Zania week 8: GUI 2

So I asked myself what features would be kept in if I had to launch in 2 weeks. Which forces myself to look at what the core of my game is and ask the WHY? To remove the digital to real world divide. HOW? I am making digital games that’s going to have real world impacts. WHAT? Will be through the games I write. The core of it is the one persistent Zania universe and I will flesh out the game that is in my mind at each iteration. Through this thinking of necessity and the idea that half of a good game is better than a full game half done, the first version will be a simple reproduction of the functionalities of asteroid. Because if the core combat system is not enticing enough, the rest of the game will not be able to catch on.

I suspect that this macro view on the state of the project is what sparked the downward spiral in my emotional state. The act of evaluating the landscape and computing the future possibilities is a very sad process of marking down every potential to the most pessimistic state to see whether or not the business model will survive. Skills acquired in the world of investing is used and I am starting to doubt that maybe this is not the best method. No wonder founders needs to be optimistic, or at least, know how to be optimistic. In any event, I have temporarily suspended striking down the items in the milestone list and just degraded myself into doing grunt work. Improvement of the physics calculation, major changes in public/private variables into accessor functions, scanning text books. Hey, if life feels shitty, it shouldn’t make any difference doing shitty work.

Here’s a quick drawing for what the game will look like if I release with only vector graphics (warning, programmer art using mouse to draw)

 

Following the review, I went deep into what I want to do. The nature of the projects that I believe I want to do requires longevity instead of quick exists. Therefore, I will no longer be calling myself in the Startup scene. I want to build something persistent therefore, the definition of a Startup does not fit this.

Reviewed milestone

• Core: Physics based space shooter
• GUI: Health, ammo, radar, inventory
• Graphics: B/W vector graphics
• Music: 1 track repeated

Original Milestone

• One player ship and one ai ship artwork finished along with their xml data (Art + some programming)
• Hitpoints, body existence timer and actor destruction (Hardcore Programming)
• One planet orbiting the sun. (Hardcore Programming)
• GUI placement (Art + menial Programming): Health bar, ammo count, radar, inventory
• Booster animation (Art + Math + some programming)
• Populated galaxy (menial programming)
• Dynamic graphics loader for background? (Cleverness)

Completed

• Inventory rebuild
  • Created god mode for testing.
  • OverlayHud handles inventory onClick
    • function invChangeHandler(event:Event):void{
      trace (event.target.selectedItem.data);
      }//function invChangeHandler(event:Event):void{
  • Equip weapons done in Ship
  • Decided to move weaponID on ship. It’s already there, so Ocam’s razor says it’s the best place
  • Ammo

Incomplete

• GUI health bar not decreasing correctly fully, also, health count drops to negative before counting is terminated
• Improve physics engine
• Determine which class should be the one retaining weapon ID
  • Actor? Ship? Player? AI?

Steps to first milestone August 1st

• One player ship and one ai ship artwork finished along with their xml data (Art + some programming)
• Hitpoints, body existence timer and actor destruction (Hardcore Programming)
• One planet orbiting the sun. (Hardcore Programming)
• GUI placement (Art + menial Programming): Health bar, ammo count, radar, inventory
• Booster animation (Art + Math + some programming)
• Populated galaxy (menial programming)
• Dynamic graphics loader for background? (Cleverness)

Features for next release

• Genetic AI
• Secondary gravity fields for planets large objects and black holes
• Multiple galaxies

Features for future release

• Base building
• Market systemZ