Decisions Decisions

Game design is interesting to me, you are able to create an entire world and allow a user the ability interact with it.  Decisions you make become the basis on how the game runs and how it plays.  How does one draw the line on which decision is the best, on one hand you have time which in most cases can be translated into money one way or another, on the other hand you have how cool it would be to add X feature.  I have been programming for almost 9 years now and the programing side is easy, all one has to do is figure out how to translate what is needed to be done into the most efficient and reliable code possible.  With game design there is no clear line and I find myself torn between certain game decisions. How many upgrades should be needed to keep the game interesting but not over do it? How many levels are needed before a new type of enemy is introduced? How big do you make the stages since the iphone has a small screen to play with ( allow the user to expand and contract or just make the stage small enough it fits on screen)?

 Besides my trouble making game design decisions the overall game programming is coming along nicely.  I have the menu screens done besides artwork to make them look better.  I have the main game layer going, working on switching out levels now and how I can easily store each one, still debating between XML or some database tables.  Working on sprites now, making the AI work for the enemies is turning out to be a pain.  The AI of the enemies is simple on paper, just drop in and find a way to get to the end, yet translating that to the code level grrr :P.  Well just trying to keep everyone up to date on my progress.  Hopefully soon I will have at least a website with images and what the actual game is about soon.  I can not wait to get it to at least testing phase to find out how well my decsions translate into fun gameplay for anyone that plays.  Well till next time :p

L8er Tuppo