By deck16 on 27 Aug 2012 -- 1 note, Comments

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Another Vox Venio update. Although, is that the right name to use? Right from the start I knew this was probably very bad Latin. So I asked some clever Redditors and now have a nice selection of names that are in the same vein yet syntactically correct. I just need to get around to choosing one! (Not that I’ll stop calling the game Vox Venio in these development posts. That won’t stop being the working title.) Recently I’ve been cleaning up some existing code. Code which was once experimental and may have been thrown away, but has since proven itself to be well worth keeping. For me, this involves adding comments where they’re lacking, and finding TODO tags where I’ve left a little note to myself, “come back and fix this later.” This is a process I’ll no doubt repeat several times during the course of programming Vox Venio. And I don’t do it just because I’m a little bit anal about comments and tidiness (that is a part of it though). Programming is like stacking furniture to reach a high place. I feel much more comfortable stacking things on top of a steady, well-maintained base than one I’ve neglected to care for. But enough of that! What’s the story with this picture? It’s an early version of the game’s launcher. It’s written using WinForms. (I’d rather use WPF but can’t easily do so with the version of Visual Studio Express I’m using. Since its just a splash screen I’m happy to use WinForms.) Why do I want a launcher? Mainly because it’s ten times easier to do user-interface stuff (menus etc) in WinForms than XNA. I can put all the options menus in the launcher (graphics, sound etc) and save myself a lot of time. (I’ve done all that stuff in XNA before and I’d rather not do it again if I can help it.) Astute readers may wonder if I’m not limiting my ability to port to Xbox 360 by using WinForms. Yes, you’re right: but I’ve already tied myself to PC by using System.Speech. Should it ever eventuate that there’s demand for an 360 port (I won’t hold my breath), that’s when I’ll consider a partial rewrite.

Another Vox Venio update.

Although, is that the right name to use? Right from the start I knew this was probably very bad Latin. So I asked some clever Redditors and now have a nice selection of names that are in the same vein yet syntactically correct. I just need to get around to choosing one!

(Not that I’ll stop calling the game Vox Venio in these development posts. That won’t stop being the working title.)

Recently I’ve been cleaning up some existing code. Code which was once experimental and may have been thrown away, but has since proven itself to be well worth keeping. For me, this involves adding comments where they’re lacking, and finding TODO tags where I’ve left a little note to myself, “come back and fix this later.”

This is a process I’ll no doubt repeat several times during the course of programming Vox Venio. And I don’t do it just because I’m a little bit anal about comments and tidiness (that is a part of it though). Programming is like stacking furniture to reach a high place. I feel much more comfortable stacking things on top of a steady, well-maintained base than one I’ve neglected to care for.

But enough of that! What’s the story with this picture?

It’s an early version of the game’s launcher. It’s written using WinForms. (I’d rather use WPF but can’t easily do so with the version of Visual Studio Express I’m using. Since its just a splash screen I’m happy to use WinForms.)

Why do I want a launcher? Mainly because it’s ten times easier to do user-interface stuff (menus etc) in WinForms than XNA. I can put all the options menus in the launcher (graphics, sound etc) and save myself a lot of time. (I’ve done all that stuff in XNA before and I’d rather not do it again if I can help it.)

Astute readers may wonder if I’m not limiting my ability to port to Xbox 360 by using WinForms. Yes, you’re right: but I’ve already tied myself to PC by using System.Speech. Should it ever eventuate that there’s demand for an 360 port (I won’t hold my breath), that’s when I’ll consider a partial rewrite.

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