Good day everyone! Lots of new stuff to talk about today, and it's all good information!

Now everyone can (once it is released) enjoy Zep's Dreamland while playing with their own custom keys! I added a complete customization to the keys used to play ZD with. It will store the keys in any save file you save, as well; so if multiple users play ZD on the same computer, they can all have their own specific set of custom keys. There are some restrictions, however. Not all keys can be used. Keys like CAPS LOCK, and alt keys are restricted, as well as Escape and all the F-keys. It's really neat to be able to play with different keys though. I'm beginning to doubt my original key layout!

I also added something very cool to the engine: replays ( or movies, whatever you want to call them). It works quite simply. All you do is, while on a level, hit the specified key and a replay will begin to record. Once you are done recording, you hit that same key and the recorder will stop. Also, if the recorder goes out of the bounds of space it has for recording, it will stop as well. Then with the press of a key you can replay all of the actions that just happened while recording. The fun of it all is that it runs the replay directly through the engine, so it actually alters the gameworld variables, and when the replay is done playing, you can continue playing on that level. This feature has many uses. First of all, it's just fun to watch Zep walk around on the screen on his own.

I created this originally to write an in-game help section which would show aspects of gameplay to the players instead of forcing users to read through the tedious rules of the game. I also found another great use for these replays, since they are so versatile. Replays can be used for "solution" files to levels! If your friends are in a jam, just record a replay, and send it over to them so they can see just how to beat that level, without all that trouble of verbally explaining how to do it!

I still have yet to implement the actual help section of the game, because it requires a lot more than just the simple ability of the engine to play replays of a certain level! I will keep you updated on the help system as it progresses.

The level count is now up to 34. I'm still working on 34, but at least I'm making good progress lately. As I mentioned before, I wanted to show some screenshots; well, I suppose I kind of bluffed. I do not want to show any full screenshots, as not to give away any of the levels or all of the awesome new tilework Johan has been doing. But, I have taken two small clips of some levels.

Enjoy.

The level count is now up to 32. That's one more level added since the last update about levels being added. That's not the bulk of this news update, however. After some heavy thinking, and the urge to finally release some juicy news, I came to the conclusion that the new elements of the game will be revealed after all!

Just recently I had started a html-style help file which will contain images and descriptions of each and every element of the Zep's Dreamland gameworld. While writing it (and practically finishing it), I realized that before playing the game, every user is going to know what these elements of the game I've been keeping from the public will be, so what's the point in keeping them from the public at all? That's basically my thinking on the point: why keep it hidden if it's just going to be revealed in the readme anyways?

So, here goes. There's three new elements to the game (one which I added shortly after the one mentioned in the post dated the 13th). First, the breaking block. This is the oldest element to be kept from the public:

Break Block: This is the breaking block. Zep can stand on top of it without fear of it breaking. Once Zep steps off this block, however, it will crumble and never reappear. Plan out your steps before treading across the breaking blocks.

Tunnel (Horizontal): This is one of the tunnel elements of the game. Zep can walk through this horizontally, but cannot build blocks while inside it. He can also walk on top of it.

Tunnel (Vertical): Same as above except it is vertical and Zep can fall through it.

The break block and the tunnels add a whole slew of fun twists to the levels, and help the creation of new and interesting levels much easier. Already I have seen the tunnels doing their work perfectly, even when there is only one single tile's worth of tunnel on a map.

Stay tuned; I'm thinking about posting some new screenshots soon!

It's been a while since last update, but not as long of an interval of silence like last month, so that's good. I've added a single level to the total level count which basically brings it up to 30. I have already started working on level 31. Excessive amounts of schoolwork has kept me from being able to work on ZD recently, but I just finished up a bunch of it, which has given me some free time to do things today. The main reason for this post isn't to tell you about the fact that a new level has been added, however.

I finally added some nice code to the game, which was really fun. I haven't touched the code for the engine or the editor, I almost forgot what it feels like. And guess what? It feels pretty darn good. I added a new element to the game in addition to the "other" element which I haven't fully disclosed information about. I'm happy about this. It was a fairly simple idea, and actually took a lot less time than I thought to completely and fully program into the game (and editor). It only took about 15 or so minutes. I'm quite proud with how quickly it worked out flawlessly. Interestingly enough, I can't pat myself on the back for being a genious programmer and able to code great things in 15 minutes. It's only due to the versatility of the engine and some good ideas that I was able to add this extra piece so quickly. The ZD engine is quite easy to expand upon.

I want to think of more little extras I can add to the game. While working on level 31 I thought "wow, I wish the engine could do this, it would make this level perfect." I acted on that thought and this is where the new addition was created out of. I'm going to try to do this every time I'm working on a level and see that there is something I'd like to add which is not part of the game yet. However complex, I am going to try to add it to the game.

This is going to be fun.

I added new links for downloads for each of the games. I have a generous amount of web-space which is hosted over at my University's website. I took advantage of this and put all the downloadable game files onto my personal space. It runs quite fast, maybe sometimes even faster than my own hosting, so feel free to use it, if you would like. It is listed as mirror 1 in the download sections for each specific game.

