Top-down or bottom-up?

[Edit – deleting attempt at programming humor. Reason – failed at humor and programming.]

I like to think I am fairly decent at determining what will work, and what won’t.  By and large, I’m not creating for others; I create for myself.  I often need a way to exert some creative musculature or I risk my sanity.  Having said that, I do like to share with others if I think something is worthwhile.   As demonstrated above (my edit), sometimes I just need to prune something.

I have been working on a game idea inspired by a piece of fiction.  I have been trying to find a way to contact the author, but have been unsuccessful…  I don’t know how the author would feel about having fan-derivatives based on their work.  (I do plan on giving credit where it is due, of course.)   [ I mention Olga Turlovna here, on the possibility of the name coming up on a search engine and someone knowing how to reach her will get in contact with me.  (I will probably mention the name in a few more blog posts, just to skew some the odds more to my favor.) ]

In other news, I believe I have explained that I have trouble establishing “scope” and maintaining the discipline to make that happen.  (I mean to say that I have already established this in the past.)  With that in mind, I have begun an effort which should be scope-limited based upon how I am going about making it.  I am going to run through the overall arcs first, at their highest levels.  From there, I’ll build down and into the details.

Generally, most of my work is “bottom-up” — do the details, then build as the flow dictates.

Most people in the Real World tend to approach from “top-down” — start with the overall abstracts, and then address each in its own right (in tiers) downward until you have it functioning as intended.

I gain a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction from adding details and embellishing on something… by “fine-tuning” it.  If a thing isn’t already complete, however, I usually get bogged in the mire of feature-creep and design hell.  …which tears down the good feelings I get from my efforts.

That being said, I am doing two projects using the conventional method of top-down.  While it may not be as much “fun” for me, I hope to have something to show for it.  Something worthy of being shared and, hopefully, appreciated if I have my way.

[ Why am I changing my methods to share with others when I say I don’t create for others?  (Trying to head this one off before anyone else gets to it.)  Because I’m getting frustrated with incomplete games, especially from myself.  For some things, the fun is in the journey… but some times, you want to enjoy the destination a bit, too.  I’m at that point with a couple of my projects.  They’re fun to a point… and then they stop.  I don’t have the resources to demand other creators give more content… I can only push myself.  And, to be fair, in my history my best (completed) works were done through top-down methodologies.  So… yeah.  Go me.  ]

If it works for these two projects, then you can expect it for more of my projects.

Time will tell… do I have the discipline to maintain a “new” development paradigm?  …let’s find out.

—

Cameron

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