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Return To Cry The Beloved Status
11/30/05
- Wednesday: FINALLY...ALPHA V0.20 IS READY!!! |
 |
FINALLY, I
have my life back!!! Well, not my life, but at least I don't have to
worry about the next ALPHA for a couple of weeks or
so. As a reminder to anyone who has already tested it, the current
release only fixes the majority of the bugs/issues that were
reported. No new content was added. So, perhaps it should be ALPHA
V0.11...
So, on the train ride
home, I sat and listened to the music that is going to play in the next
cut-scene for about an hour. I often do this as a way of sketching
out in my head how I want a scene to play out. I even went so far as
into go into the area (in game) the cut-scene takes place in, and just run
around, changing the camera angle, to see the best way that I can present
it. I don't always do this, but sometimes, it really helps... When
I got home, I began laying out the foundation of the cut-scene, including
waypoints, and the majority of the scripting. I also changed the
part of the area where the cut-scene will take place. |
| Tomorrow
morning, I should be able add the actual lines of dialogue to it, and
finish it up. Yeah, that's right, I am going to write
the dialogue. Hell, I did it for all of The Coming. I
can at least do some of it in Cry The Beloved:)
Till tomorrow... |
11/29/05
- Tuesday: NOT AGAIN... |
 |
I still don't
feel good, and will be going to sleep very soon, so I will keep this
short...YET AGAIN, I went through the module, and found some
annoying issues that NEEDED to be fixed before I sent out
the next ALPHA. To be honest, I wanted to move on so
bad, but I ended up fixing nearly 95% of all bugs/issues that were
reported to me, as well as many more that I found my self.
That said, I uploaded a
new version of the ALPHA and sent the links to 2 gentleman
that were not in on the 1st round of testing. For everyone else who initially
tested, I will be writing up a lengthy ReadMe which will just describe all
of the fixed issues, as well as some other useful tidbits.
I also have to finish up
an interview for community member Steve Savicki. I
have been putting it off for a while, but I just have to buckle down and
finish it.
Till tomorrow...I can FINALLY
start on those lovely cut-scenes and other story elements. |
11/28/05
- Monday: NASTY COLD... |
 |
So, I had a
very miserable day today, health wise. I had the feeling I was
coming down with a cold on Thanksgiving, and it finally caught up to me
today. I was extremely mad on the train this morning, because I was
sitting in the window seat, and I wanted to get up to get tissues, but the
lady next to me was asleep. Not her fault, but I was still quite
angry...
While not attempting to
get a tissue, I was yet again going through the module, and trying like
hell to break it. Fortunately, I broke it once, and it was a very
quick fix. I am getting closer...Unfortunately, because of my
condition, I had to eventually shut down the laptop and get some sleep, if
only for 20 minutes before arriving at Grand Central Station.
On the ride home, I was
so exhausted from the day, that I simply passed the hell out:) I did
wake up about 20 minutes before my stop, so I took that time to start
converting some new MP3's to BMU's. These are 2 new tracks that I
will be using exclusively in the cut-scenes I really wanted to start on
today.
After eating dinner, I
sat down and began to sift through the countless e-mails I couldn't answer
today at work (wow, couldn't answer personal e-mails at work. What a
concept:) ). Most were just replies to many of the testers
confirming that I will have a new ALPHA tomorrow if my play
through works out tomorrow...
I did however receive a
surprising e-mail from our new artist, Olaia Ferrando. Pictured
to the left is the beginning of some concept art for Clopon. Even
though this is very preliminary, I am very excited about where it will be
going.
In fact, I am thinking
that I might end up adding a new page to this website. Something
like Concept Art or something, where I can put all of Olaia's
work. It isn't high priority, but it will be easy to do, so
perhaps I can even fit it in on a lunch break...
So tomorrow, I really
hope I can put the 1st phase of the ALPHA behind me and move
on to bigger and better things. Again, a big thank you to all who
helped with the ALPHA:)
Till tomorrow...
|
11/27/05
- Sunday: WAIT A MINUTE...THERE'S MORE!!! |
 |
So, the plan
for the day was to simply run through the module one more time, and make
sure everything was in working order, before I uploaded the new ALPHA.
So, for whatever reason,
I decided to start doing stupid things. Stupid things that might
break the module. Guess what? It broke...Countless times...So,
I literally spent the entire day breaking the module, fixing the bug that
broke the module, rinse, repeat. In
a weird way, it felt good to be getting rid of these types of bugs.
Again, I couldn't have done it without the testers.
The main thing about
this module is that you are not exactly told where to go, and when. I
mean, you have a general idea, but getting there is up to you.
Because of said freedom, more checks have to be in place, like for
example...Say Challseus & Clopon are in
your party. Now, lets say that for plot reasons, they cannot enter a
certain part of a town. I of course have to set up a check when the
party tries to transition into that particular part of town. |
| However,
there might be only a certain time in the module when they can't enter
this particular place, so that check has to go in as well. Then,
what happens if they are not in the party when Aramus tries
to go into this part of town. Now, by itself, the logic is not that
difficult. But, it is so small a detail that it can get lost among
the more complicated scripts I write, such as the Unison Ability system.
At any rate, I believe I have fixed all of those bugs, and I will take the
module through another run through on the train ride into work tomorrow.
Till tomorrow... |
11/26/05
- Saturday: LONGEST DEVELOPMENT DAY...EVER!!! |
 |
In my entire
history of module development, I don't think I have ever developed as long
as I did today. Even when I was on a train to/from Toronto for 12
hours...So, I began working at 11:00 am till about 1:00 pm. After
getting back from running some errands around town at 4:00 pm, I literally
worked until about 12:30 am.
So what did I
accomplish? Who the hell knows...I didn't actually implement that
many new things today, but I did fix many, if not all of the reported bugs
from the ongoing ALPHA. I have just to publicly
say again that all of the testers did a wonderful job. In fact (I
don't have the rights to use the person's name), one gentleman AND his
little boy helped find many bugs. His kid! Now that's
dedication. Hmm, perhaps I need to have some kids so they can test
my modules:)
I plan on taking a run
through the module, and trying like hell to break it. Essentially, I
will do everything the testers did, and make sure everything is fixed... |
| Once that is
done, I will upload the new version of the ALPHA. Then,
anyone is free to download it, although I won't be aggressively fixing
bugs as I was the past week. Well, unless someone finds any more
major ones *knocks on wood*. I have other plans for
tomorrow as a matter of fact...
