overwhelmed

only been using blitzmax for about 3 months. but boy is this stuff getting deeper. just when i think im thinking in code...

in my hobby, programming a top down 2d space combat game. Ive now reached the point where I want a "living" game world. Planets, ships flying around...

so far ive created everything to do with the control of the players ship.

combat
flight
flying around
etc

now need places to go things to see. ive been thinking about arrays of planets, and placing them in the game world at random. same for ships. and give them AI to control them. Basic AI is there already.

any ideas as I proceed? things to keep in mind? references to read to help me out?

im a little overwhelmed :)

I felt like I had months/years ahead of me with my first BlitzPlus game (a platformer) so I stopped and made som e simple games just so I could actually finish them and get more experience. I may go back to the platform game, except in BMax at some point.

i was hoping you'd say your framework makes things like this easier. :)

Hi.

Prior to make a game is need write one analisys. I recomend use UML and create minium static diagrams.
The developement is more easy with the analisys
Make you some utilities for maximizer the developement.

Bye,
Ramon

more like technical documents. i found coding damage handling ship repairs, power management so easy because i planned it.

using word pad i wrote pseudo code for both, problems i would encounter, checks and balances were put in place, error handling, almost everything you could think of. when came time to code, sure i had problems, but in 3 days i was finished with the features, and they were working great. and i followed my code model exact and it worked, didnt have to change the structure.

of course it does, LOADS easier but I was trying not to blatantly advertise as some people don't like it (the forum police...) ;-) The framework makes it easier for me to quickly make games focusing on the fun stuff now, not the boring technical stuff - like timing, windowed/full-screen, icons etc. If I want a menu or a new screen, no problem; if I want somes moving sprites and particle effects, no problem; if I want ... you get the idea. ooops, did I just advertise...

no i asked you. i kinda didnt want to bug you with, can it do this can it do that.

you didn't mention it helps create the game world :)