Project Minotaur Progress Report: Burnout, Exhaustion, and a Plan

Legend:
(-) Goal incomplete
(~) Goal partially complete (buggy/hacked)
(+) Goal complete

Goals for this week:
1. (~) Character architecture
2. (-) Design and "Playtest" spell progression
3. (+) First pass art for exploration view

Goals for next week:
1. Map out overall architecture
2. Damage model object
3. Polish Spell Casting state
4. Combat architecture

Other work done:
1. Stabilized android lifecycle
2. Using Trello for sprint board
3. Force portrait view

I think you could best sum up that week with a "Wait, what?"  The spell progression prototype is going to be a major item, not something tacked onto a week's task list.  The character architecture is going to be a fair amount more design work than I have planned, but it's progressed to a point that won't prohibit work in other areas.  As for the exploration art, it's done, but not rendered out (5 minutes will change that).  I'm waiting on that until I know more about how I'm handling that view.

As for extra work, it needed to be done.  The app could be run once, but exiting would cause issues.  That's been fixed, so now I can start and exit and restart as much as I want without crashing the game.  I also got around to forcing the portrait layout.  I've also been trying out an app called Trello to act as my sprint board.  It's pretty slick, and I've been able to plan ahead a bit more.

Moving forward, I'm going to focus on the combat state.  Once I get that cleaned up, I'll move outward to tbe exploration state, then outward still.  However, I am going to map out the overall architecture to get a birds-eye view while I continue toiling in the trenches.

Nothing to show this week (like I said, the art is done, but not rendered).  See you next week.

P.S.  The progress report is late due to exhaustion - I pretty much crashed when I got home last night.

Project Minotaur Progress Report: Stalling Out

Legend:
(-) Goal incomplete
(~) Goal partially complete (buggy/hacked)
(+) Goal complete

Goals for this week:
1. (+) Finish spell casting state
2. (-) Character architecture
3. (-) Design and "Playtest" spell progression
4. (-) First pass art for exploration view

Goals for next week:
1. Character architecture
2. Design and "Playtest" spell progression
3. First pass art for exploration view

Other work done:
1. Research on exploration view art

Poor planning combined with sleeping terribly wrapped up with low motivation spelled out for a disastrously not productive week - and a progress report that's a day late.  I'm still not feeling it (the progress report thing) so this will be short.

Basically, I finished the base of the spell casting system, and while that makes me excited, it also came with a generous helping of reality - I'm going to have to continually poke and prod and tweek the spell casting stuff as more features come into being (wrapping it in the combat state, extracting damage done, hiding spells the player doesn't have access to yet, etc.). In the end, I spent the week wrestling with scope, wants, and art that I just can't get to look right.

Spell casting screens are below (note the blue lines end where the player is currently touching).  I'm going to go get something done. See you next week.

Project Minotaur Progress Report: Look Before You Leap

Legend:
(-) Goal incomplete
(~) Goal partially complete (buggy/hacked)
(+) Goal complete

Goals for this week:
1. (-) Character architecture
2. (+) Finish Design Document
3. (+) First Pass Art: All Spell Orbs
4. (-) Spell casting state

Goals for next week:
1. Finish spell casting state
2. Character architecture
3. Design and "Playtest" spell progression
4. First pass art for exploration view.

Other work done:
None

Well that could have been one hell of a week, finishing everything I had planned .  However, my spell casting state code turned into a lovely mess given that I only get to work in short spurts (e.g. on the bus to work).  Combining that split focus with just diving into code without much planning of the algorithms used or how the data is set up earned myself a buggy clump mixed ideas.  Basically, I decided to set something up in one way, wrote my code to handle another,  and thought I had used a third when debugging.  In the end, I have a somewhat delicate spell casting state that won't be able to do what I want it to do.  Bummer.

For the do-over, I'll be documenting my plans for data and logic ahead of time.  This is the sort of work that needs to be done for a team, but when you're on your own, it's too easy to just say, "I'll remember how that works."  You won't.

On the bright side, I'm quite happy with how the spell orb art turned out.  Earth needed a background change, Light needs a redesign, and Water might need a slight pallet shift, but I'm happy with the forms and targets for now.  We'll see what needs to change once some simple prototype playtesting begins.  See you next week.

Project Minotaur Progress Report: Let's Do This!

Legend:
(-) Goal incomplete
(~) Goal partially complete (buggy/hacked)
(+) Goal complete

Goals for this week:
1. (~) Write Design Document
2. (+) Core architecture
a. (+) Gamestate management
b. (+) Base object class
c. (+) Base object components
3. (-) Redo spell casting prototype

Goals for next week:
1. Character architecture
2. Finish Design Document
3. First Pass Art: All Spell Orbs
4. Spell casting state

Other work done:
1. Setup new laptop development environment
2. Additional architecture work

New laptop is a success so far.  Also, I must give credit to Google Docs - err, Drive - for documenting on the go.  It's been a very productive week, but I have to wonder what I was thinking when I determined what I could get done.  Maybe I just didn't think through how long it takes to write a (useful) design document.  I just know that I planned way too much.  Looking at this week's schedule, I may be doing the same thing again, but I believe with a working engine, I should be able to build content quickly.  However, documentation and art are costly endeavours.

While I didn't finish the spell casting prototype do-over, I did get the elemental orbs on screen (pictured below).  I've got plenty to do, so see you next week!