#Wonfiidoesgamedev

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

100 Days of Gamedev (Day 3)

Was feeling a bit overwhelmed last night and this morning. Game development involves sooo many different kinds of talents being used together. It feels almost impossible to go at it alone. I was feeling pretty demotivated last night about it while trying to put together a personal project outside of my course work. For now, ive decided im just going to stick to my course work until i gain a bit more confidence and general understanding of everything works.

Having said that, i learned a lot in my coursework today and last night. A lot about Radians and Vectors in particular. I dont know that i have a complete grasp on them at this point, but i have a surface level understanding that i can expand on through the course.

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

100 Days of Gamedev (Day 10)

tldr: Feeling good about the whole process currently! Learned about how to use existing objects, and how to change existing objects to accommodate new ones.

Im really enjoying the process now honestly. I still have that strong desire to do things that are well out of my reach but i dont think thats a bad feeling to have. I also think that this daily blog about what ive learned each day was a GREAT idea so far. it helps me go over what ive just learned to sort of reinforce it, encourages me to practice daily, and provides future me with a sort of log of my own learning process.

Anyways, i did one lesson today, but it was pretty long and had two practices in it. It was a lot of reinforcing things that were already covered, but with intentionally less hand holdy instructions. Also learned about how to reuse existing code to be more efficient, and learned about node groups to differentiate objects with similar behaviors.

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

100 Days of Gamedev (Day 6)

tldr: didnt wanna do the work but did. learned and recapped a lot about Vectors, specifically when they are most commonly used, how to change their variables, and how to find a vector's magnitude.

Really wasnt feeling it today not sure why. I eventually got in and did the reading regardless though. Read through the first of the three study guides for module 4. it was essentially a lot of information about Vectors, what they are most commonly used for, and what sort of changes you can make with them. The main thing i wanted to understand better going into it was how to normalize a vector and why you would need to, and i was able to get that out of the reading which was nice.

Essentially when you normalize a Vector you pick out the direction the vector is pointing and get rid of all other information. quote directly from the course: "To normalize a vector, divide each component (x and y in a 2D vector) by the vector's length. This way, the length of the resulting vector is 1.0." In Godot thankfully there is a function that automatically normalizes vectors for you called normalized(). For example, Vector2(100, 0).normalized() returns Vector2(1, 0).

Also learned about how to calculate the length of a vector, but i wont detail the whole thing here. its just the Pythagorean theorem.

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

100 Days of Gamedev (Day 0)

TLDR: starting today ill be spending 15 minutes a day learning gamedevolpment. Ill be journaling my progress on this blog daily for 100 days.

Alright, so over the past week or so ive gotten back into gamedev again, and i really wanna lock into some sort of creative process. Ive decided, at least for the time being, that that is gunna be gamedev!

I messed with Godot a little bit in the past, mostly just following a few short tutorials to make a player run around in a simple 3D environment. Its exciting and approachable to put these together, but im not sure i learned how to do anything on my own...

So starting today ill be committing at least 15 minutes a day for the next 100 days to learning game-development. This is a lower bounds limit that im hoping will still be achievable even on days where im just really not feelin' it and on my good days ill likely spend more time learning and playing around!

Ill be starting with GDquest's Learn 2D Gamedev with Godot 4 course. Ive already finished their "Learn to code from zero" webapp as well as their "your first 3D game" tutorial on Youtube and the way they teach clicked with me. i was able to retain most of the information in these to be able to add, change, and remove parts of the project on my own which is what really solidified that gamedev is the direction i wanna go. It was really fun!

Most of my posts here wont be as long as this one im sure... i intend this blog to be a sort of public diary of my learning process for programming and gamedev in general. By making it public i feel a little more obligated to commit to this whole process even though these posts are primarily for my own future self to reference. If you're interested in this kinda stuff maybe you'll find it interesting!

one of the first things i made last year when i had my first fit of interest in gamedevelopment. I followed along with a short youtube tutorial to make it!

