Game Development Diary #3

First Snags: Technical

It was only going to be a matter of time before I hit a couple of bumps in the road. Thankfully they are only minor and serve to delay me by hours. Firstly I realised that many of the lovely templates on the DBA Resource Centre required me to have the latest version of Gamesalad running. To have the latest version of Gamesalad running I needed to be on Mountain Lion and to get that I needed an additional £15 and hours to download the 3GB files. Add to that the ‘making room’ time and installation time I find myself losing vital game development time. Add to that the ‘making space’ time and installation time I find myself losing vital game development time.

Thoughts of dialogue

I want this game to have a great storyline and I think I have the basic premiss sorted already so I now need to break each major event into tasks to be completed before moving forward. The main way that the story will be told will be through dialogue with other characters so I have begun thinking how to tell my story in small, manageable and digestible chunks.

A choice I foresee in the future will be to keep it free of voice acting like Dizzy (Prince of the Yolkfolk) or look into voice actors like Wizzley Presto. There are merits of both but I will have to investigate this further in the future.

Baby blues

I have two beautiful baby girls, one just over eighteen months old and a new addition nearly three months. I love them both dearly but must admit they are a hindrance to game development. Not only do they require near-constant attention but also keep you up most of the night. This sleep deprivation means you can’t work as fast and effectively as you would like and have only pockets of time it’s difficult to decide how you make the most of 45 minutes. One thing you can do whilst bottle-feeding a small baby, however, thinks and watch TV so it’s lots of sci-fi for me followed by mental planning.

Now I just need to firm up those plans…..

Today’s sneak peek: The Gate Room

I have added an image of the first room on this adventure. The gate room is Dookie’s arrival point and will serve as a ‘how to’ room introducing the player to the basic controls: walking, jumping, pickup and using an item.

As you can see there is a huge ‘Star Gate’ reference here and will set the premise for the whole game. You will not be able to move without seeing sci-fi film and TV references everywhere.

This design is at a very early stage and is likely to change but it is nice to see Dookie in situ in the game world.

All feedback is welcomed…