Day Three complete

andrew_j_w on 2006/03/29 21:57 of Steam Pipe Dreams

Today saw my entry start to take shape as an actual game. I've got a definite list of jobs that need doing so now I just need to go through them one by one, tick them off, and I'll be done.

My first job was to replace the awful graphics I had for the boiler and the 'machine'. With those redrawn the board starts to look a bit nicer, but I think I'll need to replace the plain grey background before I submit.

I changed the gauges that measure the pressure in the pipes from a simple red bar to a proper pressure gauge which as well as tell you the pressure will also indicate the composition of the steam. I haven't yet implemented the board elements that will add the additives to the steam so this stays as 100% plain steam, but it should work fine.

Adding support for the different types of steam was the third time I'd rewritten the majority of the steam handling code. Perhaps not the most efficient way of doing things but at least it's nailed down now. I don't forsee having to doing anything other than tinker with if from now on.

When I changed the graphic for the boiler I added a chimney pipe. The obvious thing to do was to make it smoke. A quick 40 line particle system later and the boiler now smokes with the amount varying depending on how hard you're working the boiler. I also made the pressure release value steam when it is venting excess pressure. This definitely makes things look a bit more exciting and dynamic, but I'm a bit worried about how much it'll effect the framerate. It's a bit hard to tell at the moment as I'm compiling KDE 3.5.2 in the background...

Anyway, the smoke can be seen clearly in the following screenshot...

On the game front I implemented a level format in XML so the game will now load the levels and set up the board according to the level it's on. I just to get it to detect when you've won the level and move onto the next.

I've made the score system go up and down depending on how much you're using the boiler and how much steam you're getting to the machine at the correct pressure. It'll need some tinkering but currently you score around 9,000 points for completing level 1. This seems about right to me, but obviously I'll need to make this scale up as you work through the levels.

Tomorrows main tasks are to add the level introduction/ending screens and to finish adding the remaining pipe types. I don't think I'll get time to do any more than that as I've promised someone I'll go and play Badminton. Still, not including tomorrow I reckon I'll be able to put in another 15 or so hours which is enough time to achieve a fair bit... will it be enough though?