Hap-(hak)-(cough) New Year

Filed under AFK, Design Diary on January 8, 2007
Keywords: Eternal Warlords, Goldbox Media Group

As much as I love the holidays, there’s one tradition that I can do without: getting sick. Usually it’s the flu on Christmas. This year was something new. For those who are faint of stomach, be warned. The following is a graphic description that includes bodily fluids.

On Friday of New Year’s weekend, I got the scratchy throat that typically heralds illness. On Saturday, my throat was so swollen it hurt to swallow. The pain kept me up at night. The sinus congestion arrived on Sunday.

The irritation in my right eye started Monday night. I woke up the next morning with that eye crusted shut. A look in the mirror revealed the whites of my eyes were now red. Not pink, RED. I tried some liquid silver mineral drops in my eye, went to the doctor’s and got some antibiotic drops, along with some prescription-grade decongestant. I was also taking about 4 Advil to help with the throat pain/inflammation.

On Wednesday morning, I woke up with both eyes crusted shut. I put in the antibiotic drops and called in sick to work. Then the burning started in my right eye. The pain was intense and non-stop. I washed my eyes out with tap water, but that brought no relief. I was blind with pain. My wife called the nurse after reading about possible “side effects” she read on the antibiotic drops. The nurse instructed us to stop using the drops and scheduled an appointment to come in to see the doctor.

I couldn’t wait.

We went to the ER, where they quickly whisked me in to see a doctor, who confirmed I was having some sort of reaction to the drops. They sent me to an eye specialist, who gave me some anesthetic drops (ahhh, relief) and took a look. Apparently, some of my eye cells had been killed off, creating the equivalent of a scratch on my eye that was being irritated every time I blinked.

I spent the rest of the week putting different drops in my eyes every two hours, and applying an ointment at night. I could start to see again by Friday, but my eyes were incredibly sensitive to light. I could drive by Saturday, though things more than 20 feet away were blurry. Everything felt normal by Sunday, and the doctor gave me a clean bill of health this morning.

Eternal Warlords: Arena
I received the completed art assets from the contractor on Saturday. I spent that morning adding content to GMG’s company website, including a slide show of concept art and finished models. I’m extremely pleased with the quality of work.

Belatedly, I realized there is one set of animations I didn’t have the contractor do. Unfortunately, there’s no budget left for additional art, so we will have to go with a less visual appealing alternative. The animations aren’t vital to the actual gameplay, but they are definitely on the list of features to add down the line.

Now it’s on to the programming. We have a meeting this Friday to layout the architecture of the game engine.

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