Do I like coding?

I guess it has taken me a while to get stuck in to coding because I wasn't sure if I would really enjoy it or not. I mean, I like the *idea* of coding, making things from scratch, working things out, being logical, and I love video games, so surely I would enjoy coding??? But I wasn't really sure; it just seemed so hard and so daunting.

Do I have a coder in me? Will I be passionate about it? Will I stick it out when things get tough? Will I be able to progress beyond a basic level?

Since I started the Unity course and this blog I have come back to coding with vigour and more of a belief in myself. The Women in Games conference and the people I met there gave me new confidence. So I feel more certain than ever that this is something that I really want to do. And a very long car journey back from the Lake District provided an unexpected answer to the questions above.

Husbandcoder and I started to talk about my latest Unity project, Number Wizard, and some of the extension tasks that had been set by the course tutors. How could I make it so that the computer guessed a random number to start with? How could I make it so that the player did the guessing rather than the computer? Then on to other theoretical prototypes, this time including graphics (which I haven't really done much of before).

We talked about this stuff for hours. At least 5 hours I think. It sure did help pass the time! It challenged me and pushed me further than I had gone before, and all of this was in my head, we didn't write a single thing down. If I can attack these problems head on like this and come up with answers (not all of them right, but each one helped me get there in the end), if I can spend that long solving coding problems, if I can draw on what I have learned and make educated guesses, if I rise to the challenge then I CAN BE A CODER!

I don't just like coding. I think I <3 it.

Mandoid. Developer. Coder. :D

Peace out coderinos!

A little sprinkle of confidence

Yesterday I went to the European Women in Games conference, organised by Women in Games and held at Greenwich University, London.

The night before I told myself that I was going to strong and brave and to talk to anyone and everyone.

I arrived after a horrendously packed tube journey in ugly hot weather, the kind of experience that makes you cry for a little more personal space. Face in an armpit, someone's leather jacket rubbing against my bare, sweaty skin, definitely no seat.

This did not really help to make me feel like a winner. Strong and brave were turning into corner and hide.

So at first I was a little intimidated by all the lovely ladies who seemed to know each other and were all bona fide games people, which I am not. I felt like I shouldn't be there. I started to slip into my usual 'ahhh what's the point' jogging bottoms.

Anyway, THEN THE CONFERENCE STARTED. Almost immediately I was captivated and inspired by what I was hearing. I met so many brilliant people. Received so much excellent advice. Made vital connections.

And most of all I felt confident about what I was doing.

I am meant to be here.
I am a strong, brave woman.
I am a games developer.

Just not an employed one that makes any money.

Yet.

Playing Number Wizard

Artist's representation

Woohoo!

I have finished Number Wizard and I wanted to show you :D
I put it in a video for you to see it in all it's glory, so please enjoy the following 14 minutes of greatness, including the bits where I cannot do VERY simple maths.




I'm sorry if it's a bit long and I say OK too much... :/ I promise I will get better!

Please let me know whether the video is good/helpful or not.

Link to Udemy here

Stupid squiggly curly pieces of crap

Right now I have a real issue with the curly bracket {, so much so I am considering asking it to step outside, but GODDAMN IT I don't know which one to ask.

A routine compile on what was an otherwise perfectly operational piece of code before some minor changes has resulted in this:

Errrrrr you what, bruv?

AAAAAAAAAARRRGHHHHHHHH!!!

So I know there is an error. But I don't understand enough about Unity/C# to identify what that is yet. At the bottom of the Unity screen the error log is repeated, but you can see the full message. Which looked like this:

 Ahah! Unexpected symbol '}'. So there must be an extra } somewhere which is mucking up my delicious code.

I searched the code methodically, first with a visual scan, then with a trusty pencil and post it note (my speciality).

Maybe you can spot the error?

This post it note has lines printed on it :D

They all matched up though. Every } had a { preceding it. So where was the unexpected one?

I got some help from Husbandcoder. He spotted it straight away, but still patiently listened as I explained what I had done so far. Explaining things to him was good, because I got to cement what I had just learned in my mind, but it didn't solve the problem!

He pointed something out to me that I am going to find invaluable, as I know in the months and years to come I am going to find many errors! In the error log it actually tells you what line the error occurs on - in this case line 28.

Ahah! I have located the devil!

Ok so cut to line 28 and whooopah right? Hmmmm, no. Line 28 didn't have an extra }, nowhere did, I had already checked that.

So the next nugget of gold from the Husbandcoder was to look at the line of code just before the one that the compiler was saying that the error was on. This is because as the error could well be with what came just before, but the compiler doesn't realise there is an error until it gets to the next piece of code.

So I looked at line 27. Have you spotted it yet?

It's in there somewhere...

It's missing a semi colon! Without it the compiler doesn't know that my print statement is finished and therefore wasn't expecting a } at the start of line 28. That's why it flagged the } as an error.

That's on small ; for man, one giant error for Mandoid.

So I added the pesky little critter and all is well! Sleep tight coderinos!