Lets start with the important detail, I had food from Dosa Man for lunch. So good. Would recommend.
Ok, now for the Recurse Center stuff:
This week I joined a checkin group focused on gaming and graphics. The group consisted of Nikki, Chris, Aishwarya, Libby, Luna and Olivia. The group mentioned two game jams to look into, Ludum Dare and Adventure Jam. Nikki also reminded me I wanted to look into the project she was working on and presented last week, Text-Rearranger.
I started researching Javascript based game development. I came across a bunch of Javascript graphics libraries that could be useful:
- http://threejs.org/
- http://www.createjs.com/
- http://paperjs.org/
- http://fabricjs.com/
- http://canvasjs.com/
I started reading Designing Games, because I couldn't find a book specifically on Javascript game development I wanted to read, so instead went super general. I did come across The Web Game Developers Cookbook which had a lot of good project ideas in its description:
- Mastering an essential HTML5/JavaScript game development toolset: browser, text editor, terminal, JavaScript console, game engine, and more
- Accelerating development with external libraries and proven patterns
- Managing browser differences between IE, Firefox, and Chrome
- Getting up to speed on web development with a QUIZ game built with JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and JQuery
- Creating INTERACTIVE FICTION “gamebooks” that leverage new CSS3 features and impress.js
- Building PARTY games around the lightweight atom.js engine
- Developing PUZZLE games with the easel.js graphics rendering engine
- Writing PLATFORMERS with melon.js and its integrated tilemap editor
- Coding intense 2-player FIGHTING games for web browsers with game.js
- Building a SPACE SHOOTER with the jQuery-based gameQuery game engine
- Implementing pseudo-3D techniques like ray casting for an FPS (First Person Shooter) style game
- Producing a 16 bit RPG (Role Playing Game) complete with interfaces for dialog, inventories, and turn-based battles with enchant.js
- Building an isometric RTS (Real Time Strategy) game that incorporates server components along with node.js, socket.io, and crafty.js
- Engaging players with content that encourages exploration
But I decided I wanted to write my first game by myself with no framework. I'm making a replica of Conway's Game of Life, and so I did some reading on Bitmaps, various life patterns, implementation suggestions and read through one possible implementation in C. I then just started reading the Mozilla Canvas Tutorial.
I didn't get too far before I headed over to our Monday night talk which was titled "Software: An Ethereal Dreamscape of Adventure and Possibility" by @pchiusano. It was an interesting look into what he thought was wrong with software development today, and he gave a high level overview of his Unison Project.
Unrelated, I am sad I didn't get to see the Snowden Bust before it was torn down.
/Nat