" Now, before we learn how to build the latest in extreme graphic chipset processors, let's recite the code of the elves, shall we? "
-- Elf Teacher, Elf (2003)
Hope everybody had a happy holiday. We're still hard at work, like little elves in a cookie tree. Speaking of cookies, here are some photos of this year's festive gingerbread monstrosity -- Gob Attacks Diner!

Lately Lars will just start rambling on what he's doing with the game AI (artificial intelligence). It sounds a bit like this:

"And then the military units can...BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH".

Yeah, he actually says the "BLAH" part. Why? Because I'm fixing him with the same glazed-over stare that he gives me when I start talking about something that happened to the mizzen topgallant staysail in a Patrick O'Brian novel. Oh well. You can hear more about the AI (BLAH BLAH) over at his new Tech F/X. And I'll belay talking about the staysail and show you the TCFH Options screen featuring director/producer Harold Haxton's office: (click for bigger)

"...they've moved my desk four times already this year,
and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were merry." You'll access saved games from the film cans, scenarios from the scripts, monsters from the headshots, city/era from the wall map, game options from the desk drawer, credits from the ham sandwich, and the stop-motion armature on the left leads to the monster customization screen. The door cleverly leads to the exit. Oh, and inspired by Dave Long's article over at GamerDad, the office clock will reflect your computer's system time. Heck, maybe I should throw a lever puzzle in there somewhere and give Myst a run for the money.Stay tuned for new screenshots showing all the different kinds of tiny people you can squish in TCFH. We've now got escaped prisoners, SWAT teams, utility workers, businessmen and even naked people (don't worry - they're only ten pixels tall).

"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once."
-- Buckaroo Banzai

Yes, it's that time again...Happy New Year! In other monstrous news, TCFH is previewed in this month's Computer Games magazine (page 34).

It's been nothing but massive destruction going on around here lately -- and I don't mean just what the cats are doing to the sofa. Lars has been perfecting the collapse scripts, so when things fall down go boom in the game, they do so in a much smoother and more realistic way. For more about that, see our latest Technical F/X column.

TERROR! DESTRUCTION! COOKIES! I recently baked up the confectionary catastrophe below, Monster Attacks Gingerbread City. Watch out, little gummy bears, your days are numbered (in the single digits, as a matter of fact...we've already eaten most of it). Yeah, that's some shoddy architecture, but I'm no Mothra Stewart.