Overall System Design Questions

[Cat_Hill]

First off, I love these courses. I tried many other providers of courses before landing on GameDev.tv and think yours are the best!

As the project gets larger and more complex I have to wonder what you do before you start coding. I have to imagine you have a system design in your head or maybe physically sketched out. So a few parts here:

A) what do you do to help plan your work on your own projects?

B) Also it would personally help me if we can start with some visual diagram and continuously update it at the beginning of every section to give a preview into the state at the end of the section. I’ve found that I do things in the challenges that end up being inconsistent with future steps in the course and then I have to go back and undo/redo things because we’re imagining different future states.

C) I’d love a course that focuses specifically on design, maybe with some emphasis on creating and continually updating a game design doc as you go along. It could be an advanced course which assumes a lot of prior knowledge. The focus can be more on how to plan, take small bites, and not get overwhelmed by an ambitious project.

[Christopher_Powell]

The only id be able to really answer is A/C kinda, if you have the rpg course, they have a section on game design with some videos on it and even a template for you to use.

But yeah it would be nice to have a mini course on game design and stuff

[Brian_Trotter]

Odd, I was sure I replied to this question when it first came out… That might have been one I was working on when the power cut out.

@Cat_Hill

A) what do you do to help plan your work on your own projects?

While I can’t speak for Hugo, I can give you a bit on my own process. I start by thinking of my goal. What am I trying to achieve? I then apply a principle called Top Down Design. Look at your goal, and break it down into large and broad steps. Then break each of those steps down into their own steps. This process continues until your building blocks are fairly granular. Since these steps describe what’s happening, they often make the best names for methods and objects.

@Cat_Hill

I’ve found that I do things in the challenges that end up being inconsistent with future steps in the course and then I have to go back and undo/redo things because we’re imagining different future states.

Believe it or no, I find that’s when the most learning occurs. When going through courses, I tend to commit my project to source before the lesson, work through the challenges (or in my case, once the instructor says what the goal for the lesson is, my challenge is to do what he showed in the intro of the video, then watch the video). Then if it’s too far off base, I can just revert the project back to the beginning of the lecture and go in the direction that the instructor used.

Don’t be afraid to tackle a challenge and make a mistake. In 40 years of coding, I’ve learned more from my mistakes than I’ve learned from just about anything else.

@Cat_Hill

I’d love a course that focuses specifically on design, maybe with some emphasis on creating and continually updating a game design doc as you go along. It could be an advanced course which assumes a lot of prior knowledge. The focus can be more on how to plan, take small bites, and not get overwhelmed by an ambitious project.

That’s an excellent suggestion for a course! I would recommend submitting it with a new topic in our ideas/course-ideas section Topics tagged course-ideas

[Cat_Hill]

@Brian_Trotter

That’s an excellent suggestion for a course! I would recommend submitting it with a new topic in our ideas/course-ideas section Topics tagged course-ideas

Thanks Brian I added this one plus two other course suggestions based on what I encountered that has been tricky for me to pick up on my own.