Adam & jmp:

Document-generating tools (eg. Doxygen) tend to be quite good at producing decent quality API references. They are less impressive when generating other documentation (eg. tutorials, guides, etc), but *can* be used in this way, if that is the preference of the person writing the documentation. Personally, I'd say you both have good points, and perhaps agree more closely than you realise.

Just a few thoughts and words of caution that I hope help. For what it's worth, I've worked on cross-platform (Linux/Windows) software for years, both for other people and for myself, including my own C++ game framework, and a completed game suite.

The first and most important question is- do you really need your own engine? If your goal is developing a game, making your own engine too can set you back many, many months. The answer might be yes, or might be no, but you need to think about it.

Don't get too caught up in the framework. It's tempting, and addictive, to build up a clever and monumental framework, much of which doesn't actually bear out into a real game. Don't go overboard. It's very tempting, and I've given in to this somewhat at times. It's much faster to design for expansion than implement everything at once.

Whenever you try out a new library to pull into your framework (you'll be using a bunch of these and not reinventing the wheel every time, right?), make sure you can get it to compile for your targeted platforms. Sometimes this is enough to eliminate the viability of a library- the fact that it is almost impossible to get going on one of the platforms. Then, get the basics going OR a test that uses it, then try it on each of the platforms. You need to know about major problems *early* in the piece. This will let you decide if you wish to use the library or not, and if it can only be viably used on one platform, how you're going to deal with it.

If you're going cross-platform, I'd get the engine to a very basic state, and then make sure it runs on each of the platforms you plan to support initially. Then I'd develop on your favourite platform (whichever you prefer), and every so often, bounce your code across to the other platforms and fix the problems that arose. Pre-release, I'd do this perhaps once a month or once every two months. Depending on the focus of your work, this can take anything from a couple of hours to a few days each time. I know this contradicts the other advice in this thread, so you'll have to make your own call as to the best way to proceed.

And last of all, reread my first suggestion. Do you really need your own engine? I've done it, but if I had my time over again, I'd invest some more time into checking out existing engines, which, whilst not perfect might be close enough for it to be more worthwhile to use them instead. Remember, if you use an external engine, whilst you may be at the mercy of its developers, they are also very likely working on that engine in the background, and improving it, while you work on your game.

Hope it turns out okay. Good luck!

Friends don't let friends spam forums with verbatim regurgitated press releases.

I'd be fascinated to know how Bento Smile originally mapped this out too.

My map is boring. It looks like this: http://bentosmile.com/blog/tanaka_map.jpg (super low resolution unreadable photo.) I changed it a bit when I decided I only needed one ending room, which cut out about 70 of the rooms. I decided which friend went where as I made it, concentrating on just linking everything together/getting an idea of the scope with the map. 

Cool, cheers for that.  So it actually started out as a 2D plan? I can't make out the labels on the map, but are they room numbers that you jump to near each of the exits? Was the original plan that you'd be able to wander indefinitely if you were careful about your choices, or was it always such that once you went down one path you could no longer return (except to the same node)?

Thanks for pointing those out.  I'll test em.

*takes a few minutes*

Alright, it seems in all those cases the END was labeled correctly, and the other transition should have had all the remaining directions.  Okay, I've edited the image to fix these and re-uploaded it.

Cool. I've grabbed the new version and it looks good. Just checked a couple though.

Btw, it wasn't hard to find the loopback transitions.  They just plop you on the other side of the screen without adding a friend, and you can follow them repeatedly without getting anywhere .  Much more work was mapping all the transitions to END in cases where it turned out to be inevitable.  I checked them all just in case there was another path, but it seems a general rule that all ENDs take either one direction, or all directions.  Nothing in between.  I must admit though, I was at first inclined to believe that if I met the same friend, I was at the same place in the maze -- but when I checked the transitions off these duplicate friends, they were slightly different.  It really makes me wonder how BentoSmile wrote these transitions in the first place.  Perhaps he just went nuts with a tree structure?  Or maybe it's doing some kind of hashing based on what friends you've already found.

What is interesting is that there is a friend at every node, and no path leads to the same friend twice (except to the same node). Once you know this you can be pretty sure of a loop, but without that knowledge, there's no way to be sure. Sure, you've looped 54324 times, but who says that that the 54325th attempt doesn't lead elsewhere?

I'd be fascinated to know how Bento Smile originally mapped this out too.

For interests sake, this is how the mapping scheme progressed in my mind from first game to last:

- Probably a straight symmetric 2D map.
- Random chance of getting a particular friend at a location.
- Definitely not a random chance, seems to be predictable and consistent.
- Almost certainly no randomness.
- Probably straight symmetric map, warp at top.
- Mined squares that cause exit, can probably collect all friends in one good game with a map.
- Not symmetric.
- Mostly 2D-ish, some rooms have odd exits?
- Possibly pattern-based exits from certain nodes? (think Zelda Lost Woods)
- Not a 2D map, it's rare that a UR/RU, UL/LU, DR/RD, DL/LD combo reaches the same place.
- Pure node hopper, directions are just exit choices.

*post about awesome map*

Hi tiglionabbit,

Just went through your map and followed all the paths. It's unlocked all of the character descriptions for me- though I did have a fair few unlocked already.

A couple of slips in the map, where the nodes say the same direction leads to two different places:

RLULRRLD
DUDUDLR
DUUDURLRL

(I've probably got at least one of these wrong)

If you follow each of these you should get to a node with ambiguous exits.

