Taking my first steps outside of work.

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
Figured I'd post about it, just because I like hearing myself talk. :p

For the longest time, about 20 years in fact, I've had nearly no motivation to write any software outside of my professional capacity. In fact, it has been disappointing to say the least, because I've had the desire to. But my mentality has been two-fold; firstly by the time I get home, get dinner cooked, clean up, get the kids ready for bed, I'm spent - I just want to veg. Second, I've had no direction, no reason to develop something, even just for fun. The main problem being is that everything I can think of can already be found out there, just a trip to google.com away. And of course, I hate reinventing the wheel - why bother when it's already done for you.

Well, last week I started, and actually have made some progress. I've had video game ideas bottled up in me for the longest time. Frankly, I'm convinced I could be a kickass executive producer with some of the titles I've brewed up in my head, but I've always lacked the motivation to even extend the effort to get to any sort of technical phase of development.

Granted, I'm only netting an hour or two a week in order to make something happen, but for once, I've got some direction, a plan, and more importantly the desire to do something. And yes, I promise, as soon as I have something workable, I'll share it with you guys. In the meantime, all I have is the basis for a game board set up in 2D. My next step is to put some logic into it and get some pieces to actually be able to play something. Once that's done, I'm going to take some footsteps back into 3D, something I haven't done in 10 years.

The biggest thing though, something I never expected, I'm having fun. If I wasn't, I'd definitely not have even posted this. Go ahead, laugh at me or cheer me on. Either way, hopefully this is the start of something small, that might just evolve to something big.

/blog
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
Good work. I have years of scribbles and text notes that I've been too lazy to work on after hours as well. I'm even at the point financially where I could pay for some art assets, or community theater voice actors to talk about mudcrabs, if I needed it.

The problem has been at the end of the day I'd rather just play King's Bounty or Mass Effect than work on one of my own ideas, even though I still do enjoy designing and writing software.
 

tatteredpotato

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2006
3,934
0
76
Good work. I have years of scribbles and text notes that I've been too lazy to work on after hours as well.

I'm fortunate enough to have a buddy who's an animation student who's interested in making a game with me, so now all that's left is learning game programming.
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
Good work. I have years of scribbles and text notes that I've been too lazy to work on after hours as well. I'm even at the point financially where I could pay for some art assets, or community theater voice actors to talk about mudcrabs, if I needed it.

The problem has been at the end of the day I'd rather just play King's Bounty or Mass Effect than work on one of my own ideas, even though I still do enjoy designing and writing software.

This is EXACTLY the problem I've run into over the years. When the day is done, I sit down at the computer, and clicking on whatever game icon that already exists is a lot more enticing at putting my mind at ease than wrapping my head around some sort of hit detection formula.

I'm actually both relieved and happy I've managed to break out of that shell though. The hard part now is going to be trying not to fall off the wagon.
 

Ka0t1x

Golden Member
Jan 23, 2004
1,724
0
71
Getting over that hump is what will get you onto success.. And its also my problem as well. :)
 

Markbnj

Elite Member <br>Moderator Emeritus
Moderator
Sep 16, 2005
15,682
14
81
www.markbetz.net
Man, I've been in those shoes for sure. Actually still am for the most part. Stats show that most people's active creativity peaks in the 30's sometime, and as you get older it gets a lot harder to push yourself to try and break out. Add in a family and it gets harder still. Not impossible, I'm sure, but certainly hard.

I guess the only thing I would say is that there are multiple ways to skin a cat, and if there is any recompense for age it is access to greater resources. So take that good idea, rent a cheap room, and hire a couple of college-aged wiz kids to do the coding. :)
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
Congrats on your new-found motivation! It's a wonderful feeling.

You're telling me. I was up until midnight last night. After I got the kids to bed, I sat down, browsed the net for about 20 minutes, then started in on code. About an hour later I figured it was time to take a break, so I hopped on the Xbox for a bit. I played maybe 20 minutes there before I decided I was bored, then went back over to the computer and spent the rest of the evening converting my drawing code from using LineTo to Polygon, as well as developing some hit test code for the mouse cursor. Next thing I knew, it was 12:00am.

As soon as I have something interactive, I'll start posting bits to toy around with. Right now I'm trying to wrap my head around hit-testing a hex grid with any sort of accuracy and translating it into array coordinates so that I can actually DO something with it.

The nice thing is I've figured out quite rapidly that it is actually fairly easy to fold a hex grid into a 2-dimensional array. Here's a hint... indexing the hex grid is as easy as thinking each %2 row in the array is shifted by half an element, so that your array visually would look like a brick&mortar layout.
 

EagleKeeper

Discussion Club Moderator<br>Elite Member
Staff member
Oct 30, 2000
42,589
5
0
Go for it. Soon you may find that it becomes all consuming - so many different ideas floating around. Let those ideas get out onto paper as notes; some may end up being a key piece or crucial building block.

