Production process

ID:265231
 
Aug 5 2003, 8:41 pm
I know my name isn't really known around here but I have been coding in BYOND for quite some time now and have made things that never have been released... Well I finally want to release something and, hopefully, get my name out there.

Well anyways, the problem that I have had with actually being able to release a game is lack of things to do... And I was just wondering exactly how I could fix this? This is rather hard for me to explain.... I mean, I know I have the coding ability, and the icons, but when some of the coding is done(basic verb's, basic fighting system, and all that,) I get stuck... Hopefully someone will know where I'm coming from with this and give me some guidlines on how to fix it, but if not, I'll just try until I get it right.

Well, thanks in advance for any input anyone may give me.

Resonating Light
Aug 5 2003, 8:56 pm
Design the game first, everything about the game, work out how it will all go and get it down on paper(or text file). That way, when you get stuck, you know what needs to be done, and you can find another part of the game to work on, or you might not get stuck, if you know what needs to be done beforehand.
Aug 5 2003, 11:08 pm
In response to Jotdaniel
Good idea.

*Scribbles down ideas for brand new secret project*

Oh, no wait, I did that in a .dm file.
Aug 6 2003, 11:03 am
Ooh, ooh, I know. If you have a fighting game, add high exposives and custom map support and turn it into a capture the flag game.

Regardless, you might enjoy reading the, "What makes a good game?" article from the GameMaker site:
http://www.gamemaker.nl/tutorials/goodgame.zip

One thing I might point out from it is a critical error that many designers make: Their games have no goal. A game without any goals just isn't any fun.
Aug 6 2003, 2:44 pm
Jotdaniel is right about planning things out on paper. Writing code "on the fly" is fine for short projects, but sometimes it's best to take a step back and write down what you want to accomplish. Usually, once you've put everything you want to do into words, you can see how to break it down into procs. For example, say you write "Players can try to break into treasure chests." Well, then you can deduce the following things from it:

You need a chest object.
Players need to have a "skill" var that indicates their chances of breaking into treasure chests.
Treasure chests need to have a "difficulty" var that indicates how well they're sealed.
You need a verb that lets a player try to open a treasure chest.
You need a proc that will determine whether a player can break into a given treasure chest. You probably want to make this proc belong to the treasure chest object and take the mob as an argument. It'd look like this:

obj/chest/proc/HandleBreakin(mob/player/M)
//assume player skill and chest difficulty are in range 0-100
var/probability = (M.skill / 100) * ((100 - src.difficulty) / 100) //gives you a number between 0 and 1
probability *= 100 // converts it to a 0-to-100 scale
if(rand(1, 100) <= probability)
//and so on...
Aug 6 2003, 3:14 pm
In response to Gughunter
Just to add on to that (because I have to), rand_seed() would be perfect in that situation.

obj/chest/proc/HandleBreakin(mob/player/M)
    //assume player skill and chest difficulty are in range 0-100
    var/probability = (M.skill / 100) * ((100 - src.difficulty) / 100) //gives you a number between 0 and 1
    probability *= 100 // converts it to a 0-to-100 scale
    rand_seed( src.x + srx.y + ( text2ascii(M.name)*length(M.name) ) )
    if(rand(1, 100) <= probability)
        //and so on...

Of course, it's entirely off-topic, but still, rand_seed() is cool.
Aug 6 2003, 7:27 pm
In response to Garthor
Thanks for all the help... and Garthor, I've never used rand_seed() or ascII2text(). I'll look into them though, sometime.

Resonating Light
Aug 6 2003, 10:03 pm
In response to Resonating_Light
Did I detect a glimmer of sarcasm in that sometime? It's like in 'The Tin Man' by Dale Brown (not the one with the cartoony movie).
Chief: We'll talk about it when you get off the grave shift

Meaning he'll never get off the grave shift

Or something along those lines.
Aug 24 2003, 7:23 pm
In response to Foomer
One thing I might point out from it is a critical error that many designers make: Their games have no goal. A game without any goals just isn't any fun.

I disagree. I'm quite enjoying myself with The UnReal World -- I even paid $35 Canadian for it -- and it has no real goal. The only point of the game is to survive. The fun comes when you start challenging yourself to survive -- How long can I survive without setting traps? How long can I survive if I don't keep a knife? How long can I survive if I burn all of my clothes and run around naked in sub-zero temperatures? Can I wrestle a bear and not get mauled?

Granted, the game *does* have goals which you can choose from, if you wish, but those are more of tutorials and challenges than anything else.
Aug 24 2003, 7:24 pm
In response to Gughunter
if(rand(1, 100) <= probability)

Probably (a-hyuk) easier to use "if(prob(probability))".