Monday, August 31, 2009

Monday's EP2 Update - The Tazer Strikes Back!

Game building has its challenges. Trying to get everything to fit is sometimes an exercise in fitting way too many items into a suitcase. During those times you hope there are things you can leave behind … or that you can get something big like an elephant to squash things down so they’ll fit.

Recently, Yas posted stolen pictures of the tazer … even though it is still in test. I was even more horrified since he also posted them before I discovered the tazer wouldn’t work on the actual device (curse you Yas, I’ll have my revenge!).

Our PC and iPhone Simulator builds worked fine. But upon selecting the tazer on the actual device, it either crashed immediately or slowed the app down to a crawl and then crashed. The problem was texture memory. During development we often use 32-bit textures for all our new pieces. This allows us to quickly swap in new assets without having to spend time finding the right amount of color reduction versus visual fidelity while we’re testing the new parts. This has the unfortunate side effect of bloating texture usage.

The good news is that I fixed the problem. The bad news is it set me back a little over a day in resolving the problem.

Now that the tazer’s short-lived tantrum has been contained, the finishing touches on it can continue. Let’s just say Lumpy should be afraid … very afraid!

Remember today is the last day in the Name the Tazer Challenge. Poke on over to our thread in Touch Arcade to post your suggestions! Or Lumpy will get to give the tazer a kinder and more gentler name like "Lil' Non-Hurting Sparker".


No comments:

Post a Comment