I discovered programming when I started HS.
We were required to have graphing calculators, and the standard TI-84+ models were programmable in a form of BASIC and Z80 ASM (for those familiar, this was before AXE existed).
I wrote an adventure game inspired by the Legend of Zelda in ti-basic, but an interpreted language on such a resource constrained machine didn't cut the mustard.
I dabbled with Z80 assembly a bit, but the prospect of programming a modern computer quickly became more interesting to me.
I taught myself C++ and SDL from terrible online tutorials, and started making my game for PC.
Of course, I envisioned a grandiose design that was far beyond the capabilities of a high school student new to programming and game development.
Future projects were doomed to failure in a similar fashion, and I resigned to small scale hobbyist programming.
Suddenly, my teenage years had faded into the past, and the struggles of adjusting to an adult life further pushed my dreams of making games away.
Fast forwarding to today, Handmade Hero has been (and continues to be) a life-changing experience for me.
Casey has already blown my mind countless times, changed the way I code, and rekindled the ambitious spirit of my naive past self.
Following along with Casey and the Linux ports, it has dawned on me that with a bit of studying and hard work every day, I'm fully capable of making a real game of my own, and I fully intend to do so!
We were required to have graphing calculators, and the standard TI-84+ models were programmable in a form of BASIC and Z80 ASM (for those familiar, this was before AXE existed).
I wrote an adventure game inspired by the Legend of Zelda in ti-basic, but an interpreted language on such a resource constrained machine didn't cut the mustard.
I dabbled with Z80 assembly a bit, but the prospect of programming a modern computer quickly became more interesting to me.
I taught myself C++ and SDL from terrible online tutorials, and started making my game for PC.
Of course, I envisioned a grandiose design that was far beyond the capabilities of a high school student new to programming and game development.
Future projects were doomed to failure in a similar fashion, and I resigned to small scale hobbyist programming.
Suddenly, my teenage years had faded into the past, and the struggles of adjusting to an adult life further pushed my dreams of making games away.
Fast forwarding to today, Handmade Hero has been (and continues to be) a life-changing experience for me.
Casey has already blown my mind countless times, changed the way I code, and rekindled the ambitious spirit of my naive past self.
Following along with Casey and the Linux ports, it has dawned on me that with a bit of studying and hard work every day, I'm fully capable of making a real game of my own, and I fully intend to do so!
Edited by Neo Ar
on
In a similar fashion.
I started coding around the age of 14, more or less actively. In University (Computer Science) I've felt very conflicted for awhile now. It has showed me many possibilities and cool things one can do. It taught me that I can understand everything if I just make the required effort. On the other hand OOP is a big thing there, as are documents and unit tests. I started feeling I don't want to code afterall. I never understood OOP (still don't. Maybe a language change from Java/C++ to something else would help) or the way I felt we were taught to think about programming. There was a huge pressure to write perfect code from the get go.
Watching HH I gave myself permission to not know everything in the start, explore the code and design and work from there. I've gotten a lot more prolific and coding is fun again! In some way I also think I'm taking code less seriously now (this is a good thing). I started making small progression videos of my projects. For myself and just to give a link every now and then to my friends. Sharing your creations, even if it's just a small clip from an unremarkable incomplete game, makes things more fun and "real".
I started coding around the age of 14, more or less actively. In University (Computer Science) I've felt very conflicted for awhile now. It has showed me many possibilities and cool things one can do. It taught me that I can understand everything if I just make the required effort. On the other hand OOP is a big thing there, as are documents and unit tests. I started feeling I don't want to code afterall. I never understood OOP (still don't. Maybe a language change from Java/C++ to something else would help) or the way I felt we were taught to think about programming. There was a huge pressure to write perfect code from the get go.
Watching HH I gave myself permission to not know everything in the start, explore the code and design and work from there. I've gotten a lot more prolific and coding is fun again! In some way I also think I'm taking code less seriously now (this is a good thing). I started making small progression videos of my projects. For myself and just to give a link every now and then to my friends. Sharing your creations, even if it's just a small clip from an unremarkable incomplete game, makes things more fun and "real".