I'm back!

I'm back!  After a long weekend that was both physically and emotionally draning, I am thankful to be home!

So, I figure you guys would like to know what all I was up to over the weekend?

Thursday:  

-I actually managed about four hours of work time on Thursday!  

-I started out by fixing a couple of really simple bugs that were reported for the latest test build of Inheritance before I left for the weekend.  

-Once done with that, I was feeling a bit whimsical, so I started writing the first of what will be a chain of events related to Eve's first birthday after you come to the mansion.  Wrote about 1000 words for the first scene in that set.  I suspect that the first scene is half done at most, and your choices in that scene will determine which of several followup scene(s) you will later encounter.  This scene will probably not be added until a few other things have been added to the game (Want to get Eve fully playable before adding it.)  Best part is, I coded everything I wrote as I went along, so when I finish writing it, its going to be ready to drop into the game!

Friday:

-Ended up with a big chunk of the day to myself.  Everyone loaded up into the car and went shopping.  I opened up my laptop and went to work. I thought I was being optimistic that I'd get four hours of work in this day, got closer to seven.  :D

-Wrote up about another 1500 words of content for Eve's Birthday scene chain.  Finished up the first of three scene groupings that take place the first day as well asthree of the four followups making up a total of fifteen branches through the first scene so far which in turn will determine which interactive scene will be playing out the following day.  Started the ground work for the three possible scenes that take place on her Birthday.

-Coded two more of Anna's scenes to be added to the game (About 2.5k words between them.).  I plan to sit on them until the A4 build though since they make heavy use of the Conversation mechanic which I hope to have added by that time.

-Spent some time organizing content for the game (I have a bad habit of just dropping all my notes and files into one folder when I get busy.  It makes for a mess after a week or two.)  Everything looks a lot nicer on my end and should be easier to work with until it all gets cluttered up again.  :P

-Started laying the ground work for conversations.  There will eventually be four groupings of conversations (Causal, Work, Personal, Self)

-Wrote the first few conversation pieces for the "Personal" grouping (About 1700 words of content in total.  11 scenes spanning a wide range or relationship values.  Got a minimum of three more to write in order to have two or more scenes available at each relationship range for this grouping.)

-Started rebuilding the sidebar.  Going to have it set up so basic groupings display at the top (Location, Personal, People, Settings) then clicking on them will open up groupings (Locations will include: Location Information, Location Actions, Rest Actions for example) the clicking on one of those items will in turn open up a list of things you can do in a given room (Say the living room for example:  You will eventually be able to watch the TV while sitting on either the couch or chair.  You'll also be able to bring something to read and read while sitting down.)

-Got a third fairly large scene half coded along with finishing up the writing for it (Second scene to include both Anna and Eve), . . . . then kids happened, . . . Little over two hours of work shot to hell.  Was starting to feel a little burnt out for the day by that point anyway, so I just threw in the towel and called it good for the day.

Saturday:

-Had a lot going on today.  Didn't think I would have much time to write, but I woke up about three hours before anyone else and got a good chunk of work time in anyway.  Even managed to work for a little bit after people started getting up.

-Jumped back into that Anna and Eve scene from Friday.  Finished it up, and I dare say it turned out better than the first time around. (Threw a little twist into the scene that I was particularly proud of.)

-Opened up that birthday scene again and started writing once the A&E scene was complete.  Wrote about 2200 more words for the Birthday scene.  Puts the first scene at just a little shy of 4700 words and completes it.

-And, got home!

Short version:  

-I got enough work done this weekend to justify its own release once the conversation mechanics get added (Three good sized scenes, one large scene, all the code to go with those scenes, and a host of smaller stuff) and a few scenes are written for it. Odds are I'll add some of it when the conversations stuff gets added, then sit on the rest of it (While continuing to create new content) for a couple of weeks for when I don't have a lot of time over Christmas to ensure a decent sized build around that time.  I'm hoping to have about 3 interactive scenes written and held in reserve for that time.

Now to dive into the more than 75 messages waiting for me across email, PM, and message board, . . . . And once all of that is done, I'll see about getting a bug fix for Inheritance up some time tomorrow (Because its late, and this weekend kicked my ass.)