Weekly update MS04x23

Prague is a beatiful place.

I was coding there, a little bit. But instead of doing something useful, I was fixing few bugs that I run into when compiled under Linux. And it made me think about few things. While vala is nice language and probably amazing when doing stuff with GTK, it might not be proper language for what I do. I was considering switching to C++ at some point. Mostly to make it possible to release game on more platforms. And while it was some distant point in future, after spending way too much time on finding bugs mostly because instead of using proper debugger I have to use gradma's logger, I decided to do this after I finish this MS.

This should help a little bit. Debugging, faster iteration. On my netbook, that I brought with myself to Prague, compilation time was almost 3 minutes and there's no incremental compilation. I could seperate everything into libs but I would still be missing debugger. I heard that someone managed to make GDB to work with vala but that was some time ago and support for it was dropped. Visual Studio feels to be great choice to work quickly. Then, if it all works, I might try GCC and then linux builds and other platforms (luckily or maybe thanks to experience mine and other people, all my code that requires specific platform is kept in one place).

Other things - I have some nice ideas for Dragontorc and also for my next project that will use same engine.

And more news - after I started to work at new place, I decided that I really need to push Dragontorc and plan is to finish features I really want to have and try to get demo version by the end of this year. It will be shorter game and probably free. And it should present most of engine features I want to have in game.

Weekly update MS04x22

Last week was full of random events and some of them I shouldn't write about here or anywhere else. Most important thing that I can write about though, was me starting new job. Well, technically it was this Monday but as I shift sometimes and write those updates on Wednesday or anytime else, I will be trying to write about everything that happened since previous update.

This change also made me think, what I am good at, what will be my future, near and far. I realised that I have quite good knowledge about game engines and various subsystems and with that realisation, came another. Whenever I go, I will be working with similar people (talented game enthusiasts, programmers and artists, writers and designers) on similar stuff (animation and gameplay). And that's it. My other options is to do games on my own or to do something completely else (like programming, but not games). But then - I really enjoy what I do and I am happy with changing my job, even my first days always make me feel not right. That was always happening, whenever I changed job.

And back to Dragontorc. That was another, more important and bigger relevation. I really want to finish it and release it. As I enjoy working on big games, "it's all the same" feel is quite strong, even if game is completely different, engine is different (but shares many ideas), etc. Hell, even my own engine that I write for Dragontorc is very similar, although it is small 2D game.

And as I played "War Thunder" yesterday to relax, I also realised that it isn't as relaxing as it used to be. Now I am frustrated with fighting outnumbered against better planes. This of course is partially my fault as I often go straight ahead, bashing right into enemies, but it isn't always happening and fighting against better planes is ok, if you got killed few times in a row, but not 7. Not by the same type of plane. And in longer run, playing "War Thunder" may make me quite qualified pilot of WWII planes. With some stories to talk about that maybe few people may care to listen.

That's why I really need and want to work on Dragontorc more.

Even if it would be just few minutes a day. I always have some small tasks to do. Sometimes it might be even doing some graphics, scripting AI, etc.

Last week didn't bring much. Really small changes and couple of ideas - one of them being ability to bind spells that were used. It might be mostly useful for spells that could be easily wasted, all missile-like spells, but also maybe "energize"? That I haven't decided yet, but I know that whatever it might be used for, it should be as simple as possible, operated with one key/button and it should always work, but if you want to speed it up/use less energy, you should be able to. While I want to make hardcore retro gamers happy, I also want to write game for me that would be fun adventure with challenge but without frustration. I might be too old to die 100 times while trying to finish that one single level ;)