The Journey… Day 3
Version Control…. Ever have that day where you really mess something up. Badly… and you wish that you had a reset button to start just before the mistake happened but you don’t so you just have to fix it? Today was that day in game development. Now, although this is my third day of game development it’s my second month of full time coding. I started Lambda at the end of September and gave myself 40 days before to get up to speed. Lots of beginning coding challenges as I started. Lots of deep breaths keeping me from losing my cool.
Once school began there were many nights spent trying to figure out the weird page overflow that keeps showing up for no reason. There were nights spent near tears viciously tearing apart JavaScript wondering why it keeps throwing errors only to find a missing capitalization or a missing semicolon. It’s an unavoidable aspect of what we do as developers, designers, and engineers. Having an eye for the perspicacious is a skill that is in high demand in this industry.
Today was not that day. If only it had been so easy. I moved around files and accidentally lost game functionality on my first shooter game. My laser stopped firing. My player started disappearing and my enemies stopped appearing.
Stop… breathe…
Combine this with having my first project in applied Javascript as a precursor to React due today it did put a little bit of pressure on me. Earlier, I had to come to terms with moving game development school to part time to accommodate my other part time, Lambda School. With the two now scheduled in reasonable ranges, that feeling of being a hamster on a wheel furiously trying to pound out code just to maintain faded into the background. So when i realized what I had done I stood up. Stepped away from the computer. Grabbed a glass of water… took a breath… and dug down again.
No way was I going to finish this day further back than where I started it. I started by deleting my laser prefab, setting it back up and going back through the proper means to return it to its lost, baddie destroying glory. I kept my cool, didn’t panic too much, and got the project back up to speed. However, I was wishing for version control. As we aren’t using it right now I longed for my Github where I could just turn back time, call it a mulligan, and start from before I messed it up. Fortunately I found the issues. I got it all fixed up and was able to progress my game beyond where I thought I would today.
Some days you wish for version control… other days you are the version control. Keeping yourself on track to be a better version of you every day if sometimes one of life’s greatest struggles. But i. It’s not always easy but remembering to iterate the best version of yourself that you can daily is a wondering skill that is as sought after as having that eye for detail.
Addendum: It is now 10:07. I have finally managed to drag myself away from the computer after taking a break for dinner and a mental siesta. All coding is done for the day. Web dev code reviews all tight, in line as they should be. Now texture mapped protagonists, antagonists, and lase fire tucked away for the night. Rows of code finished, cleaned and polished. Ready to begin the next day organized, clean, and tidy. It is the way I ran my stations kitchens as a chef and it’s the way I still organize my art studio. As always, life remains about version control.
