Setting the game out on paper!!!

fullviewmedia

I just thought I'd post about my experience with building a game. I started a small game with no idea of what it would do and where I was going with it. It all started well and jumping back and forward creating levels and graphics was fun. The fun stopped when I had to insert new rules and code in existing actors and started to get lost in where I was up to and testing became difficult. Adding a new actor at the end and then having to set a new collision rule to all others took ages and the game could have been completed in half the time with some better planning.

My next game is going to be done in a totally different way. Pen and Paper!!!

Thanks

Your work pattern and ideas would be nice and even if you have any of your rough outline sketches to share would be good.

simo103

yup ... planing before you start would certainly help .. not that I do that of course cause GS just screams to you to get going!

I have Darren's platform template and have tried to wrap my brain around how he works. Looks like a good use of Actor tags ... that way you need to add a new actor ... you can assign it a tag and all other actors that are assigned to collide with that tag automatically collide with that new actor and you don't have to go thru and set each one.

EDIT: should have added "And that's all you need to know about Actor Tags" ... .... that's a little shout out for Tshirtbooth and his great videos!

jamesmunro2

Been there.
Done it.
Didn't learn from it.
Doomed to repeat it.

Simo103: good point. Important lesson in programming. Using good programming style makes things easier to change and grow further down the road. And oh too true... GS tries to convince you to jump right in. That's one of the downfalls of a program as powerfully simple as GS.

fullviewmedia

I have not used tags as yet but plan to on the next game , I am a php programmer so used to <include> and keeping all my standard stuff in one place, would love to see that in GS

spliket

yes...tags would save you this trouble.

i keep a tag called "collidable". if i create a new actor, i just throw it in that tag.

i've seen other people call the same type of tag "physical".

quantumsheep

I plan it all in my head. Seriously.

The design doc for Kraken is less than a page long. Same with Gravitrixx.

It's the worst way to do it, for sure, but with such a small team size (myself/myself+friend) it works ok.

QS

GamersRejoice

quantumsheep said:
I plan it all in my head. Seriously.

The design doc for Kraken is less than a page long. Same with Gravitrixx.

It's the worst way to do it, for sure, but with such a small team size (myself/myself+friend) it works ok.

QS

I'm the same way. I end up with a few sheets of paper with sketches and concepts on it, but mostly it's in my head.

forklift

Simple idea: I want to make a game about X
Research: Has an X game been made before? If yes, what was cool about it? Is there a ton of X games out there? If so, time to move on.
Prototype: I have a block which represents X and it moves through the crappy environment.
Graphics: Make the X block and environment look like my imagination... or as close as I can get.
Sound: What sounds does X make?
Music: Does it get me super excited about X?
Testing: Do my friends like playing X?
Publishing: I hope apple approves my X!
Money: You mean people actually paid for my X?

Feel free to substitute X with anything you want, including poop.

joshcal

for some reason i always like to plan everything on paper first, and make notes on everything - just incase i forget the plan i made in my mind (which happens all the time) for my first GameSalad game (square smasher) i made a file full of notes and planning, it helped keep everything organised - and then when i came round to making the game it was a lot easier for me to know/remember what i'm doing. The thing i find with GameSalad though is that i just always want to dive in at the deep end, and start making the game straight away. this never works for me unfortunately lol
but - everyones different but its nice to see how people go about planning their games
- josh

fullviewmedia

I think I am going to create a startup doc which outlines things like:-

Sound
Sound FX
Pause Game
Levels
Reset Switch

etc etc

I have just read a post about pausing and what you should include before you start, my game is 99% eady so a big job to include that now