Wk 1 – Update 3

One good stage isn’t enough.

The game show theme was working. Now I had to figure out how to make another one without rebuilding the whole production.

I want people to be able to pick a fun wheel, add their questions, and use it. Most people have a class or a meeting to run. They do not have an afternoon set aside for stage design.

That pushed me to think about the parts we could reuse: the background, base, marquee, wheel placement, and lighting. The next theme should need new artwork and some adjustments in the editor, not another pile of special-case code. I’m trying to make future themes easier to build, and maybe future projects too.

Then there was the marquee. A short title looked stranded in the middle. A long one tried to leave the sign entirely. We made the text follow the curve, measured how much room the actual letters needed, and let longer titles split across two lines. Fonts, spacing, and screen size all had a vote. I spent more time negotiating with this sign than I expected.

The less glamorous work mattered just as much. Adding and editing questions needed to be quick, and the wheel needed to behave sensibly as questions were selected.

I also put the build version in the footer. We’re packaging each release and uploading it manually for now; we haven’t connected the project to source control yet. Seeing the version on the site gives me a quick answer to a very practical question: Did I upload the build I think I uploaded?

It’s a lot of attention for details people may never notice. That’s usually when the details are doing their job.

While I am amazed at how much I could accomplish so far, the PM in me wants more… I don’t have time for more right now. I have plans. Things to do this weekend. At least there isn’t a Michigan football game tomorrow!