Hey everyone! As I'm sure you've noticed, yesterday there was no Dev Diary. I assure you that I haven't been taken by Eldritch forces to be used in a ritual sacrifice. The truth is far darker...
This week is master's thesis submission week, which means that I am crazy busy! As all you know, Adesaw University is inspired by my graduate school in Tokyo, which I will sadly be leaving at the end of the summer. Needless to say, I didn't have time to write a dev diary, so things will be postponed until next week. But fear not! I'm still trying to get some idea development in during my free time. Next week we'll have a little more of an in-depth dev diary about the stats/classes involved in the next Adesaw game. BONUS: The name of the next game will also be revealed!
0 Comments
The weekend has arrived in Tokyo! Sorry to make all you in Western hemisphere jealous, but hopefully this will lessen the sting as you're getting ready for school/work this morning: patch 1.4d has officially released on the Google Play store!
1.4d will be the final patch in the 1.4 patch series. While patch 1.4d only makes some minor adjustments (more on that soon), the entire 1.4 patch brings huge improvements to Horror at Adesaw: Prologue. I'm pleased to say that with this release Prologue can be considered a (mostly) complete game, and probably won't be seeing many updates in the near future. The dev team (i.e. me) will now be looking forward to developing the next as-yet-unnamed game in the series. For those interested, read on to get a specific log on what changes were made in 1.4d. Hello everyone and welcome to another dev diary! This week is another very exciting posting, as we'll be unveiling the next series being developed at Doc Fishopolis Operations: NEON DARK
The New Series When I first started programming and had an idea to make an android game, there were two genres I was interested in working with. The first was a horror-based interactive fiction story, which is the genre that introduced me to the world of text-based games. I was engrossed by the narrative in Anchorhead, and loved the simplicity and convenience of Horror in the Darkness for android. This is ultimately the direction I went in, and Horror at Adesaw: Prologue was introduced. The other genre I decided to temporarily shelve was science fiction. I have always loved the futuristic grime found in the worlds of Blade Runner, Alien, or the Fallout series. I also had a deep interest in exploring the philosophic questions at the essence of sci-fi: the impact accelerating technological advances will have on humanity, the divide between machine and humanity, or the outcomes of a world wracked by massive social upheaval. I wanted to make a game that would explore these themes, but as a beginning designer it was too big a task. Now that I've got the experience under my belt, I'm ready to take the leap and two weeks ago began developing a new game based on these ideas. It will also be text-based, but I'll be experimenting with some new flair such as images and a soundtrack. It won't be an interactive world in the same way Prologue, but there will be a lot of similarities. It's still very much in the planning stage, so I won't say much beyond that. Hello all and welcome to another lovely dev diary! This week we've got some exciting new updates regarding the future games (yes, that's plural!) being developed by Doc F. But first, let's start with Prologue.
Prologue Patch and Finalization The 1.4 patch series for prologue is coming to an end. From what I've heard, the save game problem is now a terrible nightmare from the past, still haunting my dreams but causing no actual harm. There's still a few minor bug fixes/QoL improvements to be made, but Horror at Adesaw: Prologue is reaching the end of it's active development stage. It's been an incredible process, and I've learned so much about game development over the last two months it makes my head spin. I'll be taking these lessons in stride to make future work a smoother process both for me, and you. Speaking of the future... Work Begins on the Next Book Prologue was always meant to be a test run for the overall series -- a way to understand the stages of developing an app. In many ways, Prologue is the pilot program for the rest of the series. Hello world! And welcome to dev diary numero dos.
Today's agenda: What in the world is wrong with the save/load feature, and what have I been doing to fix it? I will hopefully answer all your burning questions, and also let you know about imminent re-release of Prologue. The Problem As a new programmer, I foolishly waited until the very final stages of development to implement the save/load feature. This is a big no-no and led to a problem where the game engine didn't know how to properly access a save file, in turn causing a whole host of problems. So, when a save file was loaded, the game was basically looking for data in the wrong place. The Solution A whole lot of coding fixes. The game engine has become a bit monstrous, as I've used the programmer equivalent of massive amounts of duct tape. With that said, I've been testing it myself A LOT (essentially trying my best to 'break' the game) and I can tentatively say there have been huge improvements to stability. The code is really ugly to look at, but it does the job properly now. For the next Adesaw game, it'll all get cleaned up to a more streamlined system. But that's all under the hood shop talk! The important thing to know is this: Prologue now knows how to access the save file. Tomorrow, I'll be releasing an internal beta to players who already have the game installed. I ask that if you update your game, please try it out! And more importantly, send me an email if you run into more problems! If the beta runs smoothly, I hope to put Horror at Adesaw: Prologue back on the Google Play store by the end of the weekend. |
About the DocDoc Fishopolis Operations is a one man Android dev team. Archives
September 2018
Categories
|