Journal #8500

Instead of crying about it, actually go and try to do something about it.
"But I don't know how!" No shit, nobody did. Start with simple examples and move on closer to what you want to achieve.

Aren't you a trained OOD programmer already Stu(y/n)? If y, how hard could it be to adapt to game coding?

It was almost seven years ago (!!) and in any case, the company did business software, which as complicated as it may be sometimes, doesn't ever deal with real-time user interaction, rendering, DirectX/OpenGL, or any of that gamey stuff. It's all accounting and payroll and database tables and reports and realllly dull stuff. I don't think I'm anywhere near game design, not to mention I totally suck at models and textures.

I should try to learn more about all this. But first I should probably finish a two-to-three-map pack for EP2 I started several months ago and never have time to work on.

@Stu: I work on business software which deals with real-time user interaction, so best not to generalise
Not just a little bit as well, it's a full-on multi-user real-time client/server application! Written in JavaScript, of all things! And it still has all the business-y stuff like accounting and payroll and database tables and reports.

While working on business software I also made Sledge in my spare time, which deals with rendering, OpenGL, and other gamey stuff. You don't really have to limit yourself simply because you aren't familiar with the details. When I started on Sledge, I had no idea how work with shaders and other graphics crap. Learn by doing!

Oh Penguinboy. That's uplifting! I have to try it while I have time. It will definitely take some time. Making a map for EP2 is taking me quite a bit, so the idea of tackling a whole game all by myself feels overwhelming.

And what I meant by real-time user interaction was that user interaction with business software is generally not as complex as with a game. Business software often does a lot of things at once at the click of a func_button. Games do a lot of relatively simple things that are tied to a key press, and many of them happen at the same time or not depending on what the user did, and, and... I don't know. I once made a Pong-type game in VB6 and the controls sucked

Note down your ideas for improvement or... just about any ideas. This works for any domain actually. I myself note down ideas, if I get enthusiastic about them wherever I can. Usually in textfiles but if the enthusiasm hits me really hard I'll write them down in whatever notebook or paper I have at hand( or even the notes application my S4 came with).

Later when you'll have more experience you will be able to tackle them.

This was an advice I got from Captain Terror or Tetsu0, I can't remember who for sure.

Good advice indeed. Actually I have been thinking of writing it all down, if only to clear my mind.

I need to find some real game code to look at and get an idea of how things are normally handled.

Always keep a notepad

Been looking at OpenGL programming. It's both amazing and terrifying. It's a bit TOO low-level. I NOPE'd so hard out of there. I'm probably better off finding a nice engine and working from there.

I recommend you start with SDL, but that might be too low level too. I find Allegro or SFML excellent frameworks to start working with, especially for 2D stuff.

Depends on what you want to do. If you want to skip all the low-level engine stuff and just start doing gameplay programming, you can't really go wrong with Unity.

It's pretty amazing how far rendering has come. What was once a titanic task, now is only an included library away, and more complex things can be done with less work. While I do believe it must be fun to tinker with all the low-level stuff, I think it would take me too long to set up a good enough rendering base, and it would probably not be necessary considering there are plenty of already refined solutions out there. I'm not saying it would be a waste of time, I would undoubtedly learn a lot from it, but it's not exactly what I'm after right now.

Unity looks interesting, I might give it a try. I also thought of Unreal at some point.

Unreal 4 is pretty epic. Although it's $20 for a license.
Unity is free however. Ask rim about unity, he did some rolling ball thing with it a few years back.

Oh I remember that. Might ask him.