Note: The opening line to this week's post is from the song "Code Monkey" by Jonathan Coulton. If you haven't heard it, go listen to it, because the song - and the band - is great.
I'd like to talk about something that is near and dear to my heart today, Ninja Faithful. I'd like to, but I'm too busy rolling a friggin' ball around a 3-D rendered plane to think about much else.
In case you haven't guessed by now, this entry is about programming. Specifically, game programming. As most of you probably know(particularly if you read my quite frankly masterful take on Persona 3), Ro is a gamer. Ever since being a Little Ro, I've been fairly hooked. I'm pretty much always behind the times these days on which games are currently popular, but I'm hooked nonetheless. Which has led to more than a few conversations about why I've never tried to get into the field of video game design, with Mama Ro, Sister Ro, and friends alike. The short answer was that I've always been a bit concerned that I would lose some of the enjoyment I have playing games, as often happens to folks who choose to make a hobby into a career. The shorter answer is that programming is work, and takes a lot of time. And I'm kinda bad about falling into other things and doing nothing else with my time.
All the same, though, I've felt some nudgings over the past year or so that are changing my mind. I've gotten in touch with the local programmer collective, RunJumpDev, and hope to be attending some of their meetings going forward. I've started trying to get familiar with the languages and environments that game programming is currently conducted in. And through an Internet friend, I've connected with a couple of seasoned developers to start work on an As-Yet Untitled RPG®.
Which is why I'm now rolling a ball around a fictional tabletop. Unity is the name of the game, y'all - or, rather, it's the name of one of the most popular game development environments out there at the moment. It, and software packages like it, are just the thing to get lazy developers like me to actually jump into a project; rather than having to reinvent everything a game would need from the ground up, like graphics models, graphics engines, etc., they let us import tons of pre-existing content made by others wherever we'd like. So, for instance, someone like me, who has little-to-no artistic expertise, can find a bunch of character models made and published by an actual artist, pull them in, and get right to work. It's pretty neat, and I highly recommend such an approach for anyone curious about game design, regardless of your background(or lack thereof) in programming. On top of that, Unity provides a bunch of tutorials that walk you through the process of getting a game going from start-to-finish. I'm starting with the simplest one, "Roll a Ball," but they proceed up to an arcade shooter, a 2-D Rogue-like RPG, and on.
So as I'm sitting here rolling this ball around - and watching my camera derp and go nuts as I experiment with getting it locked into the right position - I'm reminded of how much I love programming, in spite of my laziness. I was introduced to the field back in elementary school, where my class was introduced to Basic by the time I was eight. I changed schools later, so there was a long lull where I didn't have much access to it, until I hit high school and enrolled in some Computer Science courses. C++ was the name of the game then, and though C#, the actual language my Roll a Ball tutorial uses, is a bit different in structure and design philosophy, it still takes me back to those earlier days. And as I said before, where I have very little experience with visual art, I'm a creator by nature - stacks o' novels and stories, yo - and programming scratches that itch magnificently, what with quite literally letting me bring a thing in my head to life on my screen(or, I suppose that's still "quite figuratively", but you get my drift). And though it doesn't come up often, I have a burning desire to reach Monty Oum levels of skill with character design and graphics, to eventually bring my stories to life as animated shorts, so really, I'd better get cracking if I plan on ever reaching that goal.
Anywho, that's ACN for today. I'll keep y'all updated on my programming adventures(and misadventures, as I fully intend to venture into more risque game territory eventually, giggity), and might even have some videos to share of my funnier bugs and mishaps down the line.
Until next time, Code Monkey Ro very simple man. With big warm fuzzy secret heart. Code Monkey Ro like you.
Katamari image used c/o of http://www.pressthebuttons.com/2009/03/new-katamari-game-is-ps3-exclusive.html
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