Man, even though most of my days I can’t function, I have been doing a good bit this past week.
I am taking a break from the Virtual Tablet-Top Game that I have been building as I am assessing new “stacks” to move forward with it. I have built everything I got so far, with and in various tools, BUT I ultimately I have had to STRIP it all down and rebuild a few times, to get what I wanted – so NOW at this point, its all custom but I am learning that even with the bare-bones, bare-minimum, lightest weight I can think of modelling (art, data loads, synchronizations) I am still having timing issues due to file bloat.. For the SIMPLE games that is one thing but for the VTT its a HUGE issue because players can ADD so much of their OWN stuff. It works GREAT in single player mode… But, I NEED MULTIPLAYER!!! I want people who want to geek out with their friends, THEIR WAY! To be able to… And I want them to DO IT the way it makes SENSE. I am VERY VERY close to making it a total reality.
So, I am taking a quick break to evaluate the pros and cons of various PRE-BUILT open source gaming engines. Phaser.JS, Babylon.JS and Unity. I THINK I have landed on Babylon.js. I have learned that the INDUSTRY standard is TypeScript NOT Javascript… Which isnt too different so far from what I gather its just tighter control of data types and NO loose variables. Which I prefer anyway, I dont like in line declarations of HEY THIS IS A NEW VARIABLE! I prefer a STATIC list of KNOWN variables, in SQL I always listen them at the top of my stored procedures, i. Php i usually keep a config.php that has them… NOTHING LITTERED IN THE SOURCE CODE that might change as needed to lost in the wild wtfs … Just for example in Javascript and Python you can just make a variable ANYTIME and ANYWHERE… this is great for simple code, but when you get into 10000 lines or more and some jackass just created a variable that is IN the mix somehwhere that is populated with a data type mismatch vs your database and the application freezes when you try to do something and can’t figure out why the database says GO THE FUCK AWAY WITH THAT SHIT DATA! ITS NOT GOING IN HERE! and the front end just STOPS… Now you have to sift though hod knows how much and try and figure out what is what… THAT SUCKS!!! Declare ALL variables and constants in a data dictionary. So when you have to MAINTAIN it you KNOW what is what.
So I decided that
https://www.babylonjs.com/
because of the “PLAYGROUND” https://playground.babylonjs.com/
That is slick – I like that I can code and see it immediately without the write/check/upload/load etc etc process of traditional development.
So babylon is what as what I may move forward with since I have been hammering this Javascript garbage into my skull lately… I learned it in 1999 but I honestly have not touched it in like 24 years… as I have really just needed MS SQL/C# and MySQL/PHP, and python have been my tools of choice the last 2 decades… I focus more on DATA handling and DATA management which turns out is the HARD part. The FRONT end is more like a playground to me than a WORK area, which is great its a lot of fun for me. That being said I decided it was time to build some refreshers for myself and dig in DEEP with Javascript. SO I built THIS game… There is 2 MODES training which gives you all the time you need to assess, and think about the problems OR active where you are on a timer and EVERY selection you make MATTERS.
If you wanna play it – Give her a shot at www.miahsworks.com/codefighterII
Don’t sue me for using crappy audio samples I found all over the internet… I have no idea where the bytes came from I just thought they were hilarious so there… more Parody… I tweaked it a bit and made the fighter and professor portraits a bit larger and rectangle… so they are easier to see on mobile and I didnt feel like re-doing the videos. I am reviewing all the “problems” and card solutions to ensure accuracy LATER for now I used AI to generate the table data cause I am too lazy to to write it myself – And if your the lazy “unproductive” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwU1Jiit4hI YEAH YOU! Don’t give me that shit about ooooh ai steals from content creators LOLOLOLOL you mean any retard self centered enough to aim a camera at their face??? blah blah… Hey, at least I will admit and acknowledge when I dont want to do the “WORK” you sorry sack of shit.