I will begin work on a
new cut-scene, and I hope to at least figure out all of the shots that I
want. I already have the music picked out, so that is not
problem. In fact, there are 2 cut-scenes I want to finish.
Once I do that, I will begin polishing things up again for another round
of ALPHA testing. Now for my thoughts on Neverwinter
Nights 2.
Anyhow who read my
update from yesterday may have remembered me saying something along the
lines of the fact that I might create an entirely new campaign for
it. Long story short, my reasoning is this: I want mass
appeal. I just won't get that forcing people to use a pre-generated
character. Let look at the facts...
In about 4 1/2 months, The
Coming has about 6200 downloads, with 119 votes. Not a bad
situation to be at all. Me being the perfectionist I am, I am always
wondering what the number would be like had I allowed people to bring
their own characters into the game...It boggles the mind. And to
reiterate (I really shouldn't have to say this anymore), I am not selling
out or anything like that. I want mass appeal so that I have
a better chance of being discovered, point blank. Trust me, if I
have my own development studio, I would be making Rose Of Eternity the
way I have always envisioned it. Unfortunately, I have to do what I
have to do in the mean time to get to that point.
I already have a few
ideas in my head, such as different starting cities, depending on your
race/class. I would definitely keep my style of game play alive,
along with the presentation, but the player would have more freedom.
Again, all of this is preliminary stuff still in my head, and who knows,
maybe Cry The Beloved will be more successful than The
Coming. Then perhaps Chapter 3 will see the
light of day. Or maybe I am just rambling because I had a very stressful
Thanksgiving break...Let see how I feel in a few days:)
Till tomorrow... |
11/25/05
- Friday: ALPHA RELATED STUFF...AND MORE... |
 |
So, I can't
even lie. I woke up this morning thinking, "Damn, I
really don't want to work on the module today." Yep, my
bi-weekly I am tired of module development rant:) Luckily, I knew
the feeling would pass, so I just kept at it. I actually really
wanted to go out and buy Dragon Quest 8 for the PS2, because
it comes with a demo of Final Fantasy 12. But, can't
get sidetracked...
So, this shouldn't
really come as a surprise to me, but getting a playable version of the
game out to folks early was a very smart move. All of the testers
did things I NEVER would have done during my own play testing.
I was lucky in that I was able to fix all of the bugs that the testers
found. Interestingly enough, a lot of the bug reports were very similar.
So, if I fixed all of the bugs for one tester, I essentially fixed all of
the bugs from another one:) |
| After adding
another 2 conversations that Amy Laurin created, I will
upload the newest version of the ALPHA for those that still
want to test it. I also did a lot of thinking today, but not about
the ALPHA.
I sat for a long time
and pondered the future of Cry The Beloved. I have no
doubt that it will surpass The Coming in every aspect, but
for some reason, I am getting a feeling that it won't be as well
received...Why, I don't know...I am very pessimistic, yet this feeling has
been with me for a while.
One reason is because I
just plain don't understand the community as much as I wish I could.
First off, I am very much a quality over quantity person.
One quibble people had with The Coming was its length.
It took me around 15 months to create a game that last roughly 8-10 hours
between both the Aramus & Challseus quests.
Damn, why do I have to be different?
More specifically, the
reason it took me so long was essentially because of all the custom
systems I created. Just for clarity, there are:
 | Last Resort
System |
 | Unison Ability
System |
 | Custom Death
System for Party Members |
 | Tons Of High Quality
Cut-scenes |
 | Many Custom
Scripted Items/Abilities (i.e. Illumination) |
 | Custom Favor
System |
 | Item Upgrade
System |
 | TONS OF
DOCUMENTATION (i.e. The very page you are reading now, duh:) ) |
Now, if I spent 15
months working on a module without adding anything like the above, then I
probably could have created a module that was 30+ hours:) Hell,
people might have liked it too:) I mean, don't get me wrong, my
module has been well received, a lot more than I anticipated. I had
done my research well before releasing The Coming, and I
knew that if I got 1000 downloads, or at least 10 votes, I would be in
good shape...
However, there are SO
MANY little things that I did in The Coming that no
one ever mentions. One such thing is the creation of the Fleetness
Tonics, which after a certain amount of time, actually drain some
life from you, making the player use strategy when drinking one.
Another is the Amulet Of Healing Aura & Amulet Of Fire, which
Lenin & Lenina get in the Challseus quest.
Whenever in combat, anyone within 5 meters will either be healed, or take
fire damage, accordingly. Finally, there are so many custom special
effects in the game, such as the mirrored goblin images when they perform Flurry
Attack, when Kain uses his spell to kill the mayor,
and especially the one when Aramus & Clopon perform Whirlwind
Heal. There are many more examples of these little additions
that made the development time a lot longer than even I anticipated.
My point is, these are
just the little things that I added to make the game that much better,
quality wise. Now, since no one has ever commented on them, how do I
know if anyone even noticed, or cares? Perhaps I could have spent
more time on advancing the plot. In general, my take on the
community is this. They want a well written module, with good RP
aspects (whatever the hell that means...), and choices...Lots of
choices...Oh, and they want a long game:)
They don't seem to care
if the music in a cut-scene corresponds exactly to what is going (i.e.
rising dramatically during high tension areas), or if there are custom
visual effects, or if elegant console style game design patterns are used
(i.e. Illumination both scaring off wolves/shadows, as well
stunning others...). Okay, I know some care, as I have tons of
votes...But, what if I took all of those things away, and made the module
longer? Would people still care? My point is, since I don't
get many comments anymore these days, I have to assume that the people who
did like the module saw all of these little implicit additions, and liked
them.
That said, I still won't
compromise my stance on quality over quantity. That
is how I have always been, and I don't see myself changing anytime
soon. Also, since I came out the gate with the quality of The
Coming, I can't just leave out all of those special things (I hope
people think they are special) just to make Cry The Beloved longer...However,
in order to ensure Cry The Beloved is better than The
Coming, I HAVE to make it longer...This is where all
of my stress has been coming from these past couple of months...It is
going to be a tough couple of months, but I believe I will get through
it. The question is, will all of my work be in vein...
TOMORROW'S
TOPIC: My thoughts on NWN2, and how I might
create a new campaign. Yes, that is right, a new campaign...As a
little tidbit, my reasoning's are this...I want to be able to have
mass-appeal modules, so that I may be noticed by the game industry.