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

100 Days of Gamedev (Day 14)

tldr taking very short break from the GDquest's course for the weekend, and am doing a short Youtube game tutorial instead! Spent a very long time trying to solve a very simple bug, but i got there in the end...

Following along with a Youtube tutorial to make a google dino runner style game! Went pretty smoothly except for a ONE CHARACTER mistype that i put in the code by accident that was in just the right spot that it didnt cause any errors. Spent about an hour and a half trying different things to fix it until i found out i typed " func _read(): " instead of " func _ready(): " ...

I will say that im understanding most if not all of the code used in this tutorial, which i can CONFIDENTLY say wouldnt have been the case if i hadnt spent the last two weeks taking GDquest's learn 2D course. Ive even made a few small changes to the tutorial, mainly just in the controls of the game though.

Think ill finish up the tutorial tomorrow, heres what im working with now though~

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

100 Days of Gamedev (Day 13)

tldr successfully added some stuff to the course project on my own. Finished up 1 lesson, which was the last of this module! Feeling very good about the whole process~

Spent a good amount of time late yesterday experimenting and tinkering with the project files in the course! Was able to do A LOT on my on and im very pleased with the results! being able to go in and do stuff on my own somewhat confidently for the first time has given me a huge motivation boost~

finished the last lesson of this module! It was a sort of crash course on tweens. We used them to subtly animate lootable items moving up and down, and we used random numbers to have them move up and down at varying rates. I DEFINTELY need to learn more about how to use tweens. I feel like a lot of the material reading and practice went in one ear and out the other. i can understand the code as i look at it, but it seems like a vary broad aspect of coding and its still kind of unknown to me.

Heres the main bit of code for the project , it also has all of my code changes marked so i could keep track of what i changed or added and what was baked into the course itself. Pretty much all of the changes i added are about adding a lose condition to the project. the ship loses 5 health per second, and when the player reaches 0 health they die, which turns the ship red, stops showing the thrusters on player input, and stops the player from moving the ship!

Heres a gif of the loss state i added yesterday, very happy with it! There isnt a great way to prove that im still trying to move in the gif, but just trust that i am lmfao.

Very happy with the course so far, excited to keep going!

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

100 Days of Gamdev (Day 12)

tldr did a bit of coding on my own in one of the course challenges! Learned about collision masks and layers, and used them to get rid of a bug in the game project. Learned how to use the wrapf() function, and used it to fix a bug.

Did one of the challenges, was able to get a lot done by myself honestly! I did peek at other code files to remember the exact syntax of how to code what i was trying to do, but all of the pieces were there i just dont have it perfectly memorized yet. very happy about it!

Also did two lessons today! the first one covered collision layers and masks which we used to get rid of a bug in the game project. Collision layers and masks are one of the few things i was able to find and figure out in my own time before i started the course, but it was still really nice to have a more detailed and complete understanding of how they worked. I understand how they work in theory, but i dont know that i could explain it back to someone if i was asked to...

The second lesson (lesson 9 of this module if you are keeping track) was about the wrapf() function. we used to to get rid of an issue where the player could drive the ship off of the screen and get lost. Im hesitant to call this a bug, since its just how it was coded to work. But the more i think about it im realizing bugs are kind of just oversights that you have to go back in and fix.

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

Little Frustrated but mostly excited

i often find myself wanting to work on gamedev stuff pretty late at night, but right now it all requires pretty active learning on my part, so i usually dont do any coursework at night since i cant give it as much energy or attention. I look forward to knowing enough and having the confidence to just be able to open up Godot and get going working on something.

