It's been a while as I had to take some time off from development due to illness. However, now back at work at last.

So what's happened since the last entry?  Perhaps the most noticeable change is that I have been ... again ... working on the character models.  The screenshots below (taken in game) show the new main character (the thinner of the two robots) and another friendly robot who the player will be able to interact with throughout the game (basically the robot will act as a sort of narrator at various points in the story).  As can be seen when comparing with older characters, the models are more complex and the texturing a bit better.  Next step is to finish rigging and animating these characters.

Other than this I have been adding new zones to the game with the map now roughly double its earlier size.  The new zones show a ramp up in difficulty ... the first part of the map is intended to allow the player to get used to moving around and get familiar with basic actions (activating switches, using lifts and cable cars, completing simple puzzles and dealing with weak enemies).   Now the puzzles are getting more complex (several switches to open a single door, etc) and enemies are more dangerous (chasing the player over longer distances and happy to fire off projectiles if they feel like it). 

However, the concern was that I might ramp up the difficulty too fast leading to an anticlimax later on.   In the end this isn't too much of an issue - having relative peaks and troughs feels right.  However, most importantly, the dynamic map loading code (where map chunks are loaded as needed) means that it is relatively easy to move around different parts of the map - if a certain area is much more difficult that originally planned it is possible to lift and shift it to a later part of the game map replacing it with a less challenging area.  All that is needed is a few file name changes and a bit of in editor tidying up of the height maps between the chunks that have been moved around.