Jason's Development Blog

Well, that’s it. My fears confirmed, time management has killed me. There is no way I’m getting this done in time. I spent too long on the background under-the-hood code, which maybe related to how that’s the part of coding I find the most fun. Which could also explain why I’m on the Platform Team at work. We make the API and let the Application Team worry about the best shade of Cornflower Blue to show the customers. And that’s what I ended with, the start of what could be a solid API but something only tangentially related to a working game.

On the brightside my code is very modular, and I am definitely going to create something properly using a more refined variation on this design at a later date (and the lack of time limit will let me use proper TDD and the like).

If I take part in the next LD, I’ve learnt a lot here and had fun, even if I have nothing to demo by the end of it but a sprite moving around the screen. I learnt from my mistakes and will hopefully have more to show in the future.

Major respect for the other LDers who actually get something done without getting lost in background implementation details, as I did.

If I could do it again, I’d pick a pre-existing “engine” (hate that term) instead of writing my own. I just can’t write fast and hackish code without feeling unclean, but for rolling things yourself I’m not experienced enough to do anything but in the timeframe. I fought against that, and it took me too long.

Also I’d impose a much stricter “sprint” system, planning out from the start goals on an hour-by-hour basis (using hourly iterations) with a set of things that needed doing I could pull from. I tried this by the end, where I started to pick up the pace, but it was too little too late.

Code by the end is on github for the curious.https://github.com/MorleyDev/ld24Evolution

tl;dr – I failed hard, but had a blast doing so.

Reposted from http://www.ludumdare.com/

Hello world and it’s loved ones. I am MorleyDev. I’m an English computer science student currently on a paid internship at an awesome company obsessed with agile development. Yes, I have been indoctrinated in those ways, so this Ludum Dare will be an interesting test for me. I will be streaming via Google Hangouts and Air, so feel free to check that out. I’ll have to put up links as they go online because of how hangouts on air seems to work (don’t think you can have a permanent link to an unstarted Hangout or embed unstarted Hangouts in a web page, unfortunately).

Well that or you can follow my new Google+ account or my new YouTube channel. That could work too.

Language: C++ (GCC for the new C++11 features, using the latest nuwen.net build for MinGW to compile on Windows)
Libraries planned on using: Boost, JML, Google Mock, UnitTest++, SFML, Lua
Targeted OS: Windows, maybe Linux if I have time.

Starting code - Well it’s not exactly “code” but I’ve created an Eclipse project with options to help me do some Testing and Cross-Compiling (if it comes to that). I hope. Maybe. It has some empty mains and the like but nothing “game” related so hopefully it’s allowed and nobody will lynch me in my sleep.

Where I’m not too worried – I’m a programmer. I program. I’d like to think the coding in and of itself won’t be too hear-pulling-out-of-head-and-feeding-to-self-difficult. I’d like a challenge sure, but a challenge I can do.

Where I’ll probably fail - My graphical skills are to be compared with a blind monkey drunk off it’s arse, high on every illicit drug known to man and being repeatedly hit over the head with a shovel. The monkey is also dead. I’m not an artist and so my “art” will be simplistic at best and ugly at best.

Where I’m worried I’ll fail – Ideas, obviously. But also time management. I like to test code and such, and so my feedback cycle will need to be a short one. I’ll probably use compile time to make art assets and such to keep my momentum but it’s a big concern for me. Coding on a slow-as-slow netbook last Ludum Dare actually made me ragequit due to the slow feedback cycle, but since now I have my quad-core hyperthreading laptop back from the repairing place that hopefully won’t be an issue. Hopefully.

- MorleyDev (http://morleydev.co.uk/)

This could be amazing. That article there. Know what it talks about?

Linux on Steam!….wait, I think I got that wrong.

Steam on Linux!

So why is this something which could be amazing? Well, I don’t know about you but for me at least I don’t use any software on Windows that doesn’t have a Linux version, and even switch across to Linux for some programs! Except, of course, Video Games.

