[WileE]

Ok, for those of you who may not know it, I am a student...among other things. One of my classes this semester is "Introduction to Game Design". A really neat class where we learn alot of the basics of designing and producing a game. Part of the class is to develop a game idea (which was cool cause I have one ), then to write the pitch document, or concept document. That was due for midterms, and I got a solid B on it, which I am happy with.

For our final, we have to complete a design document for the afore mentioned game. It is basically taking the concept document and really fleshing it out. I have been working on mine for about 3 weeks and I am just over half way though...

The bad news:


IT IS DUE TOMORROW BEFORE 11:59PM.


I am, in a word, boned. On the bright side, my instructor is going to review my design document and help me improve it, since I am really trying to develop it into a living game. Go me I suppose.


Anywho...for those of you at home thinking game development is easy....it is really not so much.

Thank you...come again.

[SpiritOne]

Well if it were an easy process we would all be game developers now wouldn't we Thats also why it takes the good companies years to produce the quality games. No way could I could program software, Im a hardware guy. Give me a broken circuit, I can find it and fix it. Give me a line of broken code, and in 10 minutes Ill look like a drunk monkey who just masturbated.

[WileE]

LOL It is funny. While I know alot about hardware, at it's user lever (ram, CPU, etc), and I know about circutry (I can ID resistors and whatnot), I have no idea how the hardware works together. I can, however, sit down with a programming problem and write something without even trying. It is like I just know how...it's wierd.

The thing I find humorous is that I have found out that while we were working on concepts, we were supposed to be working on this document at the same time. It would have made things easier.

[Eraser55]

Originally Posted by WileE

The thing I find humorous is that I have found out that while we were working on concepts, we were supposed to be working on this document at the same time. It would have made things easier.

doh...

[WileE]

I have never been one to take the easy path.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by SpiritOne

and in 10 minutes Ill look like a drunk monkey who just masturbated.

LMAO

[SpiritOne]

Originally Posted by WileE

While I know alot about hardware, at it's user lever (ram, CPU, etc), and I know about circutry (I can ID resistors and whatnot), I have no idea how the hardware works together.

and you see, I make my money at system level troubleshooting. I have always been very good with it. Of course, in Diagnostic Imaging, when the machine is broke thats the easy fix, the real hard part is when the machine is working but there is an artifact in the image still. It is more prevalent in MRI images than in CT images because the physics in MRI are a little more susceptible to outside interference.

I had to argue with a director for a month once that there was nothing wrong with his scanner, that the problem they were having was room related. But because the company I worked for didn't take care of the room, just the equipment in it, she wouldn't here it. That meant she would have pay more in addition to the service contract to fix what was wrong.
Finally got my boss to use his backbone (he did that rarely) and back me up and told the customer to call in a specialist to check out the room (they have special tools to check out Faraday cages) and if they didn't find anything we would pay for it. Guy was there for less than 10 minutes before the problem.

[WileE]

An update. it is now just after 10pm, and things are looking up. I admit that I have taken some half-assed shortcuts in parts (like cutting down the number of playable races ), but it is for a good cause. I will have to revisit the document to improve and build on it, but it has been a good exercise.

I am torn between posting if for general consumption or not. I would love to get feedback, but at the same time, it is a design document that is confidential to the project. In the end I guess I have to keep it just mine.

[WileE]

Ok, the design document has been submitted. 27 pages of information that took over 50 hours to put together. I am going to spend some more time on refining the ideas and to finish fleshing out the design. I figure to end up around 150 pages or so by the time all is said and done.

What the hell else do I have to do while I am unemployed??

[Eraser55]

you are no different then most MMO developers, releasing half finnished products and takin to many shortcuts:P

[Jump]

You cut out my favorite playable race? That's a deal breaker for me man! I'm out of here man.

[WileE]

Wow...you guys are harsh.

Don't worry Jump, I will add your race back in when I get everything finished up in the next patch.