Refactor or Rewrite
October 31st, 2008
I posted my blog information on the indiegamer forums a couple of days ago, so welcome to everyone who is joining us from over there.
I’ve spent the last couple of days trying to determine what code from the prototype is good enough to carry over into the final product. While a large chunk of the prototype code is messy and ugly, there is some stuff that’s worth saving. Originally I thought I could refactor it without rewriting it all, but that’s turned into a real mess.
The main problem stems from the fact that I’m starting with my iPhone prototype code. All the code in there that handles the user interface stuff is fine and I wanted to avoid rewriting that stuff. So I started with that XCode project and decided to move forward with that. The problem is that I never brought over all the improvements I had made to my Mac prototype. So I’ve got two sets of code that diverged about a month ago and I’m trying to take the best bits and pieces from each and rewrite the stuff that sucks. It’s a mess.
In retrospect, it might have been a better idea to try to bring my iPhone prototype in line with the Mac prototype before I started to refactor and rewrite things. I think it would have made the processes easier. Oh well, live and learn. Next time I’ll know what to do…
Unrelated to code, I’ve started my search for a 2D artist. I think this may end up being the most challenging part of the project. I have a vision in my mind of what I want the game to look and feel like, but I need to find an artist who can execute that vision, but within my indie budget. This could be difficult. If anyone knows a good 2D artist who is willing to work for a reasonable rate (I’m not looking to rip anyone off) please have them contact me: owen[DOT]goss[AT]streamingcolour[DOT]com
Owen
I’m confused. You have multiple prototypes on different platforms? I thought the point of a prototype would be to test gameplay?
Hey Bemmu:
Yes, the primary point of the prototype was to develop the gameplay and test out my ideas. However, about mid-way through the process I started wondering if I could do an iPhone version of the game. At the time I was pretty happy with the prototype and I wanted to see how long it would take to port it to the iPhone SDK. It took me a few days and I had it running on iPhone.
That was more of a technical prototype, just to see how difficult it would be to get something running. I also needed to see if the gameplay would work with a touch interface and on a smaller screen. It proved to me that I could do an iPhone version of the final game, and it actually changed my direction for the project. After porting the prototype to the iPhone I decided to release one of my four planned game modes as an iPhone game first, then follow that with my Windows/Mac version. My hope is that I can sell a few versions of the iPhone game to help support the development of the Windows/Mac version. We’ll see if it works out that way.
Owen
IMO it would be better to concentrate on the iPhone. Must be so much easier to get conversions when one can buy a game with the tap of a finger without a difficult payment process. I’ve been learning Cocoa Touch too, recently. Not that hard to get started, especially compared to the evil Symbian!
What art style are you looking for? I had an artist do a concept piece for me and she was pretty reasonable (http://www.karenpetrasko.com/).
I think for the project, I was looking at 3000-6000 USD.