Another Boxer 1.0 alpha build is up, sporting some of the mouse control improvements discussed in the previous post. Boxer’s existing mouse cursor behaviour is still the default, but locking the mouse is now just a Cmdclick away: quick, intuitive and obvious. I'll be improving both behaviours further in the coming builds, but I'm already much happier with how they work.
This build also features three fewer features:
After reading Rework, 37signals’ guide to kicking yourself in the pants, I felt inspired to start viciously pruning Boxer’s feature-set for the looming release of 1.0. These were fallow features full of bugs and awkward flaws; there was no way they would be finished to my satisfaction before 1.0, were I to release before the oceans boil and all life on Earth comes to an end.
I’m casting my eye around for other fripperies to send to the guillotine, but in any case once game installation is in then I’ll institute a feature-freeze and start calling everything a beta instead.
Yes, after nearly 3 months, a new Boxer 1.0 alpha build is shaved and thrust blinking into the sunlight. This build comes with the following bullet points:
This is important, kids: a lot has changed under Boxer’s hood from my gonzo restructuring, and There Will Be Bugs. Furthermore, You Must Report Them otherwise They’ll Stay There Forever and Boxer Won’t Get Better and I Will Die a Sad and Broken Man.
There will likely be several more builds in quick succession as things are shaken down and all those bugs you keen entomologists report are squished. Either that, or I’ll tear the heart out of SDL’s input handling and the codebase will be busted for another 3 months. Oh, which will he choose!?
Design by 40watt.