just adding the post mortum here
Let’s start with the things that went well:
- First off everything got finished, the game came together and feels more or less cohesive. I am particularly happy with how everything feels like it all connects. the sound feels right, the music, etc.
- It took five weeks from start to finish to create everything for the game: graphics, music, sound
- It was relatively simple to update all versions of MX2 (the programming language/environment) so that Windows and Linux ‘just worked’
- The new sound core works perfectly across all platforms with no issues being flagged.
- All tools were utilised well and worked well together. This meant I could have the tools open, edit stuff and just run and see the results instantly.
Now let’s get dirty and see what things I feel didn’t work, or could be improved.
- Sound. I’m not happy with the new sound core. I feel that it really need to be stripped and the junk removed and the code tightened up. But I am happy that it all works. That means what I thought could be done, has been proved. Also I am not too happy about file sizes for sequences.
- Again I started the project with no real goal, and nearly dumped it halfway through. I am not sure how to approach this one as I have a tendency to create and let the results guide the process.
- I am definitely not happy with some of the screen issues with sprites. this is down to the order they are drawn onscreen. In this case it more of what you learn as you code.
- Input from others was extremely helpful in tweaking and modifying things. This also helped in having a guiding voice that said “Have you tried this”, “Wouldn’t it be great if…”. Must be able to step back from that voice and filter things otherwise you get nothing done at all.
- The mapping tool need some work to get it into shape. there are a lot of rough edges that need fixing - particularly the list code with selections. This needs lots of work to get right!
All in all I am very happy that I could spend much more time with ‘the game’ rather that ‘the tools’. I really enjoyed the graphics, tweaking pixels and finding new ways of working was great. I also enjoyed having the sequencer fully operational so I could listen to tracks while play testing and before the sound was actually put in the game. It’s an interesting feeling when all the separate bits and tools all finally come together.
I also have enjoyed seeing how others have approached things. The dev-logs have been inspiring and regardless of how finished the projects are at the end. We all learned something from the process. Brilliant :)