Catching up on Darby.... CH. 11
I usually never comment too much on the writing style or format of a text- but Make Amazing Games in Minutes is giving me a little trouble because of the type of learner I am. I like to sit down with a page of directions, "if you want to do this, this is how you do it."
For The Games Factory 2 project, my game is based on the cartoon Family Guy. For the first level, Peter slides up and down the bar catching falling beer drops in the mug he's holding. So far, I have a rough image of Peter moving back and forth, and I've seemed to cease progress there.
I look at Make Amazing Games in Minutes and I become frustrated by the mere sights of paragraphs and Figure 1.whatever. I feel like I read everything and remember nothing. I need to go back and re-read to figure out how to do something.
Instead of plain screen shots, why not make it a diagram? The objects are referred to in the written instructions, but personally it would be easier to look at a diagram and instantly know what the instructions are referring to.
I'd rather just follow a list of directions, step-by-step. I know that's not the concept Darby was aiming for though. I just can't learn software by reading a book. I have to be shown, then do it myself repetitively enough to remember. Sometimes I wish we could contact Dr. Jerz like using the Geek Squad:
It's 1 am and I'm working on my game, Peter is bouncing and shooting beer drops instead of sliding and catching them! Oh no! What do I do?
Call Dr. Jerz. Haha.
I think the Games Factory needs a user helpline. =)
I just haven't quite clicked with it yet the way I did coding Interactive Fiction. I think that's partially to the hours on end Leslie and I spent initially coding it. Plus Inform and GF are two completely different types of sofware.
Is there a manual for the Games Factory, anybody know? Tomorrow's payday and that would be a great purchase and an excuse to get an overly expensive latte at Barnes and Noble.
Sorry about the multiple posts, the blog kept coming up with errors every time i posted. Not sure why.
Many thanks
Jason
Hiya
Thanks for the comments. Any comments about the book and its structure are always welcome as hopefully if the book goes to a second edition i would like to make any improvements that people mention often.
I would say though that the clickteam forums are a great place to get help and advice if you need it.
Also there is a basic PDF manual available from the latest version of the demo (I cant remember correctly if there is one with the demo on the book CD as the product was delayed quite abit from the actual release date).
The same PDF document is also provided printed with the full product.
Many thanks
Jason
Hiya
Thanks for the comments. Any comments about the book and its structure are always welcome as hopefully if the book goes to a second edition i would like to make any improvements that people mention often.
I would say though that the clickteam forums are a great place to get help and advice if you need it.
Also there is a basic PDF manual available from the latest version of the demo (I cant remember correctly if there is one with the demo on the book CD as the product was delayed quite abit from the actual release date).
The same PDF document is also provided printed with the full product.
Many thanks
Jason
Hiya
Thanks for the comments. Any comments about the book and its structure are always welcome as hopefully if the book goes to a second edition i would like to make any improvements that people mention often.
I would say though that the clickteam forums are a great place to get help and advice if you need it.
Also there is a basic PDF manual available from the latest version of the demo (I cant remember correctly if there is one with the demo on the book CD as the product was delayed quite abit from the actual release date).
The same PDF document is also provided printed with the full product.
Many thanks
Jason