Monday, May 29, 2006

Game Info: General Progress, and ASL

The development of this game is tertiary to the other aspects of my life: work, family, and fitness. Nevertheless, Faeguard consumes a healthy portion of my mental processes, whether I'm excercising, hammering together a house, or hangin' out at home. So progress is steady. I estimate anywhere from 1 to 4 hours a day are invested in actual coding and testing. You might say that the thought of working on this game is a joy I wield against the daily grind. OCD? I hope not.

I realize that many gaming projects get started while few actually finish. Aware of this, I used to approach Faeguard with a grain of salt. But I have found that the happiness of building this game is not so much the thought of the end product, but of the work involved. I love coding. I am amazed that simple lines of text can, step by step, become sophisticated programs.

I am working on my ameoba, prodding it towards reptilian-dom, nudging it upwards to mammal-hood. And then finally, with luck, hoisting it over that fence into the sapien grass-way.

I not only love coding, but I love coding in the ASL that Alex of Axe Software has created. If you are by any means interested in Interactive Fiction or text games, go check out Quest. Quest is an interpreter that "interprets" text files written in the ASL format. ASL is a set of rules that govern the way information (text) is written. It allows another program, an interpreter, to understand and utilize the information (text) it governs. You may read up on ASL here. Alex also created the QDK, or Quest Development Kit, for those who are uncomfortable coding in text. The QDK allows one to create games in ASL within a graphical interface, (ie, Window-esque).

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