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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • Start with pen and paper - no computer, because that’ll just distract you.

    Write down what kind of game you want to make. Sketch out what you want your player to see when they play the game (top down, third person, first person; which UI elements should they see? Health? Mana or power bars? Selected items?). Does it have a story of sorts? What kind of setting (future, past, fantasy, sci-fi). 2D or 3D? What kind of visual style are you going for (realistic, cartoony, abstract?).

    This will be your Game Design Document. You don’t have to get it perfectly at the first go - iterate over it, scratch things that you feel won’t work.

    Once you have something that looks like a minimally viable product (MVP), THEN you can start making something in Godot, Game Maker, or Love2D. Because now you have something to follow along. Try to get something out ASAP, because feedback from people who are not you is important. Maybe you made something that feels fun to you, but no one else likes it - you would want to know that as soon as possible, not after toiling away for 5 years.

    Do not start caring about “what is the fastest programming language”. Even the slowest of languages are fine, because you’re learning how to build a game, not how to program like a pro.



  • What are the chances you are GenZ / Alpha?

    Older generations bitch about “damn kids these days don’t respect their elders” ever since at least Socrates.

    The young have always bitched about the older generations being stuck in their ways and being too nostalgic about their own youth.

    This is the way.

    You’re not special.





  • Eh, I liked it for explaining how people can behave differently.

    It doesn’t have much predictive power, and thus is bad science, but I like its descriptive power. I also think it’s a bad idea to see it as a quaterny (binary, trinery, …) instead of a spectrum. Same with being introverted/extraverted - that’s a spectrum as well, IMO.










  • Refactoring

    Once you know how to write code (in any language) it’s important to learn how to rewrite it (into something better)

    Test-Driven Development with Python

    Because manually stepping through your code is a PITA, so it’s better to put that process into code that you can save and re-run without thinking about it.

    Head first java

    Any of the Head First series are great introduction books. Head First Design Patterns is great to learn programming patterns that you can typically re-use in any language :D

    Fundamentals of Software Architecture

    Haven’t read this one, but learning about architecture is important so you can keep your UI, logic and data layers separate, so when you need to replace one layer (like the UI, because the boss wants a refresh), you don’t need to pull out all your hairs due to frustration!

    Domain Driven Design

    I don’t do DDD (at least not consciously), but understanding what a domain is really really important once you need to talk to business people (not something I like, but it’s necessary to write the right code).

    Neuromancer

    “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.” is such a banger of a first line. Outdated, because “dead channel” won’t make sense to younger kids, but I bet they’ll get a kick out of learning about how TVs used to be.