I don’t think I follow a typical development process. In fact, I’m sure I don’t.
Chefs call what I do “making the recipe in the kitchen.” Musicians call it “writing the song in the studio.”
You can split game development up into departments in a bunch of different ways–it varies heavily based on what kind of game you’re making–but where I start is by thinking about logic vs. art.
The logic side of things are the gameplay systems, the inputs, the outputs, the math, the code. Basically how the game works.
The art side of things are all the visuals. Sprites, layouts, maps, menus, animations, etc. These are the pretty things that sit on top of the logic. The UI. The “look and feel.”
In a perfect world, I’d get the logic side of things out of the way first. The gameplay dynamics can all be made before I even turn on a computer. All I have to do is meticulously plan them out.
Preparation is the name of the game.
You have to know all of those elements, though, to make them beforehand. I certainly don’t. Not for Beta.
This is not a meticulously planned sort of operation.
I have a good idea of where I want it to go, but there are certainly things that I don’t know yet.
I got up this morning with a bunch of ideas for more mobs and trivia questions they can ask, ready to start putting them into the game, but as soon as I sat down at my computer, I thought, “There should really be lootable items just sitting around the map. Treasure chests and stuff for people to find.”
It’s obvious, but I think it’ll be fun, and it will make the whole island feel more interactive. More alive.
I think.
It could wind up being an annoying Where’s Waldo activity that nobody actually bothers to do.
Anywho.
One can but test these things.
The coolest part of AI-assisted coding is the turnaround time. After finding some free and temporary images to use as sprites for the lootable objects (chests and boxes and bags), I was able to get the “logic” of the whole idea implemented in about 30 minutes.
It would have taken all morning even a few years ago.
Wacky.
(By the way, I also literally “make the recipe in the kitchen” and “write the song in the studio” all the time and enjoy doing so. I don’t see anything wrong with being spontaneous. It’s just that it doesn’t, or didn’t, lend itself to CODING in particular.)