Well. Here I sit. Another 5 months of classes stretched out before me. Lets recap what I did since the last entry.

The main thing completed since the last entry would have to be what happened when you're off the map - basic handling of respawning and upgrading your equipment.

I did, indeed, continue working on Project Shock all the way up until about 3pm Sunday (then I decided to take a break and get in a bit of Dungeons and Dragons Online with my brother and some of his friends from the community college RPG club).

I find myself getting sidetracked a lot from working on perhaps the most pivotal feature standing in the way of this being a playable game: the player activated abilities/powers. I've merged the idea of player character skills and items into one: this is a sci-fi game, and your character is wearing the ultimate upgradable multi-tool. However, as long as I keep getting sidetracked, its overall functions are zero.

Instead, things I've did over the past 3 days included:

• Building more of the static map. Though eventually I plan to have a dynamically generated map (for infinite replayability) the first release(s) will have a static map just to make sure all the components are working.
• Improving sound support mechanisms within the game and adding some more sounds. I have to say that the sound system in BYOND is really quite outstanding, and it's a shame many BYOND games I've tried are silent.
• Revamped my devices to work on a different mechanism. Again. I was having a bit of conflict in trying to get them to simultaniously work off of power source supplies while still having batteries of their own. I decided to go with batteries only because its a bit more interesting seeing all of the automation going on. Another thing I think I may do is have the flow of time itself be something the players can modify, and this is a step in that direction.

Side from a flickering light affect on lit sensors, the only difference you'd notice when walking around the map since last update is the addition of a nutrition panel, more sounds, and the removal of a rather unnecessary keyboard diagram from the GUI to make room for my abilities.

So, is that it, then? Back to school and now no more time for me to be making games?

Not necessary. I'll get three days out of the week off, and be stranded at school a lot - which is good from a homework completion standpoint and because I'll have my laptop with me.

However, it'll be a week or two until I know how this schedule change impacts my BYOND development.