Some of you may remember that we changed the way food works in Driftmoon last spring. Now your food is slowly drained away while regenerating you health. I think it works pretty well, you can keep your health up, but it doesn't work so fast that you could eat yourself healthy in a battle. Also it gives the food some extra meaning in the game, a good reason to find it.
As I added a few more food types during summer time, they started taking more and more inventory space, as they couldn't be stacked. Combining them into one fixed the inventory space problem. After that I noticed there was an extra layer of complexity in place here, you first picked up the food, then opened the inventory, then clicked the food to eat it, and it went into your food meter. Now, after my recent change, all your food goes directly into a counter whenever you pick it up, no more opening inventories to click on Evil Berries and Food Cans. Saves inventory space and mouse buttons!
I found myself adding a few rocks and bigger stones by hand, so I decided to make automated rocks. I actually made the rocks 3D. It doesn't show in the picture all that well, but each is a 3D object.
The rocks work just the same as the trees, I can define terrain types that have them, their sizes and probability. The AI also knows to go around them. If I want to add a couple of rocks to an area, all I need to do is draw some strokes of terrain with the Rocky terrain type, and randomized rocks pop out of nowhere!
Whenever I show Driftmoon to people who have never heard of it, the discussion always starts with me explaining why it has a top-down perspective. You know, the fact that you see the game from a bird's eye view. I usually try not to write defensive posts like this, but maybe this will save me some time whenever I demo the game.
Here are a couple of the more common questions:
1. Isn't top-down perspective unnatural, people don't usually see other people from the sky? We're accustomed to seeing people sideways.
That's true, the only people who are accustomed to seeing people from a top-down perspective are people who fly hot-air balloons. 
Historically most roleplaying games have been top-down perspective, even the isometric view of Diablo is top-down. And why is that? Because a roleplaying game doesn't benefit from the skywards dimension, it doesn't have jumping (Ultima VIII did, but it was a bad idea). So Driftmoon is top-down because it's a roleplaying game.
2. Then why don't you just turn the camera a bit, make the game more like an isometric game?
Actually, I have done that since the preview version. In recent versions the camera is about as far south as I can make it without things starting to look weird. Turning it south even more would mean we need 3D models for the characters, which I won't do since I want people to be able to mod the game easily.
I've saved the juiciest question for the last:
3. It would improve your visuals if you used a sideways perspective, maybe make the characters silhouettes.
Honestly, I've actually heard this from a guy reviewing games for a living. I think this was before Limbo, but after some of the first silhouette games, so I think he had something going there. Have you seen how many platformer games have that distinct Unique Silhouette Style? I think it's about 50 percent of all new platformers, so I rest my case. 
I like top-down. It's very rarely used these days, so it's a bit more unique than any other choice. I like how I can make tiny ants litter the floors, and almost see secret treasures hidden behind walls. As a developer, I love how I could make this Professor Dore in fifteen minutes, and not the ten days it would have taken in a 3D program.
PS. If you've ever gotten disoriented or even lost in a 3D game, as I often do, you'll love the top-down view of Driftmoon.
Someone called Nathan wanted to interview me for some schoolwork he had. Normally I would say no, since I'm really focused on making Driftmoon now, but he seemed like a nice person so I took the couple of minutes to answer him. This is for you Nathan.
How have advancements in technology influenced your creation of games?
Since I try to make games that run on older hardware, I mean the kind of computer our mothers generally have, I'd say technological advancements haven't affected me much. When 3D became the big thing, I used it for a couple of games, but since then it's been 2D for me. I guess Driftmoon will have a much higher polygon count than Notrium had, there's been 7 years in between the two games, but that just means I have more freedom to do the kind of vivid fantasy world I want even on your mom's computer.What is the most satisfying aspect of creating games for you?
To me that's the creation of a new world. Sort of like when you have a dream where you're in a world of your own invention, but more concrete. I like seeing all the little funny details that make the world look lived in, and thinking what else could happen here.The second best part is when I see people play my games in a way I never intended, or seeing people create ingenious mods I never thought could be possible. That always makes me feel there's something more to the game than just the stuff I had time to put in.
What is the least satisfying aspect of creating games for you?
That would be the part where you try to make sure the game works on every computer out there. With Driftmoon I've tried to do my utmost to make the game run on all common configurations, but every now and then there's a computer where it doesn't work and I have to spend days finding the cure. That's time away from making the real game, the world and quests and people, so it feels the least satisfying to me. But it's important, so I do it.Why did you decide to become a game programmer?
I played a lot as a kid, I used to spend hours upon hours with various games. My brother was a big influence here, he was making small games when I was about 11. Of course I wanted to be like him, and I guess I sort of started there. It's a lot of fun, so I've been doing it ever since!What would be the favourite game you have ever made and why?
The favourite of my own games would be Wazzal. It was a short project, only about 4 months, and the game isn't long either. But I kind of like the way it plays out, it's got the kind of feeling I wanted into the game. I'm hoping to do a sequel some day.Where do you see the game industry in 5 years?
Ooh, predictions are always fun! Let's see... In a couple of years there will be a new generation of consoles heavily focused on downloadable games. I'm really hoping to see a cheap Chinese consoles where anyone can make games, but I don't think the time has come for those yet. But possibly the new internet connected TVs could do that without a console, Google TV for example. That could affect the whole industry, so better keep a lookout for that.I see the PC still a viable option for gaming, with even less AAA titles but more smaller games than ever. In fact, I think the huge game titles we're seeing today will become rarer, even on consoles, as indie gaming becomes more mainstream. But I think social gaming is the key with PC, at least for the next five years. I don't see Facebook being very useful on consoles, but you should be able to play social games on both PC and mobiles. For hardcore players like me, the idea of more FarmVille sounds terrible, but there's definitely a huge market there.
Currently the industry is dominated by the English speaking countries plus Japan and Korea. I think there will be more games from places you've never heard of making games, like India and China. I'm really looking forward to seeing their new game genres and worlds, since the Tolkienish fantasy worlds that we have are becoming quite the cliche.
I still see mobile gaming on the rise, but I don't think that will become mainstream. I just can't picture my mom playing her tetris sessions on a handheld. But there's still room for growth everywhere, especially in developing countries, as smartphones become commonplace.
And that's all I have to say about that.
I've got a new version of the minimap I showed back in May. The biggest workload for me is that the revealed area is now saved in the save file, but I guess it's hard to brag about how technically ingenious my method was. So what I'm here to show you is the half an hour I spent with the user interface after the two days solid work I spent with the saving.
I added zoom controls, and out of the blue I decided to add a full map button that shows the complete map of the level.
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