Tag: Adventures In Coding

Planning a short break before the Christmas madness

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It’s been a really productive week! Lots of work and game creation done and another interesting TechUp module finished. I also have a giant pile of parcels from various postal services that need to be opened and wrapped in Christmas paper this weekend!

Next week, if all goes well, I will be taking a bit of downtime. I’m well caught up with work and studying and will be blitzing as much housework and Christmas admin as possible over the weekend. My game is also now drafted and in the testing process, meaning I just need to finish tweaking and finessing it before the jam deadline on Sunday evening.

The main reason I’m going to be trying for a quiet week is that December is going to be non-stop. Mostly in a lovely way (proper Christmas celebrations with family etc.), but I get a bit unsettled when lots of non-routine things are happening, so it’d be good to have some mental recharge time beforehand.

Geth and I have both had head colds this week. I shook it off fairly quickly, but Geth has been feeling fairly rough and has decided on a strictly-indoors weekend in order to try and shake it off before Monday. This means that if I’m parkrunning tomorrow, I’m doing it by myself, and I still can’t decide where I want to go. Might end up making a very last-minute decision!

Art deco pictures
Some of the framed pictures in last weekend’s hotel room (it’s all super art deco in there).

This week’s earworm playlists:

Saturday

Duran Duran and Chai – ‘More Joy’
Soft Cell – ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’
Soft Cell – ‘Sex Dwarf’

Sunday

Soft Cell – ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’
Soft Cell – ‘Bedsitter’
Duran Duran and Tove Lo – ‘Give It All Up’
Irene Cara – ‘Fame’

Monday

Roger Miller – ‘King Of The Road’
Soft Cell – ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’
Duran Duran and Tove Lo – ‘Give It All Up’

Tuesday

Roger Miller – ‘King Of The Road’
Soft Cell – ‘Sex Dwarf’

Wednesday

Chris Rea – ‘Driving Home For Christmas’
Duran Duran – ‘Anniversary’

Thursday

Arcadia – ‘Lady Ice’
Traditional – ‘Deck The Halls’

Friday

Dr Hook – ‘When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman’*

*AWFUL. Get out of my head!

Adventures In Coding: Small Games Are Fun

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I (of course) still have a lot of ridiculous sprawling text adventure works-in-progress going on, some of which will hopefully be out next year, but as the TechUp course is my main coding focus at the moment I am only allowing myself to work on small, short games that are in less danger of becoming giant ridiculous monstrosities. I really enjoyed making The River of Blood for EctoComp a few weeks ago – coding a game in less than four hours for the Petite Mort category was a new kind of challenge! – and I’ve now finished the initial draft of a short PunyInform game for another jam. It needs to be run past a few testers over the next few days, as I’m still very much a learner with PunyInform / Inform 6 and there will undoubtedly be lots of bugs, but I feel like I’ve at least got the bones of it ready.

I feel like I’m making good progress with TechUp too, and am excited about delving into this week’s module tomorrow.

Room description
Leaving the pub is not as straightforward as it might appear.

Of course, I’ll only feel like I’ve truly learnt Python when I can code a text adventure game with it!

Adventures in Coding: Suddenly Caught Up; and Painting the Walls

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I was panicking a bit last week because I felt like I was really behind with the TechUp course (I was a week behind the advertised schedule). I knew from the online course forum that most people were in the same boat, but it still felt like it was taking forever. However, once I’d finished the huge beginners’ Python module, the next few course modules turned out to be much quicker and easier and I’ve been able to get through them in the space of a few days. It means I’ve got some time to have another look at the Python projects I had to rush through in order not to fall further behind with that module.

In hobby coding this week, I’ve now got the skeleton of my short PunyInform game and am gradually ‘painting the walls’, i.e. adding colour to the game by coding examine responses etc. I’m hoping to have a first draft by the end of the week.

Some exciting retro computer news to talk about in the next few days too…

Planets
An old favourite, and something to investigate again soon.

One thing at a time…

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…has been my motto for a few years now since life got a bit manic. I’m trying to remember it now that I’m enjoying my software course so much that I want to go and learn all the coding languages at once. Python is quite enough for now!

That said, during my downtime I’ve been wrestling with PunyInform/Inform 6, but that’s been quite a lot of fun and mostly involves prose writing, which I can do. Work is quiet this week (so far) so I’m looking forward to getting lots of coursework done.

Python handbook
This will be a useful read! It’s slightly out of date but most of it will still be sound.

Ticking things off (Christmas edition)

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I’ve had a fairly productive weekend, but it’s still felt like a weekend because it’s been different from what I’m doing during the week. I’ve got about half of our Christmas presents wrapped (the other half are yet to arrive), some of the Christmas food prepared and in the freezer, and a few more other random things booked. I’m determined to have all the Christmas prep organised and done by the end of November this year!

Geth was running the Town Moor Half Marathon this morning so I spent some time in the nearby café with my book. I had a good view of all the marathon and half marathon runners as they went round and round the lapped course! I’ve also been getting on with my hobby coding – I’m really glad I decided to combine it with my NaNoWriMo because it’s meant I’ve had the motivation to get a bit more done every day, even when I’m really busy.

Looking forward to another good week of software dev learning 🙂

Town Moor Half Marathon
Geth at the Town Moor half this morning. A tough and breezy one by all accounts!

Adventures In Coding: Late Night Code Thoughts

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I am still making my way through the TechUp course and learning a little bit more about Python every day. It’s a gradual process and some days I feel like it’s going in one ear and out the other, but I know from experience that it will sink in with practice! We’re moving onto testing modules this week and there was a really interesting lecture on it this evening. I still think I prefer the development side of things, but it’s given me some things to think about.

