Near end sprint reflection

This graph depicts the previous 18 days which include 4 days of sprint 4 and the rest of sprint 5.

It is clear from the graph the declining days of work remaining. The backlog of tasks have been gradually ticked off the to-do-list - despite some features being added during the sprints (see day 6/7)

I have slack already built into my system here - if the last 5 days don't go according to plan. Another 7 days with potentially 126 hours to work on before the playtest day/week.

Status report

As expected, things are going well due to well thought out design and ensuring the more work done means less to do later on - this philosophy in Agile has been precisely correct.

Simplicity - the art of reduce the amount of work not done is essential.

This famous saying on simplicity of design comes from Antione de Saint-Exupery: 

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away"

This entails a few factors of agile software development which I have come to view as "the important one" if you are to truely integrate agile: it means the staff should be enthusiastic, conscientious, ambitious and amicable: It means that the staff should be a team. XP and SCRUM highlight the importance of these traits. Simplicity of the development is crucial - especially when you are planning in short iterations. Keeping things obvious yet not too basic is what aids the continuity of the overall project to everyone involved.

Simple organisation, simple communication and simple design elements - refining processes that work, and expanding on failed processes - ensuring they do not disrupt the development again during the project by reflecting and evaluating the people (ie. Me) and anyone else involved.




Although I still haven't finished: still plenty to do but it is achievable  I have now got enough time to reflect, evaluate and make it better before testing the game.



Still to accomplish these features >
* Code levels logic (chamber 2 and 3 (4)(5)) - speed of bg scroll, enemies and objects, spacing etc
    - door reset, chamber text setup, reseting varaibles for the next chamber
* Coding logic for back to menu and next chamber next button logic for 2,3(,4,5)
    - button press logic
* Get the sound looping
* improve imagery quality
* see if I can re-fractor anything - a final clean up at the end 

Friday development

I decided to improve on the design of the end game sequence first before starting anything today - merely because I was in the creative art mood. That's a particular aspect of working singularly in an agile framework: while agile encourages knowledge sharing and working together with each others skills, in a single team it is up to the person to choose what is the next ingredient to add to the project - priority tasks obviously take place first of course, but the flexibility actually does empower the workforce (me).


I also meant to record on the blog that  few weeks ago I searched for some free web edit tool for art (similar to photoshop or aftereffects, both of which I am familiar) I found this site Pixlr. http://pixlr.com/express/ It has served my art well as it has added what I think as the spice that I promised in my original spec - to provide a richly detailed, vibrant game that is visually pleasing. In a traditional linear approach, getting new software onboard would be troublesome: yet another benefit of agile.



> Good lot of coding done in the space of an hour or so. The code is a variation of another part of the coding I have already done so it should work alright. Now, to test it!





Still to accomplish these features >
* Code levels logic - speed of bg scroll, enemies and objects, spacing etc
* put in end door for chamber finish
* Coding logic for back to menu and next chamber next button logic
* Tidy up 





19:10
' The functions for blue and red magic are now working! Now to set the exit door for the end of chamber 1, set up the well done screen then code the level logic for a next level 

Sprint to the finish

Well, the dev has started with a refresher on what has happened. I know that if I put my mind to coding full out this week I can finish the game. I have already got most features built into the game ad unit tests have proven that its just a matter of producing the correct logic to integrate into the game itself.

The final screen layout has been made

>I have identified a bug with the jump and attack - pressing both make the player lock onto its attack sprite which means the player cannot jump. More on this later....

I am now working on the blue/red magic attack and the glow when the player presses the correct blocker button. I will then fix the jump attack freeze bug. Next, the ordering of the enemies. Then level end with buttons for next or back. And finally speeds for next levels and fin screen



18:55

Bug fixed. I had put an extra check for a jump when the attack function is clicked which isn't needed.

21:11

Got the game replaying when the players health is lost! The back to menu function will take a bit of though for the design of the code which I will do tomorrow but it is possible!

Next is for coding an actual level and having the door that opens to the next chamber present in the gameplay. .. .. . ..

More work on the game

Still to accomplish these features >
* Code hp collision logic (simple variable)
* Create tutorial screen for playing the game
* Create sound 
* End game sequence
* and add sound?
* Code the red/blue magic attack 
* Code levels logic - speed of bg scroll, enemies and objects, spacing etc
* Code end game (with skip and next button code)


Tutorial screen

I had a few problems the sound when I tried it on the tablet. It would not work. The browser failed to load the game a number of times which was worrying. 

I decided that risks should be assessed again. I have got over a week to get it done. More than enough time tonight to resolve the issue (what ever it would be) so I pressed on.

I decided to create a version without the sound code. It didn't work. I then assessed if the host site dropbox may have been down for maintenance but it wasn't. The code utualises the hmtl5 sound player which my have been unable to be processed quickly enough.

I then put a version on the actual device which works. Since giving it a bit of time to sync with dropbox, I tried it again and it worked on the browser with the sound. Dropbox has done this a couple of times when heavy code is saved to it. I believe that this is all that was wrong as it works fine now.

> Good design prompted even good code design - I was able to eliminate a section of code which was duplication.

Development

Experiencing a slight problem, I have successfully coded the hp logic which means when any one of the enemies touch the player his hp will run down one at a time (changed from the unit test code)

But the end game scene will not load - I donno what is wrong. Luckily, the planning agile allow for has reduced the level of stress that it would put an entire team under in a traditional software development - ie following the ad hoc or waterfall methods. But I still have not got any further with the problem.





## Resolved the screen image problem. I was trying to eliminate the scene which was tieing up the entire program. I changed the logic to visibility of nodes and it now works fine. Hopefully I will be able to get the screen sized properly now and I can tick that part off for todays development.

Still to accomplish these features >
* Code hp collision logic (simple variable)
* Code levels logic
* Create tutorial screen for playing the game
* Collect Flesh of the gods
* Create sound and add sound?
* End game sequence

More Development

I have identified a few aspects of the previous sprints which should make the final one easier to follow.

Took a photo of crc card development I done at the beginning of development.

some details changed since then.