PRJ566 Update - engine, life cycle, and revenue

To put it simply, game programming is ridiculously complex to jump into. I've been really lucky to bounce things off my brother as the PRJ class game progresses and to have him as our image designer. After I gathered some resources and sketched out a few things he was able to start work on one of the characters. It was just some initial imaging, but I was completely blow away with how quickly he put together a fairly decent model (he's creating the character as a 3D image and then using flash to take some shots and create a bunch of png's that we can integrate into a sprite sheet). The group also decided on AndEngine (can't remember if I mentioned it), it's a 2D game engine that utilizes OpenGL, it's very awesome... though I feel a bit like I strong armed the group into it. Ah well, they can kill me later if it's a mistake. :)

We have been running into problems in documentation life cycling though. The way the class is structured we're being veered into waterfall design (SDLC) which is fine, but when it comes to coding the whole group would prefer to do test driven coding (originally part of Extreme Programming Design, but recently has been gaining reputability on it's own, separate from Extreme). We'll be approaching both this semester and next semester's professors to check that this is a feasible feature before implementing it into our documentation. Seems like a good decision, yeah?

Oh, and other problem we can't seem to decide on is revenue. So far I'd like a free game, but it might be nice to gather some revenue from ads in order to pay for the server, and other unforeseen costs. My brother did warn me that he'll have to look into getting a professional license for 3DS max if we do end up making any revenue, but that's if you charge for the game, we're not so sure about advertising income... I suppose that's something else I should look into or maybe ask around, that's usually easier.

To be quite honest though, I've been incredibly nervous entrusting this game idea to other developers and designers, but thus far I'm so happy. Ivan's been doing a great job at the software architecture, even when I press him about why he's chosen the systems he has, Justin's really creative, even coming up with a ridiculous back story that was so perfect, and Natesh has been able to handle the responsibilities of project lead so well. We've had problems with people shouting and making rackets in the study rooms and he was able to handle the confrontation so well. I don't know if I could have kept my cool as well as he did in some of the situations we've had. Oh! and of course Jonathan (my brother) has even given some input on how to change the characters to make them a bit more cartoonish. I really wanted smooth lines, no sharp edges (much like the design of Lilo and Stitch) and a really soft look to the game, and he seems to completely get that. I can't wait to see how this game turns out, I'm so excited.

Setting up a very confusing pathway for Access Database

So, apparently when Microsoft split their programs between 64 and 86 bit, the ODBC Drivers took a hit. So instead of the traditional manner of going to Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Device Drivers (ODBC) > Add (in the User DSN tab). Instead go to C:\Windows\sysWOW64\odbcad32.exe > Add > Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb) > After putting in your own names for the Data Source Name and Description > Select; find your database on your local computer and go ahead and add that. Bit confusing, but luckily I found http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-excel/no-odbc-drivers-available-for-excel-or-access-in/001c234b-dfd5-4378-a325-c4f1482fb6fd online on my first Google search (thank goodness for Google! and Microsoft answers!).

Now I'm going back to configuring my system for "data basing with Java" class. Happy Valentine's day.

PRJ566 - Initial Thoughts

So in the past few months I've been designing a Game Design Document based on an idea I had while I was sick (I had a few others, but this was the most simplistic). Thankfully I had this as unfortunately none of the proposals seemed to suit our group and this idea became our group's project for PRJ566. Though I have absolutely no experience designing Java apps or games (yikes!) at least I have a good platform to move forward on. So after researching about on the Internets, I found this http://www.raywenderlich.com/12065/how-to-create-a-simple-android-game which I'm super excited about. 2D gaming doesn't have a lot of engines that are free of glitches (as no program is) or documentation to run these engines at least this game shows it's work in it's completion. I'm planning on presenting this documentation to my group and see their reactions to using it as a general framework for us to use off of.

The downside to this project is that the documentation development life cycle is still yet to be decided on. After speaking to a game designer, I've been told that waterfall (aka Standard Development Life Cycle) and Agile are the most common, and though SDLC is recommended for the course, I'm curious to see if my group would like to extend our knowledge by using the Agile development life cycle.

Also, as a side note we'll need to set up a common repository for our documents. The group seems to be thinking of GitHub (which I always think is GetHub, stupid ears), or tortoise. I haven't a lot of experience with GitHub, it sounds familiar but my brain blanks on it. Nope, just checked. Doesn't look familiar. Sounds good to me, also seems to support Eclipse. Nice. Though I wouldn't mind trying out MongoDB.