Right now, Rose Of Eternity forces the player to use a
pre-determined character. Now, in this hypothetical new campaign, I
would go back to the basics, and allow the player to bring in any
character/race/alignment they want. I thought I had it bad enough
creating custom abilities for Aramus. I don't even
want to think about doing it for over 10 classes...There goes that quality
thing again:) |
11/24/05
- Thursday: NOT MUCH TODAY... |
 |
Don't have
anything to talk about today. Did the normal Thanksgiving thing, and
not much else. I just happened to be away from my house all day, so
I just could get time to get any development done.
I did however read
through a lot of e-mails from the ALPHA testers. All I
know is that I will definitely be spending all of tomorrow looking at the
issues the testers told me about...
Till tomorrow... |
11/23/05
- Wednesday: WORST DAY OF WORK...EVER... |
 |
Just to get
it out of the way, I did not accomplish anything today. I slept on
the train ride into work, as well as out of work, and then I did the
standard going out to a bar/club with my friends who were up for the
holidays...
But boy oh boy, work was
very interesting today...I come in, and right off the bat, I am being
moved from one room to another one. Management thinks that things
will be better if people who are part of a team sit in the same
room. On the outside, it does seem like a good idea, except the fact
that I feel as if I worked better with the current people I was sitting
with. Oh well, it isn't my place to argue...
Right after that, the
Director of my team pulls me inside of a small room, and tells me that she
just put her 2 weeks notice in. Sigh...So, out of 12-13 people from
my original company, only 3 are left, and I know that 2 more
won't be sticking around much longer. |
| I really
don't know what to make of this situation. It looks like I am going
to be the only person left who knows a little bit about the
system architecture that has been in place for the past 5 years. And
when I say a little, I really mean a little. Simply
put, the system is big, but there was never a problem before, because
everyone that was working there had been there for at least
4 years. I just came up on my 1st year...
So, in short, I don't
know what is going to happen with my current team, but it doesn't look
good. Things have gone from bad to worse in about the stretch of a
month. Oh well, what can I do. I really hope I can get into
the Video Game industry soon...
Till tomorrow... |
11/22/05
- Tuesday: LOTS OF E-MAILS... |
 |
I didn't get
much actual game development in, but I did answer a lot of e-mail from a
lot of the ALPHA testers. The only show stopping bug that
has been reported to me is if the player tries to skip the intro
cut-scene.
Luckily, I was able to
fix this on the train ride home this evening. I purposely did not do
much work when I got home, as I really need to go to sleep early, so I can
get up early, so I can get to work early, because I have a lot of stuff to
finish before going on Thanksgiving vacation. Damn real world
priorities...
I'm not worried that I
missed a day however, because I will have all night tomorrow, as well as
during the day on Thursday/Friday.
Till tomorrow... |
11/21/05
- Monday: SO HARD TO GO BACK TO WORK:( |
 |
Boy, it was
really difficult to get up and go to work today. I wish there was
some way I could survive, financially, while developing Cry The
Beloved at home all the time. Oh wait, there is. If I
get a job in the GAME INDUSTRY!!! :)
So, after all of that
hard work in getting the ALPHA ready, I decided I deserved a
little break. So, I slept on the train ride this morning, as well as
on the way back.
Upon getting home, I had
some preliminary feedback from one of the testers. Just simple stuff
really, like text going to fast during cut-scenes, and some typos. I
plan on letting them build up a bit, and then knocking them out early in
the morning on Thanksgiving, before I start going to various
places to eat. |
| I also began
to fix something that totally slipped my mind. Once you got into
this particular dungeon, there was no way to get out:) There are
some minor issues to iron out, but
I will take care of that tomorrow morning, as I plan to get some work done
since I will be going to sleep quite early.
This week also has the
potential to be bug, as I am beginning work on 2 key cut-scenes that are
very dramatic and which will definitely pull the player into the story
even more. Again, these are cut-scenes that I have had in my head
for a year or so, so to actually get it done is a big thing to me.
Also, anyone thinking, "Damn Challseus, another big
cut-scene? I hope it isn't long, and if so, I better be able to skip
it". Well, the cut-scene skipping functionality is
looking better...And that is all I will say about that:)
Finally, even though I
just had a vacation, I still have 14 days of vacation time left:) I
honestly can't wait, because I got so much done last week, and I can only
imagine what I can get done with another 14 days of hassle free
development. will post later when it is determined when I will go.
Till tomorrow... |
11/20/05
- Sunday: AND IT BEGINS... |
 |
...And let
the madness ensue...I have officially uploaded the ALPHA for
those who signed up. I feel very giddy, to say the least:)
Well, perhaps not giddy, but I do have a little bit of anticipation built
up in myself.
I am very critical of my
work, and I am always very scared of others and what they think of my
work. I can remember 9-10 months ago when I began the internal BETA
with the Order Of Honorable Module Testers. After
all of my worrying however, the testimonies from those in the guild was
very positive. I'm not even going to go into my sleepless night, the
night I released The Coming.
So what exactly are the
testers going to get you ask? Well, first off, they will get to see
how the story unfolds upon Aramus, Clopon, & Challseus entering
Dematol. Thought they will not know the entire scope of the story, a
huge plot thread will begin towards the end of the ALPHA. |
| Another
thing they will see is many of the new custom systems of the game. I
obviously am not going to go into detail here (I have to keep some secrets
you know...), but I am very confident with what myself and community
member ShrikeKnight came up with. Speaking of which, ShrikeKnight
hasn't see any of these new systems in action yet, so I really
can't wait for his feedback...
Also, there are
currently 13 new custom tracks so far. This will definitely be
expanded as the module continues to grow, but the magnificent thing about
it is, since using my new compression methods, the combined file size is
only 11 MB or so! Very nice indeed...
Essentially, the tester
will get a sampling of everything from exploring a little bit of Dematol,
to trying out some of the new custom systems, to hearing some wonderful
new music, to seeing the 1st couple of floors of a new dungeon. In
fact, this ALPHA could be called a DEMO, but
since I have been calling it an ALPHA, I will try to stay
consistent.
I plan on resting
tomorrow...And I definitely deserve it. I busted my butt all week,
and I actually met a deadline. I don't want to get burned out again,
so I plan on sleeping on the train tomorrow, both from and to work.
Perhaps I will work on something tomorrow night when I get home.
