Friday 17 May 2013

The Solution To All Your Problems



Modern video games are easier than their retro counter parts. The Brainy Gamer posted an article some time ago on the topic of problem solving in modern versus classic video games. He concluded that games today coddle and instruct far more than the games he grew up on, showcased by a modern generations inability to use their intuition to solve certain aspects of the game. Now, I don't want to drop the player into my game with no instruction, no understanding and expect them to have fun, but in a game about survival, exploration, and discovery, I want to leave some features a surprise.

Sunday 12 May 2013

Hanging the Floor


One of my favourite games and big inspirations for this project is a game by Tarn Adams called Dwarf Fortress. The game includes procedurally generated worlds that are so detailed and rich that there's a game mode specifically dedicated to reading through the historical events of the kingdoms. This is the game that enlightened me to procedural generation (from here on called PG) which has quickly become one of my favourite aspects of game design and programming.

How much do I like it?

I used a random title generator for this entry.


Thursday 9 May 2013

If it looks stupid and it works...



It doesn't seem to matter how much planning I do, I always end up needing to improvise at some point. When I started this project I promised myself a few things, one of which was that I would have very neat, organized, readable code with a very rigid design. Well, it's less than a week in and I'm already breaking promises.

Tuesday 7 May 2013

The Nitty Gritty



I realize that I may have skipped some valuable explanation with my last post. Here I am blabbering on about my performance issues like a senior at his annual checkup and you have no idea how my code works! If you're going to read these articles then understanding the architecture of my code is going to be important. Luckily for you, I'm here to set things straight.

The Funny Thing About Coding...



I've spent the last two days on my project. Being a rookie game developer, I get hung up on what are probably incredibly simple tasks to more experienced veterans. The following is the account of my first major issue with performance (only two days in!)

Saturday 4 May 2013

Introduction and/or Prologue



What we are about to embark on is a journey. A journey filled with struggle, trials, tribulations and constant teeth grinding. My goal with this blog is to chronicle the development of a computer game from it's first lines of code all the way to release. More specifically, I intend to keep track of the ideas, methods and solutions I develop as I work my way through this task. For the less technically inclined, I would also like to share interesting or funny stories and pictures somehow related to my odyssey.