Starting Over

Nix that. Repellant is harder than Sever (if I put the AI on the back-burner; I have no idea how I would implement that). I mentioned in my last post that my programming skills are rusty, but that was a while ago. I'm back in the groove again.

I tried to create a physics engine for Repellant, but that proved to be beyond my current skillset. Sever, on the other hand, just needed some real fleshing out in order to work. Lately, I've been thinking hard about Sever and how I would make it work. I began to realize that it was very doable as long as I did it right.

Jonathan Blow says that an indie developer should avoid optimization, which is a total paradigm change for me. Optimization used to be my top priority, and my code would become really complicated and long just to save a couple cycles. I started over on Sever with this new paradigm, and the code is much simpler. Plus, I imagine that, given how simple Sever is, the inefficiency won't be noticeable. Honestly, the task is much less daunting when I can program this way. It feels much more organized and intuitive.

I'm making fast progress. Over my two-year hiatus, I came up with some good ideas for the game that I'm excited about. One of those is flow control. A segment can have a preferred density of people and people will come and go until that level is reached. Now, if people really need to go through that segment to get to the other side, they will. With only a few rules and a simple formula, it would work beautifully. I'm still not sure how the player would use this, but I think it would work well if automated. When a segment is being retracted, it will set its preferred density at zero, and all the people will try to escape. A building segment, on the other hand, will set its preferred density at one-hundred percent, which will draw people in, accelerating the building process.

This new feature will conserve people and speed up building, eliminating two of the game's original weaknesses. However, that's only one of many little details I'm adding to the game.

I'm trying to add variety while keeping it intuitive. I figure that features get complicated and confusing when they aren't intuitive. As long as they feel natural, fit the feel of the game, actually make a difference, and are fun, then by all means, use them.

Anyway, I'm back. Let's hope it sticks this time.

clevceo