#solving-problems

[thepersonalwords]

The gap between understanding and misunderstanding can best be bridged by thought!

Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

[spectrum-blog]

Solving Problems

Developing Spectrum has not been a smooth ride at all. There were so many obstacles along the way (some were accounted for and some were unexpected). As a result of that we have grown relentless and resourceful. No matter what problems we face, we eventually solve them. This post is about showing how to solve unknown problems!

Some of the problems we faced:

Technically unable to solve a bug. (see the 3 techniques below!).

Technically unable to implement a feature. (start with a small feature, learn Unity’s API ...etc.)

Lack of experience in Game Design. -> (Read books, attend classes, research other games/game designers).

Lack of experience in people management. -> (just do it and have great communication skills)

Lack of experience in marketing and business. -> (just do it and learn as you go).

Basically implementing something from paper into working version inside Unity that looks and feels as imagined. (learn Unity API’s, workflow, graphics pipeline, how things gets rendered on a screen, shaders ...etc.)

There has been only one consistent contributor to Spectrum and that is myself. I have had a friend help out in the first year and another friend is helping out currently to finish the game and ship it. I have had help from many people (friends, online people and contractors). However, the majority of the time is basically me trying to solve something I don’t know.

Here’s how I solved them and how I trained myself to pretty much solve anything (does not have to be about game dev):

Can you reproduce/describe the problem clearly?

Understand and know the problem. Start from the basics and reason up from there. (this is based on researching how others such as Elon Musk solve problems)

Research online for the problem and seek help early! (people take time to respond so do it early and maybe by the time they reply you have already figured out a solution. Also, most likely someone else has asked your question before!)

I use those 3 techniques everywhere not just in developing Spectrum. I usually end up finding a solution to the problem by the time I’m finished with point #2.

Each of the problems mentioned above deserve its own blog post, which I will do at some point :)