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Offline Raylin

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Professionalism in calculator games
« on: December 03, 2010, 06:49:54 pm »
How professional can one make a calculator game? Discuss.
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Offline Munchor

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Re: Professionalism in calculator games
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2010, 07:04:20 pm »
Quote from: Raylin on December 03, 2010, 06:49:54 pm
How professional can one make a calculator game? Discuss.

PDF Read Me's, teams instead of one person developping maybe
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Offline jnesselr

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Re: Professionalism in calculator games
« Reply #2 on: December 03, 2010, 07:05:53 pm »
I don't know if teams is more professional.  And sometimes, a good old .txt can be just as professional as a .txt document.

I would say good format and design. You need to design a game for use, not "oh, it works finally."
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Professionalism in calculator games
« Reply #3 on: December 03, 2010, 07:06:40 pm »
IMHO:

1) No default TI-OS menus, input routine and other type of GUI. Even more professional: custom fonts, but that's not that necessary.

2) Good spelling and grammar. If memory and screen sizes permits it, good punctuation too. That said, very few console RPGs got perfect grammar, because of translation mistakes.

3) No errors such as memory leaks and bug-freeness.

4) If going for a game with tilemaps, make sure your maps are not too simple. Example: avoid doing them like FFTOM1 dungeons where walls were only lines surrounding the screen.

5) Hide the run indicator if making an ASM, Axe or lib-enhanced game.

6) Make sure the install process is not a nightmare. Multiple files/large size is fine, but the best install process is having an archive and RAM folder and telling the player to send those files to the respective memory areas. Don't do the mistake I did with ROL series and avoid using hacked pic variables if possible, except for temporary storage.

7) An actual readme file. PDF makes it look more professional, but is not necessary.

That's all I can think of for now. Note that certain of those might not apply for TI-BASIC.
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Offline AngelFish

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Re: Professionalism in calculator games
« Reply #4 on: December 03, 2010, 07:46:40 pm »
1: A nice menu to greet the user, space permitting.

2: No TI-OS menu. Absolutely not for a released program.

3: A simple, easy to use GUI or UI. Having to read the readme just to figure out how to start the program isn't good.

4: A detailed readme. Not having a good readme automatically disqualifies a program as professional in my opinion.

5: No major bugs. When the program crashes every time it's run, I'm not happy about having to go into the code to fix it.

6: Having the program run out of the box. It's far too common for me to try to run a program, only to find out that the author was using data not contained in the program. All data necessary to run the program should be included in the download.

7: Making something that you'd actually use yourself. Too many badly written programs seem to come from people who don't write things they'd use themselves.

8: Having the program run out of the box. If you can't tell, this ticks me off more than anything else.

9: If you choose to include the source, comment it. It takes ten minutes.

10: Have something to distinguish your program and make it unique. Don't write a quadratic solver unless it's freakin' 3D.

EDIT: Making the most used keys comfortably accessible. One hand should control movement, one hand should control other stuff. For example, don't make your select button the vars key. Make it the 2nd key instead.
« Last Edit: December 03, 2010, 08:21:31 pm by Qwerty.55 »
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Offline squidgetx

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Re: Professionalism in calculator games
« Reply #5 on: December 03, 2010, 07:51:38 pm »
-Having all of your nice, non-TIOS menus, look and operate exactly the same. Same goes for custom input routines. When you prompt for input, do it the same way every time.

Quote from: Qwerty.55 on December 03, 2010, 07:46:40 pm
6: Having the program run out of the box. It's far too common for me to try to run a program, only to find out that the author was using data not contained in the program. All data necessary to run the program should be included in the download.

^This
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Offline Michael_Lee

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Re: Professionalism in calculator games
« Reply #6 on: December 03, 2010, 08:17:47 pm »
1] Having a readme that gives more info then just a generic "I hope you enjoy this program"!
2] Having a game that gives clear instructions to run, and even better, a game that works out of the box.
3] If using Axe or Assembly, having usable menus (no keys that need to be lightly tapped to prevent overshooting, for example).
4] It has to be thoroughly tested - if you haven't extensively beta-tested it, it's not ready for full release.
5] Having standardized menus or interfaces.  Keeping the keys consistent (The [CLEAR] button acts predictably, for instance)
6] Respecting calculator conventions.  In most programs you can rely on clear, del, or mode to allow you to exit, for example.
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Professionalism in calculator games
« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2010, 11:15:59 pm »
Quote from: Qwerty.55 on December 03, 2010, 07:46:40 pm
6: Having the program run out of the box. It's far too common for me to try to run a program, only to find out that the author was using data not contained in the program. All data necessary to run the program should be included in the download.
I really agree a lot with this. It annoys the shi- out of me to spend hours downloading a game or software, only to find out I have missing DLLs. It's also extremly annoying for those with no internet access at home, because they arrive with the game or software, install it then have to wait until next computer class to download the missing stuff, if he remembers what it was.

Sadly, sometimes it is not possible, for legal reasons, though.