Till tomorrow... |
11/19/05
- Saturday: ALMOST THERE... |
 |
As the title
suggest, I am almost at the point where the ALPHA is
complete. Again, for those who haven't been keeping up with these
updates, ALPHA does not signify the entire game. Don't
get me wrong, as it is a huge part of the game, but not all of it.
That said, it is still better to get others involved earlier in the
process, rather than later...
I once again ran through
the game, compiling a page and a half of issues in the process. I
easily knocked them out early in the afternoon. I have to admit that
some of these issues were not major, and most people wouldn't have
noticed, but I am quite anal about certain things, so I just took care of
them when I found them. Nothing wrong with striving for perfection,
right? :)
It is really hard to
pinpoint what I did today, as the majority of it was polishing, and I
can't give away too much of the story... |
| I am also
curious as to how big the current file will be. Since I came up with
the new way of compressing music files, it should be a lot smaller than I
had an anticipated a few months ago, but I will just have to wait and
see...
Till tomorrow... |
11/18/05
- Friday: FINAL VACATION DAY:( |
 |
And so my
little vacation comes to an end:( It is all good though, because I
accomplished everything I wanted to.
The main goal was to
have a playable version of the module from start to finish (the amount of
the game that is done so far that is...), with an average amount of
polish. I achieved that goal, and then some. It was lucky that
I was feeling motivated all week, or I think I might have fallen behind on
plans.
My second goal was to
get back into the swing of things in terms of dealing with the various
writers. Well, I couldn't be happier. As I mentioned earlier
this week, Amy Laurin sent me not one, but 2 new
conversations to add to the game. She has been the go to person for
the dialog for most of the NPC's in the game. She has a great feel
for adding roleplaying options, and I definitely couldn't have gotten this
far without her. |
| If that
wasn't enough, another writer, Daniel Swingle, who I hadn't
talked to in a while just delivered me a fresh new conversation as
well. He deals more with the main character conversations, and I
must say, he has definitely been able to expand on that tension between
Aramus & Clopon. It feels good to have others be
able to take personalities I developed over 6 years ago, and expand on
them.
Now, with everything
that occurred, I really couldn't have asked for anything else. Then,
along comes Olaia Ferrando, who magnificently creates the
official logo for The Rose Of Eternity. Things are
really starting to fall in place, and my excitement level is sky
high. I can't wait to see what type of character art Olaia comes
up with. I would love to see how Olaia depicts
Aramus...
So today, I took another
run through the module. Unfortunately, about half way through, I ran
into a show stopping bug (very small issue I fixed right away), but I had
more than enough issues to deal with. After I fixed said issues, I
took another run through. This time went perfect, and the only
issues I have written down are ideas for better placeable placement,
sound effect placement, etc.
Tomorrow, I will spend
half the day polishing up some more stuff, and then I want to start
putting together the ALPHA package, including the ReadMe,
and the list of people who signed up. Speaking of which, if
you would like to take part in this internal ALPHA, drop me
a line at either gamecoder@optonline.net
or bedner@vindigo.com
Hopefully, after a week
or so, all the ALPHA testers will start bombarding me with
e-mails. Although I hope they find little bugs doing things I would
never do, I am more interested in other things, such as how they liked the
new custom systems, or how difficult they found the game. In fact,
there are so many new things about Cry The Beloved that I
can't talk about, things that I can't wait for people to try
out. I have high hopes for things...
Till tomorrow... |
11/17/05
- Thursday: VACATION DAY 4... |
 |
Yes folks,
someone named Olaia Ferrando was nice enough to start working on an official logo for
me. Now, I am not an art critic, but I know what I like, and this, I
likes:)
So, going from top to
bottom, the 1st is an idea for a more generic logo. The 2nd one
would be used for The Coming, and the last one would be used
for Cry The Beloved.
The process was very
easy. Essentially, I told Olaia the general idea of
what I wanted, and after a few back and forths, I got these sent to me in
an e-mail. A very nice way for me to wake up, I must say:)
I just have to say, that
I am so astounded by the creativity and niceness of people from the
community. Especially when they are not getting paid. This
sort of stuff just never ceases to amaze me, and I hope it continues. I just want
to use this time to give a big THANK YOU to everyone who has
been contributing to the development of Cry The Beloved. I
never, never, EVER thought that I would get so many
volunteers, and I especially didn't think that I would end up becoming an
ad-hoc project manager:) At least I have been responding to e-mails
the same day now:) Besides
getting these nice concepts for official logos, I accomplished a lot more
polishing as well... |
| First and
foremost, I was on a placeable kick today. What that
means is, I was taking areas I threw together months ago, and began add many
placeables and such to flesh them out. I have to say, taking
2 hours out of my day to add placeables really makes the areas look that
much better. I mean, when I was testing a month ago, I used to
always think to myself "Wow, these areas just seem to be
lacking something." Well, after this afternoon, I am
now saying "Wow, I can't wait until people play this
game!". It really is like the difference between night
and day...
I also did some minor
work to the interfaces of the party members. Since there will be
many new abilities for them in this game, I figured I would mark these
as a different color. For example, in The Coming, when
you talked to Clopon, you would get different choices of what to do, such
as setting Last Resorts, and casting spells. Now, any
new ability that is under this same menu will be marked a different color,
with an ! in front of it. This will make it easy for
people to see what is new. Of course, after you select it, it will
default to the same color as all the other abilities. Again, not a
major thing to do, but it is the little touches that make game
special....In my opinion anyways...
All in all, this was a
very productive day. I wasn't bothered by any outside distractions,
and I stayed away from the History Channel, mostly because
nothing interesting was on:)
Till tomorrow... |
11/16/05
- Wednesday: VACATION DAY 3... |
 |
Today was a
very slow day, yet I still feel like I accomplished something. It started
out very weird actually...
First off, I didn't even
go to sleep until 5:00 am this morning. The plan was to get up at
12:00 pm, and get right into development. Then, the unimaginable
happened. I received a call from one of my best friends at 8:30 am
telling me I had to pick them up and go somewhere with them (won't get
into personal details right now). Long story short, I didn't even
get home until 2:00 pm. Now, bear in mind I only had 3 hours of
sleep under my belt.
After taking a shower
and eating, I began to start working around 4:00 pm. Then, I got the
same feeling I get when I am on the train coming home from work.
