, it's very important for making the game play challenging and fun for the player. It's taking me longer to code the AI than I expected because it's more complexed than I had envisioned. But, I'm almost there and once it's developed it will drive most of the wildfire assignment portions of the game. When I get it completed enough to make the game play work, then I will move on to coding the determining if the smoke jumpers have completed the assignment and scoring it to award team & individual experience, leadership and public relations points. Though coding of the AI is very important to the game, it's not very interesting to report on.

Wearing all the hats as a one person indie developer can be frustrating at times because of the slow progress, but it's rewarding when you reach milestones. I think being a part of the MyDreamGamesRPG's Dream Games Contest has been an aid in keeping on track and somewhat on schedule, but there's still a lot of work left. Having read some of the other's progress blogs, I know that others are also meeting up with their own challenges to progress. It's good to see that there's still several committed to finishing their projects.