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 Features
Indie Postmortem: 'FishEd'
 What Went Right:
1. The Language
In my far-from-illustrious programming career, I’d previously only worked on two systems: the Commodore 64 back in 1993, and the PC in 1994. In both cases I was programming in pure Assembly language, a considerably different kettle of fish from other languages such as C (I'd never been able to get to grips with the C / C++ coding style, much preferring the logical, step-by-step nature of assembly). Learning Blitz+, therefore, was a huge leap out of my comfort zone; not only was I programming again after some ten years, I was learning a new language in a new environment.
I needn’t have been so cautious, however; the Blitz family of languages are extremely easy to pick up (possibly more so than the likes of C), and the process of loading graphics and getting them up onscreen was simpler than I ever could have imagined. Blitz+ also benefited from the addition of a GUI module – one of my main reasons for choosing the language – and this allowed me to get the basic framework up and running after just a few hours at the keyboard. This freed up more time to concentrate on the nuts and bolts programming.
2. Research & Planning
Having worked as a Senior Designer for a number of videogame companies, I was used to spending the first week of a project trawling through websites and making copious notes. It was important to not only ensure that my planned features list contained all of the usual functions and drawing tools but to also take the user experience a step further. With this in mind, every editor I found was given a rigorous test; any quirks, problems, or annoyances were duly noted. It was particularly important to avoid the mistakes others had made.
The very first version of what would become FishEd.
After a couple of weeks building the framework and fitting in the basics, it was then a very straightforward process to build up the Wish List, containing all of the features which other editors didn’t do particularly well. Dozens of smaller ideas, tweaks, and refinements also made their way into the finished product, but the Wish List subsequently became the project bible, containing all of the major tasks necessary to produce what I would consider a definitive editor. This list was also useful when I hit a brick wall – tasks were categorized according to how much time they should take, so when problems surfaced I could temporarily switch to another small task to retain project momentum.
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