I'm starting to think the unthinkable. What if the project is released a few weeks late? I'm constantly looking at the schedule, and there is so much I want to fit in...

Only 350 screen region descriptions to go. At the rate of 100 per hour, that should be complete today by early afternoon.

It's the end of April so I should maybe get in touch with the composer.

Should have the screen regions all done by today. Only 860 events to code...

I've also been revising the detailed project schedule. It's pretty scary to see all the different tasks that still need to be completed. They will all be done, but it will be a close thing!

Finished adding alien screen regions, but it will take another couple of days to add the events that take place when the character looks at those regions.

Still adding screen regions to the space locations. 50 planets done, 18 to go. I've also been weeding out some of the worst graphics and adding more detail to others, hence taking a little longer than planned.

Most of the space screen regions are done. The rest should be complete by tomorrow morning, then it will take another three days to add the text (a screen region is no good unless the character and mouse do something in relation to it.) It is very reassuring to see a five week job completed in one week. I may go on and work on some of the other "small" jobs just to get them out of the way. Like the improved welcome video, the intro conversations, and the alien dialog.

I just changed the screenshots page to make the art styles more obvious. I think this will be the biggest issue with the game, people expect eye candy and will be thrown off by the sketchy and (deliberately) inconsistent art styles. So I've made that the main focus of the screenshots page. I've also added a selection of shots to show that, yes, there ARE some nice pictures in there as well.

http://www.lesmisgame.com/screenshots.html

That's better! I added screen regions to 240 scenes yesterday (it will take another full day to fill in the details) and should do a similar number today. So the missing screen regions (mainly in the outer space scenes) will be complete within a week. It's these little extras that give me the most worry. I fear that I will get the main story done, but end up with a game with tons of loose ends and missing parts. But if I tidy up all these loose ends first then I can concentrate on the main story and not worry that I've forgotten anything.

Another issue is that the "little extras" are the most fun parts to make. But I don't know if other people will find them fun, and so I have the main story as the safety net: whatever happens, Les Miserables will be a good story. The rest? Who knows - we'll see how people react.

I've been planning the next seven months in detail, and panicking slightly. Only seven months to go! Today I'm doing some screen regions that I thought would take over a month, but I think I may get them done in just a week, thanks to Peter Swinkels' excellent screen region editor. We shall see. It will be nice to get something done in well UNDER the allotted time for a change. :)

Finally completed the general purpose tangent conversations. Hopefully I'll have some of the other character-specific generic conversations done by today as well.

The more I looked at the first "Enter the Story" logo, the less I liked it, so I changed it already. It's incredible how much time it takes to design a logo (I'm not a professional at this, obviously). The finished result probably looks very plain and ordinary. But it's the simple things that take longest, because they just have to be RIGHT.

I also tidied up the main site home page, so it's even cleaner than before. See www.LesMisGame.com and www.EnterTheStory.com for details.

The first version of enterthestory.com is now online. I like the main graphic (I should do! It took me long enough to make!) but I'll probably change the logo. But that's for another time. Right now (i.e. when I get up in the morning) I need to work on the in-game conversations.

Today I'm making the new "parent" site (assuming I get legal clarification on an image I plan to use) and also finishing the 'tangent' conversations.

enterthestory.com has finally been registered! There is nothing to see there right now, and I won't waste too much time on it until the game is released, but EnterTheStory.com will be the permanent home of Les Miserables the game, Dante's Inferno the game, and all the others.

It took ages to choose the name. All the shorter names were already taken, and the more descriptive names were too long to be memorable (or too easy to misspell). I originally planned expandingstories.com, but that was slightly to long, it didn't roll of the tongue, and although the game does expand as a whole, the individual stories don't expand so it's misleading.

Something like 'eneter the game' or 'enter the legend' would have been even easier to remember, but they are less accurate. The game isn't like other games and it isn't all about legends. The phrase 'enter the story' sums up what I'm trying to do. It's all about stories: classic stories, big sci-fi stories, personal stories, and the story of Cartaphilus Jones. It's about narrative and purpose and the ordinary people and unusual angles that are often forgotten. And you don't just play it as a game, you enter in and explore, getting behind the ideas and sharing the thoughts of the people involved. To me, getting inside a book is what it's all about. That's what I love about adventure games: you can read a story but then also explore the world and talk to people and do things how you want to. But if I called it 'enter the book' people might think it's just a text web site.