Thanks again for posting the map!

... So I drew a map ...

You must have the patience of a saint!

That must have taken a fair bit of effort, especially to accurately pick out loops (since there's no visual cue) and places where the same friend is in different locations. With your map, I might pick this up again today and have a dig through for some missing friends...

Thanks for sharing.

A cute and interesting distraction. Loved the characters and descriptions.

I've no doubt this is mappable. I got as far as figuring out that you're basically traveling in a system of nodes, some (all?) of which have a friend, and for which N, S, W, and E are just four exits, any of which can lead back to the same node, corresponding exits are NOT symmetric, and there is an "exit" node that ends the game. Unfortunately the only identifying characteristic of a node (that I saw) is the addition of a new friend, and naturally you can't see this if you loop to the same node. This makes mapping somewhat tedious, so I gave up at this point.

Still, it was cute and clever.

I don't suppose anyone has actually attempted a mapping? Quick Google search turned up nothing.

there's just something inherently ridiculous to me in saying that people only like a game because they want to avoid being labeled as uncultured or unintelligent. especially on these forums.

Just to make sure my choice of words did not give the wrong intention, I'll quote from my previous post:

"For what it's worth, I don't think everyone who [claimed to have] enjoyed it did so only due to peer pressure."

I've added the words "claimed to have" to clarify exactly what I meant. My original choice of words was poor.

I do not feel that just because someone liked it that they are only doing so to appease or elevate themselves in front of others. I merely suggest that it is possible that *some* people may do this. I would like to firmly establish this is the intent in my comments, so that I do not have to specifically address it each time they are quoted in the thread to follow.

I hope my comments properly establish my intent and rectify this potential misunderstanding.

(removed quoted text)

Well, there's probably not a lot I can say at this point and not end up the bad guy. I brought it on myself through my own stupid bluntness when I should have chosen silence. Live and learn- even if I'm too stupid to learn this lesson after the first dozen or more times.

At this point I'll just say that I genuinely mean no offense toward you, AdamAtomic. I didn't enjoy the game- but obviously some people did. There's nothing that places my opinion in a position of greater importance than others who felt somewhat differently to myself. So at the end of the day, if I'm not a fan, who cares? It doesn't really matter. The important thing is that you won over a number of people, and that's no small feat to do with a game with such a short development cycle.

Best of luck with your future works and whatever you choose to do.

(Removed comments as it's simply not worth the aggro)

(Removed comment as it's not worth the aggro)

NO NO NO There is no secret ending

(if you think about the point of the game, a second ending doesn't make any sense)

Actually, I thought it could be feasible, just a little cruel. Going from this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus

He really only got one shot to look back before Eury was lost. So I thought there's a chance that if you messed up once, you got a lesser ending. Only one life is a bit of a stretch, but without knowing the mind of the designer, who could tell? The theory could have been that once you die, you've been reduced to a ghost in form only, or perhaps imagination. That would make sense, I think. Besides, did it.

But to be honest, I'm glad there is no "alternate" ending, the ending there is perfectly fine. Besides, I don't think you can play through that game without a single death short of mapping it out beforehand.

I don't understand the calls of "too hard" though. Some scenes were hard, but you could figure them out. Both bosses were quite easy once you got the pattern down. For example, the first boss is simply: walk up, wait, turn, fire, wait, turn, fire, step back, wait, jump over as he leaps, turn, fire. The only rooms that got me regularly were the ones where you drop into a pit with three creatures, the one with the two big guys, and the one with the vanishing wall. In fact, with unlimited lives (they were unlimited, weren't they?), I'd say it should have been *much* harder.

Still, thankyou for the fun distraction.

No, there's a second if you beat it without dying.

WARNING: Minor spoiler.

I have no idea if you're kidding or not, but if you aren't, I'm afraid such an accomplishment is beyond the reach of this mere mortal. I can see it being possible- I can take out the bosses without being killed, and do much of it flawlessly, but there's always a platform, somewhere that takes me out. A couple of scenes are also pretty hard.

I did try a playthrough without looking back a single time after you find Eury, though I did die repeatedly. It didn't make a difference- the ending was the same.

I have this problem with books, it's not that I don't enjoy books or anything, but I always get sleepy. Even if I'm enjoying a book and the story is compelling I get sleepy. I know this is pretty weird, but does anyone have this problem?

Reading makes me a bit sleepy after time, and I sometimes read to make myself tired so that I fall asleep. So you're not alone. Anyway, this is what bookmarks are for!

The first four books in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy.

Well, I think this thread has potential. 

Subversion hey? I'll have to check it out. I hope they intend to provide regular updates, but I am left wondering if they'll commit to that.

Hey, cut it out with the rotten fruit!

Punkpunk-

A dystopianworld where everyone is a punk. Who rides a steam-powered robot.

That got me thinking. How about a wholy original theme: a world set in the future which is neither a dystopia nor a seemingly perfect world with some sort of sinister secret or looming evil. A future world where everything is actually as it seems, everyone is genuinely happy, and nothing threatens it at all. Summarised in a few words:

"A future utopia where everything is actually as it seems"

armed with radioactive hamster nunchuks and a single stand of Chuck Norris' beard."

If he already has a single strand of Chuck Norris' beard, does he even need the nunchuks?