"No, You Can't Make Video Games"

General Discussions
#121

I am going traverse this thread back to the article.

This topic boils down into two very distinct groups.

Those who view the journey as the means to a destination,
And those who see the journey for the journey itself.

In the first view:

  • Most people will never complete making a game.

In the second view:

  • Most people will never complete making a game.

However, what did the person achieve during the process of attempting to complete the game?
Perhaps he learned programming, perhaps he learned art, or perhaps he learned something new about himself.

In his journey he did not reach his destination, but he still gained knowledge and experience that might prove quite valuable on his next journey.

#122

I actually enjoyed reading that because I know a lot of kids at my school who go in like yer lets make a game , they make them in scratch because thats what they were taught and then when they get to use the actual languages they just cant because they were taught you can do it heres something extremely easy for you to use. There are the few that make it through and learn the language , not because they are just generally likeminded but also because they wanted to do the learning and they knew they had to they didnt just think “if I mess with this for a bit it will work”.
"Like all things, there is a dark side to gaming many don’t speak about.

Even when you can program, there are the parts in which you are implementing that you can be extremely creative and bring out the new fun mechanics. Then, the grunt work appears. The lines and lines of menu implementation, connecting graphics, lining up text. You then realize the fun is all sucked out when you have those 11 bugs you have been trying to get rid of for days. "
You have just created my version of hell . The two things in programming I despise entirely are graphics positioning and GUI programming. They have to be done but they are the bits that require the many hundred lines of framework then the many more implenting and checking button events. Once all of this is out of the way , by that I mean : Accurate and easy graphics positioning and transformation, the continuous bits if this.x = x in certain objects and of course of course programming the text renderer.

#123

I love programming UI the most! :smiley: No idea why that is, probably because the results are the easiest to see. (Every line of code actually changes something)

#124

Thats a nice point , still dont you find it frustrating to have to make pixel perfect movements and have to test these over and over until its in the exact spot?

#125

I think he is throwing out the baby with the bath water.

#126

I loved programming my text renderer! It took a lot of work, but for some reason, I loved every minute of it. Everything from kerning, to how the glyphs are accessed, to displaying everything with character wrapping… I have no idea why I loved it so much! I also learned so much from almost every step of the project, which has caused me to rewrite it about 5 or 6 times already as I figure out better methods.

It was really my first, easy to use utility that I had written that didn’t require a whole lot to get up and running.

#127

it is useful as it does teach you how to perform batch object creations efficiently and well.
I use a single row spritesheet then in my method I take apart my string into single characters and check there position against a string called alphabet which matches the order of the letters in the spritesheet. I then use these and a special flowbuffercreator class that just links any number of verticies together into a single vbo and it is returned as a GB (graphics batch). Fairly simple but effective system , trying to implement multiple colors.