Are any of you interest in being part of a coding sub-community of GGG+

One of the things I enjoy most about G+ and the communities that formed around Elite Dangerous has been the gathering of personalities that seem to share a lot of hobbies and interests. Many walks of life and philosophies interested in overlapping topics like music, tv, movies, humour, food, wine, etc.

One of my hobbies has always been coding. The past is littered with 100's of started projects and abandoned code. Clearly, I haven't been an 'completionist' or 'achievement unlocked' kind of person in this regard. I guess in my case, I was not able to sustain that level of drive and enthusiasm for most of those pet projects.

With Unity, I've found a system that allows me to express my gameplay idle thoughts as something tangible and I've started watching tutorials and putting objects on the screen and animating them. The results have been quick and rewarding and I'm starting to believe I could actually make a game that I would play. Probably not as long as it will take for me to code, but that's my attention span at work. I've heard random posts from some of you and I gather I'm not the only one.

I was wondering if we shouldn't carve out a small piece of the Internet to do this together. It sounds like a number of you might be a bit further along than me. Maybe we can encourage, teach and support each other on this journey? Maybe do some play-testing and constructive criticism along the way?

If so, what would be good way to do this? Discord, Hangouts, G+ sub-group or new one?

I'm sure we can also look into our unfinished projects and see what else we can resurrrect and finish with the help of similarly minded folk.

For example: I have made a plugin for my Philips Hue lamp to change colours based on the Elite Dangerous journal. All it does is turn red when you jump out of supercruise near a station and turns green when you get docking permission. It needs a plugin UI and some customisation/settings gui stuff, but it's not a priority for me.

What I envisage is we build up a library of resources /recommended tutorials /royalty free art & audio /code for various game engines and languages and maybe people can offer non-coding participation like 3d modelling, art, etc?

This post is going on too long, dying to hear your comments.

Comments

I'd be up for this. I will say up front that my coding knowledge is almost zero and I'm a big fan of apps (like Unity) that assist by giving you an interface that allows you to build without code.
I think a hangout group could be good to start and gather interest?
Niall Crowley
Steve Gledhill said…
I am also a coding hobbyist with nothing to show for it. I occasionally get to write some small scripts that help at work but, mainly, I start (and rarely finish) online tutorials! I've been learning python for some years now in this stop/start (start / don't finish) way for a few years now and I definitely need something to focus on.
So, count me in if you'll have me.
Ian Stoffberg said…
Well, I've started my game and I have no idea if I will finish it. I will post in the OffTopic until asked to stop ;)
I started developing a game a while back in Unity, and got halfway through before I gave up on it - it requires a lot of time that I simply don't have.
Would be happy to be included in discussions about this, but for the time being, I don't see myself of picking this up again.
Well, halfway is maybe a bit optimistic, but I created a lot of code around procgen maps and procgen islands. I have a few (uncommented) videos here:
youtube.com - LateTide on StormTorn