No name is perfect, but I think 'enter the story' is a good compromise between being memorable and describing exactly what the project is about. The first page of the Les Miserables game will contain the name prominently at the bottom of the page, so that people who play the game will (hopefully) be curious to see what comes next.

I'll probably put the front page of the main site up in a couple of weeks, but will leave the main content until later.

Still adding Victor Hugo's tangents.

Latest roadmap (always changing!) End of April: Main dialog and new scenes (Arras and Fauchelevent's cart). Late May: up to arounf plot point 12 (or 29), where Valjean must decide whether to rescue Fauchelevent or not. That's as far as the demo will go, so it seems a natural break. I'll also spend some time fixing bugs, then send out the next alpha test version to several volunteers.

While that's being tested (in June) I'll add more plot points, and create the trampoline scenes. That is, animated scenes of falling off the bridge, being killed, etc., that require a trampoline and a video camera to get the movements looking right. That should be fun!

I'm still working on generic tangent conversations, the kind of thing you talk about when you've run out of character-related or story-related topics. I spent some time last night looking for classic books that have dialogs I could adapt. I was very excited about 'Correspondence & Conversations of Alexis de Tocqueville with Nassau William Senior from 1834 to 1859, Volume 2' on Project Gutenberg.

Tocquevile covers exactly the sort of topics that Victor Hugo covered, and dealt with the almost same period of French history! His conversations would be just perfect to slip into the game. It would be wonderful to just plug them into the background to add depth and interest. But disaster! Project Gutenberg only has volume 2, not volume 1. Volume 2 beginsd in the 1850s, and talks about events long after Les Miserables finishes. Volume 1 begins in 1834 so the first chapters would be eminently suitable, but I cannot find an electronic copy anywhere, and I can't afford the time to buy a paper copy and transcribe it. Drat. Back to the drawing board.

So it looks like the "interesting tangents" feature will have to grow slowly and organically with the game. The first version will have maybe thirty tangent topics, taken from the "off topic" chapters of Les Miserables. The next version might add another few from the next book, and so on. After a few years there will be a deep pool of interesting topics to choose from, but right now the pool is a little shallow. But still deeper than in other adventure games, I hasten to add.

So busy over the weekend that I forgot to add a new screenshot. That's fixed now.

It's surprising how long dialog takes to write, even though I'm simply adapting what's in the book. I reckon I spent well over ten hours yesterday, and created just 12 of the (roughly) 30 final topics in the section I was working on. Most of the topics aren't even very long. And these will need more editing once they're tested in the game. It's not just a question of ripping the text out of the book (I wish it was!) but of selecting, aranging, trying to understand, then completely re-writing in a form that (hopefully) makes sense in the context of the game. I think the results are worth it. I hope they are anyway!

Today is a marathon session: I'm determined to make a real dent in the conversations.

As mentioned over the past couple of weeks, coding the puzzles led me to realize that I need to add the generic dialog at an earlier stage. And adding the generic dialog has made it clear that I need to add the REALLY generic dialog. That is, the things people say when they run out of things to say. In short, there are three knds of dialog in the game.

(1) puzzle specific clues, such as "I wish I had some way to escape from Faucheleven't garden"

(2) person specific generic dialog, such as "did you like the convent school Cosette?"

(3) extra-generic dialog like "isn't Paris a great place."

None of those are actual lines from the game, I hasten to add! The final kind is what I'm adding right now. I've gone through the book (again) and isolated sixty conversation topics from Hugo's famous asides. Dealing with gamins, Paris, sewers, slang, the perpetual adoration, prayer, and so on. So when you talk to a major character and run out of type 1 and type 2 dialog there is still something to say.