Dead tiredness!!! :) |
| So, to catch
up on some sleep, I slept until about 7:00 pm. Finally, I was able
to start working on the game. After getting some more content put
into Dematol, I had to ONCE AGAIN leave the house for an
emergency. When I got back, I continued where I left off. In
fact, one thing I did was add documentation about all of the new systems
to the Rose Of Eternity Manual, the in game manual for the
module. It felt good to get that out of the way.
Tomorrow, I will most
likely focus on adding some more placeables and such to some areas I
created a couple of months ago. As of now, these areas are very
boring, and they don't even have any sound effects yet...Hopefully, I can
develop tomorrow distraction free...
Till tomorrow... |
11/15/05
- Tuesday: VACATION DAY 2... |
 |
I had a very
productive day. A very productive day indeed. As I mentioned
before, I am back in knee deep development of Dematol.
Interestingly enough, although I still hate the building of town areas, it
isn't as bad as it was a month and a half ago.
Things seem to be moving
at a brisk pace. There were many things that I wanted to do in Dematol
a while back, but I honestly didn't even want to think about the
damn town anymore at the time. Now that I have my mojo
back, I was able to knock out A LOT of those small
issues. It felt really good to give Dematol the treatment it
deserves. It is finally starting to look like how I pictured it so
many long years ago...
Another big part of my
day was brainstorming with my co-conspirator, Brian Rhodes. As
Always, I presented him an idea, and he made it better. In the case
of what I proposed to him last night, he REALLY made it
better. I simply love how he does that:) |
| I also had a
few back and forths with some writers, and I ended up sending some
requirements to another writer. They were dialogues that in my
honest opinion should have been completed months ago, but things got
hectic, and it sort of slipped through the cracks. That said, I have
great faith that the dialog will come out spectacular.
Tomorrow, I will forge
ahead with adding more content to Dematol, and I might be able to start on
a new cut-scene towards the end of the day...Maybe... I have a
birthday party to go to later in the day, but that shouldn't take up too
much of my time. Damn people being born on the same day that I would
rather be developing:)
Till tomorrow... |
11/14/05
- Monday: VACATION DAY 1... |
 |
So finally,
my 1st official vacation day. I have lots of experiences dealing
with development days when I don't have to work, so I didn't try to fool
myself into thinking I was going to get that much done
today.
As I imagined, I turned
to the History Channel many times, but I was lucky that
there was nothing interesting on today. In fact, the only thing I
really watched was a special on Super Mario Bros. on the
show Icons, on G4 Tech TV.
As far as development
went, just more boring polish. I did also create another one of my
patented intro cut-scenes for a new area. I have create so many
cut-scenes, that I feel like I could create them in my sleep:)
I also created the
NPC that will get 1 of the conversations that Amy Laurin is
creating for me. |
| Finally, I
am definitely back in the realm of town building, as most of my polishing
has been for the city of Dematol. Although I loathe
this part of development, it is a bit easier knowing that I won't have to
do it on a train on the way to work:)
Till tomorrow... |
11/13/05
- Sunday: BLASTED MINNESOTA VIKINGS... |
 |
As I am
pissed, I will keep this short...The NY Giants lost to the Minnesota
Vikings...That is all...
Besides that little
incident, the rest of the day went fine. I continued to knock out
bugs and issues, and continuing the overall process of polishing up the
module.
I also did something
that I haven't done in about a month or so...I actually sent over some new
personalities to Amy Laurin, who is one of the
writers. The best part is the fact that since she has been writing
for me since the very beginning, she knows the general story just as much
as I do. What this means is she can have more autonomy when creating
the dialogs for the various NPC's in the game. Since I don't like to
micro manage people, that is a godsend for me. |
| Tomorrow is
my 1st vacation day, and I am feverishly attempting to come up with a way
that I can stay focused the entire day, instead of turning to the History
Channel, or something like that. Here's hoping...
Till tomorrow... |
11/12/05
- Saturday: GONE ALL DAY... |
 |
I have absolutely
nothing to report today:( I was from 8:00 am to 6:30 pm playing
Paintball with 10 of my co-workers at this place in Patterson, NY (40
minute drive for me).
When I got home, I could
barely feel any part of my body, as I haven't had this type of exercise
since High School. Man, only 25 years old, and I am already feeling
like an old man:)
It was also a pleasant
way to spend a Saturday, as I would usually be working on Cry The
Beloved for 7-9 hours or so...
Till tomorrow... |
11/11/05
- Friday: WEIRD...JUST WEIRD... |
 |
So yesterday,
I was feeling very down, and burnt out. Later in the night, I ended
up going to a close friend's house and hanging out for a while. I
have known this person for about 16 years, so it was nice to be able to
just sit down, relax, and char with someone that I had known since the 4th
grade...
For some reason, I felt
very energized after talking to this friend. I mean, we didn't even
speak about Rose Of Eternity at all, but I left with a new
found feeling of motivation. So, I am not one to argue with
something like that, so I just went with it. I'm still not to the
point of having extreme fun when developing, but it isn't nearly as bad as
I thought it was yesterday...
I knocked A LOT of
bugs/issues today on both rides to/from work. Usually, I would start
to get sleepy and nod off to sleep, but I actually help my own ground
today, which I am very proud of. |
| Another good
thing that happened was I had a nice brief chat with another one of my
best friends, Brian Rhodes. You may know him as my 2nd
half, or the co-writer of The Rose Of Eternity, which ever
you prefer. We talked about how we really need to get a
brainstorming session. Although I did all of the actual building of The
Coming, Brian Rhodes definitely helped out with a
lot of the systems that are in place today, such as Last Resorts, and
many of the custom abilities, such as Illuminate, and how it
affects Shinkara Shadows.
In fact, I almost see
the upcoming week of development as 75% design, and 25%
implementation. I plan on having many back and forths
with the writers (I MEAN IT THIS TIME...), and in general,
polishing the hell out of Cry The Beloved.
Hopefully, this new
found energy will bleed over into next week.
Till tomorrow... |
11/10/05
- Thursday: THE UPS AND DOWNS OF MODULE MAKING... |
 |
Ah, the ups
and downs of module making. Unfortunately, I am going through the
latest iteration of downs...It's okay though, because eventually, things
will be start to go up again. Hopefully sooner than later...
In all seriousness
though, I am burnt out. Does this mean I am going to stop working on
Cry The Beloved? Of course not! It just means
that at this point in the development, it is more of a 2nd job than
something I look forward to after my 1st job.
Fear not though, because
with a year and a half development time experience, I know that these
things happen. For instance...
