game progress update

First the good news: music!

The game now has music! In previous blogs I may have mentioned that I gave up on music (its a technical minefield), but after encouragement from site visitors I’ve finally got it to work. I had to try three different music solutions, but finally found the excellent AudioManager2.

It can’t work in every browser – most mobile phones prevent the browser from running background music, but the music plays in enough desktop browsers to make it worthwhile, (You have t turn the option on though – it won’t just play when you’re not expecting it).

And better looking art and animation!

Other good news is that the background walkers now work in all major browsers, and I am now adding static background crowds. Remember in Les Miserables, how random full size people would stand around, as well as people walking by? I liked that and am bringing this back, sort of, except now in color, with more detailed images. The minimalist style isn’t as suited to the browser. This is because the browser has less power than a native program (because it has to run itself plus cross-browser Javascript), and so sprites need to be smaller and move less where possible. But I still want the game to look busy – busier than ever in fact – the the obvious route is to have fully detailed images.

So much coding, so little time!