The project is called War On Robots. I’d like to discuss my experience creating my first proper side project, some of the mistakes that I made writing it, and how I fixed the mistakes.
The Mistakes
- Mistake #1: Making functions do too much
- Mistake #4: Feature creep
- Mistake #5: Comparing my app to others
Mistake #1: Making functions do too much
My, how code can become a big bowl of spaghetti very quickly. And don’t get me wrong, I love a good bowl of spaghetti. But when it comes to code, I’m not a fan.
This mistake was mostly made out of laziness. I wrote functions that were too large, did too much, and knew about things they had no business knowing about. It turns out this trap is very easy to get into when you dive in coding without much planning. Let me give you an example.
Mistake #2: Feature creep
I love using Trello for simple project management. That’s why I used it for Lintly.
For Lintly, I have a Trello board with 4 columns:
1. To-Do — v1.0
2. To-Do — Beta
3. Doing
4. Done
My workflow was simple: pull cards from the Beta lane and move them into the Doing lane. When I finished the feature, I would commit the code and move the card from Doing to Done. When all items in Beta were finished, then the Beta was ready to release.This sounds simple enough, right? The problem is how easy it is to move items from v1.0 to Beta. I would sometimes see a feature in the v1.0 lane and convince myself that I could easily throw that into the Beta as well. This may not seem like a big deal, but doing that over and over again ensured that I would miss my own personal deadlines to have the Lintly beta released.
How I fixed my mistake
I created a second Trello board called “Pac-man v1” and moved the To-Do — v1.0 lane over to that board. Just the simple act of making the lane harder to see on a daily basis meant that I was much less likely to move its cards over to the Beta.
Stay focused when you are working on a beta. Figure out which features are an absolute must and ignore all the rest .
Mistake #5: Comparing my Game to others
Unless you are creating an app that is based on an entirely original idea, you’ll probably find yourself making this same mistake. The mistake is comparing your app (and perhaps even yourself) to others.
How I fixed the mistake
That was the realization of two things:
- Competition is a good thing
- Everyone needs a side project
There will almost certainly always be competition for an application you are making, and that is perfectly fine. All you can do is make the application the best that you can and enjoy working on it. And if nothing else, it will always look good on a resumé!
