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Week 9

Week 9: Lab and Petka

This week, I focused on adding keymapper support to two engines: Lab (used by The Labyrinth of Time) and Petka (used by Red Comrades 1 and 2)


Lab Engine

The Lab engine was moderately complex due to the game’s dual-interface design. The Labyrinth of Time features two main interaction modes: a point-and-click exploration interface and an inventory screen. This meant I had to track which interface the player was currently in and enable or disable the appropriate keymappers accordingly.

There are multiple ways to switch between these modes—such as right-clicking or clicking the inventory button—so I had to carefully identify and hook into all the transitions to ensure the keymappers toggled appropriately.

I also encountered, for the first time, a case where the game interface slightly varied depending on the version of the game. It was a simple adjustment but interesting to note.


Petka Engine

In contrast, Petka was simple and quick to implement. The game uses only a few keys and has a single interface, so a single keymapper was sufficient.

The only minor complication was the language barrier—the game is entirely in Russian, which made understanding certain actions and UI flows a bit more difficult. However, with some investigation and context clues, I was able to complete the mapping without major issues.


Wrap-Up

This week, I:

  • Implemented keymapper support for the Lab engine

  • Implemented keymapper support for the Petka engine