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

100 Days of Gamedev (Day 9)

tldr: Productive day! Learned about... - Using a function to update variables. - how to access nodes using code ( the " get_node() " function) - how to connect a signal to a function using code.

took a lil longer to start up today, but still got there in the end. This whole 100 day challenge or whatever you want to call it is honestly putting in a lot of work in terms of getting me to be consistent. I dont know that i would have logged on today to learn if i didnt have the whole streak//challenge thing goin on.

more and more coding stuff is starting to click and make sense. im still not 100% comfortable with it yet but im able to pick apart and figure out most things so far! Today's lesson was mostly about accessing nodes using a script (as opposed to another method thats unique to Godot from my understanding) and changing variables(..? i think thats the right term) attached to those nodes. Im pretty comfortable with accessing nodes using code, but still a little shaky on connecting signals to functions. Im sure itll get ironed out more and more as i keep going though, not that worried about it.

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

100 Days of Gamedev (Day 8)

tldr: Did two lessons today. The course is starting to speed up a little bit, which i appreciate! Learned about refactoring, node hierarchy, and how to make & style UI elements

Keeping on keeping on! The lessons are starting to slowly speed up which i appreciate. I feel as though i have a good grasp on how to work and navigate the Godot interface, but where i slow down is when it comes to doing any coding. Im still very dependent on the step by step instructions for that side of things although i do think im able to grasp whats being explained even if it takes me awhile.

Did two lessons today! Learned about refactoring, different node types, and touched on how to make and style UI elements. From my understanding refactoring is basically changing something that already exists in order to accommodate new ideas or game pieces. Also touched on node hierarchy, and how to get the most out of it while avoiding common pitfalls.

Feeling good about progress so far, although there is still that bit of frustration of not being able to do the things i want with these tools yet. Doing my best to use that as fuel to keep learning, along with being inspired by other indie devs

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

100 Days of Gamedev (Day 7)

tldr: Felt inspired last night and read the 2nd study guide which covered nodes, scenes, scripts and signals and how they are used. Skipped the 3rd study guide with plans to comeback to it later. Started module 5 and feeling good about progress so far!

So i couldnt sleep last night and was feeling really inspired to get going with gamedev stuff again, so i ended up doing some extra course work. I read through the second study guide, which covers the basic building blocks of Godot. Essentially Nodes can be used to make whatever you need and are saved as a scene. Scenes can be used in other scenes to create more complex scenes. You attach scripts to nodes in order to make them do increasingly complex and specific things. you can add signals to your scripts to make them react to the game world and/or inputs.

the third study guide is a quick overview of how to use the embedded game view which is apparently new to Godot 4.4. I'm gunna skip over this guide for now and will revist it in the future.

Started Module 5, and did the first 2 lessons! The first lesson was just a preface to what the rest of the module will be, but i think i got a lot of lesson 2. Im pretty comfortable navigating the Godot interface, so im able to speed through those parts with a lot of ease, but once it gets to coding its like hitting a break wall right now. For the first half of the coding section i was kind of just going through the motions doing my best to understand. eventually it kind of just clicked into place and i was able to understand what we were doing and why. i wish i knew what made it click, but it eventually just made sense all of a sudden.

Excited to keep going!

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

100 Days of Gamedev (Day 5)

tldr: Didnt really wanna work on game dev today, but i got in and got some done anyway. Finished module 4 of the course except for the study guides. Feeling kind of demotivated, but happy i got in and got some work done regardless.

Heres what you end up with after module 4. the gif makes it look a bit more choppy than it actually is in engine. A lot of what you're seeing are premade parts provided by the course. what module 4 was mostly about was coding the movement of the ship and putting parts together in single scene.

There is three study guides for me to read through before starting module 5. I think starting tomorrow for three days ill read one study guide a day and look back on and play with the code from the module. Break it and tweak it a little bit to learn how it works better sort of thing. Then on Monday ill start module 5!

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

100 Days of Gamedev (Day 4)

tldr a good bit of progress today. feeling a bit better about the process. i think ive got the correct mindset now to keep going at a slow and steady pace. maybe down the line ill speed up a bit but for now im more comfortable taking it slower

Something about GDQuest's approach that i appreciate is its introducing things in the most basic way possible first and tells upfront "yes, there are more efficient ways to do this that automate some of what we are doing, but we are doing it this way first so you can understand whats being automated under the hood." Feels much more instructional that way as opposed to how most Youtube tutorials are. Tutorials just want to get you to the end goal as soon as possible, which isnt a bad thing inherently, but its not the most educational...

