Pyskool 0.4 has been released. The download page has a copy waiting for you.

The main addition since 0.3 is the ability to save and load games. In my opinion, this is the best feature yet, since it makes playtesting much less time-consuming: save the game at a critical point, and then reload upon demand until happy with how things unfold. Being able to save games is also handy for regular playing too, of course. Maybe you need only one more shield in Skool Daze (or Back to Skool Daze), but it’s 9pm and therefore time for bed; instead of starting over when you get home from skool the next day, just save the game, and load it again whenever you’re ready.

Anyway, here are the things you need to know to enjoy the save/load feature:

• Press F2 to save a game

• Press F6 to load the most recently saved game

• To load a specific previously saved game from the command line, use the -l option, e.g.:

  $ skool_daze.py -l save/skool_daze/pyskool-0.4-20100528-123456.sav
  

• To load the most recently saved game in a given directory from the command line, use the -r option, e.g.:

  $ back_to_skool_daze.py -r save/back_to_skool_daze
  

By default, games are saved in a directory called save/game_name (where game_name is the name of the game), but you can change that by setting the SaveGameDir parameter in the GameConfig section in config.ini.

Other changes in 0.4 include:

• Skool Daze mode now uses the speech bubble graphic and jagged message box extracted from the original game (thus raising Pyskool’s faithfulness coefficient a little)
• The score box is drawn using labels defined in the MessageConfig section in messages.ini (thus enabling localisation of that text)

The plan for 0.5 is to add some kind of in-game menu, at the very least offering options to resume a paused game, save the current game, and load the most recently saved game (so you need only remember the ‘menu’ key instead of the keys for all those operations). But plans are subject to change, so I wouldn’t recommend betting your house, career, life or other valuable item on it happening.

Pyskool 0.3 has been released. Visit the download page to get a copy.

The main change since 0.2.4 is the addition of over 100 configuration parameters and command arguments to tweak in the ini files. Note: ini files (plural), which is the other thing: the monolithic ini file has been split up into multiple ini files in a single directory:

• command_lists.ini - command lists
• config.ini - configuration parameters
• font.ini - font character bitmap descriptions
• lessons.ini - the main timetable and lessons
• messages.ini - messages
• skool.ini - walls, floors, doors and other parts of the skool
• sprites.ini - sprite and character definitions

This split makes it easy (for example) to drop in a complete replacement for all the messages in a game simply by replacing messages.ini. And having all the messages in a single file will make it easier (for example) to create a localised version of a Pyskool game. (You’d need to create a new skool font too; perhaps I should start looking for some free bitmap fonts to distribute with Pyskool so that we can have Monsieur Roquitte teaching la chimie some day.)

0.3 also includes a couple of utility scripts: createini.py, which I use to generate and maintain the ini files; and extract-png.py, which extracts graphics from memory snapshots of the original skool games and creates PNG files (like the ones included in Pyskool).

Looking forward to 0.3.1 (or 0.4, as it may be), I have been experimenting a bit with Python’s pickle module recently to see if it could work as a back-end for saving and restoring games. I’m not sure yet if it’ll be up to the job, but we’ll see.

Pyskool 0.2.4 has been released. Head over to the download page to grab a copy.

The main new feature in this release is an example customisation: Back to Skool Daze. To play it, double-click back_to_skool_daze.py or run it from the command line with your favourite options (--cheat being one of mine, having to playtest this thing and all).

Back to Skool Daze is a game based on a mixture - or melange, if you will - of elements from both Skool Daze and Back to Skool. The play area is from Back to Skool (with minor modifications), but the frog is missing and there is no safe key. Instead, there are shields. Remember those from Skool Daze? You have to hit them all, collect the safe combination letters from the teachers and the headmaster, write the combination on a blackboard, open the safe, and then hit all the shields again. However, the bike and the storeroom key will still come in pretty handy as you carry out this mission, so they have been left in (with their attendant combinations, which must also be discovered and written on blackboards).

One other new feature I’d like to announce - which isn’t part of Pyskool - is the screenshots page. It occurred to me that no website about a piece of software is complete without such a page, so I created one. Take a look at it if you want to have a peek at Back to Skool Daze before you play.