I’m still buzzing from making my four-hours-to-code-it Petite Mort game for EctoComp. It was so much fun to be able to squeeze in a bite-size piece of Adventuron coding in the middle of everything else that’s going on at the moment! I’m getting some nice feedback and some useful reports of bugs to fix for my post-competition release. I’m now hoping to do the same with a small PunyInform game for the jam they’re holding this month – I’m getting a tiny bit done every day and counting it as my NaNoWriMo this year! It’s so important to be able to spend a bit of time with my creative projects even when I’m super busy with other things.

As is standard for the autumn, day job work has quietened down a bit recently – which is absolutely fine by me, as I wouldn’t be able to fit all my studying in if business was as manic as it was in the summer. I’m still getting a chunk every week, but it’s at a nice manageable level.

Next door's cat
Next door’s cat has been visiting us a lot recently. We think he just really likes our cosy sofa throw!

Semi-flying Friday post… and some bonus coding adventures!

Dee Leave a comment

I’ll double up earworm playlists next week (maybe by then I’ll have got all the Hallowe’en songs out of my head) but just a quick post today to enthuse about all my coding adventures! I’m still merrily rolling along with my TechUp course (absolutely loving learning Python) and today have managed to spend four hours making my Petite Mort entry for the EctoComp game competition! Now to get some last-minute testing done over the weekend… though there’s a lot of Hallowe’en watching to be done as well 🙂

Skeletal!
This character is something to be avoided in my new game!

Double time

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It’s been a manic week and I am so glad it’s the weekend. Studying and working at the same time is tough, especially with all the other things I need to do. I’m really enjoying the course though.

Tomorrow I’ll be parkrunning and game-creating and doing other active/productive hobby stuff, but I’m going to arrange another Shouldless Sunday for the following day. I’m really looking forward to a day on the sofa with my videogames! I just don’t have time for them otherwise at the moment…

Red velvet cake
Another of last Sunday’s cakes! I love red velvet cake and this slice was perfect.

This week’s earworm playlists:

Saturday

Tracy Chapman – ‘Fast Car’
Placebo – ‘Every You Every Me’

And a bonus track that Geth was humming that day:

The Power Station – ‘Some Like It Hot’

Sunday

Bill Withers – ‘Lovely Day’
The Running Channel – ‘Run With Me’

Monday

Japan – ‘I Second That Emotion’

Tuesday

Sacre – ‘The London Marathon’
Duran Duran – ‘Out Of My Mind’
Duran Duran – ‘Winter Marches On’

Wednesday

Elvis Presley – ‘Return To Sender’
Village People – ‘YMCA’
Bill Conti – ‘Gonna Fly Now’
Duran Duran – ‘Anniversary’

Thursday

Lady Gaga and Beyoncé – ‘Telephone’
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – ‘Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy’
Ashbury Heights – ‘Suicide Anthem’

Friday

Ashbury Heights – ‘Waste Of Love’

And a bonus track that Geth was humming earlier:

The Wonder Stuff – ‘Closer To Fine’

Studying again!

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My course has started. It was pegged as sixteen hours a week but it actually looks like it’s going to be a bigger time commitment than that if I do everything properly! As such, I’m being strict over the next few months with my schedule so that I can fit everything in. It’s going to take a bit of work to balance everything but I’m already enjoying the course so much.

This week might mostly be illustrated by post-race pictures from yesterday. There are a lot, mostly of cake.

Jazz band
The fancy café where we ate all the cake also had a fancy jazz band that played in the background. Very swish!

Full steam ahead

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It’s the weekend but it’s going to be a pretty busy one! Geth and I are volunteering at parkrun tomorrow morning, then I’ll be following the opening day sessions for my course tomorrow afternoon, and then we’ve got the North Tyneside 10k on Sunday. Fairly full-on week next week too with starting the course modules, so I expect I’ll be scheduling another Shouldless Sunday next weekend in order to relax!

I’ve been able to get a good chunk of work done on my new game this week as well, which has been great. Coding for that should be done by the middle of next week and then I can get started on the bells and whistles. I need to fit it in with coursework and day job work, but it’s all going really well so far, and I feel like I’ve got a good planned balance for the next couple of weeks. Hallowe’en will be a really great celebration of getting it done… I hope!

Speaking of which, the decorations may be coming out this weekend. I loved having them up for two weeks last year and I think that will become the norm…

Decorated polystyrene pumpkin
My decorated polystyrene pumpkin from last year. I do have the materials for making more, but somehow I don’t think they’re going to get done this year…

This week’s earworm playlists:

Saturday

Sacre – ‘The London Marathon’
Sean Paul – ‘Get Busy’*
Mark Knopfler – ‘Local Hero’
VNV Nation – ‘Fearless’
Avicii and Aloe Blacc – ‘Wake Me Up’

Sunday

Sean Paul – ‘Get Busy’

Monday

Avicii and Aloe Blacc – ‘Wake Me Up’
Howard Jones – ‘Like To Get To Know You Well’

Tuesday

Sean Paul – ‘Get Busy’
Hans Zimmer – ‘He’s A Pirate’

Wednesday

Sean Paul – ‘Get Busy’
Yuzo Koshiro – ‘Battlefield: Storm’
Mark Knopfler – ‘Local Hero’

Thursday

Sean Paul – ‘Get Busy’
Bill Withers – ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’
Lady Gaga and Beyoncé – ‘Telephone’

Friday

Robert Burns – ‘Auld Lang Syne’
Travis – ‘Driftwood’
Meat Loaf – ‘I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)’
Rod Stewart – ‘Maggie May’
Bill Withers – ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’

*Judi Love and Graziano Di Prima danced to this on Strictly a couple of weeks ago and I have not been able to get it out of my head since 😬 It takes me right back to dancing in dodgy clubs in my late teens.