This is one of the great strengths of the adventure game format. No movie or play or musical or other adapation could ever find space for these discussions, so they miss out a large part of what givs the book its character. Adventure game does not have to miss that out, beause it is all optional, so the reader never has to sit through something they don't find interesting.

Finally completed Cosette's optional dialog (ie. that which is not required for any puzzles, but adds background). It took six hours to write the final two thirds of it, and most of it will probably never be read. And the parts that are read will probably take less than five minutes for someone to read, if they're even interested. And because there is so much, I can't guarantee that the writing style is perfect. I certainly won't win any awards for dialog.

HOWEVER... it was very satisfying to just create a (potentially) neat and interesting debate on a subject related to the book, and suggest new and unexpected angles to the character. Angles that I think make a lot of sense in terms of the novel, but will come as a surprise to readers. This is really te heart of what I wanted to do all along with this game, and what sets it apart from other games. You can discuss interesting things with people. As the game expands and progresses I want more and more conversations like this one.

Now that's scary. I've posted 248 daily blog messages and there are only 247 days until the game is released. My original plan was to spend the last couple of months tweaking it and trying to get publicity. Realistically I think the release date will come so quickly I'll be focusing purely on the game itself. I'm never satisfied with anything I do (at least not after the first couple of days) so will be burning the midnight oil adding and fixing right up to the deadline in December.

In other news I spent three whole hours fixing a bug on the screenshots page, and I now have six hours to finish Cosette and Eponine's main generic dialog.

And next time anyone refreshes the main site they should see a new mini icon (the one that appears by the name of the site in the favorites list). I like it, but I'm not sure if other people will see what it is. Time will tell.

Well that's the revised web site up: www.LesMisGame.com. Right now I like it. Which means that I have six months before I hate it again.

The main reason for the change is that the old site just wasn't looking like I wanted it to look. I had this vision of it being this incredibly realistic book on an empty screen. But it ended up with the top one third of a book, all dark and smudged, with lots of clutter that took ages to load. The final straw was visiting "WebPagesThatSuck.com" and seeing that I broke all the big rules of web design.

Well hopefully the new look is better. It loads faster anyway.

Now back to developing the game.

Edit: I should probably add that the "made with" logo and the "paid for by advertising" line on the mailing list won't be there for very long.

Still working on the new website. It won't look dramatically different from the current one (except for the home page, that WILL look dramatically different) but I'm fixing all the little things that really need fixing.

It may seem that this is taking too much time away from developing the game itself (it's been four days now since I worked on the game) but I see it differently. The game is as only as good as users (and potential users) think it is. Any time that I spend "flying blind," developing without a clear idea of how people see the game, is time potentially wasted. I need to have a good feel for how people are seeing the game, so I need a steady stream of visitors to the site, leaving feedback. That way I can see the game as they see it, and budget my time accordingly. The new site is almost finished, so I should be able to upload it in the morning (Scotland time).

I was so busy working on the new site that I lost track of time! More tomorrow. I mean, later today.

More software to rave about: WYSIWYG web builder. I love this program! Since I'm updating the main site, I figured it was about time to get a decent web editor. I have FrontPage97, which is great for very simple sites, but horrible for anything else. And NVU, which is better, but it can be frustrating when trying to position layers (and it sometimes freezes). And NetObjects 7, which is great for standard kind of web sites, but likes to take too much control, and sometimes doesn't render stuff as I expect (font sizes, positioning, etc.) which again is frustrating if you're trying to do something non-standard.

The best choice is of course is Dreamweaver, and it's a joy to use, but it also costs a ton of money. I found an ancient copy on eBay but got outbid at the last second. Having decided to actually spend some money, I looke daround and stumbled across WYSIWYG web builder. It's beautiful! It does exactly what I want. So easy. It really is WYSIWYG, and most important it gives me complete control over positioning. And it has other neat features that I'm just discovering. It only has two weaknesses: it's not very precise at importing existing web pages and it doesn't allow direct access to the HTML, but neither item is a big problem so far.

