So it’s been an interesting, stressful day today! But the first and most important thing to mention is that I’ve gotten the bloom effect (repeatedly mentioned earlier) to compile and work correctly under Windows. I’ve also set up the engine to automatically detect whether or not it can use the bloom effect; whether it’s running on a computer that supports the needed OpenGL extensions. This means that I’ll be able to include the bloom effect in Damsel!

I’ve decided that at least my initial pre-prototype of Damsel will be done in VectorStorm. Thankfully, VectorStorm and GemStorm have interfaces that are similar enough that if I eventually decide that I do actually need bitmapped images, then it’ll be pretty easy to swap over. But for now, I’m planning to use good old-fashioned vector graphics.

I’d been hoping to get ahead of schedule and get a headstart on a real gameplay prototype today, but in the end I decided that getting the bloom working would be worth the time, and now that I’ve done it I’m really glad that I did; it really makes vector graphics look much nicer and more professional, and I’m still on track with my original schedule.

Anyhow, it’s probably time for me to get some rest now; got a long day tomorrow, and I’ll need to put together that rough initial gameplay prototype at the end of it! I’m definitely going to need my rest for that.