{"id":654,"date":"2016-07-24T14:08:53","date_gmt":"2016-07-24T09:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stonemillkids.com\/?p=654"},"modified":"2016-09-01T21:16:37","modified_gmt":"2016-09-01T16:16:37","slug":"switching-games-not-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stonemillkids.com\/index.php\/2016\/07\/24\/switching-games-not-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"Switching Games, not Goals."},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past few months I have not been making a lot of forward progress on my game.\u00a0\u00a0I have, however, been doing a lot of thinking and a little bit of research.\u00a0 I still want to help my daughter, but there is actually more that goes into a game for toddlers than I thought.\u00a0 So, I have decided to switch gears.\u00a0\u00a0I am going to shelve\u00a0Bubbles and publish a different game first.<\/p>\n

Meet Jack<\/h2>\n

\"Jack_Web_NonTech2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He a lumberjack, or at least he wants to be.\u00a0 In the beginning he is going to just wonder the woods and look for items while avoiding static and dynamic objects.\u00a0 See the “requirements” page here<\/a>.\u00a0 Below is some of the concept art that I have worked on.<\/p>\n

\"SpriteMap\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"SpriteMap4x\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The above “Sprite Map” was done using Gimp (I just pasted some assets into\u00a0a\u00a0green background… I may use a real\u00a0sprite map later).\u00a0 I used the NES color palette as published on Wikipedia.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_video_game_console_palettes<\/span><\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

Creating a different game first will still allow me to build up the game architecture.\u00a0 For example,<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Title Screen<\/li>\n
  2. Settings Screen<\/li>\n
  3. Game Screen<\/li>\n
  4. Credits Screen<\/li>\n
  5. Publish to Android<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Once that is done, I can continue to add gameplay.\u00a0 Will he chop down the trees?\u00a0 Will he have to carry the logs? Will he be more than a 16×16 pixel sprite?\u00a0 I have a few ideas, but what I have learned thus far is make is as simple as possible before jumping too deep into the details.<\/p>\n

    Why?<\/h2>\n

    There are a number of reasons.\u00a0 On this project I have learned everything takes much more time than anticipated and there are always roadblocks.\u00a0 Learning on a basic app will allow me to know what I am getting into when it is time to publish an app via Kickstarter.<\/p>\n

      \n
    • I still want to do\u00a0the puzzle game that I\u00a0wanted to do originally, but the play testers\u00a0(now ages 3 and 4) still do not give me enough verbal feedback.\u00a0\u00a0By switching to a new theme, I can still practice most of the relevant skills, but I will be able to involve more vocal testers.<\/li>\n
    • The game’s framework can still be in\u00a0developed.\u00a0 Meaning, I could still use the\u00a0game screens (Title, play area, settings, etc.) across games.<\/li>\n
    • By switching to a secondary project, I can gain experience with\u00a0the administration side of publishing an app to\u00a0Google Play without messing up on an App that\u00a0I really care about.<\/li>\n
    • I need more practice with Pixel Art and building game assets.\u00a0 While I am getting better, I still do not have\u00a0enough\u00a0assets to complete an app.<\/li>\n
    • Doing a secondary project will also force me to restructure this webpage, and my code base, such that I can support more than one project.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      Please keep in mind, when most of us start a new game, we play the first few levels, realize we made a mistake, and start over.\u00a0 I feel that I have completed “level 1.”\u00a0 It is time to replay it from what I have learned so that future endeavors will be easier.<\/div>\n
      <\/div>\n
      <\/div>\n
      While it may seem that all I do very little coding and much more “other stuff,” keep in mind this blog has always been about the “other stuff” from the beginning.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Over the past few months I have not been making a lot of forward progress on my game.\u00a0\u00a0I have, however, been doing a lot of thinking and a little bit of research.\u00a0 I still want to help my daughter, but there is actually more that goes into a game for toddlers than I thought.\u00a0 So, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,10],"tags":[34],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stonemillkids.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stonemillkids.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stonemillkids.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stonemillkids.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stonemillkids.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.stonemillkids.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":810,"href":"http:\/\/www.stonemillkids.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654\/revisions\/810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stonemillkids.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stonemillkids.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stonemillkids.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stonemillkids.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}