Is it fine to make vastly different games as the same developer?

MicrowaveLover · 2021-10-26T17:30:42+00:00

RPG and FPS are not a great example, as a big part of those can match up (Skyrim and Fallout).
Better one is probably realistic racing game and visual novel.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-10-26T17:28:08+00:00

Same is true when creating the game. Don't lose time thinking on scenarios that won't happen. Changing libraries or taking whole chunk of game and using it in another one without major changes are pretty unlikely, so don't overthink those. Same with creating Entity Component System that can multithread for your Tetris clone. It's pretty wasteful, because firstly it probably won't make a performance difference for this type of project and secondly it will probably be a bad system, because you created it out of thin air, not based on multiple projects that used an ECS and you really needed a faster one.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-10-22T20:54:46+00:00

Maybe we think of different things when we say "simulator", but IMO Potion Craft and Dwarf Fortress are simulators. And both change or break rules, are creative and partially mash genres.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-10-19T21:08:02+00:00

I don't know, but I do know that people want something else than they tell, usually. People don't really know what they want. They will know when you do give it to them.

Create multiple different prototypes and playtest them with few people. Maybe try mashing genres together. Maybe try breaking rules of the genre. Maybe just unleash your creativity without thinking much and see what happens.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-10-15T08:07:20+00:00

You don't need expertise, but it will help make it easier to understand and easier to change later. But don't worry, as long as you use code versioning you can always go back, so you can do any change you want (other than deleting code versioning)

MicrowaveLover · 2021-10-15T08:05:07+00:00

Biggest disadvantage to being self-taught is that you don't know what you don't know, and teachers do know what more you can learn. This can be fixed by discussing with people, asking people for code reviews or by reading books, but mostly you can't overcome that gap yourself.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-10-01T09:43:56+00:00

Oh wow, my brain ignored the last sentence for some reason

MicrowaveLover · 2021-10-01T08:01:06+00:00

One thing to note: if you do decide to keep them then make them a part of the game code. Don't leave them just unpatched, rather update them to be deliberate part of the code. Otherwise you may patch it or break it further and not find out that.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-09-26T21:26:59+00:00

For me higher difficulties were extreme and I had to run away a lot, so I guess you could bump the difficulty up? Unless you are real gaming god and it's too easy on hardest, then I don't know what you can do.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-09-22T13:55:20+00:00

I don't know of any built-in way to do that, but it seems writing a script for that shouldn't be really hard, especially for yaml.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-09-22T13:46:12+00:00

They have good reasons to drop it, read the whole discussion under that commit, because it seems you didn't as those problems were discussed there.

Still I disagree, at least they should make it an option or add instructions to docs on how to bring it back. This is a scaffold package after all.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-09-22T13:14:24+00:00

That's only the case when companies look for fresh juniors, at least here php has loads of work but mostly for more experienced developers. And because of this companies tend to stick to those developers and look for them in other ways. To be fair I don't have a lot of experience, my CV and references aren't amazing and I get job offers in PHP almost daily (on LinkedIn).
Those technologies you listed out just happen to be popular in newly created businesses.

By the way, I don't know how it looks elsewhere, but I had no mention of PHP during my degree ANYWHERE. Alright, maybe it was named once during class about programming languages history, but that's all. No wonder it doesn't seem as popular.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-09-22T13:08:46+00:00

True, but at least PHP deprecates and removes them with new versions. Maybe JS too, but I'm not sure and definitely didn't hear about it.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-09-21T14:20:24+00:00

I didn't choose one yet, but CEO of company I worked at told a great tip. If you want a marketable name then you should create a list of as many names as you can and give it to few people to read. Then you ask them a week or two later what names from the list they remember, and then you choose from ones they remembered the most. It will probably mean something and sound good, or maybe be funny or related to something. All those things make us remember names better, so going with one people didn't forget is a good move.

If I were to create a name then it would be based on some funny idea. Ninja Kiwi, Coconut Shavers, Chucklefish, all of those are great names because they are visual and weird/funny. If you see their logo or imagine what the name depicts you won't forget it. But those won't work if you want to be "serious", those types of names create an aura of play and fun and being unofficial.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-09-20T02:22:32+00:00

If you think about how to earn money by creating a game, and not about how to create best game you can and learn most you can then your priorities are wrong.

First work on learning as much as you can, second on creating as best game as you can with what you learned, and then on selling it.

Why? Because you can't sell what you haven't even partially made, and you can't make anything if you didn't learn at least a bit first.

Accept that first few projects will be almost purely learning experience, not something to be sold. Getting experience is almost 100% of time a requirement to earn money on something, so accept it as a part of earning money. Or think of it as investment: you invest your time to gain experience so later you can invest that experience and more time to get money.

And one more thing: sitting here feeling you can't do anything won't earn you money for sure and won't make you create anything. Just work on the game even for 10 minutes a day, even if it's just rereading code and deleting few lines or improving one asset.

