Bit Battles: January in Review
by Chris Haigler · 01/31/2008 (11:50 am) · 3 comments
[Bit Battles is a multiplayer-only vehicular combat game currently in development by Fanatical Games. Visit Fanatical Games for more information.]
Anyone else hear that? That'd be the sound of time flying by. We're now at roughly two months and counting until the MyDreamRPG contest deadline and a mere week away from the end of the InstantAction contest. With time dwindling down, things are getting hectic here at Fanatical Games so let's not waste any time. Here's the rundown of what's been happening this month.
At the start of January I kicked into "polishing mode" and went through a few rounds of revision on various GUI and HUD interfaces. Despite the ultimately boring but necessary nature of the work, by the time I was through, the GUI had seen a complete graphical overhaul and some much-needed usability features (server favorites and a demo/recording playback HUD) were added. In addition, a proper end-map summary screen was added that shows which team won along with player scores, kills and deaths. For more info on my polishing frenzy, click here.
By the second week I started to realize just how little time was left and committed myself to getting the fifth map, SegFault, to a playable state. In reality this meant making a map from scratch (a process which usually takes around a month) in only a week. Easier said than done. Thankfully, by taking full advantage of the weekend and some clever task shuffling I managed to pull it off. Although not polished, SegFault was up and running. To read more about frantic week of development, click here.
[Screenshot of SegFault. Click to enlarge (1280 x 1024 version!)]
As January started to wind down, the final map, Access Denied, was on deck. Unfortunately, I fell into a bit of a mapping rut and hit a few speedbumps (bugs!) that made me realize, among other things, just how invaluable outside/external testers are. With work on Access Denied stalling and a rather serious bug still needing a fix the week was nearly lost. To hear more about how I ran face-first into a brickwall and then looked for ways around, through or over it, click here.
With the end of January in sight and some very real deadlines coming up, I decided to refocus my efforts and press on. This meant putting Access Denied on the backburner which freed up some time to work on some nifty special effects, along with the usual testing and bufixing routine. I also talk about the increasing importance of advertising the game and what short-term changes will occur as a result. To hear more about how I finished the month by getting back on track, click here.
Anyone else hear that? That'd be the sound of time flying by. We're now at roughly two months and counting until the MyDreamRPG contest deadline and a mere week away from the end of the InstantAction contest. With time dwindling down, things are getting hectic here at Fanatical Games so let's not waste any time. Here's the rundown of what's been happening this month.
At the start of January I kicked into "polishing mode" and went through a few rounds of revision on various GUI and HUD interfaces. Despite the ultimately boring but necessary nature of the work, by the time I was through, the GUI had seen a complete graphical overhaul and some much-needed usability features (server favorites and a demo/recording playback HUD) were added. In addition, a proper end-map summary screen was added that shows which team won along with player scores, kills and deaths. For more info on my polishing frenzy, click here.
By the second week I started to realize just how little time was left and committed myself to getting the fifth map, SegFault, to a playable state. In reality this meant making a map from scratch (a process which usually takes around a month) in only a week. Easier said than done. Thankfully, by taking full advantage of the weekend and some clever task shuffling I managed to pull it off. Although not polished, SegFault was up and running. To read more about frantic week of development, click here.
[Screenshot of SegFault. Click to enlarge (1280 x 1024 version!)]
As January started to wind down, the final map, Access Denied, was on deck. Unfortunately, I fell into a bit of a mapping rut and hit a few speedbumps (bugs!) that made me realize, among other things, just how invaluable outside/external testers are. With work on Access Denied stalling and a rather serious bug still needing a fix the week was nearly lost. To hear more about how I ran face-first into a brickwall and then looked for ways around, through or over it, click here.
With the end of January in sight and some very real deadlines coming up, I decided to refocus my efforts and press on. This meant putting Access Denied on the backburner which freed up some time to work on some nifty special effects, along with the usual testing and bufixing routine. I also talk about the increasing importance of advertising the game and what short-term changes will occur as a result. To hear more about how I finished the month by getting back on track, click here.
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#2
02/01/2008 (7:57 am)
Thanks!
#3
Thanks in advance.
02/15/2008 (12:10 pm)
I'm really curious to know about the recording functionality you've implemented as I'm trying to do something similar with TGEA. Is there any way I can convince you to share some notes/pointers on how you went about this? I'll understand if not.Thanks in advance.
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