I'm pretty sure the topic is going to give away most of what I'll be talking about in this thread, but I'll say it anyway. I've decided to develop Portal for the Android. Now, seeing as Valve had a team of around 100 people working to develop portal, and I make a team of 1 person working to develop this, I won't be going all out. It'll be more like Portal: The Flash Version, only I intend to make the engine a better (that one's got quite a few bugs).

The thing is, because I don't have so many people to work with me, I'd like to get off to a good start with my data organization and not have to go back and redo my whole structure because I was stupid and didn't plan it out correctly the first time. That being said, I am terrible at data organization (or any organization, for that matter), so I'm looking for some advice.

My initial thought is that I'd use a tile-based level design and have each Tile object keep track of any static elements on that tile (Walls, doors, buttons, switches, anything else that doesn't require me to keep track of changing x and y locations). Then I would keep track of the dynamic elements (player, turrets, cubes, portals) separate from the grid.

Even if that sounds like a good way to go, I'm still unsure of the best way to execute that. Any suggestions, tips, things to watch out for, and/or completely different methods all-together would be GREATLY appreciated.

As I said before, data organization is one of my biggest weaknesses when it comes to programming, so thanks a billion in advance!

-Zippy Dee




Edit: Just a reminder that this is in Java, so it's all object-oriented. Just in case anyone wasn't previously aware.

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Edit #2:

In fact, let's start simple and talk about just the storing and keeping track of the walls first. Then we'll work our way up to objects.

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Edit again:
Thanks to Xeda, I may have figured something out. We'll see!

Plain was the same as  it ever was the same.
Plainly plain...
Samely same...
But then...someone lit the flame.
Plain rode away on lions mane.
Where plain met fruits with strangely names.
Such wonderful things they did contain.
A shot of life to a hungry vein.
The captive beast who broke the chain.
And there upon that fruited plane,
is where plain became what plain became.
So much more than more than plain.
Plain will never be the same.

I have to say I find this to be a great work of poetry. Discuss?

I was told a bit about Joomla, and I don't really understand most of the explanations I've found across the web as to what EXACTLY it does for you. What DOES it do? Is it worth it to pick up?

Has anyone seen these before? They're pretty awesome!

Pogo does some amazing stuff.

Here's one of his most well known pieces, "Upular":

I have not done a lot of web design (I prefer to do more dynamic forms of coding) but I'm proficient enough to make an entire website from scratch. I have been commissioned by my mom's bluegrass/old-time/celtic band to redesign their website (THEY NEED IT o.O) and I am running into a few issues, not with the coding of the web page, but with explaining some things to the less computer-literate members.

The band is all women over 45 (some quite a bit older) and they have a tendency to disagree on certain kinds of things. My problem is that some of them don't understand that the ACTUAL CONTENT on the page is just as important as the LAYOUT, if not MORE important.

What's the best way to get a client to understand that colors, alignment, backgrounds, text sizes, positioning, etc. can be easily changed, and that the FIRST thing they need to focus on is the content? They're all still stuck on arguing about colors...

ANY help is greatly appreciated!
-Zippy Dee

Here's my current design for the title screen for the game I'm making called Mummy. I loooooove input and/or criticism. Do your worst.

Also, feel free to make modifications yourself and repost

EDIT: attached the design with the simpler ZD logo, too

I was going to work on Lemmings, but I figured writing a full lemmings game with pixel-based collision and multiple animated sprites etc etc is a lot to keep track of, and I'm probably not ready for that yet. So instead I thought it would be nice to make a few simple grid-based games instead. I don't know how many of these have already been made for the calculator, but here's what I've thought of so far:

Mummy
You're inside an ancient tomb and you have to escape, but all the mummies have woken up! Each room has a maze of small walls, and contains one or more mummies who are chasing you in a heart-racing _*cough* turn-based fashion... For every step you take in any direction, each mummy takes two steps toward you! Luckily for you, these are mummies that are after you, so the Egyptians have already pulled their brains out through their noses, making them conveniently unable to recognize and maneuver around walls. Use this to your advantage to trap the mummies in corners while you make your crafty escape....into the next room!

Shot
A very simple game played on a grid with balls positioned on it. You can select any ball and roll it up, down, left, or right to make it knock another ball off the screen. Your goal is to end up with only one ball remaining on the grid. You must hit another ball in order for the roll to be a valid move, and you can't hit any ball that is touching your current ball.

Phit
You are given an array of arbitrary shapes that all fit together to form a rectangle inside a designated area. What's the catch? You only have so much space to work with, and when moving the pieces around they can't overlap, so you have to deal with that as well!



I'm thinking about making a bunch of simple grid-based games and packaging them all together. Any other suggestions for it?

-Zippy Dee