Seventh Day - Bitmap fonts and planning

Today, I've spent the morning working on using bitmap fonts to draw in game text. This is because apparently BlitzMax is slower or uses more memory to load and draw font's from font files than to load text from an image (such as the image shown below this text). This has been an interesting experience because I've never done this before or dealt with ascii codes, but after a lot of attempts and errors, the final code is quite simple.



Also, I've created two lists that will help me, the first lists all the tasks that need to be completed, there priority, the section of the game (such as graphics, sound, game engine) and an estimate of time it will take to do.

The second list is the same, but it's for fixes or improvements that I see and need to address in the future, which could be anything from improving the memory usage to how games work.

I think these will help me a lot in the development of the game, because I can clearly see and pick a task that will take a short time or long time depending on the amount of free time I have available on that certain day

Just thoughts (again...)

Today I've been thinking about releasing two or three games at the same time, and how I will do this. I've come to the following conclusion of what I will release:

1. Play To Learn: The computer game that I'm working on, which is for very young learners of English to introduce them to new vocabulary.

2. A Collection of Word Games: This will include games such as hangman and 'the memory game'. I hope to include thousands of words of vocabulary sorted into subjects and English Levels (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced).

Fourth Day (Planning)

Today, I haven't done that much work on the game.
I've used most of the day planning, as I still haven't decided definitely what the 7 games on each planet will be about or if this first version will mostly be just about vocabulary.

The only new part to the game, was setting up a new empty level ready for the next mini-game to be started next week.

Game Plan

Here are the definite features that should be in the game, and also possible features that might make them game, depending on progress.

Definite Features in the game
. Single Races
. Car and Driver Selection
. Editable teams and cars via editing the text files in a text editor
. Editable cars via editing the graphics files.
. Basic computer AI movement, following a standard root around the tracks


Very Possible to be included in the game
. A Championship. (Racing for points over various circuits)
. The Editor to change or replace existing tracks
. Car Damage, (Tyres and bodywork)
. Pit-stops for damage.
. Computer movement with varied roots around the tracks


Least Possible features that might be in the game
. Career Mode (Moving up through different formulas and race categories)
. Car Set-ups, Wings,
. The Editor to import new tracks.
. Pit-stops for fuel and tyres.
. Varied computer movement with overtaking.

Planning

This has probably been said by a million others, and there are people who can create small games without any form of planning. But, I have learnt that this is true, to create anything serious, planning is a must.

Planning will not only help you in the initial programming stage of your game, but also in the future if you need to revisit your code again, as shown in the following true example:

Before, I had even discovered PureBasic or BlitzMax, I had already made a basic plan of what I hoped my game would look like, what it would do, the navigational layout and some of the mini games.

However, after revisiting one of the mini games that I had not planned and has just basically hacked the code, I have seen what a big mistake this has been. The code is commented with some basic comments, however, I have found it extremely hard to understand how the mini game works properly.


So for me I think that it is back to my year old notebook, to plan the game out again.