A full day, but not a hue amount ticked off the list.
It was below zero overnight and next door's dog woke me at 4:30 with a bark. I didn't resleep. I thought about Doom, and how revoloutionary it was as a game, that nobody before it could have imagined a whole new genre of game about to explode onto the world. This made me think of a new game idea, something rather different than anything I've made before. The technical aspects of it are very difficult because part of the concept is infinity, but there are engine similarities with Taskforce. Perhaps I'll investigate, but I'm not sure.
This at least shows that my gaming brain has been enlivened a little.
I started the day with a big list, first filing the existing textures for Gunstorm 1 & 2 to prepare for new ones. I tested my 'Skeleton' better and found and fixed a small error concered with UFT-8 vs ANSI text files. Then I started to file, but things went a little awry. I've filed my projects in a general way like this:
CxA-Gamename (code and name of the project)
-Gamename (a folder which contains the full game version)
-Source (a folder with source code)
--Gamename (the source code, named after the game)
--Bitmap (art, if wha have some)
---Gamename (the game name again, so I can easily drag it to a useful folder)
--Other files...
But the standard was not consistent. Textures were sometimes filed with other game art, and Steam Versions needed a duplicate 'full' (or full and demo) versions, but duplicating all of the files is not efficient, so only parts were duplicated. Then there were old Amiga files...
Ultimately, I decided to develop new standards for filing the 91 projects I have archived, and this has taken all day. I now list:
CxA-Gamename
-DistributionWindows (or DistributionAmiga, or DistributionSteam) (various final game files)
-Source
--Codev100 (version number or designation of the code filed here, some games had files older versions which might be required)
--Graphics
---Bitmap
---ILBM (for Amiga games)
---Imagine (or any other graphic formats or programs)
--Sound
---Prometheus
---Tracks (for final wavs)
--Tools (subfolders with specific tools, level editors etc.)
So this process has taken all day, but prepared the way for future updates. Filing is vital for efficiency.
The only change to the games was to set the perspective correctly for narrow and widescreen, and adjust as needed. It means that Gunstorm now has a much bigger gameplay area. I may need to adjust the zoom.
The big job will be reworking the graphics. For Future Pool and Future Snooker I didn't update anything apart from the tables. This may suffice, updating only the backgrounds.
