Game Complex

Sunday, 10:30pm, Ian and I had racked our brains over Skype for more than two hours. Though I am not a programmer I am not exactly naive…or knowledgeable. Ian was able to diagnose each issue very quickly. With each adjustment we crept closer to a non-crashing window, that could run a program. It just would not run some of the code on my dated build box.

That said Ian trekked deep into the night, installing it on yet another system, only to realize that it was the shaders not supported by some (our) integrated graphics chip sets causing the crash. A few commented out lines and poof, in the Monday am I was prototyping a level that has been sitting in tile format for some time. To my surprise, Tuesday morning brought yet another update to the editor exe. Two crash bugs were eliminated. The weapon switching and firing abilities, not to mention the weapons fire collision detection all work.

The implications of a tool chain to the project are paramount. Invest in the best tool you can, while automating all redundant tasks, and your results will always be more efficient. My new focus this week has become the art asset pipeline and tool chain.