Project Management

It’s getting around that time when I’m spending more time working on the game as I realize how many little things need to be fixed, added, tweaked. I’ve recently given up most of my weekends now in an effort to get more hours in. I’m currently working 6 out of the 7 days a week on the game in some way. It’s mostly game programming, sometimes graphics, web development, emailing, phone calls, or getting business forms and other legal stuff squared away....

Tangible goals are key to any project. Without them I feel like I’m peddling up a steep hill just so I can peddle up some more. Scheduling and time logs showing time spent are great for statistical and historical purposes, but in the scheme of things can do little to save a project if you and your team lack that motivation needed to push the last mile. Countless indie games die from loss of interest....

I’m currently working on an editor for the next iteration of Gunstyle on the weekends. I find it’s a nice break from iPhone development and lets me start the week with renewed energy to work on Tilt To Live again. I’m using wxMax to develop the UI for the actual editor. It’s not much at the moment but it’s coming together slowly. The editor code architecture is taking a page from the Unreal engine mentality of having your engine and editor be pretty much one in the same....

Some days it takes a herculean effort to force myself to sit down and work on my game. Some weeks it can be destructive to my entire schedule, while others its a complete non-issue. Overtime I’ve found prioritizing my tasks wasn’t enough to really Get Things Done. I needed a way to organize my daily tasks in such a way that would maximize my motivation to actually work that day, particularly after coming home from my day job....

I’ve been using Subversion even as a single developer for several years now. It’s invaluable to me and millions of other developers. If you’re a developer working on any project that lasts more than a couple hours and you aren’t using version control then you are shooting yourself in the foot. As a developer, we’re comfortable with juggling several things in our heads at the same time, it’s a fundamental skill we use everyday when developing software....