Omnimaga
General Discussion => Technology and Development => Computer Programming => Topic started by: ZippyDee on April 24, 2011, 08:03:19 pm
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I'm pretty sure the topic is going to give away most of what I'll be talking about in this thread, but I'll say it anyway. I've decided to develop Portal for the Android. Now, seeing as Valve had a team of around 100 people working to develop portal, and I make a team of 1 person working to develop this, I won't be going all out. It'll be more like Portal: The Flash Version (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/404612), only I intend to make the engine a better (that one's got quite a few bugs).
The thing is, because I don't have so many people to work with me, I'd like to get off to a good start with my data organization and not have to go back and redo my whole structure because I was stupid and didn't plan it out correctly the first time. That being said, I am terrible at data organization (or any organization, for that matter), so I'm looking for some advice.
My initial thought is that I'd use a tile-based level design and have each Tile object keep track of any static elements on that tile (Walls, doors, buttons, switches, anything else that doesn't require me to keep track of changing x and y locations). Then I would keep track of the dynamic elements (player, turrets, cubes, portals) separate from the grid.
Even if that sounds like a good way to go, I'm still unsure of the best way to execute that. Any suggestions, tips, things to watch out for, and/or completely different methods all-together would be GREATLY appreciated.
As I said before, data organization is one of my biggest weaknesses when it comes to programming, so thanks a billion in advance!
-Zippy Dee
Edit: Just a reminder that this is in Java, so it's all object-oriented. Just in case anyone wasn't previously aware.
Edit #2:
In fact, let's start simple and talk about just the storing and keeping track of the walls first. Then we'll work our way up to objects. :P
Edit again:
Thanks to Xeda, I may have figured something out. We'll see! :D
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If you're going to take on Portal, then I recommend taking a look at the development tools Valve made available on Steam.
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Ah, great! Thanks for the resource! I wasn't aware that they had all those! :D
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Cool. I love the Android. I'm hoping to get one soon as well, but Christmas is a long way off. Anyways, there are a couple of thing to consider when writing a game in Java.
- The garbage collector is the ENEMY. It runs at inconvenient times and makes your game seem laggy.
- Allocate everything at startup. This will mean that when the garbage collector runs, it will shut off again quickly because there's nothing to get rid of
- Run the garbage collector on your own time in it's own thread. I suggest every 2 seconds (2000 milliseconds). This will mean it will be much less likely to run on it's own.
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The link in the first post is wrong by the way.
@Zippy: Have you coded any Java games before? This is a very hard project, I may say.
Good Luck!
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Fixed the link ;) thanks. And yes, I have programmed java games before. Don't worry, I'm perfectly aware of how difficult of a game this is to make.