Well, finally, an update where I have some good news. It's not the best news, but it's still good news. My laptop had been having some major problems over the past couple of weeks, so a reformatting was definitely required. I could barely run ZD on it without having it freeze or lockup every 5 seconds, which was quite depressing. That discouraged me very much from trying to make and test levels on my laptop. However, now that the laptop is completely reformatted with a fresh, new installation of Allegro, I've been working much more on ZD. This is great!

So far I've completed three new levels. That brings the total up to 29. I'm getting closer to my goal! I'm glad that I've finally reached level 30, because it is on this specific level that a new "feature" will be introduced into the levels. I can't wait to start using this new little part of the levels. It will introduce a lot more strategy to the levels; and hopefully a lot more difficulty. Overall, though, I would like it to simply introduce more gameplay value. I don't want the game to be impossible, I just want the new things that appear every so many levels to keep the game FUN!

Progress is increasing more and more and I am starting to get very excited. ZD might just be finished sometime shortly (and by shortly I mean by the end of this summer), although I've been saying that for quite some time. Either that, or a new demo -- a true demo (non-test style). I would like to release a new demo, but then again I wouldn't. I'd like to go ahead and show the whole world "Look at all this cool stuff in ZD," but at the same time I'd like to be able to keep it hidden, and keep all the "wow" of discovering new things to the actual release of the game. It's something I've been battling with for quite some time. I don't know if I want to give people everything, and then nothing is new when they play the final version except more cool levels, or whether I want to keep things hush-hush and give players a complete wow when they play the game!

There is so much more to the game than just what the demos show. Tons of new tiles, tons of new features. There's just a lot there, and I absolutely cannot wait until I can release the final version. I'm still not sure whether it's going to be open source or not. This is another thing that I can't quite pin down. I would like it to be open-source to give the community an opportunity to be able to hack around with the code, as I would love to be able to see the code for a game like this. But then again, this is my biggest project I've undertaken to date that is nearing completion. Somehow, I feel like I want to keep the code all for myself. Selfish, I know, but that's the original feeling I get. "My code!" :) I guess that is what happens when you create things.

The amount of excitement I'm getting just thinking about getting ZD out the door is great though. I envision the news post where it says ZD is done; the ZD page with it's 1.0 FINAL version download. It looks so good, and it's going to be great once I finally get to that stage. I have a lot more things to do before it hits that point, however. First of all, I need to finish creating the base levels. That shouldn't take too long, but you never know. Developing levels really is tough. Sometimes I can get on a level-building streak, where I keep pumping out really great levels. Other times it's like a level-creator's block. Back to the point, once the main levels are done, I'm going to have to find a quick way to embed them into a datafile where the public won't be able to get at them and edit the them as they please. This should not be too hard.

After the levels are done I'm going to have to fix up my system of making level packs. For the most part it is already complete; I just need to add more cosmetics to the system. Right now it does not ask for any information such as who the creator of the level pack is. I would like the game to display this information when you load a level pack. I think it's kind of nice when you make levels for a game and then it will show your name on the screen. I haven't devised a perfect plan for it, but I have an idea in my head of how it is all going to work! Once the level pack saver/loader works perfectly, I'm going to have to give the editor to some of my "inside" friends who will then design some level packs to be released along with the final version of the game. Did you expect that my levels were going to be the only ones that made it into the final version of the game? Nope. I want to have a few custom level packs released with the game, just to keep you satisfied!

The editor also needs a lot of cosmetic changes. Right now it is just fine tuned for Johan and myself. It doesn't look too wonderful. I'm going to have to add a lot more user intuitive for the most part. I need to add a lot more cosmetic changes, and add a few buttons here and there. It also has all those nice numbers up in the corners that represent things only the programmer would understand. I'm going to have to get rid of all that junk, too! :)

So, all in all there is a lot to do. I'm sure once I get to the stage of being ready to release, I'm going to have to do a lot of debugging, and fine tuning of how the levels will work. Some levels are out of place in terms of difficulty, so rearranging will be required. I'm going to have to round up some testers at that point to let me know how they think the levels should flow. It is very difficult for me to assess the difficulty rating of the levels and how they flow together, because since I created them I know exactly how to complete them. It's kind of funny because in a way I've never experienced my game the way everyone else has except for when some dedicated users and a few friends have created levels just for "the heck of it." I have only played about 3 levels that weren't mine. I'll have to tell you that it was definitely fun trying to crack someone else's difficult level!

There are more ideas floating around in my head that I'm not quite ready to talk about, as well. I've been thinking about how I can add even *MORE* to ZD than I already have; but this is all "confidential". I suppose I just wanted to let you know that I've been thinking about adding even more extra goodies and fun to the game. Well, that was quite the long post. I've been wanting to write one like this for quite some time! I can tell you this, though, it definitely feels very good to be able to update like this once again.

And just for a random little tidbit of information for no apparant reason: the file sise for a Zep's Dreamland level file averages at about 2k. Quite compact. This is one of the smallest (with respect to filesize) games I have ever created!