Hello All, This is going to be a more interesting page once the game is complete and we can all look back at this and laugh! (I hope.) Here I will give updates as often as I can remember to, about the progress of the game's developement. Maybe they will be a benefit to other developers, and I know they will be a benefit to me when I begin programming Eldantar, the sequel to Deephome.

August 17, 1999

• The first beta testing is done by my brother, and he finds such stupid things as the fact that you can't pick up the second note if you have the first one in your hand. There are no signposts anywhere the game says there are, and you can't just push or pull the lever in the generator room, you have to "turn it on", you can't talk to the first spirit at all
• The Official Telleen webpage goes up
• The errors Matt found are fixed

August 18, 1999

• Objects are added, the Main Gate is added, some debugging commands added
• I hang out with my dear friend Tom for the last time before I go back to school!
• I submit the Official Telleen webpage to all kinds of browsers
• Added chat room

August 19, 1999

• Restore Water puzzle put back in game (after being added, then dropped a few days ago) and expanded to include Terrock.
• Murals and tapestries added to the Nobles' houses. Can you find the Zork Refference?
• Went out to eat with a friend, played some pool, then came back and did this.
• earlier today I added the message board and the guest book.
• created buttons for page.

• Well, I haven't done anything on the page since the 19th, but I moved into my new dorm and have been getting acclamated here, so sue me. Y'know no one has been to this page yet, really, so, it doesn't really matter.
• I have added quite a bit to the game in the last week and a half:
  • An Exits command, just today, to allow you to see where you can go, without cluttering up the screen with messy and useless description of exits.
  • I also completed the exorcisms part of the game, and boy, did I have trouble with that, but the code is quite nice now, I think, and I will very happily use it in later games where I have ordered sequences.
• I am disappointed though, because my site just isn't showing up on browsers. I don't think anyone is rushing to see what Telleen is all about just yet, but I would like to know that I can at least be found.

• Wrote to Laird Malamed and sent him a copy of my Zork game I wrote, hoping that he will grant me limited use of the copyright. I really hope he will. That game gave me a rather extensive amount of experience on which I have drawn to write Deephome. Funny, now, looking back on that game, I have to revamp much of the code based on my experience with Deephome. Funny.

• Implemented valut door and decided to create a puzzle for the door that will involve an new object (to tell you what would be a spoiler though, wouldn't it) and the use of a few items that were in existance before. I am still having trouble, however, with using items more than once. Hmmm....

• Tried uploading a basic .z5 file and downloading it and it finally worked! So, when Deephome is ready, there won't be any problem with distributing it.
• Telleen appears on the rec.arts.int-fiction and rec.games.int-fiction newsgroups for the first time (and accidentally is posted twice! Oops!) The call is made for Beta-Testers.
• Finished the Vault Key puzzle and started playing the game straight through before I begin work on the few outside puzzle in the game. I came across the facts that:
  • The Mess Hall had no name
  • The furnace didn't actually turn on when I turned it on (that's what I get for using a one-word debugging command to just turn the power on)

• The Beta Testing Begins! Thanks so much to those who have helped!

• Beta Testing continues and Deephome-Beta v.1.1 is introduced with many of the bugs fixed from the first game. There is still a "ghost" bug that VERY rarely drops you into no-where if you exit the car. Going to search for it again.
• I finally decide upon a plotline for the game of Eldantar that I really like. It will be difficult to program, but that's OK. Its looking like Deephome will be well liked for its atmosphere and straight forward play and story. Eldantar will also encompass a rich background, but will also have a more in depth story line. Programming begins very slowly today on the new game.

• I release v.1.2 of the beta, realizing that I had made v.1.1 unwinnable by "concealing" a doorway. (The first version allowed you to simply type "take all" and you could see everything that you could interact with. I gave many things cocealed attribute, and among them was the city gates, which you could no longer go through).

• Deephome is released to the general public. There are some problems with getting it to download for people. Very helpful response from the newsgroupd (raif and rgif).

• Eldantar undergoes a major overhaul in the storyline area. I originally was going to have it focus completely on the abandoned city, like Deephome, but I though it was too mundane and boring to do the same thing twice. The new story will focus in some ways on the main character of Deephome (The Dwarf) and in other ways on a young woman (the PC in this new game). At least that's what it's looking like right now.

• Deephome is uploaded to If-archive!!! Woo-hoo!
• I figure out how to compress files, and so not only is Deephome.z5 uploaded, but also Deephome.zip.
• A hints page is added to this site. It will encompass all questions asked of me in the future. Game players will be encouragedd to look to the hints page before asking me.
• I finish finals and prepare to go home! Thanks Rachel and Todd!