Taz Diary

Well here I am again, over the last few months I’ve re-evaluated the way I’m coding games. To this end I looked at what I was doing during my development steps.

I realised that I was actually spending a lot of time writing engine code, I eventually had the thought, ‘Am I re-inventing the wheel’. so to this end I decided to look on the internet to see if there were any libraries for Java based 2D Games already out there.

I came across a few, but have plumpt to look into a library called ‘Slick’, which can be found here (http://slick.cokeandcode.com/). This library seems to have most of the things I need for now and is being developed still. So isn’t one of the many 2D game libraries for Java, that are still listed, but which seem to be slightly old/dead.

To this end I have gone back and ported all my current Space Invaders Clone code to use this library. So far things are moving a bit quicker than before, although finding the time to code and staying focused is still proving difficult….

I aim to get my Invaders clone finished this year at least and added to my website, whether I acheive this is another matter, but it’s time I focused more.

bye for now,

Taz

Well, here we are again another month and nothing to show for it, I was coding a lot during the last 2 months at work and by the time I got home I just wanted to relax.

This however means that the games coding progress has suffered. I really must re-think the time I spend on it as it is still something I want to do, even if it only means I release simple games which are free, at least I will have some feeling of acheivement !!!

I’ve also started to look at the NetBeans IDE to see if it is any better than Eclipse, I don’t think this will take too long as I only ever used the basics of Eclipse. It seems though that NetBeans has more functionality up front without having to install plug-ins and spendnig the time to find them in the first place.

Anyway, I must go and rethink my development plans, otherwise it will be another year without any progress, as it’s May already, where does the time go !?

Until next time, Taz.

OK, so I haven’t really done much over the last few months, this is going to be harder than I first thought.

I should have known really as I have read various articles on being a casual or indie games developer… most of them had a common slant and that was along the lines of ‘It is not easy, so think hard before jumping into it too fast’.

Anyway, I have started on my next game which is a Space Invaders clone, this one is going to be purely written in Java. Why Java? Well it is my preferred language because I use it in my ‘real’ job writing application code for the corporation I work for, so I am more comfortable using it.

I did try looking at other technologies, like TGB, DBPro and various SDK’s, but to get the most from them it relied on learning new languages and/or technologies. I feel at this point, that I have put a lot of effort into Java, so I will be sticking with it for the medium term.

Also because Java is more portable I feel it is the best language for the areas I want to create for, using it means I can code for multiple platforms without having to change the game code.

The only thing I need to do to acheive something is to be more focused on getting games out the door, I know I can do it, as I’ve just proven to myself that I have a strong will power by not eating a single ounce of chocolate for a whole month……

… hopefully the next time I post will be to let you know that I’ve added my Space Invaders clone, name to be decided, to my website.

until then, keep having fun.

Taz

Hello and Welcome,

Well this here is my first blog and hopefully not the last.

The aim here is to post on my thoughts and progress in becoming firstly an hobbyist games developer. Hopefully in the future moving across to indie developer and making a small amount of pocket change from this hobby.

The hardest thing I have found so far is trying to fit in time to actually pursue this hobby. Work gets in the way, social activities get in the way, TV gets in the way (it shouldn’t, but I’m weak) and playing games, rather than developing them gets in the way…..

…. simply, life has too many distractions, so the plan is that from 1st of January I will make a new resolution to actually work on and complete some games.

The first thing to note is that I started the process two years ago by working in C++, got distracted by Java (mobile content), managing to produce some content for the main web site, and now I am looking at the Torque Game Builder.

Hopefully working with TGB will allow me to produce games at a quicker pace, but we shall see. My first product using TGB will be a Pacman clone which I have started.

So keep your eyes peeled and hopefully I will publish more news soon, as well as some thoughts on the process as I go along.

Bye for now,

Taz