Getting Around

Over the weekend I got most of the under-code to work for the Chapter Select and the difficulty settings. So now the player can select which Chapter they want to play and at what difficulty and the game boots them right there. It works pretty well, and I like it. It still doesn't look like anything because I haven't made the art for it yet, but I'll should be able to get that in sooner rather than later. I'm not too stressed about the whole thing, especially considering all the other stuff I need to be stressed about.
Either way, I was able to add a big chunk of orange to the list. I'm trying to free up as much time as possible for animation installation. Most will go in easy. It's a relatively simple matter of calling them the right things and dumping them in the right places. For attacks I need to do data entry on their information and for others, like anything for The Thief, I need to add code.
Through some odd twist of fates, we seem to have 2 new people that want to join. Animator types. Coordination at this point in the game will be, um, tricky. But I think we can do this. I'm sure we can.

- I had coded up a timer for the Speed Running mode. A cute little thing that added cycles up to seconds up to minutes and, since I was feeling cheeky, up to hours. Then I played and I discovered something, I'm really fast. I blazed through the Tower in just over 1:30 and I can clear the first two stages in about 3:00 flat. I guess when you designed the puzzles and your line through the game is as smooth as a river pebble it's what happens. Although I have watch people play, and they tend to be a lot slower than that, but at least I know the kinds of times I should be expecting on speed run.
Oh, and then my window had an error and I closed the wrong one through the CAD menu. So that code's all gone now. I'll do it again soon.

- Finally, for the game, I found that I keep coming back to the same thing, over and over : The Game you make is the Game you have time to make. Once again I'm finding that I want to add things, to do more to make more and I find that the resource I'm in shortest supply of - time, is the one thing that prevents it. Yet, it's the one resource I simply cannot have more of. Given an option, I would push the game back. Producer me would say, "Nah, another month, we'll be good at Christmas." Yet, IGF waits for nobody, least of all our intrepid little band.
Even still, I'm trying to keep on a happy face and keep on going. We can get this done. I find that I have to believe that. We're too close not to. We're too close to fail now.

Oh, and I find myself listening to Radiohead again. For me, the official soundtrack to crunch. That old familiar feeling indeed.

Where do we go from here? The words are coming out all weird. Where are you now, when I need you?