Slow progress is better then no progress.

We haven’t spent nearly as much time on the game as I would like over the past week or so due to some minor distractions such as:

1. My son is now involved in a new hobby with some of his schoolmates creating their own Maplestory WMV videos for YouTube (Example). So we spent the past 4 days or so teaching him how to use video capture software, Photoshop and Premier. I must admit this kid is pretty creative.
2. The long awaited Xbox 360 game Halo 3 ODST was released Tuesday, which we pre-ordered for him. So a bulk of his time has been focused on what he likes to call “research”. Who is he kidding?
3. I started the first pass of modeling the new 3D characters for the game and needed a mental break from the polygons and shaders. Not to mention the steps required to properly export the models into the game engine was always a headache in itself and remains to be.

We did however get some work done. We have successfully implemented the melee attack system and now have 4 NPC’s in the game that will chase and attempt to attack whenever you wander within their specified FOV. I say attempt because though this is working as expected, the AI is pretty unintelligent. It’s very easy to avoid and side step the NPC’s turning the game into a glorified version of the childhood game tag. New game idea possibly? Hmmmmmm….

Other then that we have just slowed down for the time being. We continue to review the project plan, determine next steps, and review outstanding issues. All in all it’s just like any other professional project that I’ve managed. The only thing missing is the ability to blame out schedule change on one particular department or coworker that is not meeting their deadline. (I guess that would be me, bad project manager, bad!)