I could only get started yesterday and the rest of the team is still unspoken for! Anyway the core game idea is now playable. You move around a grid (the hard drive) and can pick up and put down blocks. There are two hazards: a corruption and a virus.

I meant the graphics as placeholders, since they were just clicked together with a trackpad. But I'm getting used to the looks. Maybe it will be good enough.

So now I can test the gameplay. It's not too bad. The difficulty can be easily adjusted by how much I fill up the board. The hazards are meaningful, but I'd like more variety. However the game is still a bit unrewarding. Some effects could improve that, but we also need some gameplay rewards. Something you can pick up and benefit from. Temporary flight maybe? A robotic helper? Will have to think on it.

I said in the previous diary entry that the game needed some immediate rewards to become less tedious. It worked! I've added a pretty diverse set of rewards and it made the game much more fun, even at the hardest settings. I've also added a ton of sounds, and I think that helps too.

Got to get a score screen and some menus done tomorrow. Congrats to the few that have already finished. I'm amazed!

(This pattern is barely visible in the game, but I was so happy with how it turned out that I had to show it off at a higher resolution.)

As a last minute addition I put a background image under the game area. Can you see it in the screenshot?

On Alex's machine he says it appears completely white. So white that GIMP says every pixel is white. It was great fun convincing him otherwise...

There's nothing else new on the screenshot compared to Wednesday. It's such a shame, but a lot of time went toward making things work, adding sounds, cutscenes, a level progression, scoring, a tutorial, etc. I can't make a screenshot of those.

It quite a complete game actually. We may re-record the narration tomorrow, because I mumble terribly. I can't understand a word of what I'm saying. And fix any bugs we find! (Something's wrong with the icon on Windows I think.)

Here's a handy play-through video: https://youtu.be/xiaiKwy975I