Project Minotaur Progress Report: Backtracking

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

Goals for this week:
1. Start engine redesign
a. (+) Drastically improved base vector class

Goals for next week:
1. Continue engine redesign

Other work done:
None

Didn't I say reworking the engine would doom the project?

Yes, I did.

However, let me remind you of a sermon Jesus gave about two men.  One built his house on the sand, and it washed away when the tide came in.  The other man built his house on the rock, and it was sturdy when the tide rose.  Alternatively, you have the Three Little Pigs - as the news would report, "Wolf rampages neighborhood, killing two - homes destroyed."

The point of all this is a lesson I thought I'd learned before: I need to write code that lasts, not iust a flimsy continuous hack.  I'm rewriting the engine so I have something to use after I get Minotaur wrapped up - an engine that's properly documented and doesn't keep tripping me up.

In short, I hate writing bad code.  Now that I know what I'm actually doing with Java, I'm going to make something worthwhile that will allow rapid iteration on game development, as opposed to the frail and cumbersome hackery that's gotten me this far.  Now to just get back into the habit of actually working on things...

See you next week.

Project Minotaur Progress Report: A Thousand Miles in Every Step

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

Goals for this week:
1. (+) Sufficient documentation
2. (+) Agile Roadmap

Goals for next week:
1. Engine refactoring: Sprite system

Other work done:
1. Rediscovered the magic of games and why I do this

My documentation this week is pretty shallow, but should prove sufficient - until it's not, of course.  All I really did was create a list of sprint topics that's longer than I want it to be, but will likely end up shorter than it needed to be.  That's the trick with documentation and planning - it stales quickly.

Enough of the mundane - onto the magic.  Over the last few weeks, I've been struggling with a few very important questions, most beginning with that terrible word, "Why."  If ever you lose your faith in games, or if they ever lose that magic glimmer, find some friends and an arcade.  Nothing is quite like the experience of battling against the Foot Clan with a friend, or taking on Megaman with Cyclops.  Pinball is divine, a deep root to the birth of arcades - the grandfather of gaming at home, who long ago mastered the alchemy of action and sound, summoning joy with a flashing light and joyous fanfare.

Play the games that got you through the hard times.  Play the games that you refused to give up on, even after having your butt kicked fifty times in a row.  Play the games from your childhood, when you didn't know how much blood, sweat, and tears went into making games.  Find new games that embody the wonders of those old games.  Play indie darlings, like To the Moon, where the magic of games shines like a lighthouse;  the magic never left - it's always there, shining brightly to guide you home.

See you next week.

Project Minotaur Progress Report: Eureka!

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

Goals for this week:
1. (+) Brainstorming

Goals for next week:
1. Sufficient documentation
2. Agile Roadmap

Other work done:
NA

I think I've got it:  Traps are microgames.  To make exploration more interesting, each trap will have an avoidance microgame, similar to how traps worked in the Underground in Pokémon Diamond/Pearl.  I've got a couple designs that should hold through to playtesting, and since each microgame will be less than five seconds, I think several other ideas will pop up by the time I get around to implementing the traps.

Now that I've got a better idea of where I'm going, it's time to build a roadmap (so I don't have a productivity boost right off the map, and end up with a muddled idea of what to work on next).  There's one outstanding issue though, and that's enemy AI.  However,  that's more of a code issue than design... sort of.  More on that later.

See you next week.

Project Minotaur Progress Report: Getting Back Into It

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

Goals for this week:
1. (~) Brainstorming
2. (-) Sprint planning

Goals for next week:
1. Continue brainstorming

Other work done:
1. Research Ouya portability needs

I've been trying to figure out why this week was so short since I got out of bed - then I remembered that I didn't write the last progress report until Monday morning.  That would do it.

A few things moving forward:
1. Progress reports are due Friday, even if I could finish a goal for that week by pushing the report out a day or two (because that turns into three days).
2. Brutal self honesty - thinking something is done enough to mark it as done is not the same as it being done.  A specific example of this is my design document,  which outlines the player side of combat quite well, but not really much more than that.
3. Structured development - there was a great post-mortem of Natural Selection 2 this week that discussed how they just didn't jive with a lot of production.  However, I'm a production nerd - I enjoy documentation and find it infinitely helpful during development.  It really helps me focus, and right now, it's what I need.

So that's the plan right now:  Figure out what I'm making at this point, and how I'm going to do it.  I'm also revisiting the why of it all, so don't expect any screenshots anytime soon.

See you next week.

Project Minotaur Progress Report: Where Am I Going, Carl?

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

Goals for this week:
None

Goals for next week:
1. Brainstorming
2. Sprint planning

Other work done:
None

I'm going to keep it short. I'm late, and honestly, my bus stop is coming up.  Over the weekend, I found my notes from GDC 2011 and 2012, which had two great quotes, which I'll stick to just one for now.

"You don't have forever.  What game do you want to be remembered for?" - Charlie Cleveland

(That's the guy behind the Natural Selection series (go buy Natural Selection 2, it looks slick).)

The thing is, I really think Minotaur has potential,  so here's the current plan:
1. Finish Minotaur for Android
2. Port Minotaur to Ouya
3. Make a simple game for fun
4. Make the game that matters

Also, I'll be formalizing my process a bit more so I don't finish all the tasks at hand and question if Minotaur should be finished.

See you next week.