__48 Hour Game Time and Design Log__

__Friday__

18:26 - Event has started, Im basically done answering questions and posting stuff, so going to start
	thinking about the game design now.
19:02 - I decided on my theme.  I'm going to do a turn based game based on politics, trading and 
	stuff like that.  You will have to Protect A Country, which is the smallest country on 
	the planet.  :)
	
	The country is named Feebania, and your citizens are Feebs.  You are bordered by various 
	countries with dislikes and disdain for you, some of whom are at war with each other.  
	Your country is in a recession, and threatened by a possible depression, which means there 
	is a chance for civil war to break out.  I'm also going to try to make this game funny if 
	possible, and with politics I dont see why it wouldn't be possible.  ;)
	
	I'm getting information from the CIA World Factbook about contries to see what kinds of 
	things I should include in the game (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ ).
	
	Making new files for design issues:
		Design_data.txt and Design_plans.txt

20:00 - Got my first basic map drawn, may be all I need, just need to label the contries.

20:26 - Labeled the countries, and uploaded the map for all to see.  First screen for me up.

	http://ludumdare.com/user/1/shot1_map.jpg

	You play: El Presidente of Feebania
	
	Other countries:
		Attakistan - always looking to move into your territory
		Angrolia - has been shouldering a grudge against Virtulund forever
		Cashico - the rich kid on the block, pushing others around financially, but is land locked
		Virtulund - The righteous nation that wants to right all wrongs, especially in others.
	
	Also bordering the Trubled Sea where shipping and water type problems come from.
	
22:48 - Just finished drawing a bunch of cut out guys with a South Park rip off theme.  I made them
	all out of layers so that I could mix and match them.  I think I'm going to make their eyes 
	and mouths and stuff in separate files so I can switch guys you're talking with emotions as
	you deal with them.  :)
	
	Second screen shot uploaded to LD.
	
	http://ludumdare.com/user/1/shot1_guys_s.jpg

23:30 - Since I've heard these kind of politics/strategy games are called "Spreadsheet" games, I've
	decided to use one to build it.  So I'm creating an Excel file to put the different aspects 
	of the game together and maybe try to balance them...

23:50 - Wacky, there has been about 38 people in the channel since we started.  Even more before I 
	made theme announcement.  A lot of people are really sticking to this compo, which is great. :)
	
	I'm still coming up with elements of the game in the spreadsheet.  Grouping things by 
	"factors" (to incoming), outgoing revenue, and incoming revenue, since that will be a part 
	of the game.
	
	I think I have enough to carry a lot of the financial aspect of the game (except maybe
	trade with foreign nations).

__Saturday__

01:05 - I'm crashing for the night.  Did some more design on how the game will play.  I'm thinking
	the choices will be either 4 or 2.  Either YES/NO, or YES/NO and then 2 middle road policies,
	or maybe YES/Middle/Decline Politely/Reject With Force.  Or something.
	
	Also decided that I will try to make events have logic that effect a state matrix for 
	persistent type things (money, unemployment, etc), and they will re-occur when triggered.

	We'll see how that goes though, seems complicated.  :)
	
08:31 - 14.5 hours have gone by, and I just woke up.  The luxury of not being in a 24-hour contest!  :)

	Decided to make an image searching routine...
	
09:20 - I finished the image searching routine: http://ludumdare.com/user/viewimages.php

	Very neat to see what everyone is uploading, but now I'm down another hour...
	
	Back to work, me!

11:25 - Almost done with all my people art.  I decided I wanted to get this out of the way now,
	because once I start converting the art to screen size, and positioning it, it's going
	to suck up a lot of time if I want to add more art.  So I'm trying to get all the emotive
	face features and clothes done now.  I just have a few more eye placements, then I can export 
	all of the art.

12:15 - Just finished all the character art.  I just have to export each layer section to a outside
	bitmap now (done with Photoshop layers so far), then I can start on the UI art, and then
	when that is done I will start with the display code.
	
	I decided to hold off on the code till I knew exactly what assets I was going to use, since
	I'm not going to have a lot of them, no reason to code more than I have to.
	
	Shot is: http://ludumdare.com/user/1/shot3_enemies.jpg
	
12:55 - Just uploaded layout out what the game's UI should be:
		http://ludumdare.com/user/1/shot4_layout.jpg


14:52 - Took an hour off to hang out, then did more work on the layout, and am basically done.
	Screen uploaded:  http://ludumdare.com/user/1/shot4_layout_2.jpg


16:24 - Back from stuffing myself with Pizza and watching the last half of Regarding Henry.  Am now
	going to devote all life force to mega-coding on the project, after I finish the UI.
	
18:06 - Finished with the UI.  And pasted an overlay of a character without facial expressions.
	Upload: http://ludumdare.com/user/1/shot5_layout_done.jpg
	
	48 people in the chat room.  :)
	
19:51 - I have the background and an actor drawing, I forgot to save out all the facial expressions
	into bitmap files, so I'm doing that now.
	
21:09 - Just took the first in-game shot.  I now tested the actors and all their facial expression
	and clothes add-ons and stuff.  Looks neat.  I'll make it cycle next.  :)
	
	It took a LOT longer to do all the cut-outs of the images than I hoped, and they are large, 
	so I'm going to try to RLE them and load them that way, so it won't seem like such a waste.
	
	Upload: http://ludumdare.com/user/1/shot6_in_game.jpg

22:24 - Just finished getting it so I can cycle through all the clothes and features interactively
	in the game.  It's pretty neat to see it switch around.
	
