Dirk 2: Production Diary

[TroyHepfner]

Since I went full-time at the end of June, I've been posting brief progress updates on Twitter. It just occurred to me that I should be posting them here too!

So from now on, this thread will be my official production diary for Dirk Dashing 2. Check back here for regular updates!

[TroyHepfner]

No more cheesy-looking folders for mission instructions - Dirk's got himself a spiffy new attache case for Dirk Dashing 2!

[TroyHepfner]

Revised my drawing of the first aid kit - this one looks much better. And 4 of the 6 new "treasures" are now in the game!

[TroyHepfner]

I decided to reuse the drawings for the x-ray glasses, super shoes, and bulletproof tux. But I did a new drawing for the gas grenade. (Actually I tried three different drawings until I got one that I think looks good in the game.)

I'll have to put together a screenshot for our next newsletter, so you can see some of the new artwork.

[TroyHepfner]

Today I drew some colored ID badges that Dirk will use to open various doors. Also did some brainstorming for some new gadgets and weapons. I've got some interesting ideas, but I'll have to see how difficult it might be to implement some of them.

[TroyHepfner]

Things have been pretty quiet on Dirk Dashing 2 this week, because I have been rewriting the graphics engine for Fashion Cents Deluxe to use SDL instead of OpenGL (so it will run on a wider variety of Windows and Linux computers).

However, I did take a screenshot of Dirk Dashing 2 for the August newsletter that I just uploaded! In it, you can see some of the items that Dirk will pick up in the new game.

[TroyHepfner]

Finished drawing Dirk's new PDA today, with support for the new health system and the new inventory system. It took several attempts, but I finally have a design that I really like.

[TroyHepfner]

There's a picture of Dirk's new PDA replacement in the September newsletter. Check it out!

[surfingpenguin]

Sweet! I like the name! So how will the new inventory work? How do you pick what you want to use? Do you have to bring up the PDA every time, or is there a hot key to cycle through the items? What happens when the inventory gets full?

[TroyHepfner]

Oh yeah, I didn't talk about that did I?

I designed the new inventory system to be very simple and easy to use. When Dirk touches a weapon or gadget, the item is automatically picked up and added to his inventory. The current item will be shown in the revised score box in the upper left corner of the screen (which isn't shown in the screenshot and still has to be done). You'll be able to cycle through the items in your inventory using the tab key. The space bar will be used to shoot or throw or use the current item. So you only need to bring up the PDA if you want to see your entire inventory at a glance, which might be useful for planning your next move.

When your inventory is full, you'll have to swap something out of inventory to make room for a new item. If you touch a weapon or gadget when your inventory is full, nothing will happen - the item won't be automatically picked up. But you can hit a key to swap the current item with the one Dirk is touching. The current item is then dropped, and the one Dirk is touching is picked up and becomes the new current item.

I think it's a pretty simple design. We'll see how well it works once some testers get their hands on it.