Mach-Arena Introduction

     In case you're wondering if my college project Mach-Arena is dead, it's not. We just aren't starting class projects until next semester after we finish our Unity lessons. This semester is about building all the components of a Game Design Document (GDD) and putting them together. You can see the Concept Document here.

     So far 4 papers have been written for this game and submitted for a grade. My personal hopes are to finish it in time to be able to show it off at the upcoming BYOC at my college in May. Today I'm going to start posting the documents my group has made so far. 

    Check out the Introduction page for Mach-Arena below the break.

A College Student's Game Development Process

     My way of doing things is certainly evolving over time. I often try to find new ways to do things more efficiently and it's starting to pay off. I was able to make Candy Shop Catch in 5 weeks as opposed to my other mobile games which took multiple months each.

    I think of it as another aspect of game development I'm practicing: production. I'm improving my art, programming, and design skills, so my production skills should be no different. Check out how I get things done by tapping that "More" button below!

A 10th Grader's Game Development Process

     I find myself getting more efficient with this whole game making thing over time. Back in 10th grade I had no idea what I was doing, but was happy to finally have a general direction to run in. I found out games were made through programming, took a few Java classes, and went to Google for the rest.

     I figured out lots of things on my own, like object oriented structures and game specific things like animations, health bars, menu flow, music playback, and collision detection. What never crossed my mind back then was listening to how others created games. If I did, I'd know about certain things that just don't work and could have side-stepped a lot of problems. Also, my code would be legible.

Take a peek into the mind of a 10th grade developer in training after the break.

First XCode Experience

     When toying around with Xcode for the first time, I finally got to see what something I produced would look like on an actual gaming device. I made a simple app with a button that changed an image and text on screen, linked to a charity website, and was based on my favorite show. It felt great making it and I learned a lot about iPhone game development.

     There was something simply magical about seeing something I made working on the device I wanted to develop for. It was exciting. I showed everyone. And I fantasized about just how much magic I could fit into the little box in my hands. Just seeing my app icon among the others I was so familiar with, it's just something that's too surreal to explain.