Deck16

It’s not the most fantastic of screen-shots.

There’s a phenomenon in software — it must have a name but I don’t know what it is — where outsiders judge the completeness of a program by its visual elements. And more often than not this is a poor measure. It’s like seeing the bodywork of a car without an engine and wheels and thinking “it must be mostly finished.”

Consequently, in the business world, savvy developers will avoid showing a clueless client a near-complete UI early in the project.

Not that you, dear reader, are a clueless client.

I bring up this story as a convoluted and indirect way of saying “it might not look like much, but it’s good progress.” Today is Labour Day and I made some good progress on Vox Venio’s engine and wheels.

Indeed, now, Vox Venio is — if you squint — functionally complete. You can launch it, tweak settings from the launcher screen, select a level from that menu screen, and the level will load up and be ready to play. You can then quit out.

Naturally there is still loads more work to be done. Vox Venio might be a complete car now but the wheels are square, the engine only runs in first gear, and the driver’s seat is an upturned milk crate.

I should point out that the menu screen, at this stage, is purely functional. It is not my plan to leave it looking so… spartan.

In other news the owner of the “Gros” font which you can see used here and in several other screenshots has not gotten back to me about permission for commercial use (which is by no means guaranteed but I want to cover the possibility). I intend to change fonts as soon as I can but it may be hanging around for a few more updates to come.