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The famous question always asked jokingly over at RetroRemakes.com for any new project. I think the guys gave up asking about this project. The problem was there was usually just a few more things that I would like to improve on, or add, or in some cases completely scrap and rewrite. This is best described by someone else as the banana problem (comes from a story of a little girl who said "I know how to spell banana, I just don't know when to stop).
However this wasn't the only reason the game took so long. The truth is its the first game I have ever written. When I started I hadn't coded anything since around 1990 and that was a database application, so perhaps it was a bit stupid to start with this project which is effectively 4 sub games. Originally I started the project to get my hand back into programming, and the idea for a remake came from stumbling across excellent Klass of 99 remake. I wasn't sure what language to use, and weighed up Blitz 3D vs Darkbasic Pro. Even though I started with Darkbasic Pro, I soon switched to Blitz 3D.
During writing this game, I also wrote a few other programs. These were usually side projects based on some code I had developed for Starstrike. For example Ant Attack came about from a single surface mesh routine I writing for the surface run. The routine didn’t make it into the final Starstrike game, but it worked well for the Ant Attack map.
Over time the game has developed and changed. It constantly evolved as I would see new inspiration or I wanted to change something so it could stand up to the high quality remakes being made in the recent years (Driller, Cholo, Wizwall, Ruff 'n' Tumble to name a few).
So did I enjoy making it? Am I glad its finished? Yes to both. It's taken too long, and too much of my time. I really want to move onto something new now. I've learnt a lot making this. The first lesson is setting a scope. Second is to plan. Most of the is game was hacked in without any real plan of attack. So for my more recent projects I have learnt sitting down for a few weeks jotting notes and ideas before touching the keyboard is a good thing. Funny my college lecturer always said that, and now 20 years on it seems to make sense.
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