mission: infiltrate. Motivation and finally fixing that problem.

Sometimes, if your stuck on a particularly piece of code in a project, it's good to leave it and have a rest from it for a few days (as long as you make yourself come back to it).  For me, when I have a problem that I can't solve, either, by myself or via the Internet, it really affects my motivation, and that has been the reason that I've never finished a game that's more than hangman or a 5 minute diversion.

I've just had one of those problems for more than a week.  I'd been having problems with the enemies 'line of sight' and stopping him seeing the player through walls and solid objects, depending on the angle he was looking.

 If my past habits where to go by, mission: infiltrate would be dead.   I didn't want to touch the problem or even go near the game for ten days.  But, today, I forced myself to sit-down and try and fix the problem.  Well, what I actually did this time was remove ALL of the code that I was having problems with and tried to rewrite the function from scratch (although, it did take me 3 times to get it right).

The feeling I got when I could see and knew that I only had to change one more line of code to get the whole thing to work was fantastic.  "Great, the project is back on!" I said to myself.

What did I do different?
In the past, when I was in a situation like this, I would have just switched off the development environment and not opened it at all this would eventually lead to the death of the project.  

This time, I turned my attention of setting up the basics of my next project after mission: infiltrate, GP Race Manager(as posted about in this blog), that kept me in the programming frame of mind.  Also, I didn't leave the mission: infiltrate project completely closed.  Every day, I'd open it just to remember where I am, and also I've worked on some other areas of the game, that aren't really related to the game-play, such as menu's or adding new objects to the game.


As well as fixing the line of sight problem, I've also added that the screen starts to go red, little by little, when you are hit by bullets.  Also, for the PC version, the right mouse button is now the shoot button, as the shoot button at the bottom of the screen is designed for android touch-screens.  Screenshot:

RE-LOAD!

As you can see from the dates on the previous blog entries, I haven't updated in a while.

Well for 2010, I've decided to start from scratch, so I've removed the old website and put a temporary intro page until I have some work to show, I've also designed a new pixel type logo, which I like better than the old one.

What's new on the development side?.
Well I've decided to move back to Blitz and BlitzMax not just because it's fun, but I found PureBasic just to fiddly from things that should be simple such as moving from a windowed screen to a fullscreen. However, I think I may use it again if I want to make an editor for a game level or an editor to help edit game data.

Speaking of games. Even though I did get quite a few of the mini-games working in my educational software, through lack of motivation and the fact that I have no money to purchase the type of images, art and animations that I think the software would need (as I can't find enough royalty free images) I have decided to put my educational game on hold. Maybe, I will pick it up one day in the future. At least I will have a working demo to show others and a base to start on.

I have decided to make a game that I want, a game that I WOULD WANT TO PLAY.
I have got a good idea and have nearly finished my design documents, and have found myself coming up with what appear to be good ideas at the unusual times.

I haven't decided on what game to make yet, but I've been playing with a few ideas and made a couple of demos.

Motivation of a Bedroom Programmer

I don't know what it is with me and motivation. It's true I enjoy programming games (even though I've never finished a game post-Klick & Play days). Secondly, I enjoy the code style and instant environments of BlitzMax and PureBasic, where I can run and test anything I have just written in an instant. Also, once I get started on a days work I ussualy don't stop for hours.

But that's the problem, getting started, sometimes I have found myself opening up the development environment, but then proceeding to not do any work. with the programs up in the background for hours. Until, now sometimes I have spent a couple of days in a row either programming or learning, however other times I have seen myself not touch my projects for days at a time.

I guess the problem with being a so called 'bedroom programmer, is the lack of deadlines, the lack of someone constantly nagging me to finish or asking on my progress.

However, there are some things that I have noticed that motivate me. The biggest one is when someone shows interest in my project, I've only mentioned it in small talk, but from people who are in the education business of teaching English to foreigners (or locals over here in Spain), they think that it could do well, and I've even been offered some possible testing and selling opportunities.

Also, I'm really motivated when I search on the Internet for other independent programmers, who have gone on to sell there game or games, and on some websites there are sales statistics, (one example being Game Producer), from which even the lower sales are motivating. Even though I am aiming high (and this might come back for me to regret saying it) but I wouldn't mind even if I sold only one game every two days, because I just want to get it finished and see it in use, and it will provide a big learning experience for me and my future projects, which I will document in this blog.