This is the end, the end, the end of our story....

It's kind of weird to write a postmortem on something that isn't done yet but here goes:

What Went Right?

I feel that the entire game, up to the point in which the game is now, has gone very well. That’s not to say there weren’t any snags along the way. What did go well was the dynamic road that I had to create. Extensive searching on the internet led me to believe that a game like this hasn’t been done in flash. There were numerous 3d flash games but nothing 2 dimensional with a view directly behind the player. The small size of the game would make it great for porting to a handheld device or phone and its simplicity fits the game into the casual game category which it was originally designed for.

The coding of the game also lends itself to be used in other games. I found a math algorithm that helps an object track towards another object and smoothes out its movement to be very fluid or natural depending on how far away the two objects were. I will be incorporating this code into one of my other flash games I’ve been working on.

What Went Wrong?

What went wrong? A few things. I really wanted to have a pixilated look to the game similar to F1 Pole Position. The main problem with this was keeping track of all the assets scrolling down the screen while maintaining a road look. I have an idea of how it would work but in order to incorporate it with the rest of the game I felt like it would take me too long to meet the deadline.
Also I was unable to create a system that would scroll objects down the side of the screen while keeping them next to the road during a turn. I’m sure there is a way but I was unable to figure it out. I tried creating a path that moved with the road. I was able to create the path and add items to it but once I tried to send the object down the path it would break free and move straight down the screen.

What I Learned?

Besides coding and other reusable game assets, this game has given me a whole new way to look at making games. Not in how to design them but actually putting them together. In most games like platformers or shooters I simply put assets together and forced them to work. In a game that is constantly moving and updating and everything is dependent on everything else on the screen no matter what state that object is in it becomes very tricky to keep things in check. Building this game has helped me to think outside the box I was trapped inside of up until this point. Building and using classes and passing variables between functions so that I’m not relying on global public variables (which just work so well…..) really helps to keep things simple and easy to follow should a problem arise within the code.

Well, bye kids!