July 19, 1989
Working 12- and 13-hour days: fixing bugs, preparing stuff for Lance, restaging the climactic battle with the Vizier to make it feel more climactic; and, as of today, digitizing Tina. The princess now turns, with her dark hair flipping as she spins around. Tomorrow I’ll make her take a step backwards, and maybe lounge about a bit. It’s a drag, having to spend hours reviewing video footage of this girl in slo-mo and frame-advance, but these are the sacrifices I have to make to get this game done.
Denis Friedman came into Brian’s office and expressed a desire (on behalf of Broderbund France) to do one of the POP conversions: Atari, Amstrad or Amiga.
Brian Brinkman leaves for New Orleans tomorrow morning. In this past week of working late I’ve come to feel a certain bond with him. (When I left at 11 pm, he and Rob and Carlo were still at it.)
Seven days left.
I broke the news to Brian that I wasn’t going to be able to finish the game by Wednesday. “That’s OK,” he said. “You’re still pretty much on schedule, right?” Bill didn’t take it so well.
I promised to get the princess animations in, and fix at least a couple of the major bugs, before I leave. I’d also like to jazz up some of the levels with more potions, shortcuts, cul-de-sacs, secret compartments, etc., and digitize at least rough versions of the opening prologue and epilogue, so that it’ll really be a complete game. Then I won’t have to put in any major features after I get back. (Except the little white mouse.)
I keep waking up at 7 am, no matter how late I go to sleep.
