if(adventure): Pre-Post-Mortem Part II
As fitting as it would be to promise a part 2 in the last post and then move on to something completely different, I was on a bit of a roll and wanted to keep it going. Last time we talked about some of the history of if(adventure). The short of it is: had idea for game, didn't make game, did game jam to make game, still didn't make game. Alright, now that we're back up to speed, let's continue this epic tale.
When we last left our hero, he had just completed the 'Code-Based' part of the Code-Based Adventure Game. He has 10ish hours to complete the 'adventure game' part and then he's done. Will he finish in time? Will he keep up with schtick for the rest of the post? The answer is no on both accounts.
Before we get into the whys and wonders of the situation, let's look at how far along the game was. I should probably put quotes around the word game, since there wasn't much of anything to play. At this point, there was just the code. I could create and nest different types of code (i.e. functions, statements, comments, blocks, loops). I could build up bits of code out of the pieces, it would be formatted appropriately, and the game could step through the code and execute each piece properly. Everything was prettied up with CSS animations for code being executed, conditionals coming up true or false, functions firing, and transitioning between different code bits. I even set up a dark and light color scheme based off Solarized. It was awesome.
I don't mean to toot my own horn too much, but I was very happy with the game so far. The issue was that the plan for gameplay left me a little underwhelmed. My intention was to create faithful Choose Your Own Adventure style gameplay. Each function would start with a comment setting the stage, followed by a variable for a decision, and then conditionals would lead to new function paths based off that decision. Everything was in place and I genuinely did have enough time to execute the plan. But the more I thought about it, the less I liked that sort of gameplay for this game. And it certainly didn't help that it would be a stretch to make it fit the theme of "One Room." Ultimately, however, the biggest issue I had was that the gameplay did not take advantage of what I had spent the last 60 or so hours creating.
I did have some amusing ideas that fit with the code theme, such as an encounter with a swarm of "bugs" and a choice between a dark, scary path and a bright, vibrant path which also set the color scheme for the code displayed. Beyond that, though, the gameplay simply didn't leverage any of the potential of a game based in code. So I spent the remainder of the jam trying to come up with a new gameplay system. And I came up with zip.
With that, we are now all caught up with the history of if(adventure) up to this point. It is a solid engine of sorts for a Code-Based Adventure Game. Yet, it's still short a few wheels and maybe some seats before this thing is ready to get on the road.
Next time, we'll talk about the future of if(adventure). As I mentioned last time, this project is not content to just sit on the shelf for the rest of time, and I'm not content to leave it there either.
P.S. If you're interested, feel free to take a peek at the source code.
When we last left our hero, he had just completed the 'Code-Based' part of the Code-Based Adventure Game. He has 10ish hours to complete the 'adventure game' part and then he's done. Will he finish in time? Will he keep up with schtick for the rest of the post? The answer is no on both accounts.
Before we get into the whys and wonders of the situation, let's look at how far along the game was. I should probably put quotes around the word game, since there wasn't much of anything to play. At this point, there was just the code. I could create and nest different types of code (i.e. functions, statements, comments, blocks, loops). I could build up bits of code out of the pieces, it would be formatted appropriately, and the game could step through the code and execute each piece properly. Everything was prettied up with CSS animations for code being executed, conditionals coming up true or false, functions firing, and transitioning between different code bits. I even set up a dark and light color scheme based off Solarized. It was awesome.
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| "Code-Based" |
I don't mean to toot my own horn too much, but I was very happy with the game so far. The issue was that the plan for gameplay left me a little underwhelmed. My intention was to create faithful Choose Your Own Adventure style gameplay. Each function would start with a comment setting the stage, followed by a variable for a decision, and then conditionals would lead to new function paths based off that decision. Everything was in place and I genuinely did have enough time to execute the plan. But the more I thought about it, the less I liked that sort of gameplay for this game. And it certainly didn't help that it would be a stretch to make it fit the theme of "One Room." Ultimately, however, the biggest issue I had was that the gameplay did not take advantage of what I had spent the last 60 or so hours creating.
I did have some amusing ideas that fit with the code theme, such as an encounter with a swarm of "bugs" and a choice between a dark, scary path and a bright, vibrant path which also set the color scheme for the code displayed. Beyond that, though, the gameplay simply didn't leverage any of the potential of a game based in code. So I spent the remainder of the jam trying to come up with a new gameplay system. And I came up with zip.
With that, we are now all caught up with the history of if(adventure) up to this point. It is a solid engine of sorts for a Code-Based Adventure Game. Yet, it's still short a few wheels and maybe some seats before this thing is ready to get on the road.
Next time, we'll talk about the future of if(adventure). As I mentioned last time, this project is not content to just sit on the shelf for the rest of time, and I'm not content to leave it there either.
P.S. If you're interested, feel free to take a peek at the source code.