Yesterday I did lots of little bits of lots of big things, but nothing really got anywhere in the end.

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I created a template in Deflemask in the hope that I can then pad it out with the JXM output. I'm not sure I should do a one-to-one recreation of the JXM inside the Deflemask edition, though, as it'd end up using a lot of space in the end.
I'll likely create a mini version of the track, with maybe 16 patterns max or something.
I think I need to discuss this with Ryan a bit more, to see exactly how big (or more importantly, how tiny!) the output should be to allow them to slot easily into any future games he might be working on.

A bit of trial and error and I should be able to figure something out that he can use.

Meanwhile..

I started to look into a Shoebox Overhaul.
I'm currently thinking of starting a new Shoebox (Shoebox Twobox!).
Start with a fresh engine, get things up and running, build the important functionality, then slowly move the games across one by one.
I'm presuming that doing it from scratch will give me the ability to add FAR more functionality to the engine than trying to tweak things carefully, mostly because tiny tweaks could impact any and all games at any moment.
If instead, I build a new engine, then fix each game one by one, I think that might be more sensible.
..
Maybe..!

I asked Leonardo.ai[/url] to come up with some screenshots of word games, and these have stuck out as possibilities.


"Screenshot of a word game on a mobile device, letters, minimalised GUI, stylised, colourful" by #Leonardi.ai

Out of those, I think I prefer Number 3.. The one in the White-Bezelled phone.

It's got a nice cleanliness to it, but still has nice amount of depth and texture to it.
Mum also prefers that one, so I think that's probably the direction to aim for.

How about you? Do you prefer any of those?
Let me know in the comments.

And, yes, I'm going to be looking into SVG'ing the art, this time. It'll entirely depend on how much bigger the files end up being. There's a LOT of art in the Shoebox!!
FWIW, the engine still has the leftover functionality for SVG files. It's been in there the entire time, just hasn't been used.
My initial "letters on bubbles" test image is over 3Mb. By comparison, the entire, all of it, every image, set of Shoebox .png images (cards, letters, tiles, particles, etc) is just under 5Mb.
If I did ALL the art as SVG's, I can't imagine how big it'll all be.
I'll need to formulate things well, before attempting that!!!

Holy hell, was it really 5 years ago!?!
Time's flown!!

Meanwhile, Meanwhile...

Since I'm overthinking the amount of work I need to do on Shoebox, I'm now much less tempted to put "That game I planned for iOS" into the Shoebox, since I'd instead be focusing on the rewrite instead of just that game.
Is it ok to just release the JSE version of that, for now?!
Probably.

It's currently only about 5% of a game, though. The actual mechanics of the game are barely started, and only the barebones of the thing is functional.
I'll probably finish that off, then, and that can be this week's AGameAWeek.

In the meantime, then, I'll get poking and prodding at bubbles and see if I can make it look as beautiful as those images above.

Wish me luck!!


"Cartoon @Derek, shocked, worried, hands to face, facing camera wearing a bright pink babygro with hood, pink Hexagonally shaped hollow bobble on his head, standing on a vibrant green hill with a bright blue sky, and a giant sun in the background. Uhoh!" by #ArtFlow.ai

Uhoh!!!