However, DO NOT LET IT take you away from the family!
 

Markbnj

Elite Member <br>Moderator Emeritus
Moderator
Sep 16, 2005
15,682
14
81
www.markbetz.net
Yeah, but I've gotta prove to the world that I know what I'm doing first! :D

Actually, to get together with a couple of people and start coding you don't have to prove anything to anyone other than yourself :). I did that with two colleagues after a dinner-table conversation in 1997. We all threw $20k in the pot and just started working. Four years later we had 80 employees, two angel rounds, two venture rounds, awards, the whole tech-boom nine yards. Whatever the idea is, just decide whether you buy it. If you do, start.
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
However, DO NOT LET IT take you away from the family!

I don't. I have enough things stretching me thin while they're conscious already. It's an after-hours thing.

Actually, to get together with a couple of people and start coding you don't have to prove anything to anyone other than yourself :). I did that with two colleagues after a dinner-table conversation in 1997. We all threw $20k in the pot and just started working. Four years later we had 80 employees, two angel rounds, two venture rounds, awards, the whole tech-boom nine yards. Whatever the idea is, just decide whether you buy it. If you do, start.

You got $20k I can borrow? :sneaky:
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
What platform are you targeting SunnyD?

Windows. My forte is native Win32 development with C. Yeah, I'm old school like that, but it affords me the flexibility to do whatever the hell I want.

Right now I'm doing simple 2D graphics with GDI, but odds are before I'm done I'll be migrating to Direct3D (I have prior experience with OpenGL, so 3D isn't a stretch for me). Right now I'm focusing on the core logic, get that out of the way, and then I can fairly easily translate my "vision" to the 3D world without changing the logic (much).
 

tatteredpotato

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2006
3,934
0
76
Windows. My forte is native Win32 development with C. Yeah, I'm old school like that, but it affords me the flexibility to do whatever the hell I want.

Right now I'm doing simple 2D graphics with GDI, but odds are before I'm done I'll be migrating to Direct3D (I have prior experience with OpenGL, so 3D isn't a stretch for me). Right now I'm focusing on the core logic, get that out of the way, and then I can fairly easily translate my "vision" to the 3D world without changing the logic (much).

I would encourage you to consider C#/XNA too for future stuff... The cool thing there is you can pretty easily target Windows, Xbox, and Windows Phone (and also potential revenue streams) with minimal modifications.

Just something to keep in mind as the mobile market has been exploding lately.
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
I would encourage you to consider C#/XNA too for future stuff... The cool thing there is you can pretty easily target Windows, Xbox, and Windows Phone (and also potential revenue streams) with minimal modifications.

Just something to keep in mind as the mobile market has been exploding lately.

Agreed, unless you need the raw speed of unmanaged C/C++ & Direct3D using C#/XNA does give you the option of offering a version of your game on all 3 platforms.

Not that I've gotten around to trying XNA myself yet :)

Edit: on the other hand, you can prototype it using the tools you already know, then always go back and move it to C#/XNA later.
 

BoberFett

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
37,562
9
81
I applaud your determination, but why reinvent the wheel? Unless you really want to write an engine, why not choose any of the existing engines and focus on gameplay, which sounds more like what you want to do?
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
I applaud your determination, but why reinvent the wheel? Unless you really want to write an engine, why not choose any of the existing engines and focus on gameplay, which sounds more like what you want to do?

Thank you for trying to get me to take a step backwards... :eek:

The main problem being is that everything I can think of can already be found out there, just a trip to google.com away. And of course, I hate reinventing the wheel - why bother when it's already done for you.

There's a point to what I am doing (for myself). All of the commercial game engines (that I know of) are designed for 3D 1st/3rd person style shooter/adventures, which is not what I'm making.
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
Mouse tracking and hit testing is in, but unfortunately my brain doesn't want to wrap itself around how to compensate for the offsets in order to calculate the appropriate index locations.
 

VorpalBunny

Member
Nov 21, 2009
54
0
61
I agree with everything in the OP. Spending 10-14 hours a day in front of the computer takes a toll and all I want to do when I get home is relax for the 1-2 hours I get before I have to rinse and repeat.

I've always wanted to break away from war games and simulations and apply myself in the world of entertainment. Just heard many horror stories about work / life balance. Besides I worry that working for an industry I enjoy far too much would make me enjoy it less. Dunno. Maybe because the opportunities are limited in the DC area.
 

Tweak155

Lifer
Sep 23, 2003
11,449
264
126
This is what you need to be doing. A lot of people brush away their own dreams and work for someone else's (who is the CEO of your company?).

You're on the right track my friend. I've just plunged into the self employment business myself and I can tell you I already feel the rewards (even though I still have a boss for the time being :-D).

PM me if you'd like to have a serious business talk. Not about what you plan on doing to earn money, just the mindset required.

In either event - luck to you my friend.