It's made by a guy called Pablo something or other, and he's obviously put a lot of care into this. It's literally the poor man's Dreamweaver, but in some ways it's ven better, since it has fewer features so the layout is cleaner and stuff is easier to find. It's really, really nice. Features that used to be a real pain to code (like positioning layers to react to different creen sizes, or making menus) are now really fun to do. Iw as going to finish it tonight, but on past experience I bet it'll take longer than I expect, so I'll make a good start on it in the morning.

I do ramble on don't I? If the nice new web site attracts more people I guess the next step will be to make the blog more succinct and interesting!

I was just looking at some examples of really well designed web sites, and then looked at lesmisgame.com and got a healthy slap in the face of reality. It would be silly to spend a long time on major changes, but I think I can make it a lot more attractive without too much extra work. Sorry to be spending so many blog entries on this, but the game is such a holistic thing.

The look and feel of a web site tells people what to expect. And the "parent" web site influences how the "LesMisGame" web site and game are developed. If I create conflicting or unmet expectations then much of the development time is wasted. I want the game to have a strong and memorable message, not to just be a collection of random stuff that doesn't fit together.

Just one more comment on the minor site upgrade. I just noticed that some site visitors use the Mac, so I need to add a page on running the game in platforms other than Windows and Linux. I'l probably tidy the look of the site in a couple of weeks, and add those new pages then.

I'm in two minds about whether to accept PayPal when the game goes on sale (assuming anyone wants to buy it!) PayPal dominates the ecommerce world, so I guess I'd be crazy to avoid them. But I've had a lot of bad experiences with them. Last night I discovered that they've changed my account from instant direct debit to "wait seven to sixteen days" eCheques, without telling me. (Other companies like Amazon use the same bank details and are happy to use direct debit.) This means that I may lose the domain I paid for, since someone else now has seven to sixteen days to buy it first, before the registrar sees my money.

Enough griping. I will probably end up using PayPal as one option because otherwise I will lose some sales, but I just needed to vent.

Well I've bought a new domain. I won't give the name yet, since it doesn't show up yet. I paid with PayPal, and it seems that PayPal is doing its old trick of holding onto the money for a while, and my ISP won't register the domain until it has the money from PayPal. So technically someone else could still take it before PayPal decides to do what I asked. Grumble moan rant. I'm not a fan of the financial services sector. In unrelated news I just got a cheque that took four weeks to clear and the banks then took fifteen percent in charges. And I just cancelled a pension after learning that for every five pounds I invest over the next twenty five years, only two pounds goes to the pension fund and the rest is charges. And don't get me started on the subject of mortgages....

Anyhoo, in brighter news, I spent the evening thinking about the long term direction of the game (and hence the right domain name). To cut a long story short, I chose a name that will reflect where the game will be in a few years, but maybe isn't the obvious name right now. On reflection I don't think it will do any good to promote the long term vision too early. Words are cheap on the Internet. Nobody needs aother pretentious and disappointing site. It's real visible quality that matters, and that takes time. Slow and steady wins the race. The best thing I can do is make the game as good as I can, then add to it and add to it and let the game gradually improve. I won't put much effort into the new site until after December, and even then I'll let it evolve at its own pace.

Today I'm searching for a domain name. LesMisGame.com is obviously right for the first game, but I also need some central place for every update. Cartaphilis.com is already taken, carterjones is already taken, so I'm still looking. The name has to say what the game is about (exploring) and be memorable and easy to talk about and type. I'll keep hunting...

Poetry is a challenge! I'm adding general purpose dialog to the characters, adapting dialog from the book. But some characters, most notably Gavroche, are forever using puns, poetry, and singing songs. And of course most of it is in French, and even the famous songs (in the 1850s) ar obscure now.

I don't want to miss them out since they form such a large part of his character. When it's just a brief mention of some historical event I can easily make the character explain what it means. But when someone sings a whole song it's more of a challenge (apart from the fact that songs spoken as text on screen look odd).

I'm having to be creative. For example, the ABC guys sing a seventeen verse song before they die. So I've split it into 17 parts, and just give you the option of saying "I heard you humming something, what was it?" then they give you one verse and its translation. Gavroche will be a bigger challenge, since the whole point of his poetry is it is spontaneous. So I'll leave him til last. I'll probably end up having him just insert a line or half a line here and there, no more than that, where it fits in and it doesn't sound to awkward for him to translate if necessary.