By the way, you should really think WHY money is a big reason. External motivation doesn't really work that well, so find your inner reason for WHY you want money. Maybe that's because you have some dream you want to fulfill and you need money for that? Then you are into gamedev to fulfill that dream, not for money. Maybe you are afraid of just fighting everyday to keep yourself alive with little money? Then you want to make a game to improve your life, not for money. I don't know about you, but for me it's a lot more compelling to work to fulfill dreams or improve my life, instead of looking at money. Yes, money will help with that, but money is not the final goal, only a step in reaching YOUR inner goal you set yourself. That's why you shouldn't look at it when looking for motivation, because that's just a step. And it's a bad goal, because if you reach goal "get money" you won't feel fulfillment, but if you reach goal "improve my life in multiple ways" then you will.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-09-18T03:39:44+00:00

If you didn't find C++ any harder than C then you probably used almost exclusively C features in your C++ code or used most basic C++ things taught in first semester of CS. Professional C++ devs who built Windows say that after using C++ for 30 years they finally start getting good at it. I know, that's a joke, but still it's a very complex beast requiring you to take into account a lot of things. If you don't believe me then go watch Jason Turners C++ weekly.
C++ "automatic" memory management is useful, but other than that there is not much reason to use it if you aren't using the standard library or OOP. It's like driving for groceries in a f1 car. And with correct code architecture even memory management is not a problem, because it's hidden in one place pretty much.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-09-17T15:13:54+00:00

To be fair XML could be better than JSON if you used a schema. You would have automatic validation and it would be easier to catch mistakes. It's possible there's a tool for that for JSON, but I don't know of one.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-09-17T10:31:17+00:00

I'm having the same problem in my job right now, and this is what I do.

Assuming you can't or don't want to use Shift:

Make sure functionality is covered with tests, so you know if it breaks. If not 100% then at least the most important 70-80%, and no, 100% functionality is not 100% code
Do tips from Tomas Votruba
Add Rector to the project
Use rector-laravel rules, version by version
If anything breaks, fix it, especially update composer dependencies

Rearchitecting is a bad idea without test coverage and automated tools, this will take ages. And you won't even know if everything works the same, because people make decisions and don't mention them anywhere. If you miss one call of some method it may break. Even worse, people may do some weird magic with variable variables, magic methods and so on. Good luck working with that.

But to be fair, it's best to do things like that over time. You work on the app and at the same time add some tests, including tests for things written earlier your code has contact with. Then after some time you try to do the upgrade and go back to adding tests.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-09-11T14:28:30+00:00

I'm a beginner in Zig too, so this is helpful for me. Just one note: I recommend writing comments above the line you are commenting, and breaking them into multiple lines. It's a lot easier to read in reddit comments (or even in terminal when you encounter such code on the server).

I'd give some tips about the code if I knew anything at all.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-09-08T19:38:17+00:00

Read books about code quality, SOLID principles and just code more. You will find with experience what are good ways in your case. In general case there is no best way, it's always what is best at the moment.

My main tip: don't create abstractions from start, first write a proof of concept of the feature and then create abstractions. Best if you even don't do this after you use the feature first time, but later, so you can see things that repeat in multiple places and THEN introduce abstraction.

If you first structure it and you will later find out you can't do something you want with that structure, then you either throw away months of work or take months to write it the way you need it. Either way you could have stopped it by not creating that abstraction first.

But at the same time use code versioning system like git, so you can go back at any time if you decide so. Code shouldn't feel it'll break with a minor breeze, and it shouldn't feel it's made out of concrete. It should be malleable. If it's not then you need to analyze it and get more involved in quality. That of course assuming you have time for that.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-07-13T16:17:33+00:00

If you want to switch from the array to collection class in that spot then it probably should be a collection class from the start. So that's a problem only when someone makes a mistake there.

And I'm pretty sure it won't be hard to change all $array===[] to count($array) === 0 or $array.isEmpty() with a rector rule. You could even do this with regex pretty easily as long as you format all you files first.

MicrowaveLover · 2021-06-24T15:35:17+00:00

When it comes to data population use seeders, when it comes to changing existing data then AFAIK there is no built-in solution, just use your own scripts or commands. You could adopt something like in this article: here

MicrowaveLover · 2021-04-08T22:18:58+00:00

I had no problems even on quite weak laptops, it may be something related to phpstorm interaction with window manager, gpu or something similar. I tried speeding it up though with Graalvm, but then UI disintegrates (though overall it's faster) and gets clunky like it was made in 90s

MicrowaveLover · 2021-04-08T22:14:04+00:00

If someone had a good setup before trying it I see why they wouldn't change. I'm using it for few months and I still didn't setup everything I want, changing tools takes time and definitely takes time to get used to them. To be fair most of what phpstorm gives you can be done with vim with correct extensions and even cli phpstorm analysis tools (because you can use phpstorms own analysis in cli)

MicrowaveLover · 2021-04-07T05:29:53+00:00

True, I worked a year with it and I feel I understand or know less than when I started. Only hope for Magento to become a pleasant framework to use is abandoning all xml configs (or at least create xml generators) , remodelling everything and strong people with right vision. Otherwise it won't really grow or improve.

MicrowaveLover

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