>put on tinfoil coder's hat

I've been busy the last two weeks whipping the game engine into shape for private alpha testing in late September, checking off milestones on the roadmap:

• Silhouettes
• Blood
• Texture transparency
• Options GUIs
• Key mapping
• Party following no longer completely broken
• Replace problem libs: GLEW, OpenAL, libsndfile, liboggvorbiscrap

The "problem libraries" were ok (not good!) for prototyping but they're a massive production headache. They're overkill, too big for what they are, with funky build scripts. Some are LGPL-licensed, so you can distribute the DLL with commercial software but you can't static-link into the main EXE.

We want small libraries that do one thing well, that we can compile from source code in our CMake build process. No 'autocrap' build scripts please! No strings attached - MIT-style license, public domain, or GTFO.

• GLEW > Galogen
  • GLEW uses a little black magic, which complicates build processes and drives devs crazy. Unfortunately people keep using it because all the OpenGL tutorials use it.
  • Galogen is a straightforward OpenGL interface generator. It simply reads the gl.xml spec and spits out a .c/.h pair to use in your program. There are other generators, but this one's a single C++ file with one dependency, tinyxml2.cpp. WIN!
  • Google ownership, Apache license?? Not ideal, but acceptable for a small lib.
• OpenAL > mini_al and sts_mixer
  • OpenAL is the old standby for game audio. It does 3D and everything. Downside: OpenGL-level obtuseness, waning support, multiple implementations, and nitpicky licenses.
  • mini_al.h is minimal cross-platform audio I/O, supporting all the major APIs on Windows, Linux, Apple, Android, and the BSDs. It doesn't include a mixer (yet) but sts_mixer covers that need. I had to cobble together some low-level glue code but it's ~10x less than the boilerplate code I needed for OpenAL.
• libsndfile/ogg/vorbis/etc > dr_libs (WAV, FLAC, MP3) and/or stb_vorbis (OGG)
  • Libsndfile is a nicer API for several fugly audio codecs. It depends on the OGG/Vorbis libs which are a nightmare to compile in Windows. It doesn't include MP3.
  • dr_mp3.h is all we need. MP3 is finally off patent, and it's a better lossy audio format than OGG.

That's Free Software at its finest. Free as in freedom, free as in zero cost, simple and practical, and too small to attract self-serving corporate sponsors or worse, the dreaded "community".

>put on tinfoil writer's hat

Now that the engine's in a semblance of order, it's time to focus on narrative for a few days. It's been hard to focus lately, what with current events catching up to this fiction (even though it takes place a few years ago).

What are we trying to say with this game? Absolutely nothing. It's just a game.

What are we actually going to say? Too much. ;)

What are we supposed to think when we play this game for old time's sake in 20 years? Ah, the 2010s, when technology almost got out of control. Mankind dodged a bullet. (Fingers crossed, knock on wood)

What are we writing about? Characters, rivalries, sidequests.

When? Later. We have 6 months for all that, or more if we delay like pros!

Then what do we need now? Gameplay loops. Find clues; search for answers; get into fights and arguments; succeed/fail; claim your reward/punishment, advance the plot, and level up from time to time. Just give the alpha testers enough meat to sink a few hours into it, mostly in exploration and combat.