On Fire

Okay...last time I posted I said I hadn't had time to do Nintendo DS programming, so I filled you in on my day time job work. Well, I am here to tell you that I have been inspired and back to working on a game in the evenings. However, not for the DS, but, for the iPhone.

Okay...even though I don't own an iPhone or iTouch at this moment I've been designing the game I want to do for it, and in the process of upgrading my Mac OS so that I can do the development. So, since this blog is the "RealityOfDreams," I propose to blog about my journey from idea, to final product. I will inform you of the decisions I am making and the code/architectural design directions that I am moving in. Hopefully, this will chronicle my steps, and provide some insight to some on what goes into making a game (even on a small scale).

Now, one thing I will not do in this blog is say what the game is or show screen shots, until it is near completion, yeah...that's right...I'm paranoid. "Dude! I could program that dumb idea of yours in 20 minutes!" I'm glad you can, so go do it, and dream up your own idea.

So, lets get to it...

This is going to be pretty much a "one man," project. However, I'm still going to employ software "Best Practices," as best I can. So, I am going to employ the development process, flesh out requirements, architect using GoF patterns, TDD (test driven development), see if I can implement some automated testing, build a "Tinderbox," (project builder, that grabs on specified time, latest checked in code, smoke tests, and builds the project, thus notifying if the build succeeded or not).

I will use quick and dirty artwork to verify my design, game play, and tech decisions...when all is finalized I will then employ an artist I know to render the real artwork, assets needed. The same goes for the music, and sound FFX in the game. I will not do any early users play testing/feedback, iterative process. Why? After you read the next paragraph, you will know why.

How did I arrive here, at this decision, "at this defining moment," (my man Obama, said that)...this game has been eating at me for some years now. In fact, I actually programmed it years ago for the PC, and folks played it and liked it. This will tell you how long ago that was, my oldest son (now 14 played), played the game when he was 4 years old. I programmed the game in 6 months, along with a great artist, and had users play and respond on the game play. Doing this in an iterative process I was able to tweak the game and make it fun. So, back to the previous paragraph, this is why I won't be getting feedback while I work, I am confident in the "fun factor," of the game. Arrogance, conceit, stupidity...no grasshopper, I have felt the pebbles of this path before. So, if it was sooo much fun, why haven't I heard of it, why can't I play the previous version?

To make a long story short, I did the cardinal sin, I never made a back up of the game (well...I believe that I did, but never could find it), and one day I came home and the code was wiped off the hard-drive, someone who will go nameless, removed the game to make room, to install some other bullsh&t on the computer. So, the despair, and anger I felt lasted for some time, and its always, been itching at me to re-do it. After looking at the iPhone, I decided that it is the perfect machine to recreate my game on.

Thus, for the past two days I've been "on fire," writing down my ideas, re-designing the game, making notes, jotting questions for myself to figure out, etc...I feel "alive," again. The creative sparks are flowing. Of course this is how we all begin...a ball of excitement and momentum, but can it be sustained, well, we'll see what happens..."The journey is the reward," (my man Steve Jobs, said that).