...I went through a similar
thing when creating The Coming. Back in December 2004,
I started working on the Challseus quest. About half
way through, I just lost all will to continue... |
| I literally
almost packed it all in and gave up. I just didn't want to go
through it anymore. One reason was because I just didn't think a
module like The Coming would make it at NWVault.
I saw another console module named Legacy: Dark Moon Rising,
that was released in August of 2004, fall into obscurity. It
wasn't until recently when community member and Vault reviewer Hugie
reviewed this module that it started getting the props it
deserved. Since I knew I was making a console module, I just started
losing all hope.
In fact, I actually
stopped development for a couple of weeks. I was having too much fun
playing World Of Warcraft and other games. I think
that when I got my laptop, I started getting back into the swing of
things. After about 3 weeks, I regained my confidence, and
moved on.
So in short, I have
history on my side. I have been through this before, so I know it
won't last forever. That most annoying thing however is the fact
that I go on vacation all next week. Now, I know all of you
level-headed people out there are thinking that having a week off of work
would be the best thing for someone who is burnt out. Perhaps it is,
but in my mind, I really want to use all of this time for
development.
Till tomorrow...
P.S. In case some
did not get the point of this post, I did not accomplish much if anything
today:) |
11/09/05
- Wednesday: 1 STEP CLOSER... |
 |
So I actually
achieved something this month:) I successfully started from the
beginning of the game and played all the way to the end of it. The
ending point is by no means the actual ending of the actual game, but it
is the end of everything I have built so far.
Now that I know it is
stable, I can start going into polish mode. It won't be a complete
polish, but it will be good enough for the ALPHA testers.
As I stated earlier,
since I have all of next week off, I should be able to just focus on the
polishing effort. Of course, I will have to learn how to NOT watch
the History Channel while at home...It will be tough, but I must stay
focused...
Till tomorrow... |
11/08/05
- Tuesday: SLOW DAY... |
 |
So, I am
actually writing this on 11-09-2005...Yeah, yeah, I
know...I'm slipping a bit with these updates. I'm not a MACHINE!!!
:)
So today, I dealt with
some initialization problems. I thought I had it finished up last
night, but apparantly I am not a good programmer when I am dead tired:)
Due to the fact that I
was so damn tired, I decided to go to bed early. So in short, not
much was done today... |
11/07/05
- Monday: OH, HOW I WISH I COULD VIEW MY E-MAIL!!! |
 |
ARRRG!!!
My work e-mail is still down. So again, I am sorry to anyone
who has been trying to get in contact with me (*cough* writers
*cough*). If anything is super important, you can try at my other
e-mail address (gamecoder@optonline.net).
So today was pretty
slow...I finished a lot of the minor issues of my initialization work, and
began to work on a short 15 second intro cut-scene that runs before you
start a conversation with a main character. Even though the
cut-scene is only 15 seconds, it is shot in a way that makes it a bit more
difficult than normal. Hopefully, I can get to bed early tonight, so
I can finish more on the train tomorrow...
Till tomorrow... |
11/06/05
- Sunday: MORE INITIALIZATION WORK... |
 |
First off, so
no one thinks I am contradicting myself about answering e-mails on
time. The e-mail exchange server at the office was down today for
maintenance, so I could not view any e-mails. So, I hope no one
things I am slipping 1 day after I promised to answer
e-mails on time:)
So, nothing magical
really happened today. I continued with my initialization work, as
expected. There is now a DM like area where certain checks will be
made on the incoming character. The main one will be have they
completed The Coming. That is easy to check, as I use
the NWN Database to carry variables over from The Coming to Cry
The Beloved.
I am also now
successfully handling the issue I talked about yesterday concerning the Gem
Of Law & Gem Of Chaos. I am quite pleased with the
result, as it literally came to me while watching my beloved NY
Giant beat the San Francisco 49ers. |
| Also, as I mentioned
yesterday, I am dynamically creating the party members, depending on the
level of the PC that starts the game. Besides creating the party
member, I am dynamically creating the starting the gear via script, which
can be very useful. For example, lets say I have 8 blueprints for
Clopon, ranging from level 1 - 8. Now, lets say that Clopon has some
standard starting gear, such as her cloak. her masked hood, and a Boundary
Warden Sling. Now, lets say I want to change her starting
gear. Well, I could change the static gear in all 8
blueprints, or I could just write 1 line of code in my initialization
scripts, which will handle the case for and and every level of
Clopon that is generated. Obviously, the latter is more efficient.
It doesn't just stop
with that however. There are also many local variables
that are set on all party members. Instead of having to go through
each blueprint and set static values, I set all of these variables upon
initialization, which again, is more efficient.
Going back to the DM
area, I just
have some placeholder text for the DM for the moment, but I will be contacting one of the
writers to clean it up. I came up with a very clever way the DM should talk
to the player. Well, at least I think it is clever...Tomorrow, I
will be cleaning up the small issues, and moving on to something else,
though I am not sure what.... Also, I am taking my 1st week off from work
in one week.
Hopefully, I can get the ALPHA out by the end of that
week...
Till tomorrow... |
11/05/05
- Saturday: INITIALIZATION WORK... |
 |
Today was
very productive indeed. First off, I answered A LOT of
e-mails today. Now, that in itself is a big achievement.
Lately, when I have been getting e-mails, I just think "Hmm, I
will just answer this later...". Then, I simply forget
(sorry to those I just got back to...). So, I spent about 2 hours
dealing with old/current e-mail threads I have going. I felt very
good when I was done. Hopefully, I will be better about it, buy
actually answering them when I initially read them...What a concept:)
With that out of the
way, I moved on to some initialization work. By that, I mean, how
to handle the beginning of Cry The Beloved. More
specifically, what should happen if the user starts the game with an
exported level 5 Aramus? Well for one, I have to make sure I
generate a level 5 Clopon to compliment them. What if they are level
2? Well, to make balancing easier, I will raise them to level
3. This is just a small example of it. |
| A bigger
example is what to do with someone who doesn't have their imported
character. Do I supply them with a generic level 3 Aramus? Do
I let them take in a generic level 1 Aramus, and level him up to 3 how
they see fit? Well, both:) I don't want to alienate anyone, so
I am trying to make everything as flexible as possible. I am
thinking that if the user brings in a level 1, once they are leveled to 3,
I will give them some generic items that they would have gotten on their
quest through The Coming, like some Tonics Of Rebirth,
Fleetness Tonics, etc. What about the various Gems that
could have been acquired in The Coming (Gem Of Power, Gem Of Chaos,
Gem Of Law)? Well, that solution still remains to be
seen:) I have a few ideas, so worry not! You won't have to
play through The Coming again if your computer crashes and
you lose all of your data. I'm a bit tired, so I will report about
more tomorrow...
