I’ve had several conversations with people who I consider experts in the field of Art, Music, Games, and Code. Each have provided inspiration and direction to my project. I still don’t have a title, but I’ve got a very unique and extensive idea on what needs to be accomplished.

So I’ve put together 10,000 lines of code in implementing the various frameworks which I’ll need. Cocos2D, CocosDenshion, and Chipmunk. The code is amazingly clean, and very rewarding to work in. Outside of the separately compiled frameworks, I’ve gotten my Loading Screen, Main Menu, Settings Page, and GameLayer put together. I’ve got the Audio working correctly, and some slick transitions between each of the stages of the game. And I’ve got the logic put together for an alpha first level, including the detection to determine if a level has been completed. All in all, I have a workable prototype, and merely need to move forward in establishing the playability, graphics, sounds, and… well… yeah, the actual game.

Last weekend I watched my 6 and 4 year old play my game, and noticed that they wanted to interact in a specific way. I had thought it would be intuitive to play it a certain way, but my lowest common denominator user group taught me I needed to incorporate a different game play method. I plan on using this form of Child Labor in ensuring that my game appeals to as large a demographic as possible. After watching them play my game, I realized how important it will be to establish a good Beta Users Group.

I’m excited tonight, and finally getting to the purpose of this post: I just got a level loading subroutine written up. I had statically coded Level 1, but now have implemented an XML level loader. This will greatly facilitate things moving forward! I’ll probably end up writing a Level Editor into the game code, just so that I can use the device to build more and more levels. In addition to writing the level loader, I also have it so that when the level is complete, it maintains persistent game states. So Manipulating a level outside of playing the level would result in the creation of a new level.

I thought this process would take me years. I’ve started other extensive projects before, but I’ve quit them within a week when I hit an obstacle that I didn’t like. I think the difference with those projects, are that I wasn’t 100% committed, or convinced that they were GREAT ideas. So at the slightest indication that something else would be more effective use of my time, I switched projects. I’ve started just about every single possible type of App. I’ve done Bus Transit maps, Traffic Cameras, RSS Feed Readers, Camera, E-Mail, UIKit Games, Cocos2D Games, Entertainment, Utilities, and Productivity Apps. I’ve tried Free, Paid, Freemium, In-App purchase models… But I think I’ve finally got a project that I’m really excited about. And it’s much higher functioning than any of my other half finished products. This by far could be the best idea that I’ve had when it comes to making an App.

It’s not driven by the intent to make money, but the intent to make an excellent product. I’ve even debated registering a separate name with Apple, just because the quality of this App is so much higher than any others that I’ve done. I’m about 100 hours into development, and probably would have released the product by now, but I feel like I’m just getting started.

And I’m done rambling now. I realize that this process will require a lot of documentation, and I’ve got everything but a narative of the process documented. So this is the start of a new narrative. I’ll eventually need a name, Videos, Press Releases, Graphics, etc. And I think that my early ramblings will be fun to look back on where I thought I was heading after I’ve spent 2,000 hours on this project. Again, I’m done rambling.

Back to Coding.