Oh I do love me some video games. For a long time, only Windows was a viable choice for gaming. Wine and alternatives for Linux weren’t, and still aren’t, capable enough to play the majority of games available. Not even OSX was a valid option.

Then Steam released their OSX version. For you dirty dirty mac users (shame on you!) this brought a renaissance of sorts. Ports for Mac games…appeared! Became easily and readily available. And for those vile mac users, it was good. Still not all games are available for OSX, but more incentives and reasons exist to port and ports have and are happening.

But then people like me were left stuck dual booting Linux and Windows, just so we could enjoy us some video games. Here’s hoping this horrible era is drawing to a close!

Especially since Windows 8 is…Windows 8 and that isn’t a good thing. It is painfully apparent in how Desktop PCs and Gaming are getting shafted here. Shafted I say! I don’t get tablets or their use case or what purpose they serve at all, I have to do a ramble on this at some point.

Okay I don’t mind it so much (the era, Windows 8 and Tablets…I do mind), but having to switch over to Linux and not being able to do squat fun but browse the interwebs and wet ones whistle whilst waiting for a video to render sucks monkeys.

However, a wonderful little truth we all have to keep in our tiny mammalian brains here is that technically that entire article is hearsay, information being repeated. It could all be a lie, and wouldn’t pass in court. Except in the courts of my dreams…

No to Internet Censorship. Stop this bullshit.

Quote of the Day
“The current draft of ACTA would profoundly restrict the fundamental rights and freedoms of European citizens, most notably the freedom of expression and communication privacy.”
An open letter signed by many organizations, including Consumers International, EDRi (27 European civil rights and privacy NGOs), the Free Software Foundation (FSF), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), ASIC (French trade association for web 2.0 companies), and the Free Knowledge Institute (FKI)

Now, I’ll admit I’m not the most consistent blogger. I’ve not updated in awhile. Moving to a new flat and sorting out my second year of uni has been…interesting, to say the least. Now that I’m finally in a somewhat comfortable position again, and doing some vaguely interesting stuff at University, I wish I could say I’d be more regular but that’d probably be a lie.

However, I think I’ve found a way to do something that could be interesting, educational and fun. I’m going to launch a stream. Having compared a variety of sites, I decided ustream.tv is probably the best site for this in terms of professionalism vs free vs features. Whilst the “conversation with a viewer face-to-face” feature of Stickam is pretty cool it’s too “teen-centric” and “omghotgirllet’swatch” for my liking, and justin.tv’s audience seems too gaming focused (tech users, not techies). And Livestream too “free and sucks, or expensive and is awesome” for me to afford.

So, I’m going with ustream.tv, with my new upcoming show: Let’s Code!. Yes, Let’s Code: Because that’s what I do. It’s a tech show, in which I go over tech news centred around game and software development, in which I’ll upload “video tutorials” on such topics, and also: I code. Hence the similarity to the title Let’s Play, I stream myself as I program things. Random things. The purpose of this is to act as a medium in which I can interact with a viewer: I’ll be working on my own projects and people can ask me questions about things and we can communicate.

The time and day the show starts will be announced soon but the first stream (basically a pre-pilot pilot) will begin streaming at 7pm GMT on Monday the 31st of October. If you have any big questions you want to hear my opnions on from me, suggestions for tutorials you want to see or anything else related to this stream, questions/comments/suggestions can be sent to code@morleydev.co.uk and I’ll try to get around to them.

Actually that I can give opinions, suggestions and answers and have a dialogue is why Stickam’s “peer-to-peer chat” thing interested me, it would be useful for that. But oh well, like I said the site just seemed to “teen-centric”. I may visit it again at a later date, but for now I’ll make due with ustream.tv.

So yeah, that’s my big announcement and triumphant return to the blogosphere!

Quote of the Day
“Nemo, where the f*ck have you been?”
Russel Howard