LIFE Development Blog

[Jubal]

So this is to chat about the development of LIFE, a text-based adventure I'm writing (sort of partly under the auspices of the Cambridge Uni Doctor Who Society).

I've just done a big revamp of it and started making some armadilloty pixelly style graphics, so I'll be able to release a demo version sometime soon I hope

The premise of LIFE is set after Capaldi's second full episode, Into The Dalek. The "good Dalek", nicknamed Rusty by the Doctor, is now the figurehead of a growing resistance movement. You have recently arrived on a small resistance base, and have to go exploring and help out around nearby planets to eventually have a chance of counterattacking against the Dalek menace.

More updates to come!

[Jubal]

Screenshots!

It's an asteroid space station base thingy:


And the planet Phrynoris minor:


Do they look great? No, they look pretty naff. But oh well, it's better than no images at all. 

[comrade_general]

Old-school and cool I think.

[Jubal]

Thanks

I've been doing them by starting with photographs, montaging them, then crunching the image and indexing to 128 or so colours to give the 1980s feel. 

[Jubal]

Trying to make a more advanced inventory/item usage system. Failing.

[Jubal]

Actually got some development done for once :O

Have started work properly on Phrynoris Minor, the Ice world.

[Jubal]

Up to date screenshot, here we have a Thauil in its natural habitat:

[comrade_general]

THROW THERMAL POD

[Jubal]

I'm getting there, give me time

Next thing to get implemented is load/savegames, then I can start implementing lots of things that kill the player

[comrade_general]

Don't get me wrong, it's a good work.

[Jubal]

Load/Save is implemented

[comrade_general]

Well done!

[Jubal]

Today's update:
- 2 new death sequences, one for dying of exposure in the ice fields, the other for breaking thin ice and drowning in an ice lake. Might make a third death there, I'd like to have a monster that eats you but not sure what sort of thing.
- You can now get into the outer hall of the Thauil Ice City
- The output text now goes red during the death sequence
- Text for load game options added to the menus
- Game now prevents you naming your character "BACK" or "SAVES" as either of those would cause problems.

[Jubal]

Quick screenshot here from recent work - implemented a little card game called hlastak which the player can gamble on playing to gain money:

[Lizard]

- Game now prevents you naming your character "BACK" or "SAVES" as either of those would cause problems.

I am probably late to the party on this one, but if you stored all of your keywords in an array (or whatever the more efficient data storage doodle in Python is) couldn't you just check whatever the player entered against that list? Just seems like it'd save you issues down the line.