A Tale of Two Games
Jul. 31st, 2010 01:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aA rather curious week. During each day I was working on the iPhone adaptations of Kingdoms for Skotos, then on the nights where I had time (Monday, Tuesday & tonight), I was working on the iPhone adaptation of Armorica for myself.
Both ports are in relatively early days; I was updating my card game library to better accommodate some of their special features rather than coding actual turn-order and AI. For Kingdoms that meant laying out a grid and moving cards (tiles) to it via various means. For Armorica that meant allowing the fanning of a deck of cards without reordering it. It gave me a bit of vertigo as I went from one to the other, not completing either but just continuing on from day to day.
It was effective though. Kingdoms' grid is now working as is the new method of non-sorting fanning for Armorica (as well as some other simple display issues).
Now the reason I gave Armorica lots of time this week is that Eric V. is having a release party for the game at Endgame tomorrow. So I thought he'd enjoy having the start of a prototype working, so he could show off cards on a screen. Unfortunately my iPod Touch that I use for testbedding gave up the ghost this evening after being increasingly flaky over the last couple of months. So, it needs to go off to Apple for repair and I can't give it to Eric to show off tomorrow. Ah well. I should be able to drop it by the UPS Store on Monday.
But, the whole have-it-for-the-release-party thing was more an excuse than anything, a deadline to give me a goal and get me working. Hopefully now that I have some start I'll be able to continue on more easily in the future, even if it's in small bits.
(I always find the start of these iPhone projects, up until the point where I have a proven display that incorporates all the info, the hardest. 320x480 is so, so tiny that it just boggles the mind trying to fit everything onto it. I understand why some developers are going iPad-only, though I think they're hugely shrinking their market by doing so.)
Should be sleeping, as I want to be in to Endgame by about 11am, but I was up programming too late. I'll have to go read for a bit to slow down the mind ...
Some of my next projects are going to involve Michael Schacht's games. I'm unreasonably thrilled that he's added me to his list of "game scene insights". I can't link to the exact page, but it's just one --> in, under "A". There's a pic of me with my Lucy cat.
Both ports are in relatively early days; I was updating my card game library to better accommodate some of their special features rather than coding actual turn-order and AI. For Kingdoms that meant laying out a grid and moving cards (tiles) to it via various means. For Armorica that meant allowing the fanning of a deck of cards without reordering it. It gave me a bit of vertigo as I went from one to the other, not completing either but just continuing on from day to day.
It was effective though. Kingdoms' grid is now working as is the new method of non-sorting fanning for Armorica (as well as some other simple display issues).
Now the reason I gave Armorica lots of time this week is that Eric V. is having a release party for the game at Endgame tomorrow. So I thought he'd enjoy having the start of a prototype working, so he could show off cards on a screen. Unfortunately my iPod Touch that I use for testbedding gave up the ghost this evening after being increasingly flaky over the last couple of months. So, it needs to go off to Apple for repair and I can't give it to Eric to show off tomorrow. Ah well. I should be able to drop it by the UPS Store on Monday.
But, the whole have-it-for-the-release-party thing was more an excuse than anything, a deadline to give me a goal and get me working. Hopefully now that I have some start I'll be able to continue on more easily in the future, even if it's in small bits.
(I always find the start of these iPhone projects, up until the point where I have a proven display that incorporates all the info, the hardest. 320x480 is so, so tiny that it just boggles the mind trying to fit everything onto it. I understand why some developers are going iPad-only, though I think they're hugely shrinking their market by doing so.)
Should be sleeping, as I want to be in to Endgame by about 11am, but I was up programming too late. I'll have to go read for a bit to slow down the mind ...
Some of my next projects are going to involve Michael Schacht's games. I'm unreasonably thrilled that he's added me to his list of "game scene insights". I can't link to the exact page, but it's just one --> in, under "A". There's a pic of me with my Lucy cat.