January 12, 2013

Reminder on Overstepping

It's easy to come up with lots of great ideas the problem is always making them a reality. It's so easy to just overstep and go beyond what you can actually do without realizing it. Which is why I'm reminding you today of two important things. Think first, and review often. Today I'm looking back at my plans, seeing what I've done, revising what's left as needed, and removing ideas that simply don't belong or are tacked on. The idea that's important to remember is you don't want to bog down your game you want it lean and mean, a serious case of less is more. Refine and hone what you have first before you consider adding anything much less compensation for a weak link.

In particular I've revised large sections of dialog and reorganized sections of the story for various reasons. Some of the characters I've reviewed their scenes and cut or revised things that were heavily out of character. In the last couple months I've gotten massive amounts of programming done as well as large sections of the main storyline's dialog and animations. I made a few important key changes to the story as well including a twist that was essentially already in the game I hadn't even realized was there till I looked closely and though about it the same way I would play a game for the first time. That is to say when I'm playing I try to guess endings and twists etc and I guessed ways my game would go only to realize all the elements were in place for a giant plot twist I hadn't even considered but was almost in my face when I thought about it.

I cut a few features here and there as well and revised a couple others to replace the ones I cut as they seemed similar enough to be merged yet were so bloated it seemed better to rework them from the ground up inside each other. One feature was split evenly across several others though.

These massive revisions weren't done carelessly either, my first build of this January with these revisions already has made testers extremely happy. Again I'd like to thank U of M Flint students assisting me with testing. I also fixed the first exploit we came across and thankfully due to foresight there has only been a few so far.

Everything thus far having been said I must say the main game is looking very good and hopefully later this month I'll be able to test some of the newer multiplayer changes I've made. I'm also looking into finally publishing that mini game which was done months ago. I've tweaked it and played with it a bit but really it's about as done as it's ever going to get so hopefully I won't encounter any resistance releasing it.

2 comments:

  1. I didn't realize you were working on a game! That's really cool... it's amazing how those plot twists can just happen naturally (almost like the story takes on a life of its own as it comes along)!

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