5 Indie Development Tips for the Non-Coder

Post was originally published on the Bare Knuckle Development Blog on 29th September 2015 and is written by Tony Leavy.

Five tips for all the indie game devs out there who can't code and want to help their programmer.

The past few weeks Ste's been working on getting our amazing indie game, The Flawless: Art's Tale, ready so we can start on the fun stuff like, making levels, animating baddies, putting all the pieces together basically. Meanwhile, I've been sketching, blogging (check out my post about the cats in our game), and observing the madness that is programming.

I’m not a coder, although I’ve picked up some knowledge and understanding of the process after watching Ste lose his mind, have epiphanies, type at lightning speed, and then stare at the screen for hours on end. When we started on this indie development journey we couldn’t wait to design levels, bring our epic plot and characters to life and show the world… but first, before all that must come the code.

As the non-coder in this partnership it’s my duty to be the life jacket when Ste’s drowning in for-loops, Booleans, abstract classes, methods, structs, lists, if statements, ahhh my non-coding mind is spinning. I’ve learnt some strategies that have helped me help Ste with his programming adventures.

1. Do not disturb the flow – when Ste is in the middle of something it’s best to just let him get on with it and not distract him with a “ooohh Ste look at this sketch” or "Ste look at this cute cat video".
   
   Don't distract programmers with hair bobbles
2. Remind them to eat – pretty simple but there have been times when Ste has completely forgotten to eat all day which isn’t good for anything.
   

   Don't forget to feed programmers

3. Remind them to step back, chill out and breathe – if things seem like they are unfixable step away, do something else like go to the shop, cook a bacon butty, do a workout, then breathe. Usually a solution appears when you're not thinking about the problem.
4. Listen and don’t be afraid of asking stupid questions – There are times when Ste’s talking in jargon and completely loses me so I ask him to explain basic things to me. This has often helped him to figure something out and see a problem from a different angle. So, there you go there are no stupid questions.
5. Be a ‘Backup’ reminder – After a long day of coding Ste just wants to turn off the laptop and relax, or play on the PlayStation, I always remind him to backup which has saved us a couple of times.Remind programmers to backup, PCs break

So as the non-coder in this duo this is how I help with the coding. I hope you find these tips useful and if you have any more tips for us non-coding indie devs I'd love to hear about them. :)

I've better get sketching the baddies and finishing the plot of our indie game. For all things Flawless and to keep up with our progress you can check out our offical Flawless website or follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

#FlawlessTheGame #IndieDev #Coding #Scripting #Programming #GameDev #IndieGame