The title of the game was StormTorn, and actually the oldest (still hex based) video shows the most about what the game would have been about. - Locating islands, trading, exploration, military or piracy, etc.
Ian Stoffberg said…
Robert Csala Yep. It can be very time consuming depending on real life. Why do you think I've aimed my goals really low ;)
Seriously though. I approached this project as a means to learn Unity more than have a game at the end. Whether the game is finished or not, the learning process has been worth it so far.
Ian Stoffberg In that case you have no reasons to not go crazy, and add EVERYTHING :)
What is your plan, 2D or 3D? Actually, what is your plan? :)
Ian Stoffberg said…
advisa.se - Brexit Bus crossed with the c64 game Trailblazer's perspective
Ian Stoffberg said…
The idea is that you ride a road made up of a share price or currency price and as you pass certain points you see billboards with news headlines on them. It's a blatant ripoff of that 2D game's central idea. I've since added Mario Kart like powerup's and most of the graphics are procedurally generated before you get there from a text file with dates and events and prices on them. The idea is that when certain events happen, the road dips or rises based on the event. Like riding a stock price through a depression or a world event like 911.
Today is the day the game idea I originally stole got ripped off.
Nice, 2D, bit of physics, perfect for learning stuff.
I think Ian's statement about the initial goal being to learn more is the best way to think about it.
Ian Stoffberg said…
Robert Csala erm. 3D meant i would have nice crisp looking imagery without having to draw nicely ;)
Ian Stoffberg said…
As you can see, the headline text is hardcoded and not based on the date. You can see a couple of power ups (green) just ahead of the player sphere. The player sphere as a constant forward force applied to it so it moves forward along the road. The road is generated from the text file prices and is tilted up or down depending on the price going up or down. Power ups currently are jump, speed boost and score multiplier. Thinking of reversing left right and lowering sensitivity as power-downs(?). Lots to do. The signposts consist of 4 objects which should really be converted into a prefab, but then again, I didn't know what a prefab was until after I made them in code ;)
The sphere, the ground and the camera are the only objects in the editor. The rest is made in c# when the level begins...
edit: Controls are left, right, jump currently.
https://plus.google.com/photos/...
Ian Stoffberg there is this thing called vector graphics that you can use for crisp 2D :)
Ian Stoffberg said…
Robert Csala mmmm. Tempest....
As for the game plan, it looks great. I had a trello board to track my gamedev tasks with labels like "must have", "eyecandy", etc. Did you set up something like that yet?
Dennis Wronka said…
As for having a little corner on the web to work on this... How about GitHub?
Ian Stoffberg said…
Dennis Wronka for the collaborative works, that would be perfect. I'm hoping to make small change on Android one day so I'm expecting some things will be on BitBucket. For example, happy to share my Elite experiments on GitHub.
Dennis Wronka Ian Stoffberg if I am not mistaken, unless you pay for github, you can only use a public repo, is that fine for you? (some people would rather not share their game code)
Ian Stoffberg said…
Robert Csala that's my understanding.
Ian Stoffberg said…
Robert Csala trello? Plans? Forward thinking. Nahh., 😀
Dennis Wronka said…
Robert Csala True. But I'm an Open Source kind of person anyway, so that's fine with me.
Dennis Wronka said…
Ian Stoffberg I'd also be happy to go for alternative options. I've previously used SourceForge, but changed to GitHub when I started working on my Discord bots.
Dennis Wronka said…
Also, I might use the opportunity and see if I can make the game work in VR. ;-)
Dennis Wronka said…
I read today that the Unity Editor now supports Vulkan. Just wanted to share this, as I think that's a great thing.
Ian Stoffberg said…
Dennis Wronka VR and AR ;) Wish I had some kit!
So would a hangout group be a good place to collaborate? Or a dedicated G+ group? GGDev ;)
Or a slack group? Or maybe discord?
Something with channels would make sense, I believe
Steve Gledhill said…
I think that whatever we choose should allow separate channels for software-specific collaboration whilst allowing everyone to follow progress in all channels. And without non-coding members being spammed.
Steve Gledhill said…
Of course, we'll need a name and, perhaps in keeping with GGG alliteration we can have CCC : Cool Cats Coding; Cool Coding Clan; Civil Coding Clan; Curious CC, Cultured CC, Confused CC,
G+ and Discord both have the ability for separate channels or categories. I personally prefer Google for the extra collaborative functionality it brings.
Ian Stoffberg said…
Good Guys Gaming I'm a G+ fan too ;)
What's Google Plus, never heard about it? ;)
Yeh I be up for this and recently setup my GitHub for justnthis purpose.
Name for group? GGC? Good Guys Coding?
Dennis Wronka said…
Kool Kids Koding
I'm gonna go get my coat...
Steve Gledhill said…
I was hoping for something more inclusive.
Steve Gledhill how is it exclusive? The coding reference?
Ian Stoffberg said…
Steve Gledhill guys is probably not appropriate
Well, I asked that very question 3 years ago when I set up GGG and it was agreed that nowadays the term "guys" can be considered gender neutral.
We can of course go with something else. Keep those suggestions coming in :)
Steve Gledhill said…
Yes. The guys. It sounds good I just wish we had a similar word that was more neutral.
Dennis Wronka said…
Steve Gledhill Polite People (with or without Penises) Programming?
Do we really have to go down that silly route? I've never met a sane woman who felt excluded by the word "guys".
It's a legit point, and I'm happy to discuss it.
Steve Gledhill said…
Dennis Wronka I hear women refer to other women as guys. So, I'm not objecting to Good Guys Coding (I actually like it) I just wondered if there was an alternative that may be just as inclusive but was more open.
I would not feel welcome joining a Good Gals Coding group and I'm sure there will be some women who would hesitate to join a 'Guys' group (unless they already knew how 'Good' we are!).

I like the PPP alliteration
Other words with 'P' either with People Programming or Programmers:

Polite
People
principled
practical
positive
playful
pleasant
passionate

So, we could have Practical Playful Programmers or some such.

Still struggling to find anything better than Good Guys Coding though :-)

Dennis Wronka said…
I personally think that PC is a waste of time. It doesn't solve any problems, but perpetually shifts them from one word to the next.

Another suggestion would be naming the group after the project, assuming we'll focus on that one thing and don't want to be a general coding platform.

Finally, here's one that's a notch more objectional than Good Guys Coding:
Bros Bumping Bits
;-)
Steve Gledhill said…
I've just sent an email to our team (it has at least one woman) and I found myself writing : "... would be good to let the guys know and ...".
Given a choice between GGC and BBB ... !
I'd like to see it more open to general coding than on a specific project.
Ian Stoffberg said…
Dennis Wronka Agreed about PC gone mad world we live in, but I do think the gaming community does have a bro'ish attitude that makes it less inclusive. is Guru instead of Guy better or worse? The problem with Guru is that it implies we are proficient , when clearly we're all striving towards that.
As I read back I have a question. Is this a group for those wanting to develop games with skills or insights in all related areas such as writing, character development, sound effects, music, art, drawing or just focused on the the coding side of things?
Ian Stoffberg said…
Good Guys Gaming You raise an interesting point. It could just be Creators instead of Coders
Ian Stoffberg well it could be both I guess.

All, I need to unpin this post soon for the next one (exciting news) so can I get everyone's suggestions for a group name dedicated to anyone interested in creating a game whatever skills you have to contribute.

If there are no suggestions by this time tomorrow I will decide. Cheers!
Steve Gledhill said…
I've had more than my fair share of opinion on this. I'm happy that a group will be created - whatever the name.

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