TH_AVOCADO MAYHEM

[erico]

Oh well, this is to be the first experience on me putting last command on a code/project completed.
I have done a lot of stuff before, but never published.

I *loving* love doing this, and it will get there (sorry Ian! )
more news soon,

[Ian Price]

I suppose we feeling something similar, after all this time making a game, when we pick our last command... I think will be something like freedoom. and I'm not joking, really this it's fukin... (sorry Ian  ) * love * work.

While this is indeed true, this is where the real hard work should come into effect, with testing, distributing and promoting and marketing.

For commercial apps promotion and marketing is the thing I hate the most. It takes an absolute age to do anything and even then it gets you very little. I'm a coder not a marketeer. I hate that side of things with a passion - it's one of the reasons I only released one app for iOS (B'lox!). I just couldn't be arsed with the donkey work. WebOS required very little  work as there really was only two places worth visiting to promote your game. It's also one of the reasons I haven't touched Android. I obviously want to get into OUYA as it's still a fairly empty market and easy to access, with little after-code work required to promote (I hope).

Anyway, despite the delays the end is hopefully now in sight. The light at the end of the tunnel is no longer a pin-prick hole, but something gaping. And we all look forward to seeing the end results

[spacefractal]

im have never have been keen about metal music at all generally, but that is just taste of mind, that it (and thinking this was a kid game, a cool one). Howover its can been used when the tree begin to attack.....

[erico]

I was just teasing. That rock type quite don´t fit I agree.

Music, while tested just to get working, will probably be the last thing done. I´m still undecided on how to proceed on this front.
I could try to create them myself with a tracker or more simple music tools, but I see that is going to take time.
I could go for a 3rd party musician, but since this will be the very first published game, I have the urge to try do it all myself, so I´m comfortable with all stages of game making should I team up on next projects.

Finally, I believe I shall try SoundHelix here!

What Ian said holds true to me to, specially since that part, the marketing/distribution, I have zero "game" experience.
I have done a bit of it for other medias before and I do have a plan of action already. You guys will know how I score on that front.

Testing should not be much of a problem, I have been self testing this game for ages and so far it is bug free, but testing on how people approach the game and its controls will be interesting.

[erico]

Last boss took quite a lot of work.

I had to drop a couple of its attacks.
Your own 4 hearts energy is now 8 since I´m taking half heart in account.

So the game is now quite easier than before...where then only I could play it

Other changes included and extra-extra boss I could not hold myself into implementing.

Today morning I concluded about 100% of in game content. Just missing some sounds of the monkey, tree, ghost bosses.
I already have a final score table.

Now hopefully, everything else to do is apart from the main game code.
But I´m having doubts if I can finish till xmas. Don´t wanna hush it at this point.

Later today I shall babble about the gameplay.

[spacefractal]

of course you should Work in this game too and is looking nice too. This game would of course been promoted from "More games" from Karma Miwa. Something im could help (etc inapp implementation). Here im could help eventuelly back.

You game is nicely lowres done and should not have any trouble to run 60fps on ouya at all (which run 30fps in my game).

Which im like is this and my game share same controls (etc its got borrow from Karma Miwa, but im have no issues with that at all of course).

PS. You could add various Difficulty$, etc a hard and a Easy version (which im does in my games).

[erico]

The difficulty level here is a bit different.
The game is hard by nature, you can easy up the game by collecting the power ups, they can render the game quite easy and accessible.

Yep, same touch controls . I tried the virtual joystick but it is really hard to play that way, mostly because of the way finger slides on the screen. Your control method is the best, most reliable and playable with this type of game!

I also added keyboard, joystick(analog), pad and g-sensor, but am not sure I will keep them all at the end.
The joystick is sure staying since the game can best be played on an analog control for extreme precision.
The g-sensor is a bit weird, the game requires way too fast decisions so changing screen angles really detracts the experience, even if just a little.

The keyboard control, I´m using just left, right and up arrows. That way you can play with one hand only.
Do you think this could work on Karma Miwa too?

[spacefractal]

not sure im will uses up as jump, which was back in the amiga/c64 area, not on consoles generally. That why im using one or two button system. Later its property could remap any keys, and then you could just remap jump to up eventuelly. So im not sure im will do that.

[mentalthink]

Jeje new GFX the monkeys, nice too... the paper of the Right, really it's nice and good point foe now what you recollected...
Some video working yet?¿...

