EverEnding DevBlog 142: Grind Down

Well I seem to be sick, so that’s not helping any with getting stuff done. Nevertheless, I have all of the player attacks working properly and the test enemy attack working. Both need a bit of polish: Some collisions seem to not be getting detected when they should, and neither knockback nor stun are implemented yet so it doesn’t feel very good, but the basic interaction is there.

I’m finding that this whole idea of trying to work on programming all at once isn’t working out very well, but in the process I’ve learned that things tend to go a lot smoother if I start writing with one small task I want to get accomplished. By small, I mean something where I clearly know where to start and what to do to finish it, rather than having to go between different files and try to figure out a strategy for solving the problem. Obviously this isn’t always a manageable requirement, but I think if I take care to spend a little while in my down time every day thinking about what I’ll be doing the next day and how I can make more progress without investing a huge amount of time. Still, I’d like to figure out a way to make a bigger segment of dedicated work time work — but it’s not going to if I’m struggling to work at all (as with this dang cold), so I think I’m just gonna have to feel this out and figure out what works for me.

So, next I get stun and knockback and associated animations for player and enemy melee attack interactions working. After that I should probably address what happens when player and/or enemy are defeated, which will require a fair bit of programming and new animation work and might take most of the week.

Oh, right. I’m going to be leaving town before the next update. I’m still not sure how this will affect my productivity: A 13-hour train ride is sometimes a great place to get things done, sometimes not so much. Will just have to wait and see how that works out.