Till tomorrow... |
11/04/05
- Friday: MUSIC COMPRESSION... |
 |
So, a while
back, I was talking about learning of some new tools to further compress
the music files that are used in the game. I somehow forgot about
it, and moved on to something else. Well, while I was using the River
Past Audio Converter, I found out that I could
simply convert a MP3 -> MP3, and simply change the bit rate.
Yeah, yeah, I know I talked about this like a month ago, but it really
just slipped my mind...
Anyhow, as a test, I
converted all of the music files from The Coming, and the
results were astounding, to say the least. Originally clocking in at
37.3 MB. After the conversion, it dropped to 21.18
MB! Why I waited so long to do this, I don't know, but I am
glad I finally got it to work.
The next thing to do was
listen to all of the tracks to make sure the quality wasn't horrible.
So, while working today, I simply went through all of the songs, and
labeled the ones that wouldn't be good enough at the current bit rate. |
| It turns out
there were 4-5 songs that were questionable. Interestingly enough,
they were all tracks that had a piano playing in the background (Aribine
Home Theme, Aribine Night Theme, Clopon's Theme, Dungeon Of Trials Theme,
& North Shinkara Forest Theme). So, the size will go up
a small amount from 21.18, but I still saved a lot of
space. And considering how much new music will be in Cry The
Beloved, I need as much space as I can spare. Don't want to
kill the 56K Modem folks too much...
This will also be good,
as I am beginning to package up the ALPHA for the
testers...I didn't want anyone downloading 40 MB worth of files just to
test this damn thing:)
Till tomorrow... |
11/03/05
- Thursday: ENOUGH CELEBRATING...BACK TO WORK:) |
 |
So, after my
very interesting day yesterday, attempting to build was A LOT easier.
Having so many well wishers make such complimentary remarks on my main
download page really motivated me to make sure Cry The Beloved more
than out does The Coming.
So I reached one goal
today. I actually developed the entire time on the train ride this
morning. Usually, I work for about the 1st 45-60 minutes, and then I
sleep the next 30-45 minutes. Today, I was so focused, that I fought
off the sleep that was trying to take over my body. Although I will
most likely pay for it later tonight:)
Anyways, I actually did
some non-dungeon related work this morning. As I had previously
stated, I had accumulated a very large list of bugs/issues over the past
month. I was not looking forward to dealing with them, but I just
jumped in head first. |
| Interestingly
enough, it wasn't that bad. The one thing that was really pissing me
off was this conversation that is supposed to fire after a boss
fight. After no luck in getting it to fire consistently, I gave up
on it, and decided to come back later. So, community member Amy
Laurin suggested that I have the conversation fire in a
cut-scene. And you know what? It WORKED! So
the trick is, I start a mock cut-scene that handles all of the placement
of the people taking part in the conversation and such, and at the end of
it (only lasts like 3 seconds at most), I fire off my custom conversation
starting method, which will call SetCutsceneMode(), which
will make it impossible for the player to move, which will effectively
make sure they can't somehow stop the script from firing (going to menu,
clicking on something else, etc.). So, in short, I hope all of you
people who complained about cut-scenes that were just conversations are
happy now:)
With that little
situation out of the way, I began to clear many more. I made a lot
of headway, and I think that the entire game (well, everything that has
been built) can be played from beginning to end without any show stopping
issues. I'm so close to the ALPHA that I can smell
it:)
One more thing. I
am attempting to find out how much it would cost to actually license the
Aurora Engine to make commercial games, sort of how the company that is
making The Witcher
did. I have some ideas that I will explain later if the cost
isn't that much. When I say not that much, I mean not more than a
bank would loan me...
Till tomorrow... |
 |
Well, the
title should say it all! I have finally reach the status of
immortality! Or, in other words, I guess a few people actually
enjoyed The Coming:)
On a more serious note,
what does Hall Of Fame status really mean? Well, this
is obviously different for many people. Hall Of Fame inductee
Bruce Nielson, known for his The Light Reborn module
series was my sort of my unofficial mentor when I 1st released this
module. Being my 1st module I had ever released, I had many
questions for him, such as what are typical download rates, how do I deal
with people who vote low for no reason, etc. He left me with these
words (more or less): "I couldn't wait for Hall Of Fame
status. After I received it, I then realized it meant
nothing...". Now, that might be true sometime down the
road, but for me, I have a different perspective...
Obviously, making RPG's
is what I want to do for the rest of my life (do I really need to keep
making this statement?). This is not some hobby or fad project that
I do when I have the time. I eat, sleep, and breathe The Rose
Of Eternity... |
| In fact,
since 1999, when myself and best friend Brian Rhodes started
coming up with the world and story, every big decision I have made in life
has been for The Rose Of Eternity. I knew I had to get
in the game industry somehow, and since they didn't have game design
courses back then, I decided to take up programming as my way to get
in. I purposely worked less hours at my retail jobs so that I could
focus on the game. When I finally graduated college, I didn't just
choose my current company just for the hell of it. I picked a
company that I knew would eventually dabble in J2ME Game related
stuff, as well as a place I knew I could continue to build up my
resume, while getting paid, and still focusing on creating this
game. Sometime, it drives me crazy...Hell, I TOTALLY missed
out on the last generation of consoles and games (Gamecube,
PlayStation 2, & XBOX). Anyone who knows me personally
knows that that concept is totally ludicrous. Hell, I wanted to try
out Halo 2 to see what the big fuss was. Fable seemed
very interesting, but I just didn't want to get side tracked. I
mean, I never even finished The Legend Of Zelda: Wind Waker...
Why am I blabbing on
about all of this you ask? Because, for the past 6 years, I knew what
I wanted to do. However, I didn't know if I
was good at it. Getting Hall Of Fame truly
cements the fact that I DO in fact have the potential to
make a great game, given the right resources. I mean, I was truly a
stranger in this world you people call DnD. I have to
admit that I didn't know what Roleplaying was. I
didn't know people really got engrossed in the characters that they
play. I love RPG's as much as the next person, but I
never got that deep. As long as it had a great story, a intuitive
and deep combat system, and great music, I was sold. In fact, I
don't think I will ever truly understand what Roleplaying is.
