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Serious Question for Experienced Developers

Started by Jon Taylor 6 replies 250+ views
Original Post
Jon Taylor
Jon Taylor
Hello, everyone. I''m representing a small but dedicated group of amateur developers. We have a tentative two year development schedule for our product, and serious coding may not even start until late January. Here''s the dilemma: I am serving as primary director, and I have absolutely no programming experience whatsoever. However, we''ve got a great coder working with us, and he is responsible for assembling his own crack team of hotshots. This is a two dimensional engine, and I have very specific ideas on how the play mechanics will function. Now, I want to present my ideas in an interactive form. I feel that these visual and playable aids will be absolutely necessary in order to prevent a lot of miscommunication further on in the development process. I''m creating very specific sequences: one might resemble the game Frogger, while another would simply present how the player character functions in a given environment. Our programmer acknowledges that these aids would be immensely helpful for him and his team, but worries that the time I spend learning one of these "languages" would ultimately go to waste. I believe there are three primary options: 1) Flash - popular, apparently easy to learn 2) BlitzBasic - has been recommended to me by a number of people 3) KamiSoft applications - ??? Now, which of these do you feel is most appropriate for someone of my experience? Learning curve and program capability is are major factors in my decision. -JoJo
mtaber
mtaber
While your programmer is worrying about you wasting your time learning them, remember this. If it proves useful to you for conveying your ideas, and it is ever useful in the future, then you didn''t waste your time.

I''m not experienced enough with any of those three to give you an informed comparison. Perhaps someone else could answer that.


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Sneftel
Sneftel
Before you even think about doing those, go for a more simple approach. Take a piece of paper and divide it into screen-shaped pieces. Sketch out a "comic-book-style" (okay, storyboard) description of what happens in the game. All menus should be portrayed; all weapons; all player actions. Copiously annotate them. Sit down with your lead programmer, and talk to him about them for hours. Refine them. Explain them. There''s very little that interactivity can portray that paper can''t, and very little that is not more precise on paper.



Don''t listen to me. I''ve had too much coffee.
Jon Taylor
Jon Taylor
Ah, I forgot to mention a MAJOR factor:

None of us are in direct contact with each other. The programmer lives in Mexico, while I live on the eastern seaboard of the United States.

-JoJo
Sneftel
Sneftel
Fax.

Phone. Chat.



Don''t listen to me. I''ve had too much coffee.
Jon Taylor
Jon Taylor
The entire team uses AIM exclusively, as it''s the easiest method of employing peer-to-peer communication. Phone bills would get excessively high, and vocal conversation doesn''t afford us the clarity of text-based chats.

Anyway, we communicate frequently, but there are only so many concepts you can put into words.

I''m dead set on employing one of these programs, bit I''m having trouble deciding. Even investigating each will take some time.

-JoJo
Sneftel
Sneftel
quote:
Original post by Jon Taylor
The entire team uses AIM exclusively, as it''s the easiest method of employing peer-to-peer communication. Phone bills would get excessively high, and vocal conversation doesn''t afford us the clarity of text-based chats.

Anyway, we communicate frequently, but there are only so many concepts you can put into words.

I''m dead set on employing one of these programs, bit I''m having trouble deciding. Even investigating each will take some time.

-JoJo


If you haven''t produced UML diagrams yet, you are making a very bad mistake.

Regardless, clinging fanatically to an idea is nothing new for managers. If you are indeed dead set on this, I would suggest Flash. It doesn''t take as long to learn as BlitzBasic, and you will be able to make something that looks good much more quickly.



Don''t listen to me. I''ve had too much coffee.
S1CA
S1CA
Or http://www.virtools.com

or Dark Basic or similar products


--
Simon O''Connor
Creative Asylum Ltd
www.creative-asylum.com
Simon O'Connor | Technical Director (Newcastle) Lockwood Publishing | LinkedIn | Personal site

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