October 2020 - Week 60 - Stoke the Furnaces!

Summary

• Test-driven development
• Addressing difficulties
• Patreon changes

Detail

Test-driven development encourages minimal changes to achieve results and the minimal change is usually the simplest solution. However, I find it sometimes encourages an easy fix leading to complexity. (See Rich Hickey's talk for the distinction between simple and easy here). In my case I have been guilty of adding a new type of tool for each new building, so far walls, floors and doors. This combining of tool and building means I have to make more changes than necessary when a new building is added. With the addition of the Wood Furnace workshop I've decided to separate these two concepts. In the video above the workshop tool opens a second toolbar to choose the type of workshop and the build tool is being given the same treatment. Without my test-suite however, I would not have the courage to make this separation.

Last week I took a break from Dwerg Saga because I was finding it difficult to continue with the addition of the risk vs reward progression. Some things contributing to this difficulty include:

• Uncertainty about the value of the work.
• Uncertainty about what level of detail I should be simulating.
• Feeling bad about copying something without innovating.
• Numerous refactoring jobs that "need" to be done.
• Distractions about other pieces of work.
• Nicotine withdrawal.
• Anxiety and distractions from social media and news.

To address this last issue I've decided to only look at social media and the news in the evening. In addition I'm turning my phone off until the evening. I'll review this once the current feature is complete.

In a cynical attempt to make enough money to feed myself, the weekly blog post will only be freely available every four weeks. I'm going to remove some of the Patreon tiers and start producing content for the higher-paying tiers.

For the next week I'll be finishing the tool refactoring, adding copper and tin ores and a more dangerous monster.