Progress updates on the development of my games.
Yet another awesome Kindle book, Robert’s Rules of Writing, has given me this:
RULE 16. Write What You Read.
Basically, look at your bookshelf and your bedside table. This is the type of stuff you know best, love best, and can write best.
If you look at my game library, the only puzzle platformers you’ll find are Braid and Limbo. No wonder Escape Goat is taking way longer than I expected to finsh.
Today I finally got my act together with version control. This is something I had put off for way too long, and with my venture into PC ports, I think it was finally time to learn what branching and tagging are.
In a nutshell, branches and tags are like copies of the project that don’t take up extra space like they would in a normal file system. They’re useful for storing release versions and for testing new features. They’re like the save games of the world of coding–you want to create a new one before a boss fight.
For those of you who don’t use version control, get Subversion and learn the best practices. Need a host? Code Spaces has done me well.
With that handled, I got to put in a bit more time on porting Soulcaster II to PC. I uninstalled Visual Studio and XNA Game Studio on one of my desktop computers so it could act as a testbed for end user machines. Still have to work out some bugs but things are set up well for it now.
Take this guy’s advice and do proper stretching. There must be something seriously wrong with my new home office setup because I had to take a full day off work due to paralyzing upper back pain. I think my monitor is too low to the desk which makes me lean forward a bit too much. (Actually the real reason is that I didn’t take enough breaks working at the computer.) When I get back after this weekend, I’m going to be doing some ergonomics measurements around here.