So, it has been 40 weeks of work or around 9 months of programming, designing, building, texturing, composing and filling out various business related papers.
These last 3 days, I managed to complete the navigation programming feature. That is, get all the navigation nodes to behave like they should so that I can properly test this feature, iron out the bugs, weed out the redundant or annoying feature about it and move on to the next bit.
I did spot a few bugs and need to start and manage a bug list for my project. I have just been keeping a written little notebook that has been attacked every now and then to keep it empty. But, since complications are rising with every added feature, I need to keep a better track of what I am fixing and how I am fixing it. What changes to the source are meant as fixes to what bug and how I fixed it.
It is also very exciting to see my mechanics starting to work. Things are moving and they are behaving like I had roughly envisioned.
But, this is not the game I set out to build around 9 months ago. It has grown very organically over the last few months and I have made a lot of adjustments to what I expect and want to see in the final produced results. I intend to make the puzzles very challenging, so it is very imperative that the core mechanics are very rigid and work reliably. As I move forward and fix bugs and annoyances, I will without a doubt find redundancies or simplifications to the mechanics that deserve attention. Anything that annoys me is a high priority to fix.
As for creating the puzzles and environments. They will be highly tailored around the mechanics so that the mechanics do not suffer from some odd visual design elements. The game needs to operate in a harmonious fashion where the mechanics feel as they fit seamlessly into the whole composition of the game.
I will keep working on ironing out what I have created over the last 2 weeks. Fix bugs, re-factor the implementation so that it is simple and coherent and void of any programming sins. When I move into massive content production and need to step back into the programming gear, I need to be able to locate where the enhancements need to be made and to be able to add them without much trouble.
I will continue to work over the weekend to keep up the momentum and try to play a bit of a catch up to where I actually want to be.
This, will be another 9 months of work to say the least and it does not scare me one bit. I find it quite satisfying and rewarding and I see no reason why it will not stay that way.
V 