Xatta: April Update

[icbrkr]

Okay.. first off, I put down that I'd have this done in March of 2003. Well, here it is April so we know that it's not gonna happen.

 

I haven't really ran into any snags, I ran out of time, and got a bit discouraged. After getting my AI installed into the game, I realized it was just too easy. I made a bit of a fatal flaw on the game design when I made the board 5x6 squares - it would have been considerably harder at 6x6. In order to redo the board, I'd have to basically throw everything out and start over . Lastly, I'm not even sure if it would be *fun*. I'm wondering if other programmers have this issue?

 

I'll probably end up finishing this and releasing it as an image, and put my energy into writing another game. I've got 2 ideas for new games that should be better now that I know how to write for the 5200.

 

Brian

[+Cafeman]

I was wondering about this game since it had an expected March 2003 completion date. There isn't any kind of development page for this game, is there? Concerning your problems with its challenge being too easy, well I'm not sure what kind of game Xatta will be, but I can relate -- I scrapped & redid lots of stuff with Koffi:Yellow Kopter.

 

I guess you just need to play it as is, then ask yourself -- what would make it "better/more fun/more exciting" etc. Once you can deduce what that would be, go about coding it up. Would it be possible to have the 5X6 as an Easy mode, and the 6X6 as the hard mode? Let the player choose which? Because it might seem easy to you, but to a new player it might not.

[DEBRO]

Uhh...same as Cafeman

[MegaManFan]

I guess you just need to play it as is, then ask yourself -- what would make it "better/more fun/more exciting" etc. Once you can deduce what that would be, go about coding it up.  Would it be possible to have the 5X6 as an Easy mode, and the 6X6 as the hard mode? Let the player choose which?  Because it might seem easy to you, but to a new player it might not.

 

I like this idea too. You could always call the 5x6 board "training mode." I think it would be a big hit.

[icbrkr]

I was wondering about this game since it had an expected March 2003 completion date.  There isn't any kind of development page for this game, is there?   Concerning your problems with its challenge being too easy, well I'm not sure what kind of game Xatta will be, but I can relate -- I scrapped & redid lots of stuff with Koffi:Yellow Kopter.

 

I guess you just need to play it as is, then ask yourself -- what would make it "better/more fun/more exciting" etc. Once you can deduce what that would be, go about coding it up.  Would it be possible to have the 5X6 as an Easy mode, and the 6X6 as the hard mode? Let the player choose which?  Because it might seem easy to you, but to a new player it might not.

 

In order to do a 6x6, I would have to rewrite the entire game for two reasons: The game has a massively overlycomplex (it's what I could come up with at the time) way of checking to see if the move you made is valid. Adding in a new row would be insane.

 

The AI runs on a "4 Layer System" where it basically runs through a big flow chart that gives a priority rating to each space open and moves accordingly. Again, I'd rewrite the whole thing.

 

Then again, rewriting the whole game *might* be a good idea since I know more of what I'm doing now and I could add more features. I'll probably do this.

 

Thanks for letting me vent a bit

 

Brian

[icbrkr]

Start rewriting it with a 7x7 grid, the same as the arcade game. I'm thinking that it won't be as much trouble as I thought to rewrite it with the extra spaces. It will just be a bit time consuming...

 

And at the same time, I've figured out some ways to compact the code a bit better to add some new features

 

Let's hope I can get a playable demo of this someday.

 

Brian

[EricBall]

There's a quote which goes something like "the only person you must satisfy is yourself." If you aren't happy with it now, I can guarantee you won't be happy with it six months from now.

 

But there's no reason that you have to tackle the re-write now. Sometimes there's nothing worse than having to work with the code you thought was done. So take a break, work on something completely different.

 

You might find it easier to start fresh rather than try to adapt the existing code. It sounds like the change will be significant enough to warrant it. It also makes it easier to learn from your mistakes and where you had problems, than trying to buttress bad code.

[Sheddy]

I agree with Eric,

 

Frustrating though it is, a re-write is no bad thing - you often end up with something better. If it was easy, you wouldn't get any real satisfaction out of it either. It was 8 years before I picked my project up again with a complete re-write - no need to rush! I constantly re-write code if I think of a better way to do things (to the frustration of anyone actually wanting the game finished, I'm sure!)

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

Any news on this project?

 

Greetings,

Manuel