---------------------------------- MONTHLY REPORT ----------------------------------
The project is one month old now, and first of all, I'd like to thank all of you who
visit this thread and help me with your comments. This monthly report will conclude
the progress reached and my thoughts for the future.
Achievements: This is the first month, and I'm very pleased with the progress. When
the project started, I never thought it would advance so much in a mere month.
First thing that was done is taking an old project of mine and converting it to new
form. At first, there was nothing except a grid with walls, which later started to
connect graphically, the new wall styles were introduced, and the very first editor
system allowed to place them. Then came the roaches, which merrily chased the mouse
since it was still real-time. Finally, the hero figure was introduced, along with
the weapon system and the queue, and the project became turn-based, although the
real-time engine is still there and will be used for special effects.
Technical stuff: The project is made in Java, the tools currently used are JCreator,
which provides Java programming environment, MS-Paint, which I use for basic tile
drawing, and Pixia, which I use to make transparent and semi-transparent tiles.
The project runs well in at least four operating systems (three different Windows
environments and Linux). All the code and tiles are 100% made by me, which makes me
happy, but something will have to be done about sound (I'm no musician). There were
no complains about speed, but I bet the slow first time image loading is still an
issue, and will have to be dealt with.
The future: The first thing that will be done is separating the cell layers, which
will make pits different from walls. Then, I plan to make the whole tile system
more generic. There will be style controllers which will allow making styles with
a single tile (like pit traps in drod), with two tiles (like the current floor),
with 17 tiles (like the walls), and other stuff including evil mist (tar). Also top
priority is the special effects engine, which will work in real-time and produce
the graphics for killing stuff, shooting, and all other effects. After that stuff
is finished, it's time to build the module for saving and loading rooms, and then
introduce more game elements like switches, pit traps, arrows etc. Also, making the
editor a separate panel, and giving it more power (putting objects in rectangles
instead of one by one etc') will be necessary.
Just thoughts: Although not much feedback was received, I like to think it's because
there aren't many bugs rather than lack of interest. That's very good because bugs
grow exponentially while the program advances lineary. The fewer bugs we have now,
the less work will be needed to deal with each of them later. Distinction from DROD
goes as planned, I believe the gaming experience will be totally different, and one
can only hope it will be just as fun nevertheless. I planned to release a new
version with this report, but my college projects already suffered neglect, and
more time will be spent on them in the next few days, sorry people 
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Slay the living! Raise the dead!
Paint the sky in crimson red!
]
. But probably rather hard to code (Well, I would have to think a bit, to be able to know this for 100% - I'm also programmer(programmist?)).