Working on Game From Home, and From Work

Get a source control server, or set one up on your home machine (like SVN).

Does your boss care that you work on personal projects from work?

Yeah, I would definitely reccommend setting up a source control server. SVN is probably the way to go. Just open up your router and get registered at http://www.dyndns.org or some similar site - then your code is available no matter where you go, portable harddrive or not... Plus you reap the benifits of source control...

CVS or SVN are good. SVN is newer and easier to work with. You can get a web host for pretty cheap, put up a passworded SVN repo and keep in sync both from home and work.

Another possibility is a USB flash drive. These are a lot smaller than hard drives, and you can get pretty big ones for not too much. A low-tech solution is to use an upload service like rapidshare and compress/encrypt your data before you upload it.

I've been using a USB key (the iPod in my case) to hold all of my programming projects. I just plug it into any computer I'm at and away I go where I left off. You can compile from the IDE straight on your USB key, but it's sometimes slow writing so much on your key, so you can just copy to the C drive and copy back to the mobile device when you're done working on it.

As always, a CVS or SVN server would work perfectly. You shouldn't have any problems with OpenSVN and TortoiseSVN.

If you're alone on the project, I'd suggest perforce... it's more or less the industry standard source control, and free for one or two developers. Also rocks in that it includes a good UI and is quite simple to handle.

From Microsoft there is Visual Source Safe. We use it at work and it is working pretty well. Although is is quite old. If I'm not mistaken, MS has released a new version with VS2005, but you would need to get VS Team System which I think is not really cheap.
Otherwise you could have a look into SourceGear which have an application called Source Vault. I think it is free for a single-user usage and pretty easy to set up.

Of course SVN or CVS should work well too. And there you're sure that they are free and you can use them with as many users as you want.

I was just wondering: Is that a private project you're working on? If so you must have a cool boss to let you work on that :-)

I work on my projects pretty much the same way, a lil at work when i'm waitin on QA and a lil at home when i'm watching tv. If your computer at work and home support usb 2.0, get a usb 2.0 drive (they have a small laptop hard disk in a case about the size of a small wallet and about as thick as a pencil. I use one of those with a cd to boot into an OS stored on it for my development of personal projects (sometimes work ones when MSVS puts me in a bad mood).

Don't know how well this would work for you, but an idea to consider if the others don't appeal to your senses.

I also do the same thing. Except for the fact that I have a laptop which I carry around with me and use at work and home. I was actually thinking of setting up a cvs server or svn but I need to find a system to throw linux on. My boss has no clue that I work on my own projects besides the ones I'm supposed to be working on in delphi...but they don't pay me enough either so I find it only fair :).

not to be offtopic: but do you know how IPs work at your job? because i remember some documents i signed saying that if you worked on personal projects during work time or even at the job site itself that it became the automatic IP of your job.

so make sure you don't get screwed.

Quote:

Original post by Alpha_ProgDes not to be offtopic: but do you know how IPs work at your job? because i remember some documents i signed saying that if you worked on personal projects during work time or even at the job site itself that it became the automatic IP of your job. so make sure you don't get screwed.

Good advice. There are even some companies who claim IP right to everything you write whilst employed there, even if it's on your own time!

... But those companies are crap, and you shouldn't work for them.

A good source control is essential for the things that only a source control can provide, but for simply working in two locations, I've found Groove to be very helpful. It has a virtual file share support that keeps the files in sync among your computers. It also works over HTTP and goes through most firewalls so it's good for work situations. And you don't have to worry about mainatining dynamic IPs. It has the benefit of giving a collaborative environment, which is a big plus when you decided to work with others on your game project. www.groove.net

Quote:

Original post by Alpha_ProgDes not to be offtopic: but do you know how IPs work at your job? because i remember some documents i signed saying that if you worked on personal projects during work time or even at the job site itself that it became the automatic IP of your job. so make sure you don't get screwed.

I made sure I never signed any papers :) but yes I do know that and actually my boss had mentioned that when I started working there which was kind of funny haha. Telling me how companies sometimes do that and he doesn't, for what they are paying me if he did he could go screw himself and I would quit because I would never put up with that crap.