What I really need is an online Gavroch-o-meter, where I can enter ordinary text and have it translated into witty nineteenth century puns. But I don't think such a thing exists!

I've finished the ABC dialog, and now I'm moving onto the other characters. The dialog is adapted from the book, so will need a lot of work, since my own parts are not as good as Hugo's, and he designed his text for dinner parties and rousing speeched, not conversations. But for now it works.

Incidentally, don't be too surprised if Courfeyrac sounds suspiciously like Tholomyès. From a game point of view, Tholomyès is a very minor character but in the book, Tholomyès is fleshed out in far more detail.

But there is one line where Hugo says "for Courfeyrac, see Tholomyès" so where choosing dialog is concerned, I have taken Hugo literally. :)

Yesterday was a beautiful day so I took the kids to the beach. Living on the north coast of Scotland means we have several beautiful beaches to choose from, and they are usually deserted. Yesterday the school holidays had just started and the weather was great, so the beach was busier than usual. It's half a mile long and almost as deep when the tide's out, and I counted eight other people. Curse those crowds!

Anyway, Strathy beach is beautiful. The cliffs, the sand dunes, the steep walk to the beach, the fine sand and the caves, everthing is perfect. And extremely picturesque. And did I mention the caves? The game (getting back on topic) ahs a number of caves, and many of them, the ones you walk through to get to other caves, looked rubbish. Well not any more. I took a camera and got some lovely photos of real caves, and spent the evening filtering and processing them. So the weakest graphics in the game are now the strongest.

I dunno, I just like caves.

What a difference a bracket makes!

I just spent the last 24 hours bug fixing. And I had the day off work, so it was equivalent to maybe three normal days. Half of that time was spent tracking down a pair of brackets () To cut a very long story short, each scene is structured like this:

sub sceneName()
{ #lots of code
}

To run all the code that makes a scne, I call 'sceneName()' but if I just want to refer to that scene without loading it (like to check if the character is in that scne right now, or to give the option of going there later) I use 'sceneName' without the brackets. My problem yesterday was that, buried deep in some other code, I had referred to a particular scene name without removing the brackets. So whenever the code saw that name, it forgot what it was doing and launched that particular scene. And that scene was a very complicated one, so it wasn't obvious that it was being loaded, it's juts that the game did weird stuff. So many hours spent tracking that down! What a difference a pair of brackets makes!

The other half of the day was spent tracking down another bug, that meant the camera sometimes (not often, but sometimes) would jump to the wrong side of the screen then slide back again. This, I finally disscoverd, was because I had referred to a n object that was nearly always in the scnee.. but was sometimes missing for the first hundredth of a second, and that was enough to confuse the computer. What a hassle to find such a tiny needle inthe haystack!

All of this is to show why some games are great and some are rubbish. Game players can't understand why some companies release games that are rubbish, but others make sure their games are great. The rubbish ones, I suspect, spend endless months tearing their hair out trying to get the simplest thngs to work, whereas the good games manage to overcome those bugs and focus on the fun stuff instead.

The important thing to remember is that it takes just as long to find a tiny bug as it takes to encode an entire new puzzle or a lengthy conversation. Sometimes months can go by when I'm working feverishly and there is almost nothing to see for it on the screen. Other times, when no bugs arise, every day leads to more and more good stuff on the screen. The trick is to get all the annoying bugs out of the way at an early stage (i.e. now!) so that in the final months before release all the effort goes into the game and none is wasted on deep-level bug fixing. As I've said before, the game story has 29 parts, and each need take only a day to code and a day to test. Plus each one has maybe a day's worth of new animations (no including the barricade animation which is a spaecial case). So the whole game can be finished quite quickly, IF the bugs can be elminated one by one. And more important, when I come to add the next story, all the background code will eb bug free and the next story will be much faster and easier and more enjoyable to add.

Or at least, that's the plan!