i wrote this some time ago for the sN blog and found it today when cleaning up the database. i thought some of you might enjoy it and maybe it helps the one or another who starts his first full feature multiplayer rpg in flash ...
oh, yes this "snippets" are really learned the hard way some 15 years ago when i wrote my first game in assembler on a c64 (pure pain, believe me) ...
1. you can't beta-test your own code.
first of all, you won't find the nasty bugs ... well you will have to test the code you write to make sure it does what you want it to do. but believe me, you will need someone to find the "player wins and dies at the same time" bug.
2. play your game to the end before testing begins
yes i know you did. really? the whole thing? without cheats? good!
3. a good beta-tester is a gift from the almighty.
they will point out things that confused or anoyed them. and best of all, they can cheer you up when telling you that they like your work. (so it's a good thing to tell them that they have done a good job at the end)
(btw. a big thank you to all serpents beta-testers.)
4. be as systematic as humanly possible.
do yourself a favour and use a todo list. use pen&paper to write down notes.
5. some coding will become obsolete long before the game is finished.
even worse, you certainly will have to rewrite parts of your lovely code. things will change during the development, you will have some ideas that you haven't thought of when you started. after a while of messing around in your code just to fit this "tiny little idea" you may have to say "ok, let's start from the scratch". hey and what is the "jUpNDowm" function doing? which reminds me ...
6. comment your code. comment your code. comment your code.
... i've got some more, but i don't want to spoil all the fun for you
and you will probably find more on the sN blog from time to time (and hopefully we'll be able to launch the site too, soon - hey you can play serpents then)
cheers, <olli/>
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