I sort of need help but not coding.
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Where abouts in the country are you? I mean, not specifics, but North, South, etc?
I’ve been wondering if it might be worth trying to organise a Fuze jam, or get together or something? I don’t know if that might help?
It’s a little early in the products life cycle yet but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen if I (we) thought it might help people?
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@SteveZX81 I don't know if this will help you or not, but I too used to frequently get frustrated writing code, even in my professional life-- "why is this taking me so long??"
Finally one day, I got around to reading the book "Masters of Doom", and there was one point in Quake's development where Carmack had a major bug in the engine that literally took him months to isolate. Meanwhile, the whole rest of the team was hung up waiting on him! It got so challenging for him that he started to go crazy: obsessed, not sleeping, etc.
That's when I realized my coding frustration was down to me trying to realize some impossible internal standard I had subconsciously set for myself. After all, Carmack was always like some kind programming genius god to me-- but it was all uphill sledding for him too, as it turned out! Even for him, programming was very challenging!
After that, I learned to relax and a little more, and just be "me"-- smart in some ways, stupid in others, and that's ok.
Later on I read some of Karen Horney's psychology theories, and my problem was exactly how she described neurosis-- like an internal battle between the "real" someone, and some "Superman" version of themselves, which would beat them up within their own minds!
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@SteveZX81 my advice might not be as good as @Hitomi but for me it helps to reverse engineer the sample programs to see how the tick then implement those key features in my own program. if its fun you'll enjoy doing it.
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Hi Steve,
I think that you are being too hard on yourself. The bits of your games that I have seen looked amazing.
My advice is this:
- Don't break yourself on problems: take a step back, have a break. Solutions sometimes come to you at the oddest times
- Don't be afraid to ask for help: there is usually someone on here who will be happy to help
- It is supposed to be fun: if it stops being fun take a break and do something else
Sorry if this seems trite. I should probably take my own advice on some of this!
Colin
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Thank you all, I appreciate it.
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Hi Steve,
In France, we say "Garder le feu" = "Keep the fire".
I think feedback from this arena, can motivate.
Don't hesitate to show your work here, you will be rewarded.A big part of making games, is observation.
Look at a screenshots, and analyse all visual components/objects of a game.
Movements, collisions, limitations, graphics, scrolling, interactions.
Draw them on paper, and write the important variables needed.
Then write the code for one component at a time.
Don't try to code a full game from scratch, and take your time.It's normal to abandon a program and restart for a better design.
One tool that inspired my recent game, is "Shoot'em up Construction Kit" on CBM 64.
Believe me, it shows all parts of a game, without a line of code.
And all variables and logic you need, will be clear in your mind.A video on design pattern can help too.
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@doumdoum At Minecon this year, long-time Minecraft head Jens Bergensten said he started programming with "Shoot-'Em Up Construction Kit" on the C64. I had never used it, but went onto YouTube, and it looks really cool-- I would have loved that as a kid.
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This thread is awesome. Says a great thing about our community that this post gets a response like these.
Steve, I feel like I very much understand where you're coming from. I get frustrated with myself often because I can't find a solution to what seems should be a simple problem, to the point that it definitely holds me back generally. It's so hard not to be annoyed yourself at those times, but everybody here is right. Can't hold yourself to such standards. We're all in this journey of learning together mate. It seems everybody knows the frustration well, and have developed interesting philosophies as a result. Ive learned a lot from this post so thanks for posting it.
The things you've done already are awesome. I really hope you don't give up and hope that Fuze stays a good thing in your life.
It's something I can't help but take to heart, and this gives me motivation to improve the Help and add more Demo programs to Fuze to make it the best it can be.
@Martin a Fuze jam sounds like pretty interesting idea!
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I've had a few days break myself - partly because preparations for building work this coming week mean that I've had to, but also because I was getting frustrated with stuff. After a few days out I intend to come back to things next week (Tuesday evening hopefully).
So, play the Witcher for a break when you need, but please don't give up entirely, you've done too well to do that!
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@Dave said in I sort of need help but not coding.:
This thread is awesome. Says a great thing about our community that this post gets a response like these.
Steve, I feel like I very much understand where you're coming from. I get frustrated with myself often because I can't find a solution to what seems should be a simple problem, to the point that it definitely holds me back generally. It's so hard not to be annoyed yourself at those times, but everybody here is right. Can't hold yourself to such standards. We're all in this journey of learning together mate. It seems everybody knows the frustration well, and have developed interesting philosophies as a result. Ive learned a lot from this post so thanks for posting it.
The things you've done already are awesome. I really hope you don't give up and hope that Fuze stays a good thing in your life.
It's something I can't help but take to heart, and this gives me motivation to improve the Help and add more Demo programs to Fuze to make it the best it can be.
@Martin a Fuze jam sounds like pretty interesting idea!
Dave, one thing you said rings true big time for me. The thing about our community, I have to say (and this is not flannel or BS) but this community is the best thing I've ever been a part of. Everyone without exception has been very friendly and incredibly helpful. I have never known such a friendly forum to be a part of. (I've used various coding forums before and none were like this, some were terrible, some okay and some had a mixture of nice people but also had a lot of nasty people who couldn't help but stick snide comments in any help or advice they gave you.)
You all make this a wonderful place to be a part of and I thank each and every one of you for that. Thank you all for being so kind and being so patient with me.
