Another long night

Some days are more productive than others.
Today was very productive:

I completed the zdepth sorting routines for player and game objects. This is based solely upon the Y position of the object. The player sorting routine is a simple example:

//Constantly sort player based on Y position
int zInt = (int)TheGame.Player1.Position.Y;
float zMinus = zInt * 0.000001f;
TheGame.Player1.zDepth = (0.899998f - zMinus);

0.899998f is the lowest layer that a game object can be drawn on. Below that are the ground tiles at 0.899999f and the dirt tiles at 0.9f. Everything is drawn ontop of these tiles, at a value less than 0.899998f.

I also completed integrating game objects into the level manager and the level class definition. I packed the environment game objects into the bkg sheet, which also contains the bkg tiles (grass, water, desert, dirt, etc...). There is still alot of space left, so I may not need an environment sheet at all.

I also recalculated the size of a 2k XNB (xbox binary file) to be about 16.5mb in memory. Before, I was working off the assumption that the XNB was about 23mb. This means I can load more textures into memory, and everything in the game is created from textures, so that means more enemies, allies, etc...

I also read alot about Hermeticism today, specifically about 40 pages from the Kybalion regarding Hermetic Axioms and Principles. These will be translated into dialog between characters and the player, deeply integrated into the story.

I was also refreshing myself on the 3 act story/screenplay structure, and considering rewriting the game's plot around this structure. However, I'm not exactly sure how to resolve the linear nature of the 3 act screenplay with the non-linear nature of the game. My initial thought regarding this is to keep act 1 and act 3 linear, while allowing many act 2s to exist in between. The player would always experience act 1 the same, but entering into act 2 the player can choose which town to visit, which dungeon, etc.. Act 2 is essentially free roam, but builds towards Act 3, in which the hero confronts the antagonist in climatic battle. I assume that once Act3 ends the player is left to free roam about the continent to discover it's secrets, etc...

I started the day awaking from a dream in which I witnessed a dark and foreboding storm form on the horizon. A man stood next to me, witnessing it too. I was silent in fear of the unknown storm approaching. He screamed out in pure terror and began to claw away the skin on his face. This chilling visual will certainly make it into a cinematic. The foreshadowing clouds are a nice motif as well.

Here is a screen shot showing game objects properly sorted with respect to the player:

Sidenote: this is the first screenshot of the actual game to make it onto the internets. More to come. Critical mass is approaching...