OK. I’ve spent the last two weeks experimenting with cutscenes and MAN is this tough!!!  If it wasn’t for my highly charged sense of passion for this project I would have seriously lost motivation and quit!

So what have I learnt from the past two weeks?  Well I’ve got a better idea of how big the final file size will be and I’m now estimating around 20 - 30mb.  I’ve also decided it would be best to split it up into chunks which load on request, so the actual game will only be something like 2mb and will only load each cutscene as and when required (only IF the player has chosen “Story Mode” otherwise there will be no cutscenes)

I’m also noticing some lag of around 10 frames when a cutscene has been playing for around 3 minutes. Yes I know its only 10 frames but its not a good thing if the music is timed to the visuals. You remember the last cutscene on Anaksha Female Assassin? That’s how all the cutscenes are in this game.  The music is also of a much higher standard.

The artwork is still black and white (with the occasional splash of colour) which is how I like it.  It’s a God-send how it suits the game so perfectly yet its one of the easiest styles to draw. Which is a good thing if you need to quickly knock up extra artwork to fill in those “emotional gaps” in the shot.

With regarding to testing the main game for lag, all those issues have been resolved.  I’ve replayed some of the new levels over 20 times in a row and there’s been no loss of frame rate.  All the variable clean-up is working nicely.