What's in a name

post from gaming your way - blog on 03 November 2009 07:54:10 PM. © gaming your way - blog

I've got a bug in Ionic. It's with the little remote drones that collect the dropped guineas ( I thought guineas made a nice change to "Creds", plus I'd already done the spinning G graphic for the never to be released Orbs game I started on. The power-source you have to protect in the middle of your dreadnought in Ionic also funnily enough looks just like the orb from Orbs. No point wasting those pixels ).

Anyway, the drones are called "Chyrsus". It's from Greekmythology, and he ( It ? ) was the spirit of gold. Naming things is always animportant aspect of development for me, it helps settle things in my mind, it setsa tone, and I like that name ( Even though I had to check the spelling lots of timeswhen first getting used to it ).
It says what it is nice and succinctly.

Why am I even talking about this ? Yes partly 'cause our posts have dropped off recently,we're just having a boring phase where everything we do can just as easily be condenseddown to a 140 words and spat out over twitter (That's so cheap linking to our twitter account I know ) but partly because all thein-game help is done now.

All finished.

The snag is, no where in the docs do I explain the Chyrsus.

The game is quite word heavy, the detail is there if you want it. I've not explainedthe drones / guineas as I like to credit the end player with the intelligence to figurethings out ( Unless of course you're that first poster type on Kongregate. Anyonewho can post a comment within minutes of a game being uploaded is someone whose notactually taken the time to play the game they're so keen to say sucks. First posters,you may think you're the Billy Bollocks for getting there first, but I think it'sfair to say the majority of developers think you're a cock. And ignore your commentsanyway. Well done for "winning" though, good work on that ), and get that "Ah,I get it" moment that is the reward of sticking with something.

So no mention of the word Chyrsus anywhere in the game. Bit of an over sight ? Possibly.But I'd have to name it anyway, it needs a class name, and now it's our little secret.Think of reading the blog as buying the limited edition of the game, you're gettingthe inside scoop that other people miss.

And yes, right now I regret having a little green drone flying out of hatch to collectdropped coins instead of just adding them straight to your bank account like in othertower defense games. A drone with no name and a big fat bug.

Squize.