Attack HQ was a fun distraction for a week, and an opportunity to learn a new game development tool that I’d never seen before starting this project, GDevelop. So in the space of a week, I learned a new tool and created a simple game using it to submit to the game jam, where it received some very positive feedback. I might even return to this one day and take it further, it was fun.
This is a good demonstration of my engineering/architecture first approach to software development in practice. By focusing throughout my career on the techniques required to build quality software, irrespective of the tools, languages, and frameworks, I can apply this knowledge and skill readily to new and unfamiliar systems. The alternative approach many software developers take is to specialize in a particular field, language, or framework, which can limit their ability to think out of the box and adapt to new situations. I was able to pick up a completely unfamiliar toolchain, with a very different coding paradigm, and create a playable game in less than 8 days, by applying my knowledge of good software design techniques to conceptualize the end product, and then apply the available features of the toolset to implement that design rapidly.
Unashamedly influenced by the great Atari arcade game, Rampart
Play the game here