As we all very well know, not all game development efforts are going to be a success. There are times when even the most basic of games cannot get done or just don’t turn out right. In these situations, we simply must buck up and take what we can learn from them and do better next time.
Divine Knight Gaming had just one of those experiences in their efforts to create one game a month. In the month of May, they set out to make a Bomberman clone but due to issues outside of game development, they were unable to complete it. However, there are two things they learned while making this game.
The first is a new tool that will make their efforts to make future games far easier. This tool is called the Tiled Map Editor and this is what they had to say.
The major thing I learned was about the Tiled Map Editor. Everything in this game, aside from the starting point of the player, was put into this game using the Map Editor. I could have even included the player position in this, but i chose not to as I was building the game.
This Map Editor is extremely powerful and has been added to my permanent set of tools I use for creating games. Every 2D game I make from now on will use this tool for its level creation capabilities. Check it out for yourself to see what I am talking about.
By building up a suite of tools, game development can be made far simpler and faster than ever before. There are so many great tools that we can choose from and Tiled is but one.
The second thing they learned is how to implement grid based movement in the Haxeflixel language. This is something they feel will help them improve on existing games and to make future games as well.
So we’ll leave it at that. Even when you fail, there are always lessons to be learned if you look for them.
Disclosure: I am the lead developer and co-founder of Divine Knight Gaming.
