I’d like to start using the blog a bit more to archive ideas and thoughts on game development.. I hope they’ll be interesting to read, but at the very least I want them recorded somewhere so I don’t forget them 🙂
Point 1: Don’t get attached to things in your game just because you’re used to them.
This happens to me quite often. Something (some variable, setting, or game mechanic) which worked well from the very beginning of the game has stayed put almost untouched through development. I’m used to it being there and it’s kind of comfortable to have in. But maybe things changed gradually along the way and sometimes it turns out that the Thing isn’t really relevant any more. Often this comes from playtesting, since it’s hard to recognise for yourself.
Its a tough moment when you understand you need to remove or change something you like, but you need to stop and ask why you like it. Is it familiarity? When you stop back and look objectively at the big picture the answer is probably yes. The change makes your game better, and you’ll get used to the new version just the same as you did with the old. It’s hard not to get attached to things, but recognise the difference between a good feature and a comfortable one…
Point 2: Feel free to go off on a tangent to explore ideas without worry
Ok the title is really vague, but what I mean is with whatever setup you have, make sure it’s easy to save your current project state, make a copy or know that something like SVN can revert your changes, and noodle around without fear of breaking the game. Just do whatever it is you need to do to try out the idea, make a complete mess of the code if need be. If it turns out to be good, *then* you worry about integrating it nicely into the game. If not, just dump the whole lot / revert all the changes and carry on. It’s important not to worry about clean code and bugs when prototyping.
That’s all for now! I hope to make these design notes a more frequent part of the blog 🙂