Programming, General Blog

Writing this post because it has dawned on me that I've really failed to do so of late.

Even now, there really isn't all that much that I can say that would prove enlightening on what I've been up to for the last month. The way of working has been very different in Programming from the way we worked in Games Design, as fundamentally different subjects as they are.

I thought that I'd at least say that some of the fear I originally had with programming has dissipated. Not to say that I'm necessarily finding the subject easy, more that it appeals to my problem solving obsessive compulsive streak, and the only difficulty I can really say I'm experiencing is trying to do things without actually knowing the code necessary. If I know what code I can use and how/why it functions, then I can code and use it in many more ways... if I have no idea what I'm doing, obviously I'm not going to get anywhere.

It is all fine and dandy to say Google is good for helping out, but I've not been finding that to be the case exactly. There are only so many ways to phrase something you're trying to work out, and eeeeh.

Right now, we've been set a task to make a primative 2D game in a C# Console Application. I vaguely understand the base code that allows the program to function, but I have no idea about many of the things we've been additionally asked to do, like making things disappear when the player walks over it, or enemies that move 2 spaces back and forth. I can't see any of that particularly working with the knowledge I have at present, nor have I really been able to solve the problems via google. All I've found is that there is no way to change the contents of an array, and that can't be true. It would help to know what to be looking for rather than gunning blind. At least until there is enough knowledge to actually be able to confidently search for extra knowledge. I feel like I'm missing pieces of a puzzle.

The only thing I really did figure out on my own was making the player only move left and right apart from when ladders are present. Even that isn't really very useful to me right now, and I'm planning to work out if there is a way to make the code function by observing what is one cell UNDER the player character instead of directly behind the player character. Which would resolve the issue of being able to move left and right in the air... but I have no idea if it will even work.

Ughuhuh. I'm sure I'll work it all out eventually.