I am really digging into the exposition here.

Call it New Years Day hangover blues, or call it coder procrastination but I’m feeling the vibe to write while I let the game development-proper marinate for a day.

I may not have actively timed it precisely so, but it turns out that after some frantic coding while I waited for my party guests to arrive on New Years Eve, I hit something of a proof of concept milestone.

Some of my (very early) playing around code just-trying-to-experiment and practice coding was labelled under a version number of 0.1.0.  I dumped most of that in the archives of never to be compiled again history.

But the latest bit of “this might actually work well” code? That was written under the version number of 0.2.0. And that code? It isn’t terrible. I mean, it’s cluttered and a bit inefficient, but I can work with that. Thus, I’m kinda drawing a line at midnight of last day of 2024, and calling that chunk of compilable, runnable, actually-does-something code my proof of concept phase. And so, as we enter 2025 I’m going to move forward with this project but with a lot more structure and a lot more of a plan.

The next wave of development is called Space Carrot which should take me up through version 0.2.x to a 0.3 candidate. 

(Of course the way I write all this it sounds like I’m releasing something, but honestly don’t expect anything public until at least a 0.6 or 0.7 version!)

Alas, Space Carrot is my attempt to build the virtual geography of my game. Such a thing will ideally include the ability to navigate through as much of the map architecture as possible. That is to say some high level things that I am envisioning as features as I work on this next phase should include:

• doors that traverse room maps
• wall collisions
• action triggers
• game pad controls
• mouse click controls
• modal text information boxes
• more efficient database i/o for rooms
• a data-driven world map
• at least a rudimentary tileset that I can refine and improve
• and, of course, probably a dozen other things I’m not even thinking about yet because coding is like an adventure where you kinda know where you’re going but are bound to encounter things along the route you can’t even fathom as you set out

I wrote in my last post that I have a bunch of scattered amateur coding experience—including essentially taking the first year of a computer science degree as options while I was working on my major—but I am really very much learning here, working on the code incrementally with a big picture in my head, and lots of little itty bitty steps closer each time I sit down at Visual Studio. 

Maybe you’re reading this because you are a developer yourself and are curious to see what I’m working on or peruse my code. It’s early, yet, for that, but I am logging all this into a git repo with that plan in mind for some point in the future.

Maybe you’re reading this because you are just fascinated by the process. I can’t really shine much insight into it. Not yet, at least. Maybe as I go. Maybe that’s why I’m writing all this. Maybe?

I have read a few books on such things that are largely anecdotes and I know there are terrific stories in the trials and tribulations of normal folks rolling up their sleeves and learning to do such things as build games that work and are fun to play. Check out the Boss Fights book series (I bought a bunch on a Humble Bundle once) or specifically I am thinking of “Blood, Sweat and Pixels” by journalist, author and podcaster Jason Schreier.   There are tales therein that are often just as interesting as the games themselves. So, at least if the game fails—well, maybe I’ll have an interesting story (and some padding onto my coding resume!)

I don’t know why you’re here, but I’m glad you are interested or curious or—well, whatever you feel that brought you here. 

In the end? This isn’t a project about money or fame or success. At the end of the adventure all this really is, is me trying to learn with a purpose—and also I’ve been thinking of making a game for two decades without really knowing where to start.  So. I’ll learn. You’ll read. And the code will emerge. Because I think I finally figured out how to get started.

Stay tuned.