Dev Diary 41: Old Demos, Software Engineering, And Godot!
So it has been a minute, huh? I wanted to share a bit of an update on where things stand and the way forwards, as there has been a lot of progress behind the scenes. I have been working on the pitch deck for the next project and the progress has been good, but there is still much to do with this task. However, probably more interestingly for these diaries, doing this led to me going back to a demo I had made last year which I had also mentioned briefly in Dev Diary 20 and it led me to realise how much of a botched job I had done with the technical stuff of the demo.
First off, and the biggest sin, I had not commented or documented anything because "it was all in my head". Stupid thing to do, and I am sure developers know this or should know this. Hell I should know this. But I hadn't done it, and I paid for it because I spent way too long trying to fix a behaviour that just seemed completely stupefying in large part because I had three separate places where a bool was checked and changed which would allow or disallow the placement of a token on the map. All of this had led me to believe that out of five different checks that checked five different map surfaces, one was effectively acting in reverse. As it turned out this was not the case, but because I had made a very confusing system I could not make sense of the behavior clearly because I was looking in the wrong place. Thankfully, I managed to resolve this, and improve the demo in other ways, so that now it works and can be expanded on.
Secondly, doing all of this preparatory work has made me work on more proper software engineering architecture and system design work. While it is not done, and probably is lacking in some ways, I believe I have made my job easier down the line especially if I am to work with someone else on the programming side of the next project. Admittedly, I am somewhat scared to show this design stuff to people with more experience than me but I am sure that time will come, but to be clear I have not made a class diagram. I can't make myself do that, I can barely stand flowcharts. For now it's just a piece of paper, but the info is there. And knowing what I know now, I know I really should have done this work for Lab 77 too as my brain requires structure and Lab 77 had way too little in the backend which probably caused me many headaches.
Thirdly, I know I have been rather cagey about the next project. I do tend to play my cards close to my chest, especially when it can affect more people than myself, but if you are interested please check out our Patreon and connected Discord. In due time more will become public, and provided things work out for me the next project will be a massive step forwards. That all being said, if anyone has tips for how I can improve my system design documentation (no charts please, just no. They are a pin to create and maintain), then let me know.
Fourthly, Godot! Having worked with Unity non-stop for 1014 days Godot has been such a breath of fresh air. Having spent so much time having to duct tape the poorly implemented systems in Unity, knowing the implemented things in Godot work, are properly documented, and actually work even when you scratch the surface has been so very reinvigorating. I think the main thing has been how useful and well done the documentation for the engine is. I am really looking forward to working more with it on both big and small projects going forwards.
Lastly, Little Astronaut is not a dead project, not yet. But it is on hiatus. I wasn't overly happy with how the gameplay was turning out and due to the time spent on the new big project I have shelved Little Astronaut for now. But fear not, if you want more of the silly odd itch.io games I will get back to it eventually, with better designed gameplay and a slight shift in the design. As usual, when I make more progress the best place to be to know about it is Discord, through Patreon, as that is where I share a whole lot more behind the scenes stuff.
That is all for this Dev Diary, more to come when inspiration strikes next.
-Olav
P.S.
Keep in mind, don't try to quickly make a demo when you are overstressed. It leads to many headaches down the line.
P.P.S.
I have been mildly tempted by the idea of doing some form of talk at some event, but I am not sure about what the fuck I'd talk about or what. Don't know if I really have any useful information to impart on anyone but it's something that sits in the back of my mind.