Day Nine, Play To Learn: Another Game started + more

Today, I've started work on the first game that the user will play on every planet. Actually, it's not really a game, but more of an introduction to the vocabulary, with one vocabulary picture appearing at a time on the screen, along with the word written and a audio clip of the word(Audio will be added in later/last).

I've also been trying again to reduce the memory 'footprint', as my target audience (schools, students in less well off countries,etc) will probably include a few old computers with low specs. So far I'm quite pleased with this, but at a later date I'll need to take a proper look in all the code files for the different games, to avoid repeated objects, data and memory leeks as I still have more resources to add such as sound and higher quality graphics.

One year on: Developing a Commercial Educational Computer Game.

It was just over a year ago that I came up with my initial designs to create a computer game to help non-English speakers learn English, and what are my thoughts about the last year? Well to be honest, mostly negative.

What have I got to show for a year of work, well not a lot really. A semi functional program with only about five or six working games out of the twenty (or even more) that I had hoped to do. To me it will be a year of wasted opportunity, with extremely sporadic bursts of work and enthusiasm for the project.

But, I guess everything hasn't been bad. I do actually have a good framework of the game, where pieces and games can easily be inserted into it. and the framework could be used for future projects too. One of the card games from the project is complete and it could easily be taken out and made into it's own separate game, which I am seriously considering.

Secondly, I now can actually program well in a language (blitz, pure basic and some others) and even enjoy it, something which I was nowhere even close to last year.

I also have done extensive research of other so called bedroom programmers who have sold their games, whether they have been successful or failed. And from this I also have an idea of how I will market and sell my game, whether online or in person.

So overall, I guess even though in terms of progress on the programming side, I have achieved no where near what I wanted to, there are some really good positives to come out.

Development Difficulties and History - part 3 or 3

I haven't been able to update the blog much over the Christmas period, as I have been visiting family in the UK.

But good news is that I have a new lovely laptop, it's not too expensive but it does pack hell of a punch and can manage all 3D games I have tried so far.

Anyway I thought I would finish this tedious history of mine in the quickest way possible.

...After downloading Blitz3D and having a month of experimenting I knew that this interpretation of the basic language was for me. Unlike my failed study of Java and brief tinkering with C++ and another version called C-Lite (if I remember correctly), the Blitz3D syntax seemed to suit me well, and this was the first time I actually enjoyed programming, with complete understanding of what I was writing and the great ability to see if what I had written was working in an instance.

Within weeks I had created a simple 3D Star Trek game where you could fly in a giant sphere representing the Solar System and fly from planet to planet and even been chased by an enemy ship (but only with six or seven lines of ai). Also, I even managed to create my own 3D models for the first time.

After also creating another basic game with a sea landscape and some island and a pirate ship that could move about, I decided to work on my educational computer game for learning English.

While my initial enthusiasm was great and I started well. Eventually, my enthusiasm dropped and appeared in brief spurts, maybe this was due to the fact that the only place I could receive a wifi signal to connect to the Internet was from my bed, and this was an awful and uncomfortable setup for programming, as I couldn't sit-up as the table was to low, so I was always slouching. This went on for about three months, and I barely had anything to show for my time.

I don't know at what point I decided to try out BlitzMax, but even though at first I thought it was too fiddly, I eventually got hooked, especialy by it's more object orientated language, which is fantastic for me compared to Blitz3D which wasn't object-orientated.

Using BlitzMax also gave me the chance to start again with my educational game, with a new approach and a more modular design, where I keep everything seperate, like graphics, data, each of the game screens, the menus. This has and will help me, as code can easily be changed and new bits added and removed. However, the same problems of enthusiasm appeared and I found myself sometimes only doing one or two hours every week or even every fortnight.

I did manage to get back on track in September, when I moved to a newer and bigger flat, that it included it's own studio and a massive desk for me to work on. Work on my game continued well all through the month of September and for some part into October, and initial fears of how and from where I would get the graphics and music for my game where put to rest, when I decided to make my own graphics and actually found a cartoon style that looked good and I could actually draw (well except for the main characters, for whom I am still undecided of how I will draw them). I also found a couple of websites where people submit their sounds and music and these can then be legally used for commercial games and programs, all just for a possible mention in the credits.

However, programming did come to a halt during October, as financial worries and concerns where at the top of my head and I never managed to sit down and even do a decent hours worth of programming. This lack of work continued through November.

Finally, In December as mentioned in this blog, I finally took the plunge and changed from the Windows operating system to the Ubuntu version of Linux. This lead me on to a quest to find a high level programming language that I could work with on Linux, and then run on Windows.

My initial thoughts where to try the scripting language of Python and Pygame which is designed to help with making games in Python. But this language wasn't for me, with the forced indenting which wouldn't compile unless I got it exactly write and the general syntax and layout of the language.

I also tried some versions of the basic programing language, like Free Basic, but even though I liked it a bit, the lack of tutorials for the type of game I want to do, and the default graphic engine not being for commercial use, led me to try something different.

After playing around with a few other versions of basic (I can't remember all their names), I landed at Pure Basic, which even though I have only played around with it for a week, I think it could be a serious contender for me to use instead of BlitzMax, as it is easily setup in Linux and Windows, and using my dual-boot computer I can compile nearly (if not all) the same code for both operating systems. So here I am now, considering whether to continue with BlitzMax or switch to Pure Basic.

Any other suggestions for basic like and cross-compatible programing languages are welcome.

Development Difficulties and History - part 2 or 3

After writing this article, I have decided to split this history of the beginning of my journey into independent game development into three parts, to make it a less strenuous read and write.

Here's the second part of my self indulgent history of how I got here, but luckily this is shorter.

After University I relocated from the UK to Spain and worked as an English Teacher.
During this time I discovered a little game creation software program called Game Maker. It aims to allow people without programming experience to create 2D games, while allowing more experienced users to use it's inbuilt scripting language to make more complex games. While, I found this true, I think it would be incredibly hard or tiresome to create a descent game without the use of it's language.

After making a few simple games in Game Maker, I came up with the idea of maybe using my English Teaching knowledge to make some educational software, as I had seen the strengths and weaknesses of various educational software, and how children quickly tire of repetitive and long computer games and activities.

Using my knowledge from my degree in Computer Science, I came up with a good design document (even if it was scribbled) of what I wanted. However, putting these ideas into Game Maker was a frustrating experience due to the limitations of the software and also the speed. So, after two months I archived my Game Maker files and decided to find another programming language.

After various searches, and finding C++ to strenuous for what I wanted to do, I downloaded a copy of Blitz3D..