I have sometimes wandered, why cannot I produce new ideas for my maps, I stare at the screen thinking...and more staring at HPL2 level editor, and still more starting. Then it dawned on me.
I am an artist and most of my idea thinking comes when I have artistic media at my hands. This is truly my biggest mistake in developing this mod. (Well one of them). All professional level designers in the industry always start out with a blue print with there ideas of some character, architecture, and map design. They use these blueprints to formulate a definitive idea that will work in the game. This is something I should have done from the start!
So I am going though all the current levels that are already built, and ones that I am still forming ideas with, and designing there proper maps for them. What key items are placed with in the map, building structure, and terrain elevation. I view the maps in Gimp as a .xcf file, so I can quickly toggle layers and edit the top down view of the map if needed. Once I am completely happy with the map, it is then off to the production faze. I am doing this current process over the half end of the week. And the other beginning half of the week is wrapping up the final 100% dialogue and story.
I just hope the fans of the mod have not lost interest in this custom story, I know it has been up on the TBA for quite awhile, and I am doing all I can, while balancing a job and collage. I just have a great feeling that once this thing is released, it will be a splendid deep custom story.
I haven't lost interesting, it's obviously going slow, but everything I've seen already looks amazing
Today I have a day off from work and school. Just got to clear some homework and I should be done with that around 3pm, 5 by the latest. The rest of the day till 3am is this mod. So I can work out the kinks of the story to fit with the new antagonist direction. So if I relay focus and work hard at it for 12 hours, I should get close to the end with the story.
Lets do it to it! *Goofy Movie reference*