Waiting Release!!!! 

[erico]

Thanks!
I didn´t record before since things were to change. I think now it´s ok.
So,  I will record a game session after I describe its elements.

Might take a few days since I have to travel either today or tomorrow morning.

[Ian Price]

A don't know about monkey boss, but he's looking like a bad-boon!

Still loving the look of that erico. Nearly there now 

[erico]

Tks, truly it is times like this that I miss having a framework. It sure would speed these final moments of the project.

One big mistake I took here was to not fully design the game before, I did and added a lot of stuff while coding and this really makes it difficult to advance work when not inspired. Lesson learned.

[Ian Price]

Frameworks are merely the bones of previous programs, built up into a library over time through R&D, implementation and usage.

You can't start a game with a framework that doesn't exist. If you intend to create a framework first, then you'll never build a game with it. Always better to build games and use bits from them to eventually create a framework.

Every game is an individual and even a framework will have to be tailored to suit. There is no one size fits all. You can certainly borrow certain bits, like screen scaling and control input, but you'll find that a lot of other things will have to be created specially for the game itself anyway.

You did right - build the game.

I have never created a design document for a single game I've written - I just get on with the game. I've always got ideas flowing through my brain and decide whether to fit them into the game or not. A good programmer should know exactly how and where things can easily be made to fit/added without it affecting other areas of the game negatively.

A game made "on the go" can easily identify ideas and issues that are not working or are too difficult to implement - if you had them in a design document you might feel compelled to include them and get disheartened if it didn't work out.

I don't know if anyone else is like me, but I just can't stop thinking about developing - pretty much every free moment I'm trying to work out some bit in whatever game I'm working on. Most of my coding is done in my head long before it's entered into my laptop.

The hardest part of developing is keeping focus on one project at a time - it's all too easy to abandon something to move onto something else. We've all done it, but you learn something new with every game or app that can be used in the future to make your life easier.

[fuzzy70]

I agree with Ian, you did right in that you built the game.

Design documents are good but don't work for everybody or everything you create, perhaps you could try using one on your next project & see how well it works for you?. It's all to easy to look back & think "I should have thought of this xxxx feature at the start" but it's natural that extra ideas pop into your head while you are creating something, be it a game or art.

How many times have you modelled something in lightwave etc & then thought "Hmm, if I add this to it or tweak that it would be better?". Programming is no different in that there is nearly always something that you think you can add/remove or change, even weeks or months after the project is finished something pops in your head like "I should have added blah blah blah".

A lot of the time the hardest part is when to say "Enough is enough, I have all the things implemented that the project requires so time to tidy up & finish it"

I'm envious of you in a lot of ways in that at least you have got something to show & works, whereas I have got more code snippets & routines that do a specific job but no "Product" so to speak  . Truth be told I have completed a few things but none of them are games & were asked for so I had in easy in that people came to me with what they wanted & I done it, if anything was missing that was down to them as they were the client & I created what they asked for.

Keep up the good work Erico & look forward to the final result 

Lee

[Slydog]

I also agree with Ian, and Fuzzy.  I have never created a design document for any games I've made, and also most of my non-games programs at work.  I doodle and sketch out some code logic in a notepad occasionally (while AFK!), but no actual design doc.  My 'design' changes too frequently to even bother.  How do you plan something that wouldn't be obvious UNTIL you've prototyped something first?  Just keep your code very flexible, modular, and related code in separate files.

One thing I need to get better at (which I am at work) is keeping each code library completely independent from each other, as much as possible.  For example, my Input library will use my Rectangle (x, y, w, h) TYPE from another library, but then I can't change my Rectangle library without other libraries bugging out. (May be a bad example, but the point is valid).

The only exceptions to this is at work, when I programmed 2 huge applications.  My boss would design some basic logic (using simple pseudocode) which I would convert to Visual Basic 6 code.  But that's just the way he worked, and helped wrap his head around the project.  But in hind site, maybe I should have prepared better documentation for my other projects.  But I managed to get the apps to work when I had full project layout authority.  And they were complicated (both valued at over $1M in the market I'm in (steel manufacturing)).

I believe to each his own.  Its the final results that matter.  But in team environments (or where somebody needs a quick way to get up to speed on your project) a design doc may be recommended.