Howdy doo. Sorry about the lack of updates, but I've been a busy person. Been doing some contract work for Civilgrrl, doing earthwork quantities for other peoples' projects using SiteWork LT, which is a 3D grading program. You enter the coordinates of the existing land, along with your proposed street and site grades, and the program will calculate how much and where you need to cut and fill areas with dirt to change the landscape. It's a pretty neat piece of software, but I'll be the first to report that paying $9,000 for a piece of software doesn't make it crash any less than cheaper stuff, but you do get more responsive tech support!



Since it's taking longer than I thought it would, I'll tell you what's going on with Ducky Builder level building bit. . .

Basically, we're gonna have an official Gamedev.net Ducky Builder level-building contest. It's taking some time to set up because I'm gonna have some pretty substantial prizes, and I want to have all of the prizes lined up and ready to ship before starting the contest. Basically, I don't want you to be frustrated by a prize taking months to get to you, and see the previous paragraph if you're wondering why I'm having trouble getting the prize-fund together. If things go the way I want, this contest will have more prizes than any other contest that gamedev's ever had.

I will, however, give you a bit of a head start if you're interested. Click below to get the latest Ducky Builder (1 meg ZIP file).

http://www.thecodezone.com/duckybld.zip

It might go through a change or two before the contest, but it's basically in release-able form. Go ahead and play around with it. Maybe get started on your official magnum opus contest entries. If you find a bug or have a suggestion, lemme know. Just press F1 for help if you need it, but it's pretty easy to use.

Have fun!