That was just the tip of the iceberg. I was truly in a whole new
world.
So the fact that I went
in and created something totally different, and succeeded, gives me great
pride. Some of my co-workers call it big-headedness, but if
they were finally seeing the fruits of their 6 years of labor, they would
feel the same as I do. However, this is just the beginning.
This is just another small step towards reaching my ultimate goal:
Creating the best RPG in the world. I truly wish I
could talk about it, but The Coming is such a small fraction
of the plans I have for The Rose Of Eternity. For
instance, the 1st chapter that I always planned for the Rose Of
Eternity (when I had the delusion of grandeur of creating it for
the Gamecube) would have lasted roughly 8 times as long as The
Coming. I get many e-mails from people asking how many
chapters I will release until I finish the story, and I always tell them
that I don't think I would be alive that long if I had to continue to make
them as NWN modules by myself:) It is definitely something that
would have to be built from the ground up, and not a simple module using
the NWN toolset.
So where do I go from
here? Well obviously, Cry The Beloved is currently
under development. The fact that I have Hall Of Fame status
might possibly look good to possible employers when they read my
resume. Perhaps Bioware will take notice of me *cough*cough*cough*...
I am already making plans for Neverwinter Nights 2 in case I
haven't gotten a job in the industry by that time... I am also
looking to possibly move out to California, since everything video game
related seems to be out there. All we have in Manhattan are
banks and other finance related companies:( I also have done 1 more
thing to get closer to my goal..
Anyone remember the
stretch of time where I was totally focused on updating The
Coming? I spent about 10 days total in September doing
this. Well, besides giving The Coming the face lift it
needed, I was also preparing to enter my module into the IGF
Modding Competition.
In a nutshell, getting
to the finals of it could be the boost I need to. Some community
members have speculated that it was a scam to just get people's money, and
that it wasn't worth it. Again, I see it from another
perspective. If I am lucky enough to make it to the finals, I will
have the chance to demo The Coming in front of some very
important people. There is a $2500 prize for winning,
but when it comes down it, that isn't a lot of money...Who cares...I would
gladly split up the money amongst the people who created the custom
content I used, such as the CEP and such. I don't care
about the money...I want the EXPOSURE. I would gladly
pay $500 of MY OWN money to be able to go to
the conference and have the chance to meet some important people.
Some may say that the chances are low, but I will never know if I don't
try. You have to take chances in life, and the way I look at it, the
risk is low, and the reward is high, so I am going for it.
So, do I think I will
reach the finals? Yes, and no...What I mean is, it all depends on
the judges. This is going to come out the wrong, but I don't know
how else to say it. When some people play NWN modules, they are only
looking at it as being a DnD RPG. The word on the
street is that some of the judges will be from the NWN community.
So, if I get judges who are judging The Rose Of Eternity as
being a good RPG, I think I have the potential to make it to the
finals. One of the things they are looking for is innovations, and
this module is full of them. I want them to look at my game is say "Damn,
he did all of that with the Aurora Toolset. Who the hell cares if
his grammar is horrible, and the cut-scenes were long. Just imagine
what he could do if he was working with an entire professional team, and
had better resources." However, if I get the judges who
are looking for the best DnD RPG, I might be screwed.
This is in no way a slight to those particular judges, but it is just one
of my concerns. I guess I will have to wait and see what happens...
In conclusion, I really
want to thank everyone who has supported myself and my efforts. From
the creators of the custom content used in my module, to the people who
download and vote on my module, to the ones who send me e-mails talking
about how much fun you had with The Coming, thank you.
It is a very old and bad cliché, but I really couldn't have done it
without you guys. It is the community itself that keeps myself
motivated. Hopefully, I can write another update like this in the
near future after Cry The Beloved is released:)
Till tomorrow...
P.S. And yes, I
did work on Cry The Beloved today, but I feel that I have
written enough for 1 day:) |
11/01/05
- Tuesday: ANOTHER MONTH... |
 |
Somehow, I
made it through another month:) It was hectic, but I made it.
I actually had to go back to my 10/01/2005 update to see what I was up
to. I just have one thing to say. HOW IN THE HELL DID I
SPEND AN ENTIRE MONTH ON THAT DAMN DUNGEON:)
Seriously though, I am a
perfectionist, so it is okay. So what did I accomplish? Well,
a lot more than work on the dungeon. I make significant updates to
the Last Resort system, I added 3 new custom systems, and I
expanded the current Summoning System. Hell, I REWROTE
the entire Summoning System:) So,
I can't say I did nothing but work on the dungeon.
So what are my plans for
this month? Simple, get a playable ALPHA released.
More specifically, I need to do the following... |
| First off, I
need to deal with a ton of bugs/issues. And I mean a TON.
For the past month, I was so focused on all of the innovative
things I was doing, that I put the smaller issues on the back
burner. In my head, I was figuring that it was more important to try
to do the things I had never attempted first, before doing things I knew
I could do. It was a good and decision.
It was good because there were definitely a few things that were tougher
to implement than I thought, and I am glad I got it out of the way.
It was bad, because now I have to come back to these small, annoying
bugs/issues. Ah, the life of a module maker...
Next up is getting back
in touch with my writers. Since I was focused on creating new
systems as well as the dungeon, I haven't done anything related to Dematol
for the past month. That said, when I stopped development on it, I
knew I would have to come back to it eventually. Well, it is almost
about that time. In fact, once I succeed in getting an ALPHA to
those who have been patiently waiting, I really want to begin to focus on
the dialog again. I just hope my writers haven't gone
anywhere:) Also, to streamline things, I am thinking about putting
up a password protected page on this very website that only developers of Cry
The Beloved can go to. This page will have everything related
to Cry The Beloved on it, including the current story, all
of the dialogues that have been written, as well as bio's on all important
characters. I believe that by doing this, it will be easier for the
writers to create dialogue without having so much input from me. For
instance, if someone was writing some dialogue for Clopon, they could go
to this page, look at her bio, and also see everything that
she will go through in Cry The Beloved. Anyways, not
sure if this will happen, as I am busy enough as it is, but it is
definitely something I am interested in.
Okay, back to what I
accomplished today...Well, not much with the game. I knocked out a
few bugs this morning on the train ride into work. When I got home,
I focused on getting back in tough with the writers, to see where
everything stands. And of course, I wrote this daily update:)
Till tomorrow... |
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