Today I’ve spent some time on a piece of music from Frasse. This time it’s a piece from the last part of the game, so if you’re afraid of minor spoilers, read no further.It’s the music playing in the princess’ room, and this is what it sounds like in the released game: Flute Concert (old version) Here’s what it will sound like (unless I change it further) in the Special Edition: Flute Concert (new version). I think you’ll agree that it sounds a lot better, even though it’s almost exactly the same notes, and it’s still played by a computer.

Update: Oops. Encoding it to MP3 caused both versions to lose clarity, so I’ve now re-uploaded them in higher bitrate.

Since my last progress update, I’ve been busy. First with work: End of the semester and such. Not much time for anything else. After that, I went to the south of Sweden for a week to play and learn more about Jazz and World Music. (Yes, that’s me in the picture with a cornet in hand, trying some livelooping.) Great fun, and inspiring. (Some sound clips from the course are also available at the site I linked to, in case you’re curious. It’s me trying an improvised cornet solo in the middle of the Arabian 7/8, and playing the bassoon in the Tango.)

But now I onec again have time for a bit of programming, and am making progress. I’ve been reading the Cocoa programming book by Aaron Hillegass that I mentioned in an earlier post. It’s really good, and I understand why it’s recommended as “the book” to read for people who want to learn Mac programming. As a result, I’m starting to grasp how Mac programming works, and I’ve added an options window for Sludge. I also find Mac GUI programming so enjoyable that the thought of porting the development kit too, and not just the engine, is looking more and more appealing. The idea of maintaining the Windows port is at the same time becoming less appealing, so I’m hoping that someone else will show interest in that department, but if that doesn’t happen I won’t let the Windows port fall behind (much) either.

I’m still waiting for Tim Furnish to add me as a developer at Sludge’s SourceForge site (he said that he would, when he found his password), so that I’ll be able to upload the things I’ve done with the engine.

I may also become sidetracked one weekend. I visited a site related to Allegro (the game development library I used to make Rocket Duel), and learned that there’ll be a new speedhack coming soon. Speedhack is an Allegro programming competition run over three days (starting July 10th), and I’ve registered intent to participate. It might be fun. (The rules aren’t completely known until it has started, but I’m hoping that it’ll be fun, and a bit challenging.)