CodeFighterII This is a fun INSULTING way to learn to code… and in all my stupid life, If I learned ANYTHING at all – It’s this…
This is a Painful truth… Nobody likes to LEARN anything, its frustrating when you are not a savant and you have to be NORMAL and try and fail and try and fail and try and fail… MOST people collapse and cry ITS SOOOOO HARD… I DONT HAVE TIME, I GOT SOOOOO MUCH GOING ON… Fucking LIES… ALL EXCUSES TO STALL WHEN YOU NEED TO STOP BEING A BITCH AND DO IT!!! When they dont catch onto and learn something IMMEDIATELY like oh I am a fucking genius… They cry and make excuses instead of EATING THE PAIN… The process is actually pretty simple… IF YOU WANT TO LEARN WHAT WORKS, YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHAT DOES NOT FIRST (Everything is hard until it IS NOT)… This sucks, but its true… You will learn faster if I call you STUPID when you are wrong and say 1+1=3 or 1+0=5… And then you think to yourself FUCK THIS GUY HE’S AN ASSHOLE! That emotional slap in your face is the CATALYST that forces you to UNDERSTAND and question YOURSELF until you stop questioning yourself… Think of it like the SWEETEST momma kitty, loving her kittens, until one day she starts PAW slapping the fuck outa the kitten that keeps trying to suckle at the teet… That kitten gotta learn its – TIME TO LEARN… and momma kitty cant just say no – nicely, THAT SHIT DONT WORK… You gotta SLAP THE SHIT OUTA THE KITTEN SO THEY LEARN… Sure they think – WTF MOM YOUR SUPPOSE TO LOVE ME????… and mom says I do, SLAP SLAP SLAP! And she says I know – this hurts but, its for YOU… The kids and the world MOSTLY need hard lessons to teach COMMON SENSE more than memorization, some are just fine with the words, “Hey, dont do that” – But MOST people need that SLAP IN THE FACE… because they think they are right when they are too fucking stupid to know what they DON’T know – There is more to learning than reading and recalling, any monkey can do that if they see a thing enough times and repeat a task enough times… THAT is not learning that is TRAINING… Learning is understanding 1 apple plus 1 apple is 2 apples… NOT 1 APPLE + 1 BANANA IS 2 APPLES… Intelligence Vs Information Vs Practical application. You can know every detail about every thing but if you dont UNDERSTAND those details AND you cannot make yourself DO WHAT YOU MUST DO to UNDERSTAND them, they are nothing more than meaningless specks of dust in an infinitely dust storm of information.
Anyway I ramble a lot, cause thats me… Give the CodeFighterII game a try – I think its a FUN way to learn to code and CONDITION the brain – in my opinion… It teaches SYNTAX, FUNDAMENTALS, Stucture, Library application, and more. I am pretty proud of it. And I WILL add Languages and more funny sound effects as I can.
OH, the battle music… People keep asking me about it… So when I was about 10 years old I played a Nintendo Game Called MIKE TYSON’S PUNCH OUT… AND IT SCARRED ME FOR LIFE!!! CAUSE THE DYNAMITE UPPER CUT WAS TOO FAST TO DODGE, Thank you Iron Mike… I always loved the fight music in the game so I sampled it and put it into my game as the combat scene background music its a simple MIDI but damn it fits so I borrowed it… Here are some of the sound effects you will get when you mess with the professor…
I have a ton more but these are some fun ones…Here is some of the art work I had to cut out and clean up… with my MEDIOCRE Gimp (art tool) Skills LOL
First, I made several images of our CODE HERO! I needed some Hit, Miss, Idle, Attack and Success and Failure images. (I will replace these with FULL on Animations but for now the static images will work)
And some for our VICIOUS PROFESSOR… I want what I imagined what a mean ass “sci-fi” teacher + super villain might look like
The UI is what I am working on now and the database to organize the “challenges” by tier… I dont want a noob in something like SQL getting discouraged by accidentally starting with DML complex joins and filtering when they dont know anything about DDL first. Baby steps… WHILE STOMPING ON THEM TOES!
The files are pretty lean, I need a register, log in, (Index) It handles database authentication and session establishment, then scene presentation… combat SCENE, WIN SCENE and FAIL SCENE That’s really all – That’s it in the FRONT end… The back end is where all the magic happens… The “challenges” data is all stored that is the problems and solutions, I didnt say QUESTIONS and answers because that not WHAT coding is. It’s really SOLVING problems. The front end is just a dummy terminal as it should be, because we dont want any NON sanitized interactions taking place… NO YOU CANT GIVE ME ANY DATA… I WILL GIVE YOU CHOICES OF THE DATA THEN I WILL HANDLE IT… Why?? Because I dont trust you… So we keep the front end AS LEAN AND CLEAN as possible VERY few buttons and VERY few operations. Ajax captures the data pay loads and transports them back and forth to the database across the conn.php wire and its all updated visually for the player to see and enjoy. EASY PEASY!
I am agitated that I learned and have KNOWN how to do the hard part for decades. Data flow – Data management – Data integrity… THAT is the hard part. The visual stuff is time consuming but its not difficult so that seems to be a real thorn in my brain as I create these games.
I gotta get back to studying so GAME TIME!