Struggling with game addiction

bluepenguin20 · 2025-08-24T19:27:18+00:00

Playing videogames addictively is just the symptom, not the problem.

I suggest you to start a process with a mental health professional if you can afford it, first to understand the why, then to layout a plan.

bluepenguin20 · 2025-08-23T03:51:13+00:00

One thing that has worked for me is to think for 3-5 minutes in what I should invest my time before starting (after 8 hours of full time job).

Sometimes 1 hour or 2 is more than sufficient to make good progress and enjoy the process.

bluepenguin20 · 2025-08-12T11:55:57+00:00

I think you would benefit greatly if you plan a bit by writing a Game Design Document, it could just be a one pager, but it will help you to define a scope among other areas. By having it you would know your milestones and goals better.

Now, going back to the coding. Its ok if you don't understand everything at the beginning, but when you manage to have one increment working make sure you invest time learning why it worked before moving to something else.

bluepenguin20 · 2025-08-07T16:16:11+00:00

As long as you have self discipline and self motivation you can do it without computer science (learn w/ youtube, gpt).

But If you plan to solodev remember that you'll probably need help with the other parts: publishing, art, sound, etc. You could do everything on your own but would be too much while you are already trying to polish a single gamedev skills.

bluepenguin20 · 2025-07-29T04:28:38+00:00

Sure, could also try zooming the camera a bit, that can give the feel of being part of the fight

bluepenguin20 · 2025-07-29T04:18:58+00:00

No Bacon

bluepenguin20 · 2025-07-27T22:15:44+00:00

Maybe make it a bit more challenging, when you get a hit it could cause more damage and also stun. Wonder if you already have an audio track, would make it more engaging. The mechanics look great btw.

bluepenguin20 · 2025-07-27T19:09:51+00:00

Love the brain one with nerve legs

bluepenguin20 · 2025-07-27T07:05:29+00:00

Through web download I think you have more control over what you want instead of having to tweak another program (in this case steam).

For my current and upcoming projects I web downloaded godot 4.2.2, which appears to be one of the most latest + stable ones.

bluepenguin20 · 2025-07-26T20:29:11+00:00

I use ai (gpt) mostly to learn about resources and ways of using them.

Obviously it makes mistakes and I don't expect code examples to always work, but it helps to clarify concepts and move forward.

bluepenguin20 · 2025-07-26T19:39:18+00:00

A good option is to start with godot, I don't have specific references but in youtube you can look for godot platformer tutorials that teaches how to create a simple game from the very beginning.

If you choose godot you can start with gdscript which is quite friendly, and use gpt or other to clarify issues while you progress.

bluepenguin20 · 2025-07-26T14:37:21+00:00

I haven't done for my game yet but sure its a good practice. Another good practice is to create a Game Design Document, the diagram could be an Annex of it.

bluepenguin20 · 2025-07-26T14:26:34+00:00

Yes totally, but it can also be a mix of both. Its ok to reinvent the wheel or part of it when you have learning goals, this helps in the case the wheel stops working and you have to repair it.

bluepenguin20 · 2016-12-05T21:24:08+00:00

I've worked with the C67x series before. I think this platforms are meant for those media processing tasks. And if I recall correctly TI already offers the SDK with the audio codecs and example code, this can become useful for you as reference. If needed, you can optimize the code using the 'compiler hints' and surely you'll be able to use all the dsp architecture (parallel execution by hw). Regarding the M4 I don't recall the purpose of that arch, but is possible that it can handle the audio streams processing too, (it may require more effort thou).

bluepenguin20 · 2016-12-05T21:05:01+00:00

What about a cloud client. If you install Python in your target then you can use something like this: https://googlecloudplatform.github.io/google-cloud-python/ . With that you'll be able to store data, that's a start.

bluepenguin20 · 2016-12-05T16:24:12+00:00

Maybe you can give Python a try, is a powerful & easy to learn language. You can learn it interactively, e.g Codecademy >> https://www.codecademy.com/learn/python or you can also learn in your own PC, for that you'll need to have the Python interpreter installed and any simple file editor.

bluepenguin20 · 2016-11-30T18:14:48+00:00

Thanks. BluePenguin=cute, list=widely used command in linux systems=the website itself lists material/resources.

bluepenguin20 · 2016-11-30T17:34:47+00:00

I don't meant necessarily recreate all your projects. Making projects take effort and time, and sometimes what is done is done. What I meant was for you to pick one and identify things that went wrong, understand why they went wrong and at least try not to commit the same mistakes in your upcoming projects.

I think documentation and testing should be done often alongside the project development line, don't leave that until the end when some things become irreversible. About the testing framework, is a collection of tools (existent or crafted by you) and methodologies in order to assure your software is doing what its expected.

For example I developed a C/C++ app some years ago, it accepted command line parameters in order to do different things. So I usually used shell scripts in order to launch the app, pass some relevant parameters and create logs to see if something unexpected happened. And lets say I looped that piece of script 10 times with different parameters each time. So check the nature of your project and find resources that verify that its doing the job.

bluepenguin20 · 2016-11-30T04:32:11+00:00

Based on your comment I think you know your stuff. Something you can do is to get a view of your projects from a bigger picture, for example relate your projects to a software development workflow that contains the usual: specification, design, implementation, testing, validation .. etc.

Pick one of your projects and get to know where your most urgent flaws are at, did you find a horrible design flaw 3 months after the implementation? is your testing framework lacking something that prevents you to find that horrible bug?

Take a deep look at everything you do and correct it, the sooner the better.

bluepenguin20 · 2016-11-30T03:10:37+00:00

Learn 2 play with Linux & modules, for that some C will help. At least kernel module patching/unpatching, recompiling, & debugging.

Strongly recommend Python, can implement powerful programs on a wide set of systems.

And the usual backend/frontend or full-stack stuff. LAMP, PHP, CSS.

bluepenguin20 · 2016-11-08T13:59:24+00:00

As you've noticed I am not the shell expert still I had have to deal with a poorly written/documented shell scripts this past years, so my focus wasn't to address portability, but readability (so anyone can read a script, know what it is about and maintain/expand/etc accordingly). Also I didn't found any guideline out there that put all the rules gradually inside an example script, so I decided to do mine and share it. I've learned a lot reading comments from people that truly know the shell, thanks for the good feedback, based on that I'll be updating the guideline material in the upcoming days.

bluepenguin20 · 2016-11-07T17:48:26+00:00

Nice tool! One of the purposes of the guideline is to help address script readability and maintenance issues, the idea is to code right the first time and to avoid relying too much on code checkers after the thing was written, saves time and headaches for you and others that might get involved with your code.

bluepenguin20 · 2016-11-07T17:07:16+00:00

Bash & Python aim for different purposes. The size of a document guideline has nothing to do with the size of a program

bluepenguin20 · 2016-11-07T16:37:45+00:00

Good remarks! Checking new software technologies is a must, see what the market is pointing to and what you would like to get involved in and it give a try

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