Organizing the Project

How's it going?

It's alright!  The resting animation is coming along nicely.  

The next programming bit to work on is going to be saving and related things.  Beyond that though the lack of a schedule or timeline is causing me a great deal of stress.  Without knowing how long things will take I'm constantly pressed to get it done as quickly as possible.  And despite working nonstop, I never feel like I'm making good progress.  There's a list of programming features to add to polish the game and I can make rough guesses as to how long each one will take, and do the same for the animations and assets, writing, etc.  The issue is that sometimes seemingly minor things can suddenly take days.  If I had more experience it would be easier to guess.. Well let's do the best we can!  

The list of programming things to do (So far): Time guesses D = day h = hour: 69D

• Debug + Skin Joystick:  2D
• 'Pooling' ?: 2D
• Disposing stuff: 2h
• Font change: 3h
• Fix dialogue double click: 4h
• Post level stats: 1D
• Level high scores: 4h
• Saving data/Encrypting: 2D
• Loading saves screen: 5h
• Mana boosting items + spawns: 2D
• Level timer: 2h
• Flashing eye dialogue: 2D
• Combo hits?: 3D
• Camera jerking on special move: 1D
• Level select screen: 5h
• Skill view / select screen: 2h
• Pets / Costumes / Extras: 4D
• In game payment: 3D
• Ad support: 3D
• Pet AI: 5D
• Level manager dialogue finder: 1D
• UI attack buttons: 3h
• UI menu screen: 4h
• UI health/time/score frames: 4h
• Sound/Options screen: 3h
• Other weapon types / attack physics: 10x2D
• Shadows (player/weapons): 1D
• Global leaderboard: 3D
• Share on Facebook: 1D
• In game 'currency'/Points/Linked to payment: 2D  
• Falling death: 4h
• Incline/decline terrain: 4h
• Lives / Waiting system: 2D
• Life buying: 1D
• Fix empty life bar: 3h
• Bottle pass through ground: 6h
• Bottle smash sound variations: 2h
• Weapon direction reaction: 1D
• Button hit combinations: 1D
• Optimization/Restructuring: 4D
• Multiple/Ordered button press recognition: 2D
• Set up 'effects' sprites for attacks: 2D
• Dialogue skinning?Json?Image?: 2D

Graphics to do (So far): 342D O_O

• Animations
• Resting: 15D
• Walking: 15D
• Dashing: 10D
• Sliding: 10D
• Jumping/Falling: 10D
• Attacks(3/4): 30D
• Attack/Moving Effects: 15D
• 10 Object types: 2D x 10
• 10 Levels: 4D x 10
• 3 Pets: 10D x 3 
• 1 Costume: Each animation x 2D
• Bg Animations: 4D x Level
• Hud
• Life/Mana/Timer/Bottle Frames: 3D
• Dialogue frames: 1D
• Transition screens
• Home: 2D
• Loading screen: 2D
• Options: 2D
• Saving/New/Loading select: 1D
• Level select: 2D
• Goals/Quest: 2D
• Failure/Finish: 2D
• Skill select: 4D
• Pet/Costume 'purchase': 2D
• Life purchasing/waiting: 2D
• 10 Character busts: 10x 5D
• Promotional art: 10D

Music/Sounds: 1-2 Months?

• Level themes: ??
• Hit effects: ??
• Character attack sounds?: ??
• Text scrolling sound: ??
• Score totaling sound?: ??
• Timer sound?: ??
• Menu select sounds: ??
• Screen opening sound: ??
• Weapon sounds: ??
• Dying sound: ??
• Other character sounds: ??

Writing: 15D

• Character dialogues = Level #: 15D
• Game promo stuff?: ??
• Storyline: Combined with above

This total puts me roughly around 471 days.  471 working days.  Not every day gets enough time to be considered a working day.  I was only getting about 4 working days per week.  A little more these days.  Much less in the immediate future as I'm moving and there are travel plans.  Whoa.  Oh my god.  Until now I was entertaining fantasies that I could finish this in about 4 months.  100 working days.. 

What's the problem?  

Moneyyy.  Money.  MONEY. The work is incredibly fulfilling.  Loving every exhausting minute of it.  Unfortunately both of my part time teaching jobs stopped recently (As ESL part time jobs do.)  Which fits perfectly with my moving plans.  Depending on how the next few months play out I'll probably be in a position where I need to get another full time job.. I wanted to avoid doing a Kickstarter for many reasons.. My credibility, fan base, target demographic, are all not quite enough for a successful Kickstarter.  I mean I'd need tens of thousands of dollars AFTER rewards, taxes, etc.

What will you do?

Well shortly after recovering from this sudden, massive, debilitating and unmotivated state I currently find myself in..
I should either plan to get another teaching job in 4 months, push Patreon as hard as I can, create a Kickstarter, or..


*hours later after life stuff*

Well, let's see what happens!

What is the next direction for the game?

Next let's work on getting the barebones prototype into the hands of my friends.  The prototype basically exists to get the feedback process going.  I don't believe the 'game loop' is the measure of a game's satisfaction, but it definitely needs to not get in the way.

What makes a game enjoyable?

Ahh man that is a huge concept to unpack.  It's got lots of aspects and layers.  At it's most basic a game is fun if it is satisfying.  Satisfaction comes in so many different ways to different people.  It could be:

• Having a better score than someone else
• Solving a puzzle
• Seeing the answer to a mystery
• Feeling their skill improve
• Connecting with other people
• Feeling important
• Making creative expressions using learned knowledge

Another important concept is that we see games through the lens of our life experiences.  Many people don't enjoy games because they don't get any satisfaction.  Part of that is because the game doesn't let them use any of the skills or experience that they have learned are important to their life.

So how will you do all that?

Yeah I'll try to nail as many of them as I can, but everyone enjoys them a little bit differently.  Some people like really hard puzzles, some people don't.  Some people want a lot of story, some don't.  

What's the next thing to work on?

I have to admit, knowing that this game won't be finished for over a year frees me from feeling pressured to finish it in a few months.  Next we'll get the feedback process rolling by putting it in people's hands.  

To do that we need to:

• Fix the joystick
• Add the attack buttons
• Add the rough attack animations
• Set up a level

One thing to be careful about is the kind of feedback I'm asking for.  Obviously I don't believe that the rough prototype will be 'fun', or satisfying, so what is the question I need to ask them?

Hmm maybe "Is it responsive enough." Or.. "Is it too hard to hit the bottles?"   Okay let's make a list.

1. Is it too hard to hit the bottles?
2. Are the controls responsive enough?
3. Is it hard to keep your fingers in the right place?
4. Did the bottle smash sound get annoying?
5. How much did you pay attention to the background?
6. What kinds of other attacks do you want?

Yeah that should be a good start!

Here we go!