3/29/97
The image of Seth as a munk is complete. Theresa will probably work on the Shadonian Mage version of Seth next. I have also updated the online version of the plot. Most everything is there except the very end. Other than that, little has been done on TLOT. I started on the Bob 2 map editor last night and I need to get that project completed. Maybe, if the Bob 2 project goes well, it will mean a little bit of cash. It looks like it will be a Win95 game for sure. I personally don't care much for Win95, but all the big distros seem to think its the only way to go. If we want a company like Epic or Apogee to publish this game, we will have to shoot for Win95. TLOT will, of course, be a DOS based game still, as I want to keep it underground and develop a cult following. I want to work on a series of TLOT games all strongly related. The day TLOT goes main stream will probably be the day I decide to stop working on the series..
I don't feel well as I am doing this update. My ear is killing me.. Why my ear? What on earth caused my ear to start hurting a little while ago? If I tilt my head to the left, it REALLY hurts... Oh well, I guess I'll probably live through it.
If I finish up the Bob 2 editor over Easter break, that will be the most of my coding for Bob 2. That will leave me with game and level design mostly. That will be the fun part. I know, this weekly update section is starting to sound more like a Bob 2 weekly update... I'll try to focus more on TLOT in the weeks to come.. BTW- April 1st is my girlfriend's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY APHRODITE!
3/24/97
Ok, so the image this week has nothing to do with TLOT at all. Its actually Bob 2. I'm not coding this game, but I am very involved with it. It will hopefully be done before TLOT is. I won't give much information about it as we haven't really gotten really public yet, but I figure this update is a good underground way of informing people about the game. As far as I know, there are no links to the Bob 2 web site until now. This is a design site, not a promo site of any kind. You can watch Bob 2 grow by keeping an eye on http://www.nortexinfo.net/Zaskoda/bob2 The image is just some tiles I pasted together while I was goofn' around. Its not an actual screen shot from the game although Diing (the programmer) has sent me playable demos of the game. Anyway, now you know.. shhhh, don't tell anyone...
On the subject of TLOT, this past week was spring break, the week that I had hoped would bring me hours of time to work on my game, and all it did was give me more gray hair.. (yes, I'm 20 and I have a problem with gray hair).. It was very stressful. I say down and started playing with the temporary main loop I have trying to solve the problem I've had with un-smooth scrolling. I blamed it on the fact that I wasn't using any kind of keyboard unit, but it just doesn't seem to make perfect sence to me now. I may end up not using a keyboard unit... this will be a negative aspect on the game, but I think I may be able to work around it in game design. I have a unit that I would use, but its just not flexable enough. Unfortunately I don't know enough to write my own either. Who knows what kind of effects this will yeild. Don't be surprised if the final game scrolls as poorly as the demo I have availble for download.
I also took time and worked on the plot some more. I printed it and went though looking for gramatical errors. I was going to put the updated plot online this past weekend, but I didn't even get to my weekly updated until today (Monday). Hopefully it will be up next weekend. Here is my current game plan for TLOT-
That looks like a pretty solid update for this week... BTW, my Girlfriend's birthday is coming up.. Why don't you people register BOB so that I can afford to buy her something nice! You could atleast swipe the Get Bob Now graphic from the left (if you have frames) and put up a link from you page.. that would be cool!
3/17/97
My girlfriend created 
this weekend. She wanted to play around with my sprite
editor. She started off with one color and changed to
another, did this and that, and finally got this far.
Then we saved it and I let her look at it in the game.
As you probably can tell, she started off with one of
my sprites. I told her that I was going to put it online
and she shuddered.. *evil grin*
I donno what happen to this week. I suddenly realized a few hours ago that a week had gone by and it was time for another weekly update. WOW, I can't keep up with my life. I donno when this update will actually go online, the FTP server is messed up and I can't make updates to my page... so if the date for this update seems funny, ITS NOT MY FAULT!
Soon, probably with the next update, an almost complete plot will be put online. I am also considering writing a sprite viewer. Just a simple program to look at my .spr files. Then I might put my sprites online.. I donno for sure yet. I need to work on several other projects right now too. Who knows what I'll actually get done. Its spring break now and it looks like I will have NO free time. Life can suck eh?
3/9/97
Well, its been a solid month and no updates.. Much to my surprise, I didn't get much mail about it. I guess less people care about my weekly updates than I though.. But, I thought I'd do some updating anyway. The image this time around shows some of the sprites that will apear in the game. This shot was taken inside of my sprite editor itself.
I have a month of catching up to do.. lets see, whats changed. There has been little to no art done for the game. There probably won't be for a while. This will make it hard to do weekly updates, because I won't have anything to show. Right before I stopped making updates, Farmer Seth's picture was completed and put online.
I did a bit of coding. I added some code to my demo so that all three members of the party walk in a line al la Phantasy Star. It was just a quick hack to see what it would look like. Very little coding has been done. I am trying to get my own machine so that I can get into it again. The machine I had been working on has become over used.. It seems that my little sister has discovered IRC..
I did actually finish off the plot... finally... Actually, its still not totally done, I haven't written up the ending sequence, and I may save that for way later.. but I do have the rest of it done. I haven't put it up on the site yet, but I will probably do that soon. Right now I am going through it looking for stupid mistakes and bad spelling. I can't spell too well...
I guess some people are curious why my updates stopped. It was mostly due to the fact that the game is moving along so slowly. It is moving, don't get me wrong, but not very fast at all. Hopefully this summer will bring about good things, but as I am in need of a new vehicle soon, I may spend the entire summer working my butt off. These Past few months have gotten more and more hectic. The before mentioned problems with my girlfriend for one. If anyone cares, things are much better between us.. I lover her so very much. Take the time and tell her that Zaskoda loves her a great deal! School has also been hell. I am not finding any free time to work on the game at all. In fact, I am making this update at 4:30 in the morning. Its the only time I have free!!!!
I have been having lots of ideas for TLOT 2 lately, so I know I better get on the ball and finish up TLOT 1. This game won't be as fantastic as some people seem to think it will. I am just trying to finish a basic RPG. I am going to shoot for high rez (640x480x256) graphics and digital (.xm) music for the second installment. I've got a general idea of the plot for TLOT 2 and I'm working things into the current plot to support the sequel. If all I had to do was game design, this would be a snap!
On a final note, I'd like to thank John Romero and the rest of Ion Storm people for having us down the other weekend. It was great!! We got to death match a bit and watch Romero battle it out with Kill Creek! I'd also like to give Squirrel a special thanx for buying us lunch. Squirrel is Tom Hall's head programmer for his new RPG. My worst fears came true, now that they are designing RPGs for the PC, my games will be laughed at... But, thats not going to stop me!!!!
