Matthew Riddett's all-expenses-paid thrilling tell-all extravaganza junior software developer learning log blog

JavaScript Basics Day!.....plus some Unity :-)

January 29, 2020

Today was another good day.

Today I made further progress on this awesome Udemy JavaScript course. Almost through the second section of eight. This one is called “JavaScript Language Basics”.

Yet again, today was a real confidence booster. After having spent so much time with C#, I’m finding the basics of JavaScript are VERY similar, so it’s going very fast and easy.

I’ve been slowing myself down a bit by trying out a bunch of different approaches to the coding challenges along the way, trying this and that approach, purposefully using all of the tools JS has to offer as I go so my fingers get some good solid experience with EVERYTHING. That is, after all, why I’m doing this: to fill in knowledge gaps and get a really good SOLID foundation of JS.

So after that I switched back over to Unity and did a bit more prep for the game jam this weekend, #GGJ2020. And I found that all the practice with language fundamentals I had completed in the JS course have also carried over to my Unity C# programming skills, so it’s kind of like a two-for-one kinda thing…

Yes, feeling good today. Really glad I decided to do this JS course. And super pumped for the game jam.

Last night I went to a local GameDev club here at UVic, and we solidified our club project, which is going to be a Beat Em’ Up style game, top down camera view (like the game ‘Don’t Starve’), but in 3D with 3D models. The game takes place in a little kids bedroom. One day the kid’s parents bring home a new alarm clock for the kiddo, in the shape of a wizard. At night, the wizard comes alive and brings all the toys in the kid’s room to life to do his evil bidding. But, the kid’s favorite stuffy - a small stuffed bunny - is brought to life but does not fall under the evil wizard’s control. You play as the hero stuffed bunny, who must, alongside other hero toys you meet along the way, battle through the bedroom, out into the hallway, down the stairs, through the kitchen and living room, etc, in order to reach some kind of maguffin that will defeat the evil alarm clock wizard and save the unsuspecting sleeping family and return everything to normal.

It’s gonna be so awesome!

So that’s all for now. Tomorrow I’m going to spend some time debugging the myLevelUP app and perhaps start rebuilding the myLevelUP website using Gatsby.js. I’m also going to put in a couple more hours on the Udemy JS course, and do just a wee bit more game jam prep if I have time.

TTFN!

-mr

“They could be a great people, Kal-El. They only lack the program to show them the way.”

- Jor-El


Written by Matthew Riddett who lives and works in Victoria BC, building fun and useful things. You can follow him on Twitter