As fortune would have it, I was able to recover all the files associated with any sort of creativity; the written work and those images already heavily edited in Photoshop. I did lose a bunch of the tedious .html work, but was able to re-do it all in two or three days. Since my post a little under a month ago, I've gotten everything into the computer and ready for photoshop / HTML work. Heres a chunk of one of the games mysterious images:
What the heck is that thing? you might be asking yourself. Can it make soup? It's questions like these that drive the game play experience at the CITES Help Desk.
Currently I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. While my co-workers back in Illinois have been extraordinarily busy with the beginning of the fall semester, I've been scrambling to get the games images and text in proper working order. I've got a week and a half to complete the art for the game, with some wiggle-room (1 or 2 weeks) to handle any fancy image effects (like blinking lights!).
While this project is wrapping up I'm preparing for the next space-themed adventure, tentatively titled Incident at Long Rock Junction! Developing these games is a real learning process, and the road-bumps, pot holes and changes of course I've experienced with this project will hopefully be toned down in the next go-round. I've also been pointed towards a few books recently (thanks Carl!) which might be useful in upping the fun-level; Raph Koster's Theory of Fun for Game Design, and Katie Salen's Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. I would like to order both in the next week, but it remains to be seen whether or not UIUC will be picking up the tab.
More to come as the project wraps up!

Working from the Office

I've spent the last few days working in my actual place of employment, which is an odd change of pace - they have no swimming pool here, or free coffee and complimentary newspaper.
What the Digital Computer Laboratory (CITES nerve-center) lacks in the creature comforts it more then makes up in the "poeple" department. Nathan and Chris are both here this week, allowing us to talk "for real" about the games development.
In other news I got my business cards printed today, which come in handy if you're visiting a strange university far from home. Also another Help Desk full-timer (Jon) spent a hefty chunk of time today assisting me with my busted hard-drive (see previous post, aptly titled Busted). Some work has been recovered, the rest is going through a 41 hours data recovery process. We'll see what our tough little WIN98 machine has cooked up Monday morning.