Plan for Andrew Nicholson

GID8 was my first attempt at game in a day and a solo one at that. Phil Carlisle had spoken about Gid's in his lectures and recommended that we students should be doing this kind of thing. So I read Paul's how not to GID plan and strangely enough answered yes to all his questions (too busy etc).

Although I didn't finish my game, I learnt some important lessons in game dev that I think might be worth mentioning.

Sat 11.00 hrs
Decided on a game and a platform to use, my game was going to be a little platform type game similar to donkey kong in a way. Instead of kong I was going to have an abominable snowman rolling snowballs at you whilst you are collecting decorations for the tree, so you jump from platform to platform scoring points for collecting decorations and jumping over or onto the snowballs. Collect all the decorations and get to the tree. Sounded easy enough!
Having used SDL previously for an assignment
(freespace.virgin.net/nicho.thewizard/SpaceRanger%20exe.zip) and was quite confident in using it, I decided this was the best route for me. I didn't want to spend time linking lib's and setting up so I just opened up my Space Ranger workspace and ripped everything out ready for my little game. Start got delayed, ended up shopping with the wife.

Sat 16.00 hrs
Back from shopping, logged into GG to find the link for GID and took note of the IRC channel and port number. I had never used IRC or been connected to it before so I didn't know what to expect. I ended up downloading a 30 day trial version of mIRC, which was easy enough to use and set up. Ok I'm connected to gid, I only knew Phil from the list of names, where are all the other students. So I spent some time watching and reading what others were saying, just trying to understand the slang that's thrown around was a task in itself. I kept seeing this lol word cropping up and I didn't have a clue what it meant, everybody was lol this and lol that, what is lol I asked the wife, she said "does it mean lots of love" well I nearly fell of the chair laughing, so a quick search in google sorted this out.

Sat 17.00 hrs
Had to disconnect from gid as I only have a dial up connection and I didn't know what all this chatting was going to cost me or should I say the wife (I'm a poor student). So I made a start with my game, just drawing some blocky art for the platforms and ladders and such. Went for some tea and cracked open a bottle of baileys, hmmm.

Sat 21.00 hrs
||First lesson learnt|| I didn't have a plan, I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to do, but nothing written down. For some this might not be a problem, for me it was a vital piece of kit that I didn't have. Just simple things like:
Level layout?
How big are the platforms?
How many platforms?
How big is the ladder?
How fast does the player move?
How high does the player jump?
So I scrapped my blocky art and started again, I made a rough plan and drew a basic level. Made some more blocky art and managed to get it in and set out how I wanted it. I did have a pic somewhere but I seemed to have lost it.
Made a start on the programming, got the score working and the player moving up down left and right, ended up making a load of typo errors, baileys must be kickin in.
||Second lesson learnt|| don't drink and code?
Time for a chat to see how every one else is getting on?

Sat 23.00 hrs
Turns out that most of the regulars are ill, but still managing to chat and have a laugh. I was still trying to figure out who's who and what they're talking about. Craig had nearly completed his game or had something playable and posted his link. I was crap at it, I kept getting pathetic scores, I blame the baileys. It turns out that Craig is also a student at Bolton Uni (small world). Its now about 03.00 am, doesn't time fly. I was making a load of typo errors here too, so it was time for bed.

Sun 11.00 hrs
Started on the player movement again, trying to get the jumping sorted. Got it working of a fashion, and started to implement some collision detection on the platforms. What a nightmare, ||Third lesson learnt|| I don't know as much as I thought I did. I thought it would be a breeze, but it wasn't. For some reason I couldn't get my head around it, I know I was feeling a bit rough from the night before, but that's no excuse.

Sun 14.00 hrs
Got most of the collision stuff working sort of, and started to implement some decorations to score points with. Got a moving platform working and played around some more with collision detection, still not happy with it. I could see at this point that I wasn't going to finish and started to lose interest with it.

Sun 17.00 hrs
Well time is up and I didn't finish, never mind though it's not a competition, it's just a case of learning, about yourself, how you work, what you know or don't know and from this experience you can improve your skills.

If you haven't done a GID then I recommend you should at least try, ok so your not going to make the next blockbuster in a day so why bother you might ask, but you can throw some ideas around for a start, you've gotta start somewhere. It doesn't matter if you're not the best programmer or artist, have a go and learn as you do it.

Oh yeh, here is my attempt

uk.geocities.com/flatfourproductions/snoName.zip

edit: ||Fourth lesson learnt|| When writing plans, write them in notepad or something like that so you can save it and cut and paste it in, beats having to write it all again, when you know you clicked submit and it doesn't appear!