The Journey Day 10…
By: Tony Miller
Tags: Technology, Game Development, Unity, Coding, Web Development

Reflection Eternal…

Today marked the end of my first two weeks in my role as Intern for GameDevHQ. With all that’s has been learned in this last sprint I took today to really hone in on some higher level coding that I had omitted over the course of the week. This week I took a challenge set by myself. Given what I learned, could I code my way to making this game function for the next two sections on the merits of my own code? Would I be able to make my backgrounds pop and start to put my own fingerprint on the project that I was charged to make as divergent as I wanted to? The API resolve came back and the answer was a resounding “Yes!”.

I had managed to make two fully functioning power-ups, the triple shot as well as a speed boost that turned up the tempo by 170%. I was able to demolish and rebuild a fully functioning and beautiful background that was actively animated and 3D. I was able to add my first sounds giving my newly created game it’s first voice. It was a neat experience to click play to run a test of my game and have music pour out of my speakers for the first time. My little engine that could began to take shape for the first time this week that didn’t feel so out of the box.

Not only was I able to accomplish this, but I was able to watch quite a few Unity tutorials on Youtube and spend a concerted effort getting used to the new software tool kit that will reside in my shortcuts bar right next to it’s cousins Ableton Live 10 as well as Logic Pro X. Being so close in purpose and function, Unity is like a long lost cousin returning home. Similar DNA but I needed some time to familiarize with the particular attributes of this family member.

The finalized background scene for Titan Escape

With game elements in place I then went back and watch all of the lesson material to check my code solutions. I was really curious to see how clean and dry they were. There were major changes to our iteration model that introduced classes and ID’s. this involved much less code and was far more clean and concise than the ways that I had found. Even still, those were the only main differences. My logic use was sounds and based on what I did learn I was able to produce the same game results. What I did learn were tricks that good developers pick up along the way to have the most dry and clean code.

Upon changing out my code to reflect the new learnings, it was time to tackle the last power up Included in the project list. The creation on a shield booster. The setup was easy and applying what I learn from the most recent lessons I was able to have it up and running within 10 mins. With working shields I was now able to focus on making my first character animation on pickup of on the power-up objects. The final piece before starting the UI. Home stretch at last.

So close yet so far. but the journey is just beginning. After two weeks of crash course C# and Unity instruction I have found a very comfortable home as a game development intern. That being said, we best not forget that I am also a web development student and just finished my last unit of Javascript. With applied Javascript complete, I can now focus on learning React.js fully. What a week. With heavy coding projects every day, a Javascript final, pair coding, helping cohorts sort out the blockers while I tweaked out my own project, I was able to find the time to do some really good work and take on quite a few new learnings. I can’t wait until week three. A hui hou!