Jimmys Software Project

This week we made some headway into the development of the program. We started to plan the way we were going to structure the code, through using pseudocode, and some ideas through python. We are currently working on an algorithm for some mechanics in the game, and others we are just programming straight into python. We debated whether to put the functions of the mechanics into a library and access them in separate files for separate levels. However, we decided it would be best to just keep it all in one file, and we came up with a system for programming each level. The idea is that we have all the mechanics of the game defined at the top so that we can just plot out the board in a list of lists, and the functions and items within that list will work themselves. We also started to do some basic 8-bit graphic design to help visualise the output of the game. Next week we plan to continue developing our program and planning for the code.

This week we heavily focused on refining our project proposal and Gantt chart for submission last week. We submitted a draft and used the feedback to further improve our submission, adding more detail to the steps in our Gantt chart and some extra clarification in the project proposal. We also made some progress through the pygame tutorials. This coming week we hope to follow our Gantt chart and continue with pygame and start work on some of the underlying library mechanics for the game.

This week we spent most of our time completing the project proposal and gantt chart aswell as progressing through the pygame tutorials so that we can start programming soon. Next week the plan is to continue learning pygame and maybe start programming some of the basic mechanics aswell as designing some of the graphics or finding open source imaging that we can use.

This week was made up of a multitude of planning. We finalised our in-game mechanics aswell as a notation system for level design to help make it quick and efficient. The item-based mechanics that we finalised on where: - Freeze, which pauses all movements from anyone except the user for a turn or two (still deciding) - Time rewind, which rewinds all actions except the users two turns back - Duplicate, this consists of two different items, one to start the duplication and one to end it. when the duplication begins an extra person will be spawned at the spawn point. when one of the characters land on the end duplication item, the other duplicate will disappear. We have settled on a single guard type who can see you from down the line and will move towards your direction in order to attempt to catch you, if he lands on your square you will fail the level. another concept we added is blocked paths which can be triggered by landing on the corresponding button/lever (guards can als...