Contents
It’s my 2nd week of learning game dev and I made something that feels like a real game! Things are rolling, we’re feeling good!
Here’s my summary of my progress this week, including what I made, what went well (and didn’t go so well) and the resources I used.
So let’s dive in, shall we?
What I Made
This week I focused on the second tutorial in my gamedev.tv Godot 2d course: Alien Attack!
This was a simple side-scrolling shooter, where alien ships come from the right side of the screen, and the player has to try to shoot them.
Adding in the enemy that followed a different path was a fun surprise!
I learned a different movement mechanic that I like much better than last week’s spaceship, it feels less out of control (although that was fully the point of last week’s movement mechanic).
I also learned how to spawn sprites on a timer, which I can see coming up over and over again in my game dev journey.
I also had my first experiencing with adding in UI that includes points scored, lives lost, and a game over screen! It feels like I added on a lot more skills than last week!
Now it feels like a real game!
Resources from this Week:
This week’s tutorial was also from the 2d game Godot course at gamedev.tv.
I’m in the middle of reading Theory of Fun for Game Design by Ralph Koster. So far, this book is great! It’s definitely not what I expected, though. I’ll post a full review when I’m done!
I listened to a great episode of Matt Hackett’s podcast from 2022. This episode was “5 ways to take your creative side seriously right now.” This is a great mindset episode for anyone who is learning a new skill and feels a little shy to just go do the thing when they know they have so much to learn (aka me).
What Went Well:
I’m especially proud this week because I really focused on problem solving above and beyond what the tutorial showed me.
While I’m sure I’ll be relying on tutorials for a long, long time, testing myself to see if I can go one step beyond the tutorial is a really good way to see if I actually understand what I learned, and to avoid getting stuck having to use tutorials forever.
Here are the things I added on to the game that weren’t in the tutorial:
- I added a second condition which would cause the player to lose a life
- I stopped a bug caused by the change above
Adding on to make the game more reflect how I want to play–and then resolving the bugs that come from that change–makes me feel like a real game dev!
Where I Struggled
I wound up pulling out my hair a few times over a letter that wasn’t supposed to be capitalized. So there was that.
As you can see, I felt the need to vent about it to my husband.
I’m really going to have to hone my attention to detail!
Goals for Next Week
There’s a third game tutorial in the Godot 2d course, and it’s a platformer! I’m so excited!
It might take me longer than a week to get through, though, so we’ll see what happens!