 |
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
Add Forum to Favorites | Send Topic To a Friend | View Forum FAQ | Track this topic |
Last Thread Next Thread |
| Removing The 'Tech' From 'Design Document' |
|
 |
Skeleton Member since: 1/8/2002 From: Lithuania |
|||
 Posted - 2/20/2002 4:20:05 AM |
||||
| >>Funny, there are only a few MMORPG's in working order. I wonder what happened to that 300 page design document Zeophytie posted last year… Can someone post link to that design document ? |
||||
|
||||
 |
Gaiiden GDNet Content Lead Member since: 8/30/2000 From: Lincroft, NJ, United States |
|||
 Posted - 2/20/2002 1:55:28 PM |
||||
Hey nice job Mike. I'm sure a lot of people could benefit from a clear-cut to-the-point article on what a tech doc is. I remember waaay back when I tried making my first game, a Breakout clone, and I had all the classes like finished and sat there staring at the screen and trying to figure out how they all fit together  It was quite a moment of awakening for me, I'll tell you. That also got me into the habit of creating what I call Build Orders. This is the order I buid and implement the various modules and their functions. The purpose of Build Orders is to outline a construction plan of little itty-bitty steps so that when I compile (or build it) I get very few errors, wheras if I code half the program and build it, I'll prob wind up with 50+ errors and no clue where to start looking! This happened to me with my Breakout clone as well So each Build is a point at which I can compile the game, and it works at a certain level of functionality with no errors. Then I add the next build on top, and so on. Wish I didn't have to learn the hard way  By the way, are we like, lost cousins or something??  _________________________________________________________________ Drew Sikora A.K.A. Gaiiden ICQ #: 70449988 AOLIM: DarkPylat Blade Edge Software Staff Member, GDNet Public Relations, Game Institute 3-time Contributing author, Game Design Methods , Charles River Media (coming April/May 2002) Online column - Design Corner at Pixelate NJ IGDA Chapter - NJ developers unite!! [Chapter Home | Chapter Forum] |
||||
|
||||
|
Guardian_Light Member since: 7/22/2000 From: Ontario, Canada |
|||
 Posted - 2/20/2002 2:53:12 PM |
||||
| "Can someone post link to that design document ? " There is no document, it was a joke =) Gaiiden: I've got my family history traced about 200 years. I don't see your name... but maybe ah, maybe 10th degree cousins ;-) If all that matters is what you get in the end, why go through life? ~Michael Sikora Edited by - guardian_light on February 20, 2002 2:55:42 PM Edited by - guardian_light on February 20, 2002 5:06:21 PM |
||||
|
||||
|
Gaiiden GDNet Content Lead Member since: 8/30/2000 From: Lincroft, NJ, United States |
|||
|
Posted - 2/20/2002 8:41:26 PM |
||||
| Whatever - it's still freaky |
||||
|
||||
|
Guardian_Light Member since: 7/22/2000 From: Ontario, Canada |
|||
|
Posted - 2/20/2002 8:50:53 PM |
||||
| I lived in 5 different cities, and I've never opened a phone book and found other Sikora's. It is quite freaky. Well at least you aren't my twin or something... That would be freaky... If all that matters is what you get in the end, why go through life? ~Michael Sikora |
||||
|
||||
|
Anonymous Poster |
|||
 Posted - 2/20/2002 8:56:11 PM |
||||
| oh, so you guys ARENT brothers...i was just gonna ask when i read post above... Anywayz, nice job on the article, it was pretty cool. |
||||
|
||||
|
Darkor Member since: 6/1/2000 From: Singapore, Singapore |
|||
|
Posted - 2/20/2002 9:13:02 PM |
||||
| This is a much needed article. However you might want to consider having multiple tech docs. I create one for every module I work on. I usually work out a lot of stuff before coding (eliminates bugs and last-minute changes) and thus the docs can get quite large for a single module. If you were to put them altogether, it would be pretty convulated. Also, when I'm coding, I just open up the tech doc relating to the module. The most important is how classes react with each other and what responsibilties they have. |
||||
|
||||
|
deepdene Member since: 3/12/2001 From: Australia |
|||
 Posted - 2/20/2002 9:42:27 PM |
||||
