I admit that March was not a very productive month for me, having achieved only a few of my project goals. I have been very busy with work and other things recently, but I could have managed my personal projects much better.

None the less I did make progress across all fronts:

1. I reached the first Milestone of the Earok Engine. It still has a long way to go, but all of the hours I sunk into it should save me a lot more time in future.
2. I made some significant progress on the Earok Editor, and actually used it to make a level for a very short (still as of yet unreleased) game.
3. I didn't register a commercial entity, as I've decided not to do it! After doing a little bit of reading I figured I didn't need to register a Limited Liability Company as I won't be taking on any debts, hence I need no debt protection. For all of my commercial projects in the near future I'll simply be trading as myself.
4. Derelict 1.2 is still not out, as I have faced some larger then expected hurdles, plus I keep tinkering with the GUI. The codebase needs a few hours work to become playable again.
5. The AGW website has had a few more features, though not as many as I had planned for. The most significant new feature I've added is the "events" module, which adds some meetup.com type functionality, allowing users to schedule and sign up for events.

My goals for April are somewhat less ambitious then my goals for previous months, since I'll be going on a trip over Easter.

1. Actually release Derelict 1.2, which I've been promising for the last two months. The changes since version 1.1 are fairly significant so I'll be releasing a beta version beforehand.
2. Publicly release the first version of the Earok Editor along with it, so you can finally create your own levels.
3. Have a go at getting Google Groups style mailing lists working on the Auckland Game Works page.
4. Finally, actually get the ball rolling on the Project Firestart remake (sorry for being so slack here Sam!)

I am very proud to announce that I have received an exclusive contract with Videlectrix to make the next Homestar Runner game.

Here it is, the level editor for Derelict, Project Firestart and no doubt other games I will release in the future.

I have been talking about doing for ages but only just got around to actually doing anything on today.

It is still a long way from being complete, still lots of usability issues to get around, it runs terribly slow, and is still missing a lot of features, but it's a start.

My current focus right now is to get the first version of this, and Derelict 1.2, out the door by about the end of the month.

A few days ago I mentioned that I was going to re-release one of my former game titles. That game is Project Firestart, a sci-fi horror First Person Shooter that was a remake of one the best games made for the C64.

I had originally released it for the Retro Remakes 2006 competition, and my intention was simply to apply some much needed bug fixes (the game crashes after a short time on a significant percentage of computers) and do a bit of tidying. I hoped that the people that play my games would accept it for what it is, a flawed lesser entry in my body of work.

However, after reviewing the game I decided that it needs a lot more done to it. In particular it looks dull, and it is very shoddily put together - which, I suppose one can expect from a solo-developed first person shooter made within ten weeks. Gameplay is alright, but could be a lot better.

So, rather then simply applying some patches, I feel I should rebuild the game almost from scratch, both to honour the original better as well as provide freeware gamers some extra entertainment.

People still want a good remake of Project Firestart, there's even a petition here. I don't know if I can provide them with that, but I'll give it my best shot! I'll post a progress report in a week or so.