Starting to Plan a new Game
Sunday, August 16 2009 - xna, game-design, personal
Ok it has been a while since I started to put together a plan for a game, most of my work lately has been around building some skills. But in the last few days I have been spending a bit of time thinking and trying to plan my new found spare time.
Well in the last few days I downloaded a Game to play test for a felly MVP, since doing this I have had to fight of the kids as they have found a new love for a little game called Kissypoo, congrats George you have a hit with my kids. You even have a hit with my wife as she says even though it is a repetitive game the music and game play sounds are not annoying.
But all in all, now that another two MVPs have started to work on a game, it looks like it is time for me to get my butt in gear and get something done… The test is how far I actually go with it and will I get it finished.
This time I have gone a different way about it and have started to plan the work and layout what I would like to get done. At this stage all of the work has been been done on paper in a way. For those who have not taken the move to Microsoft’s Office Application One Note, I suggest you do. I use the application every day at work as my electronic notepad, now I have started to use it as my notepad and design scratchpad for my game development.
I have started to layout the plan for the game as well as the resources I think I am going to need for the game. In doing this I have found that In the first draft I thought I needed to throw a lot of different art assets together. But one I got them on paper I have found that in the beginning I am not going to need the full list, looking at what I had a lot of the planned work could be used in other areas and in turn reduce the work needed.
Also in laying out the different screens and what each would be used for I have also found that a lot of the code could also be used again and again. Now I would not like to say that it was the beginning of an engine, but it could be called the beginning of a framework that could be reused… I am just going to have to wait until the first two or three games that I do using the framework work before I call it an engine :).
The point I am trying to make here is that you need to plan the game or applications you are working on as you will find that looking at the nuts and bolts before you start will save a lot of work in the end. It will also help you to lay out the tasks that need to be done so that you do not miss out anything that could be important in the end.
