Time to say Hi!

[Soul]

Though I realize it's always been time to say hi

I found this place maybe 2 weeks back, and was pretty psyched to discover a community dedicated to PBBG development. I'd been toying with the idea of building my own for years (though I only discovered the term PBBG recently!), and finally decided to take the plunge about 2 months back.

I hold a day job (unfortunately ) with 40+ hours per week, so while progress has been steady the project is nowhere near completion. The languages and platform I'm using are completely new to me, so the learning process is substantial. I'd love to introduce the concept and a playable version here sooner than later, but that's for another thread and when I'm ready for public feedback.

A little bit about myself - I worked as a developer (primarily C/C++/C# and embedded systems stuff) in an MNC for a few years until recently, when I switched to a marketing role in a different company. The 180 change was motivated by my desire to be more exposed to the business side of things. I'm enjoying it so far, and still getting my programming fix with this side project.

Well, that's what I have for now. I've learned quite a bit of stuff from the posts here, and hopefully I'll be able to contribute some of my own eventually.

Thanks for reading!

[jannesiera]

Hey, Soul! Welcome! I'm really happy to welcome another new member .

And I hope you'll help out to spread the word, because the term "pbbg" is not used often enough, in my opinion. I twittered it yesterday to promote the term and got at least a few reaction/retweets.

Tell us about your game when you're ready, I'm eager to listen.

[Nox]

Hi Soul
I hope you'll be able to find as much time as you want for your pbbg and always be motivated!

[Dasein Fiasco]

Hi Soul, nice to meet you. You'll definitely benefit from "cross-training" in marketing and business, as well continuing to practice programming. Projects that connect those two ends are rare but usually quite successful. For one, I can imagine you'd be more inclined to build games with a reasonable scope.

What platforms are you thinking about working in for PBBG stuff? You mentioned C#, and ASP.NET MVC is looking quite nice these days. You also get the groundwork for XBox Live development that way too.

Oh, and do you have a website or blog or anything?

[JGadrow]

Ah, a fellow C++ coder. Always nice to meet another one here. Welcome!

[Soul]

Thanks for the welcome guys!

My game backend is based on Django/Python and Google App Engine. I had zero experience in these platforms (and very limited web development experience on the whole), but was intrigued by GAE's promise of easy setup and scalability. Django's templating system seemed to fit my needs as well, hence the choice. Hardly fact-based decisions, but actually getting started was my priority at the time I haven't seen or done enough to comment for or against either platforms.

The frontend uses HTML/CSS/JS. No Flash, in part to keep a manageable learning curve on the project, and also because of an (irrationally biased) aversion to Flash games. I'm sure there are plenty of good ones to be found, but perhaps the early Flash years yielded too many sub-par examples for my liking.

I've set a target for a pre-pre-pre alpha version by the end of the month! Some sort of deadline is needed or there'll never be any results I'm thinking a test run for maybe 10 or so players for feedback and some load testing. I'll draw up a more concrete set of goals for the test run closer to the date.

More info and some screenshots over the next few days, so keep a lookout!

Edit: To answer some of the questions above - I don't currently have a blog, but I'll certainly attempt to maintain one for the game. Also, I'll try my best to help spread the term PBBG. There'll be links back to here and other relevant sites on my page for starters. Finally, I -am- aware of the need to rein in project scopes... but the feature creep temptress can be awfully tough to resist 

[JGadrow]

Since you're using django/python, Harkins will probably be a good member to support you. I believe he utilized those technologies prior to becoming a Ruby guy.

[Fizzadar]

Hey! Whats your game about?

[Scion]

Its nice to see someone else thats looking at GAE.

Ive been working on a project using GAE's support for the JVM....its not a game, but has some gamelike aspects...and if i complete it will provide some support functions for games.

It took me a fair while to get over my Relational DB mindset and get to griops with BigTable....but i think im mostly there now...

[Soul]

Its nice to see someone else thats looking at GAE.

Ive been working on a project using GAE's support for the JVM....its not a game, but has some gamelike aspects...and if i complete it will provide some support functions for games.

It took me a fair while to get over my Relational DB mindset and get to griops with BigTable....but i think im mostly there now...

I never had much to do with DBs, so there was little to unlearn for me. BigTable (GAE in general) has been pretty intuitive so far. It does have some annoying query limitations that I had to workaround, and I'm hoping these won't bite harder later on.

So what's your app about, if you don't mind sharing? It's always fun to read about other people's projects.

Hey! Whats your game about?

It's a 2D top-down RPG focused on sandbox exploration

[Scion]

So what's your app about, if you don't mind sharing? It's always fun to read about other people's projects.

I working on a leader board style application that hooks into Facebook, twitter, etc

Im trying to come up with a way to make leaderboards more personal and relevant to your direct circle of friends. At the moment im still working on refining the core functions. Once thats done i hope to put a simple HTML interface on it and get it out there for some initial Aplha testing of the main functions, and hear what other people think.

But like many hoby developments its all done in my spare time and Im lucky if i can get more than 5 hrs a week... but each week im making a little more progress.

[dbest]

Hey Soul.. A bit late to respond to your post..

Howz the game coming along? I took a brief look at Django, but since not many free hosts support it right away, besides GAE, I have decided not to pursue it further. It did look tempting, I should say.