Developer Diary: Fuelling the Fire
02 January 2003

A year has now passed since a group of us sat down and decided on the concept for a new adventure game: Project 2 was the working title.

While work has almost been completed on the story and concepts, production of finished artwork is taking sometime to get organised. This year, 2003, will be the main production period for Flummaxed, with the majority of art to be completed by the end of it.

Before the story concept was even decided on, another component of Flummaxed was already in production: the engine that will be used to run the completed game.

Game Studio, soon to become Coal, is an in-house adventure game development system that began production soon after the first release of Barry the Bum. This has allowed us to develop an engine to run the game before the game was even designed. It has also allowed for independent debugging, so that the engine can be tuned to work ideally on all computers on a separate time frame.

Game Studio is made up of individual components which allow for complete development of an adventure game. It was originally set for in-house use only, but soon took on a life of its own. It is now available as freeware online.

Over the next 6-8 months, the Game Studio will be analysed with the expectations for Flummaxed in mind, and improved to meet the requirements our biggest production will impose on it.

Soon after that, work will begin on putting the data and materials of Flummaxed into the system for you to enjoy when the game is finally released.

Both developing Game Studio and inserting the data into Game Studio makes up the huge task of programming Flummaxed. With only one programmer, me, the early development of Game Studio has given Flummaxed a freedom from the time constrains that might otherwise been imposed. Not to mention the reduction in stress that I have given myself. (Although sometimes, I wonder why I give myself so much work!) Amongst all the hard work, I am still enjoying the challenge.

Catch ya round.

Stuart Bryson
Project Leader