Diablocide

Organization is key when starting a serious project. If you're just slapping something together in less than twenty-four hours you might be able to get away with not making notes (i.e. EMDE!2), but otherwise it's imperative that you set up some basic organization for your project. Here's how I did it for Demon Tower.


This is the main folder for the game. You'll note that there is a screenshot folder added - this way they're right there with the game instead of lurking in random spots in My Documents. I also immediately set up a Music, Notes and README so that I can fill out important information as I go. Normally I'd keep the Music file as a Resources file, but since I'm using the same graphics as the original I already know where everything except the music is from.


The Music.txt file (which is actually now updated, changed and complete; this is old). I added the bit at the top because I'm not going to delete this file for the final release - although the Notes.txt will be deleted. I keep the Notes file so that I have a record of stuff that I think of as I play. I like to use index cards as well for this, but if I'm on the go and don't have my stack of index cards handy the Notes.txt is there for me. It's also easier to copy & paste a URL to a notepad file as opposed to a physical piece of paper!


I further organize screenshots by filename and folder. Advertising screenshots are interesting in-game screenshots used for, well, advertising. Production shots are ones of the database used for these blogs. Within the Production folder, I have DT_Toolsxx, DT_Databasexx and DT_Etcxx. This way I can sort out images of websites and Audacity when I'm looking for a screenshot of Antantant's stats.

That's it for now. Next up: music selection!