What Next?
So, I worked on Guardian since May, and finally finished it up several weeks ago and it’s up on Xbox Live Indie Games. I won’t be purchasing a fancy car any time soon, but I might be able to use the proceeds for a Sunburn Lighting Engine license in a few weeks. I’ll buy the license anyway, but it’d be cool to do it with money earned from my game.
I spent way too much time and energy finishing Guardian, but I’m pleased to know that I still have it in me after all these years. Still, I want to move back to working on these things as a hobby rather than a money-making enterprise. It was much more enjoyable and relaxing.
So, after a couple weeks off letting my brain recover, I’ve decided to dust off my procedural planet engine and work on it some more. By “dust off”, I mean completely scrap it and start over, using what I learned during the first iteration, and some of the things I’ve learned since while working on other things.
I also plan get back to posting useful things on this blog.
In the beginning…
I’ve resisted doing one of these blog things for quite some time now. But lately I’ve felt some motivation to start writing about writing code, and maybe share some of my coding experience.
I got my first computer when I was 12. An Atari 600XL, way back in 1980. I taught myself BASIC, and then 6502 Assembler. I’ve written code in one form or another nearly every day of the 29 years since since then, and enjoyed nearly every minute of it.
I’ve always considered programming an art form. As a result, I try to create code that is clean, readable, and easy to follow – just the way I like my art. I don’t like crappy art, and don’t like crappy code either.
Of course, now that I’m an old man, I’ve learned that sometimes you have to be practical and just get things done. My code is generally a mix of what I consider some nicely designed parts, and some ugly but functional parts. Although, what comprises good art is pretty subjective, so you as readers may think it’s all ugly crap. Either way, hopefully I can provide some useful information to anyone who is interested.
I’m not 100 percent sure where I want this blog to go. I plan to mostly talk about coding. My whims take me in quite a few directions – sometimes I work on 3D game type things, sometimes websites, sometimes iPhone apps, and any number of other subjects. I’ll probably talk about all of it, and maybe even some non-programming subjects. Generally subjects that are geeky in nature.
Finally, as this thing gets going, bear with the disorganization for awhile, and hopefully at some point geeks of all persuasions will find Crappy Coding an interesting place to spend some time.