Dev Day Diary: It's a game!

So, I have rocks in space, a ship to shoot them, shields to protect the ship, ore to collect and ways of dying. I have a setting, I have game dynamics, I have a score and I have risk. So it's a game now, right?

Technically, yes, but it's a very suckass one. However, it's the most I've completed in a while, so it feels pretty good. I need to add an outpost or base and then work out the store mechanics, which should help flush out the rest of the framework I need to start setting up factions, enemy ships, missions, etc., and essentially the rest of Atlas which will make it actually fun.

Unfortunately, I found Pixen to be unsuable beyond 64x64 images. It just freaks out. This is fine for a lot of the graphics in the game, actually, but when I'm trying to design a large structure, it's just not very realistic. So I'm trying a few other proggies. I tried the vector-based Inkscape that Corvus recommended, but it's not friendly with Tiger (it thinks I need X11 ... I have X11). I had just started to play with Intaglio, a similar program, when the allergy medicine kicked in and rendered my brain fairly useless.

On the hardware front, I think I can get a cheap AGP and DDR based PC which will take most of my equipment. Right now I'm looking at a $250 Celeron D based workstation, which when I'm done with it will have 1GB RAM, a 9700 Pro, an Audigy and a 120GB drive. The D is definately a bottleneck, but reviews I've read are far more favorable than I imagined, and I can probably at least run the games I need ... even if they won't be pretty. It's better than spending $700-$1400 and basically having duplicate HD's or RAM ... or an mboard that won't take the 9700.

Worst part is noise. I do love the silence of the mini.