Content
This is where you'll find all the different things I've done related to documenting and researching my journey on this project.
I've got a few systems in place for keeping everything organized:
Here's how I documented them...
Version Control
I started this journey using GitHub, because it's always been the default for my relatively small projects. It didn't take long before I realized that GitHub's free tier wasn't going to cut it, and I didn't feel like paying $5/m on a project that I wasn't sure was going anywhere. Looking back, I could have and it might have been worth it, but what I did instead is definitely better for me.
I started looking for a new solution that I could host myself. GitLab was on the list, especially since I knew how Git worked in general, but then I found Perforce. Perforce quickly became my favorite version control. I love the way you can check out files that you're changing, the merge/diff tool is really good, and it even has Unreal Engine Blueprint support. I run the Perforce server on an old computer I put together with spare parts, and it's been a pretty flawless experience. The fact that it's built to handle large binary files is so nice too. Sorry, I'm sure I'm rambling now, but I honestly love using Perforce.
Clean Code
I really didn't think that this project would get as big as it did, but I guess that's what happens when your passion for something only grows as you keep working on it. In the beginning, I was rarely commenting my code, but the more I looked into Unreal's source code, the more I wanted to replicate the organization and documentation that it has. Seeing what a function runs, and why it takes the inputs that is does without having to dig it up because some kind soul wrote a nice comment about it is so nice. It's definitely saved me on my own stuff when I come back to something after not touching it for a while. As I work on old files, I've been going through and documenting as much as I can before moving on so all my code is easier to read and use. The header files are becoming more comment than code haha!
Research & Ideas
I'm always looking for new ideas on what to do next on the project, and half of the time I'm not around or don't have time to implemnent it at the time. I've created a Discord server with dozens of channels for different topics of research, ideas, and keeping track of things that I've tried before. I invited a handful gaming friends to it, and now I've got real players that can provide real feedback and ideas when we test and talk about the project. Overall, it's been a super worthwhile endeavor to setup for this project, and it's basically become my game design document for now.