Today was learning a big about signals and how n why they're used. I did two lessons today instead of just one since the first one felt a little short (or maybe i just went faster today) but the second one felt pretty overwhelming comparatively. im able to look at the code and slowly piece together how things are put together and why, but when it comes to reconstructing it on my own in the course's practice im still struggling a ton.

Kind of just gunna keep moving forward and take with me the stuff i can understand and leave behind what i cant for the time being. I'll have some holes in my knowledge for awhile with this approach, but it stops me from hyper-focusing too much on any one thing in particular and getting bogged down because of it. I can always circle back and read up on things i didnt get the first time around :3

also im gunna start adding little TLDRs at the top of each post from now on. mostly for my own sake so i can see how i was doing on any give day at a quick glance because even im not gunna read allat...

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

100 Days of Gamedev (Day 2)

Finished up GDQuest's GDTours module. its basically a quick run through of where all the most used tools are in the editor. You make a little game using premade parts, the whole thing took me maybe half an hour to complete, and i felt like i was going intentionally slow. i don't know that it taught me anything that i hadn't already picked up by messing around with Godot in my own time for awhile, but it was nice to run through the whole editor in a structured way.

Beyond the course work, ive still been messing with the finished project from the 3D game tutorial i finished last week. i think ive kind of pushed it as far as i can with what i know now though, and am going to shelf it for now... i might come back to it and make more changes in a month or two once i have a little bit more confidence and know how when it comes to coding.

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

100 Days of Gamedev (Day 1)

I started the course i picked yesterday, and as part of one of its first lessons it asks you to write a short expectation(s) paragraph essentially about what you want out of programming and game development. Heres what i ended up writing

At the end of the day i want to learn to code in order to make silly multiplayer roguelike games similar to Lethal Company or REPO. To make that happen, ill need to know how to code. When i get where i want to be ill be able to bring people together around something ive created, and will be able to take pride in both my end products and progress ive made to get there. I'll practice pretty early in the morning. Make a coffee, wake up for 15-20 minutes or so, then get right into practicing. I intend to practice at least 15 minutes everyday. I'll set Discord to DND and close Unnecessary tasks. I'll also make sure to keep my desk clean and free of unnecessary things that could distract me. Ive started a Devlog on Tumblr where i intend to post about my progress everyday for the next 100 days (you're reading it right now!). This gives me something to look back on to measure progress, as well as some amount of extra accountability since its public.

I'm realizing its a little uncomfortable/embarrassing to post about stuff like this publicly, but it's alright.

Today was a light day otherwise as far as learning. learned some definitions about "The 4 pillars of Godot"

Scenes: reusable templates that can be used for most anything in your project.

Nodes: Building blocks of scenes.

Scripts: text files that give instructions to the computer, nodes, scenes, and Godot itself.

Signals: events that nodes emit to report whats happening in the project. you connect Signals to nodes in a script to make things happen essentially.

this isnt exactly how these things were described in the course, i've described them in my own words here. Both because i think it helps the learning process, and i dont want to get in trouble with leaking aspects of a paid course or something like that lol.

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

Still wanna do my own thing but cant yet

Tried to start my own project from scratch and immediately didn't know how to do what i wanted. I know the right steps to take in theory, but in practice its still very daunting. I have the urge to build something a bit more substantial than small experiments and toys made specifically to learn from, but its still really difficult for me to get anything put together on my own from scratch. Maybe for the weekend since i finished up the course module i was working on ill take a short break from the course and dig around on Youtube for some short tutorials to make a simple game, and then start the next course module on Monday. I do think theres a lot to be gained from doing tutorials as long as i actually pay attention to whats being done in them and why. Ill play it by ear in the morning, maybe ill just wanna keep going with the course instead, who knows.