Houston, we've had some progress.

Yes, indeed we have.

After several weeks of goofing off and doing other stuff (even my blog entries were about other topics during that time), I finally came back to the Christmas Carol story and wrote one more chapter.

Well, before we celebrate some huge accomplishment, let me temper the mood by stating that the new chapter is merely four pages long, so not really that big a deal. What is a big deal, actually, is the fact that I am now only two more chapters away from the ending! (Bring out the bubbly! Yay!)

To be honest, chapter 12 is only four pages long because that's as long as it needs to be. It wasn't rushed or anything, it is just a brief interlude depicting one of the short vignettes from the game's cut-scenes. It fits within the narrative and adds charm and whimsy to the story.

For anybody who played the game, you will recognize the vignette as the introduction sequence to Stage #7, "Krystal Keep." Here it is in full, for your viewing pleasure:

Notice that it is purely a visual gag. Part of the fun is that in the animation, Carol's eyes dart left to right following the Snowman as he walks by, suggesting that there is more to that makeshift snowy figure than what it seems.

Well, of course, that wouldn't translate very well to the written word, so I took a different approach: I distilled the sequence to its essence, which I took to be Carol building a decoy, and the Snowman -- knowing that the elf must be nearby -- searching and scanning all around for it.

The surprise is that the narrative suggests -- and indeed this is reinforced by the Snowman's thoughts -- that Carol built the decoy and ran away to hide; but in reality, she is actually hiding inside the fake snowman! This is revealed in the story in a similar way to the animation sequence. The Evil Snowman, it is stated, is absolutely sure that she went to hide nearby that he will then spend some time searching for her in the surrounding caverns. Since Carol can assume he won't be back to this room, where he already searched, she is free to go about and escape the cavern to another area by just going in the opposite direction.

Chapter 12 is thus aptly named "The Great Frosty Escape," and I think it is very effective in not only being entertaining and whimsical, but in showing Carol Greenleaf's audacity and resourcefulness. Plus it reinforces the notion that she does not need magical snowflakes or other external powers to outwit her foes.

During the development of the game, my wife provided the idea for the vignette. It was the first multi-object animation sequence that showed more than two sprites at a time, theretofore. When my wife suggested it, I told her "hmm ... that's going to require a lot more infrastructure than what I have right now. I can't do it." Which she took to mean "it is technically impossible," and proceeded to tell me how she knew I could do it if I only figured it out.

At that point, the two or three sequences I had made had either the Ghost by itself, the Elf by itself, or the Ghost and the Snowman together; all of which used the existing assets and engine features available to the game itself. "This new one," I told her, "will required Carol holding two sticks, the Snowman with his twiggy arms, an some fancy new animation to depict the melting of the snowman to reveal the elf inside!" To which she responded, "alright, so you can do it." How could I argue with that logic.

Thus, I updated my cut-scene sequencing engine, which I had christened the "Auto-Pilot," to support additional commands and to manipulate up to six or eight individual objects (or composite sprites) at once independently. I am glad I did, for after that the cut-scenes became a lot more elaborate, and a lot more expressive. For instance, in that snowman sequence, there are a few subtle features that add depth: there is a shadow when the Snowman passes in front of the decoy, the decoy itself has moving eyes that follow the Snowman, and the animation of the Snowman's arms was altered to do the "search with hand over eyes" effect. And that's on top of the existing background features, like the randomly timed droplets falling from the ceiling, cute little emoticons on top of the sprite heads, and the automatic cover at the edges of the screen that allowed the sprites smooth ingress and egress onto the stage.

All of that together would have been impossible previously, and the new Auto-Pilot engine afforded it almost for free with a simple scripting interface.

I therefore, dedicate this chapter to my wife for not only inspiring the vignette which served as its source, but for pushing me to enhance the original game code with a feature which is arguably one of the best of the entire Christmas Carol game: the fun and expressive animated cut-scenes.

Anyway, enough of that. I'm going now back to work. I have to start work on chapter 13.

See ya',
-dZ.