Author Archives: donespe

Groundhog Day – How To Escape From Development Hell.

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I’ve talked about not repeating yourself before and just like a certain holiday, I’m going to repeat myself. In the movie GroundHog Day Bill Murray’s character is forced to repeat the same day over and over again. It isn’t until he begins to find a way to improve the day does he finally get to move on. As a viewer, we never know how many times he repeats this day, other than he was locked in this loop for weeks, if not years.

As a developer, it is important to not repeat the same unsuccessful ideas. If something isn’t working instead of just trying little changes with the hope that it will solve the problem, take the time to figure out why the problem is there is the first place. It might be something quick and easy to fix, but it might also be a fundamental problem that will require a more involved solution.

But, the important part is that each step should be bringing you closer to a solution. But, you won’t find that solution until you know what is causing the problem.

This also requires taking the time to know your code and the language that it is written in. Is the problem simply you misunderstanding something? Is the problem your solution being wrong? Is the problem simply a typo or a greater than that should have been a less than? If you understand the problem, then these solutions will likely become obvious. It also helps if your code is well designed and modular. That way you can test smaller parts of the program to see where the actual problem lies.

Yes, I did repeat advice from the past, but when you put the parts together they often lead to a quick solution to whatever problems you might be having.

You Don’t Have To Do It Yourself – A Great Art Resource For Games.

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Often, a developer comes up with an idea for a game, but lacks the art resources. Oddly, not everyone is an artist. But, that doesn’t have to stop you. For this post, I’ll show one resource that I found useful in my own apps.

The site is: Kenney.nl.

Just a few examples of the art available on the Kenney website.

There are also some sound effects and musical cues available on the page. Many of the assets are available for free, but there are several packs of assets that can be purchased for a relatively small fee. If you are have ideas for a project, but you are struggling to create the art for it, this is a good place to start. The art isn’t always perfect, but it is a good start and if your idea is solid then the art will work well enough to get your project out the door. I also know of some people that use the art to prototype their games so they can get things working while someone is creating the art they plan to use.

The best part about these assets – the license doesn’t require a charge or even credit for any usage – even commercial. For a small indie developer that alone makes it worth looking at.

Between Dates – Another App Spotlight.

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Since it’s the end of the month is a time that people tend to focus on dates, I thought I’d spotlight another app of mine: Between Dates.

Between Dates was written at a time that I was regularly calculating dates and the number of days between various dates on the calendar. The app has gained several features over the years, but it still retains its original functions in a way that doesn’t force the user to search through menus or screens.

The main part of the app is on the top. You set two dates using the picker wheel on the bottom and the app will calculate the number of days, weeks, months and years between those two dates. It will also tell you if the selected day is one of the holidays that are preprogrammed into the app and the day of the week that is represented.

The other handy features are the ability to add or subtract days from the selected date or two set both dates to the same date. These features were part of the original app and made my life a lot easier. At some point I needed to know how many days were between the dates and then I needed to add that many dates to the end date to figure out the next time I had to do a task. Using these buttons, you would set the date and copy it to both dates and then add the number of days you needed. That will give you your final date. You can easily continue to do this. It saved me a ton of time trying to count days on a calendar, or attempt to do the math manually.

There weren’t too many apps did what this had done at the time, and as far as I can tell there still aren’t many with all of the features this app contains. It is an app that I am proud of. It has a clean look, easy to use features and none of them get in the way of what the user is trying to do.

It also lets you save the dates you selected so you can recall them later. I used this occasionally to remember birthdays, or to calculate what anniversary it might be that year. You can easily find out how long you were working at a certain job, or working on a project. You can also calculate when you need to pick up medicine, custody agreements, or even just figure out what day of the week something happened.

There is something for everyone in the app.