Day 16 with GameDevHQ
“The more you practice, the better you get, the more freedom you have to create”. -Jocko Willink
We always hear, “practice makes perfect”, but do we always decide to back that up with some extra effort? I believe practice can seem mundane, and oftentimes we feel as if we already know something. “I got it!”, we tell ourselves. The truth is, without constant practice, we will soon forget some information. That information is important in order to expand on our own thoughts. The ability to elaborate comes with a strong understanding of a base concept. Right now, I’m in the beginning stages of understanding coding and game development. What I’m beginning to understand is the ground I’ll be standing on for the rest of my career. To me, that is of no small importance. So, as a promise to myself, I choose to go through the course from the start.
Starting over is not entirely necessary. During the first time through, I took my time and studied each video several times before moving on. I believe with proper research and effort; I could continue into the phase 1 and 2 coursework and complete it… eventually. However, I feel my understanding of each method still is not imprinted clearly into my mind. I knew I could not recreate what has already been created completely on my own. I knew that if I wanted to be successful in the future, I would need to work harder now. The need to have a solid foundation and understanding of the most basic aspects of unity would be the most important.
When I say from the beginning, I mean the very beginning. I started by watching Jon explain how to download and set up unity. How to put a cube on the screen and navigate the scene view, all of it! Already within the first chapter, I rediscovered the best way to navigate throughout unity. By right clicking, you can use the “WASD” keys to quickly float across the world. I must have missed that explanation the first time, or had forgotten about it.
Into creating the player, I realized had forgotten how to access the “get axis” components to allow quick association for movement. I retained the ability to use “If” statements with “Input.GetKey(KeyCode.A);” then using “transform.Translate” to move the player about the screen. Once I completed the challenge, I realize I didn’t have a full grasp on where to find the “get axis” was and all the other options which we will definitely be utilizing in the future.
The main thing I knew I needed to come back around to, is how to communicate with different scripts. I was a foggy when it came to the concept of “Get Component”. This was the sole reason I came back around through the course. Once again, I had a loose understanding from the first time through. We did use this quite often and a lot of times within challenges. Still, I scratched my head the first time through the explanation. Even on my second time through, I’m still wondering what word to use first where. Whether or not to make a variable and what class to put that variable in. However, I have to say I’m better off. Maybe as I go on through the coursework and start accomplishing some tasks, I’ll be efficient in this. The main thing I want, is to grasp this concept before moving onto the 2.5D coursework.
On an off note, this will be the last week working for GameDevHQ. Luckily, we will have all this coursework for the rest of our lives. I’ll definitely be continuing learning game development with this curriculum. So far, GameDevHQ has delivered an incredible program that teaches us at an efficient and incredible rate. I’ll gladly utilize this program during my free time to eventually become… a Game Developer!