| Good article, I recently decided to go out and start designing a graphical version of a text based space simulation software I once wrote (for a plugin to a MUD). First thing I sat down and did was to sit down and write some sort of documentation. I wrote more of a technical document rather then a design document. One thing I found them really useful for, is I have a consideration section for the game, and in their I just put down a whole heap of thoughts on where problems might arise of a technical order, and how you might solve them. Obviously, this document would probably "evole" as the programming progressed, but in the early stages of development it actually helped me formulate new solutions and ideas. Class interaction will come at a later stage I suspect, since I'm just now working on the class structures. Anyone ever consider a article on class design btw? - Deepdene |
||||
|
||||
|
Anonymous Poster |
|||
 Posted - 2/21/2002 4:39:22 AM |
||||
| Interesting... Where do these "game programmers" come from? The first thing you learn at university is to write detailed technical documents about any piece of code written. As a matter of fact object oriented design is more about writing documents, drawing OMT or UML diagrams, state machines, planning everything (using oo design patterns , than doing the actual coding stuff. |
||||
|
||||
|
Guardian_Light Member since: 7/22/2000 From: Ontario, Canada |
|||
|
Posted - 2/21/2002 10:17:51 AM |
||||
| Although a bit dated, in Code Complete (Steve McConnell) lists 100 000 new programmers enter the field each year, while 40 000 computer science degree's are awarded. (Preface xii, study by NCES 1991) That means that effectively 60% of all professional programmers have never had formal experience with software engineering (upon entering the profession). Next, that statistic does not include the masse of hobby programmers. Other than that, in the course of 3 days, I was asked to join two projects, neither of which had (effective) technical documentation. For me, the article was a given. ( I don't have any formal education experience, but I do have commercial experience. See the problem with this? :-) If all that matters is what you get in the end, why go through life? ~Michael Sikora Edited by - guardian_light on February 21, 2002 10:38:25 AM |
||||
|
||||
|
Anonymous Poster |
|||
Posted - 2/21/2002 11:03:12 AM |
||||
quote: I'm a second year senior in C.S. and the closest I've come in my courses to technical documents was a single junior level course on Software Engineering the focused mainly on class diagrams (UML). Though it did have a small section on technical documentation it wasn't much and my school (Colorado State University,) isn't considered a bad school by any means. A senior level OO course was optional. |
||||
|
||||
|
Darkor Member since: 6/1/2000 From: Singapore, Singapore |
|||
|
Posted - 2/25/2002 3:58:42 AM |
||||
| I think that tech docs come naturally to me. I'm not boasting or anything. It's just that I never start anything without them. I want to know what I'm doing while coding and tech docs allow for that. Anyone who codes without docs will probably run into problems later on. They can solve them but that might warrant changes in the earlier code. For me, coding is a one-way road usually. If I happen to screw up a module, I'll rewrite it. Edited by - Darkor on February 25, 2002 4:00:32 AM |
||||
|
||||
|
Guardian_Light Member since: 7/22/2000 From: Ontario, Canada |
|||
|
Posted - 2/26/2002 11:14:00 PM |
||||
| Darkor makes a good point (although indirectly). That's part of the reason so many hobby projects go down the drain. That is to say, many don't do rewrites, they just 'push on' until the project gets near completion, but the final work ends up being almost impossible, because so much of the work already completed is hacked together, that getting many hacked together modules working together is exponentially hard. Each hacked module adds another multiple of difficulty to the project as a whole. That's why there are about 100 000 Tetris/pong/asteroids clones. Most people can handle 500 lines of broken code, while most can't (I certainly can't) handle working with 100 000 lines of code that is ill written. How many full amateur Quake3 quality clones are there out there? 2? 3? It's not that people lack the individual skill to mimic any single feature, rather, they lack the skill to combine them together. Boy, was that a ramble =) If all that matters is what you get in the end, why go through life? ~Michael Sikora |
||||
|
||||
|
Darkor Member since: 6/1/2000 From: Singapore, Singapore |
|||
|
Posted - 2/27/2002 11:51:44 AM |
||||
| Yeah, there will be many who will agree that rewriting code often saves time going through messy code. It's usually an iterative process; writing and rewriting code. For me, it's part of writing code. Edited by - Darkor on February 27, 2002 11:52:37 AM |
||||
|
||||
| All times are ET (US) |
Last Thread Next Thread |
|
