Alright. Got the particle system running (again). It's running about 75+ FPS on my box with a decent 3D card. That's pretty cool - and it opens up alot of possible new enhancements - which I am trying to resist. But just thinking about spinning-glowy explosion things gets my pixel painting power pent up.

Speaking of pixels, I've generated a few dozen icons for the game yesterday. I debated for awhile on style - how far should I go with colors? What we have done is changed the shape to be extremely clear about where things can be used - square for sitting in inventory and circle for 'usable' items - like spells and magic items. The new interface is showing its mettle now and it's looking really fine.

So anyhow, two major hurdles left: inventory itself (which *should* be pretty straight forward) and combat (which should also be a straight port). After those, it's on to minor but essential things to connect up all the parts - like the scoring and unlocking system (all this was pretty much working in the old engine). Then we'll be straight into tweak mode again for the levels. This time there's a bunch of new stuff to get working just right. It's funny - I realized this morning that I'm looking so closely at every single pixel of the game, every little movement, everything. I wonder how many square feet of pixels I've generated now?

If I don't post again until after December 25th, I want to wish all of you and yours a very Merry Christmas!