First class is in

So, yes, I've been a bit lax on the updates, but that's ok because no-one is reading this anyway. Anyway, the game is coming along well. The Mage class is now fully implemented, and I'm about to start work on the next - the Rogue. Currently the only game mode is Hot Seat, but I've been playing a few games and I'm pretty happy. Obviously with only one class, and with only one player per team it's not particularly gripping, but it's enough to check the basic mechanics and get an idea for how the plays I had in my mind actually work. There's a lot of tweaking of numbers to do as balance isn't quite right yet, but it's getting there.

The eventual plan is to have the main game be a team-based tactical arena - two teams of three, with each team controlled by one player - and so ultimately balance will revolve around that - but I dislike the idea of hand-waving away problems in 1v1 by claiming that teams fix it all. Obviously if there's no other solution I'll take it, but I'd rather have deep balance that runs all the way down.

The biggest problem at the moment is the lack of art. Most of this is just a cosmetic issue - changing sprites and icons and so on - but things such as spell effects and animations do require some underlying code. I would release an alpha as it is, but currently the art that's not from MS Paint is from other games and while I don't mind a pre-release containing placeholder assets I don't want it containing other people's work. As soon as I have a stable, non-copyrighted demo I'll let people have it.

~Roxton.

How did Sherlock live?

I've recently started watching the BBC's rather good New Tricks, in which a bunch of retired policemen solve old, unclosed cases. I've decided to do something rather similar - solve an old (by internet standards), unclosed BBC case. Namely, how did Sherlock survive the fall from the roof of St. Bartholomew's Hospital? In doing so, I'm either fashionably late to the discussion, or perhaps just an avant-garde of the inevitable renewal that will come ahead of Series 3 being released at some point in the relatively near future.

Before I begin speculating wildly, though, we probably ought to work out just what happened. I'm starting my description at what on my DVD is about 1:18:07, when Moriarty has just topped himself and Sherlock is spinning around in circles chasing his sleeve. Or something.