Another week, more work

It’s frustrating that I’m putting so much into this and I don’t have much to show for it, yet.

The flipside is that it’s an “investment”, of sorts.  I’m banking time and energy on the expectation that there will be a big payoff down the line.  Like many investments, it may not pan out as I expect (and hope)… but I am an optimist.  🙂

This weekend (between playing Assassin’s Creed III), I spent some time looking at stats/attributes I wanted to keep and those I figured I could actually use.  I have so many nice ideas and details, but I don’t want to become bogged-down by those same details.

There are plenty of games which are fun, yet simple.  So why do I relish the notion of tracking so many details?

One thing I learned about making programs, was that each feature (especially the ones that seem really small and simple) can be among the hardest and most investive* on the part of the programmer.  (Example, from years back — Putting a mouse cursor on the screen can be a challenge, but adding a shadow-effect to make the cursor look like it’s floating above the screen doubled the size of the code — for a single feature, which most people didn’t use because (at the time) it slowed the computer!)

My goal for this game is to have it be simple on the player, yet detailed.  More detail means potentially having a more unique and engaging story and playing-experience, which happen to be things I like.  As I’m re-discovering, more detail means a lot more work on the part of the programmer.  What can I skip for now, but leave room to add later? It is tempting to  drop a lot of detail to begin with, and then add it in later.

I foresee another poll!

*– Huh? Investive isn’t a word?  Bah.  I learn something new, every day.  …or maybe I just like making up new words.  Maybe I should start another blog: “Words I use, but aren’t in my spellcheck dictionary.” WHAT?! “Spellcheck” fails my spellcheck, too?  Wow.  I guess there are some days when you double-up on that learning thing.  🙂