	Next up I'm going to step through all the different combinations of expressions and right
	down which ones seem to capture what emotion.  Then I'll make emotional percentage sliders
	for people you deal with, and as they switch between dominate emotions, they will show you
	a different face.
	
23:24 - Have decided there are too many emotional states to try to map each one.  Am now going 
	for general rules, and it seems to be working just as well.
	

__Sunday__


00:14 - After going through many BIG design trails, and trying to cut each of them down, I think I 
	have finally done it.  Hopefully it'll work out.
	

01:02 - Starting to write up the event descriptions for the player interaction.

11:00 - Been up since about 08:30 this morning, and just finally got events loading, and drawing
	information to the player!  :)
	
	Uploaded shot: http://ludumdare.com/user/1/shot7_game_text.jpg

12:54 - Just finished making the button/selection stuff work, and it moves between events now.
	I need to add a starting screen, and then a failure and victory screen/condition, then I 
	can start flushing out the different events.  From there on I'll just be writing events 
	until the end of the competition basically.
	
	Though, I could probably use some icons for the stats (though this will be done last, and 
	probably not at all), and more importantly I could use some sounds/voices for the game
	to help carry along the visuals.  I think that could make a big difference.
	
	I'll make an effort to get at least 10 voice clips done, maybe more.  They should be easy.
	
	Oh yeah, I haven't done the expression animations yet.  Damn.  I *HAVE* to do that too.

	Only 5 hours left...

13:33 - Finished the screen for the title, victory and lose conditions.  The victory and lose screens
	will require animations of changing expressions.  Title screen just needs a button click.
	
	So left to do is:
	
	- Facial expression animation in the game.  Cycle through multiple, add blinks.
	- Add title screen
	- Add win/lose conditions, wait for click to exit
	- Add expression animation for the 8 guys on the screen for win/lose (happy/sad)
	- Record voices
	- Add sound playing at appropriate times
	- Add game state stuff (money, approval, economy, etc)
	- Add a LOT of event content

15:02 - Getting down to the wire here.  3 hours left...

	I just finished adding the title/win/lose screens, and win/lose condition checkers.  I've
	finally gotten to the point in my program where I'm very happy about using Python.  The thing
	I love about Python that it has ALL OVER other languages that I've use, is that it is VERY
	easy to totally reorganize your architecture in a matter of minutes.
	
	After getting my main game loop running insite the main() function, I just made a class, moved
	it in, split it up into functions, tested it.  Then made 4 more functions with similar 
	update() methods, dumped all the mode classes into a list, and called:
	modes[cur_mode].update() and I have my little Game Mode Factory.  Easy, and would have taken
	MUCH longer to do in any other language.  A headache really.
	
	To do left:
	
	- Facial expression animation in the game.  Cycle through multiple, add blinks.
	- Add expression animation for the 8 guys on the screen for win/lose (happy/sad)
	- Record voices
	- Add sound playing at appropriate times
	- Add more game state stuff (relations with other countries)
	- Add a LOT of event content

15:56 - 2 hours left, panicky about getting things in.  I worry I wont have any sounds, and wont
	have enough events which will make the game about 5 seconds long and flat.  We'll see
	about that.  Animation is moving along but not done, I have split out the code into a new 
	class which was the first step, now going to roll out the timing with the frames.
	
	Python's flexibility always impresses me when I can use it, as the code is cleaning up 
	very nicely in a short period of time.  It was total garbage a few hours ago, and is now
	appearing like it was well organized (mostly) all along.
	
16:27 - Animation is now in and works nicely!  Need to make sure multiple anims work well, and then
	add the animations to the end game screens which should be placement of the images.
	
	Then I need to record at least a few sounds (maybe 4 will do for now), and start typing up
	as many events as I cant think of before the (GASP!) 1.5 hours remaining is gone...
	
	Yesterday felt very mellow, today feels anything but.
	
	50 people in the chat room:
		Twister_ cpt_kirkjamest LordCovenant Sadiq charlie Sol_HSA LucidIon sleepworm houseoftr hylix flegmato bluescrn loon vamecum Denor_away Jamul SodoMaxx ShaolinMan Slate verbal solitudor axiom yq713 RichardJZZZZzzzz Phoon Raster jovoc ivan thooot skdk cel Bessi Fly_Mario Balooga03 Codexus mali mrfun[away] ajalics impossible @geoffh Diragor Nebula AdricZero Quafnar-snoozing thelorax _chesh_ PoVRAZOR sinsolent illume Phydeaux

17:06 - Just got the facial animations in for all of victory and loss screens.  Everything is
	set except:
	
	- Record voices
	- Add sound playing at appropriate times
	- Add more game state stuff (relations with other countries)
	- Add a LOT of event content

	I don't think sounds will make it unfortunately.  I could record some in an hour, but 
	I would still only have 5 seconds worth of interaction because I haven't written more than
	2 events.  So instead I'm going to write events.

17:30 - Finished adding game state stuff needed, now just:

	- Add a LOT of event content

	No damn time to add a lot, hopefully it will just be enough to show it off and look like 
	gameplay.  Now I spent all this time making expressions, and I won't have enough time to 
	actually lay them out properly...
	

19:10 - Everyone has happily got their entries in, and I had time to build my exe.  Only like 15 
	seconds of gaming goodness here, and of course, no sound.
	
	But it's done, and it was an excellent competition.
	