So, it’s been four months since the last post and now feels like a good time for a new one.
Firstly, a little update about the open source game engine that I started back in February. It’s been progressing nicely in terms of its capabilities and stability, with features such as font rendering, live texture updates, gamepad support and vastly improved content loading being the main areas of improvement.
However, during this time I’ve also been actively looking for work in the software industry since ending self-employment as an independent game developer. It’s not going as well as I’d like and while it has been tempting to just give up, that’s definitely not an option either.
Instead, I’ve been continuing to improve my skills and experience in using ASP.NET, SQL and Javascript (JS). I’ve also recently picked up Typescript (TS) and jumped into the deep end by moving all of this site’s JS code to TS, which forced me (in a good way) to learn how it's all setup and configured.
XML to Markdown
Another side-project I've been working on is an Visual Studio XML documentation to Markdown converter, or "VsXmlDoc2Markdown" for short. Part of the reason I started the project was to generate documentation for the previously mentioned open-source game engine, while also using it as another means of practicing tool/utility development.
It's only a small, work-in-progress project, but if you're interested, take a look!
Screeps
Now, you’re probably wondering what the heck is Screeps?
It’s a web-based programming massively-multiplayer online (MMO) game, which I’ve been using as a secondary method of learning JS and TS. The purpose of the game is to use everything Javascript has to offer, to create an AI which can harvest resources, construct a base, defend itself and attack the AIs of other players in a massive online world split into rooms, or sectors. This means once your AI is running, you don’t actually need to be present for it to continue doing what you programmed it to do.
It’s a really fun (and intense) way of learning Javascript. It supports the use of external IDEs and there is also a Typescript start kit which provides all of the typings and configuration you would need to write your AI in TS, compile it into JS and automatically push it to the game server. It’s definitely worth checking out