I ran into this often with calc games, especially more recent BASIC games and sometimes with Axe, the pic is missing and I have to create it...
Quote from: Qwerty.55 on December 03, 2010, 07:46:40 pm
10: Have something to distinguish your program and make it unique. Don't write a quadratic solver unless it's freakin' 3D.
Don't do it in grayscale, though, because a quadratic solver in grayscale has already been done before. :P (If old Omni members remember that fake news on the old board)
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Offline AngelFish

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Re: Professionalism in calculator games
« Reply #8 on: December 03, 2010, 11:58:29 pm »
ROM images excluded, it's almost always possible to include everything necessary in the download or at least make it blindingly obvious in the readme.
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Professionalism in calculator games
« Reply #9 on: December 04, 2010, 12:28:17 am »
Often, what I notice is that the author forgets his game is dependent on certain variables and never test the game after deleting them all. As a result, the game won't work on anyone's calc.
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Offline AngelFish

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Re: Professionalism in calculator games
« Reply #10 on: December 04, 2010, 12:30:52 am »
It's understandable. What I do is just check everything in Wabbit while I'm taking the screenshot. Since the RAM is cleared every time you open it, it's a good platform for testing.
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Re: Professionalism in calculator games
« Reply #11 on: December 04, 2010, 12:32:29 am »
I just did it on-calc, personally. I backed up my save files first, in case, though.
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Offline ExtendeD

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Re: Professionalism in calculator games
« Reply #12 on: December 04, 2010, 07:03:09 am »
Here are a few additional tips I can share based on my own calculator and professional experience:

  • Build smart software. Smart software make extensive (but never read) documentation useless. Smart software make the user feel he has been using it forever even the first time. Smart software subtly suggests. Dumb software impose constraints.
    A screen that adapt what it shows based on previous use is smart. A preference setup that reset to the startup values after a crash is dumb (I'm sure you know one).

  • make sure of the quality of what you build. Test often and extensively. Track the features of the game, identify reproducable test steps, learn when to re-run them for regression testing. Look for automated testing and build custom tools to make it possible, the time invested will quickly be profitable to the quality of your work. Version control may also be of great help to track changes and understand regressions.

  • streamline your release process. This is a prerequisite to frequent releases (and thus users feedback). A release cycle includes building, testing, packaging and uploading. Simple custom scripts will often be enough, but you may also have a look to well-known tools that make the job easier such as Make, SCons, Rake or Gradle. If you can't automate the process, try at least to reduce it to a simple and systematic manual procedure.

  • promote your work. An excellent game will become excellent only when people know it and believe it. Share early screenshots and demos, build roadmaps, announce important releases where users will ear them. Know what makes your work unique and tell the world.
    And always let the users drive you. Track feature requests and discuss them extensively. Make bug fix your priority: make it clear what information you need for the diagnostic, and take the time to reproduce them on your side (users aren't stupid, they are just not developers). Never let workarounds become the way to go.

« Last Edit: December 04, 2010, 03:52:08 pm by Michael_Lee »
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Offline Munchor

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Re: Professionalism in calculator games
« Reply #13 on: December 04, 2010, 08:47:39 am »
Spoiler For ExtendeD Speech:
Quote from: ExtendeD on December 04, 2010, 07:03:09 am
Here are a few additional tips I can share based on my own calculator and professional experience:

  • Build smart software. Smart software make extensive (but never read) documentation useless. Smart software make the user feel he has been using it forever even the first time. Smart software subtly suggests. Dumb software impose constraints.
    A screen that adapt what it shows based on previous use is smart. A preference setup that reset to the startup values after a crash is dumb (I'm sure you know one).

  • make sure of the quality of what you build. Test often and extensively. Track the features of the game, identify reproducable test steps, learn when to re-run them for regression testing. Look for automated testing and build custom tools to make it possible, the time invested will quickly be profitable to the quality of your work. Version control may also be of great help to track changes and understand regressions.

  • streamline your release process. This is a prerequisite to frequent releases (and thus users feedback). A release cycle includes building, testing, packaging and uploading. Simple custom scripts will often be enough, but you may also have a look to well-known tools that make the job easier such as Make, SCons, Rake or Gradle. If you can't automate the process, try at least to reduce it to a simple and systematic manual procedure.

  • promote you work. An excellent game will become excellent only when people know it and believe it. Share early screenshots and demos, build roadmaps, announce important releases where users will ear them. Know what makes your work unique and tell the world.
    And always let the users drive you. Track feature requests and discuss them extensively. Make bug fix your priority: make it clear what information you need for the diagnostic, and take the time to reproduce them on your side (users aren't stupid, they are just not developers). Never let workarounds become the way to go.

* ScoutDavid totally agrees with ExtendeD and adds "Avoid being repetitively asking for coding help and sprites help in the forum, it is good for programmers like me, who are in learning phase, but if you want a professional game, think like Professional Programmers (Microsoft, Google, etc.), they don't run to forums and spam their doubts"

« Last Edit: December 04, 2010, 08:48:07 am by ScoutDavid »
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Offline Michael_Lee

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Re: Professionalism in calculator games
« Reply #14 on: December 04, 2010, 03:53:36 pm »
Question: in program descriptions, is it more professional to keep it short and simple, or lengthy with a full speech about how great it is?  What is the appropriate length and content material for such a description?
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