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Something like galaga! I have no idea where to start. I know how to program, I have an environment to make the game, and I can create all the pixel/tiles on the screen. I just don't really know where to go after that. I've looked online for help but with no luck.
Any feedback is much appreciated!
A great alternative would be to use Löve2D, it is a game framework that uses Lua as its programming language and it is very easy to use.
No matter what language you code in, I would start by making a diagram describing the game flow. If you break it into small pieces, you'll find yourself following that process as you start to code.
Ask yourself:
What is happening in the game? (Aliens attacking a single ship)
What is the object of the game? (Destroy each successive wave of aliens without getting nuked.)
What controls are necessary to accomplish this? (firing button, movements, any specials you might incorporate.)
what sorts of power-ups / extra lives will be available and when?
What is the reward schema (more points / power-ups for higher-level kills, etc.)
What is the derivative increase in difficulty? (is it linear - gets a bit harder each level or, does it get increasingly difficult by greater amounts as you pass levels - also, do you want to build in respite levels where it chills for a level or two.)
Hopefully, you get the idea - just chop up the project into bite-sized chunks before you write your first line, follow your process, and adjust as necessary - a couple of hours of planning could save you many hours of dithering while trying to code a project you have not really defined for yourself.
I hope this helps
~b
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I'm doing software engineering and I'm learning Artificial Intelligence course in the current semester, then I need to give the project at the end of this semester (after 3 months). So, my question is which project is recommended for me, voice expression AI project or face expression AI project?
VOICE EXPRESSION: This software will listen user's conversation whole day then at the end of the day, it will show that how many bad words the user spoken, for how much time user got hyper, for how much time user got angry, etc.
FACE EXPRESSION: This software will monitor the screen of computer (for example teacher delivering lecture on ZOOM and camera of students are opened) then it will tell the user(or teacher) who is taking interest in user's lecture, who is confused, who wanna ask question etc.
So, If I'm a beginner in AI what project should I choose from those two projects? or should I choose easy project other than those two projects?
In principle, voice analysis seems to me easier than face analysis. To begin with, there is only one dimension, rather than two, and it would probably be easier to recognise words in a stream of sound than faces in a stream of images. However, I have a background in phonetics/signal processing, so sounds do look easier to me than images. If you've done image processing before, that might be better suited for you.
The key for a good project should not necessarily be how easy or hard it is, but whether it is something you are (a) interested in, (b) capable of achieving, and (c) relate to the course.
Also, be clear about what you want to achieve and how easy that is to determine: matching the sound pattern of a word is something much more objective than trying to identify if someone is bored or wants to ask a question based on facial expressions.
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You can find thousands of questions out there about how you develop software and which methodology is the best one. But mainly these are targeting medium to large teams, with people having different roles and responsibilities.
What I'm interested in is what methodology are you using for your one-man-shows? What steps are you doing, what documents are you creating to get the things you want to develop clear and document it well, to share it with the community?
Especially, I’m interested in the following questions:
_Are you using a structured approach even you’re developing on your own or no at all?
_What phases are you using?
_Which documents are you writing before and after coding?
And if you have “your” standardized approach, can you share templates which you are using?
Thanks in advance,
cheers
Gerry
Personally I think it is a matter of making decisions when it comes to the development process (solo). In my case I wouldn't recommend setting up a massive development process but I would pick elements which prevent problems that I have earlier had. My approach for small applications (in the right order):
Always write down what you are going to make and what you are not going to make (define a scope) - Think of functional requirements (Functional Design)
(OO only) Make a class diagram that displays relations between classes. (Technical Design - Sequence diagrams, while usefull, take up massive amounts of time to make)
Write your program according to what you have just written down (or part of it).
Refactor and redesign your application (once in every X hours, write this one down)
Repeat step 3 to 4 until the result is what you wrote in the Functional Design.
Walk through every corner of your application to find every single path and write this down in a testdocument. Identify possible problems in the paths and test them.
When it comes to big applications however (or assignments for someone else) I prefer using the "medium to large teams" approach. Which almost brings a guarantee that you will not be meeting most problems.
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We are a small group of developers and we want to create a Future-like MMO which will combine City building, RTS, Economic and Political type of games.
We are unsure if we should develop a DirectX9 engine from scratch or use tools like XNA, DXstudio.(we have experience creating a simple FPS-like engine using DirectX)
Another question is if engines like UnrealEngine/ UDK, Unity are really an option for a complex game like ours(most games developed with these engines are FP/3rdP Shooters)?
Any idea for where to start with the engine will be helpful.
You allways endup with engine that prefectly fits your needs if you build it your self. but this takes time and is costy.
On the other hand picking a engine like UDK/CryEngine, you will save some time but probably need to give time to be able to do exactly what you want.
If i would suggest a start is to nail down every technical aspect of the game.
For example, things like this :
Graphics, Content handling/pipeline, SocialSupport(Facebook, Twitter), Target platform, How to solve most of your programming problems (How to use the economy system, building systems etc)
And when all that is done, just try this out in a easy alpha in all the engines you would like to test. (including writing a own, but with limited stuff to just make it prototype)
from there, pick what feelt best and hope that it will work out, :)
hope that helps some!
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I'm having a difficult time retaining the programming skills I'm actively trying to learn in an effort to apply for a junior developer position.
What I'm finding is that I can easily master isolated topics (for example, details about how Java's Container classes work and the different ways to sort a given container), but I find that when I move on to new topics I forget maybe 80% of what I learned (a few months down the road).
Sure, with good notes, I can get back up to speed much more quickly, but my question to those of you who are already in the professional field - is this common (this constant need to re-learn things you once felt you'd never forget)? If so, how do you get around it? Should I accept that I'll probably only be an expert in the narrow domain that I currently use on a day to day basis?
My father always said:
You don't need to know everything, you
only need to know where to look it up
(roughly translated).
Going with your example, if you find you need to sort a collection very often you will remember after you've done it a few times, if you don't do it for a long time you will forget it again. That's perfectly normal imo.
So what I'm trying to say is there is no point in knowing stuff off the top of your head if you don't use it anyway as long as you know where you can look it up if you need it again.
I hope that made sense.
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The single most effective thing I have done to improve my soft skills is to take an acting class.
What is the single most effective thing you have done to improve your soft skills?
Related questions:
What is the single most effective
thing that you have done to improve
your programming skills?
Advice
to improve programmer communication
skills
Better appreciating just quite how dumb I really am.
Starting from the perspective of assuming that you're misunderstanding what's going on helps a lot.
Started answering questions here - the ability to explain complex things in a way other people can understand them is very useful.
Not to be a smart-arse. People don't like smart-arses.
If you think you are right and everyone else is sure you are wrong, just agree and continue being right. Trying to argue it out just results in a negative outcome when people are not open to persuasion or are being stubborn.
The best way to improve your soft skills is to use your soft skills. Put on a lunch time seminar for your fellow work mates. Nothing too scary, just pick a technology that you think could be introduced in house to make things work more efficiently, put together a five minute presentation and set some time aside for questions and discussion afterwards. You might even start a trend, one day a week a different person can talk about something that interests them.
It's a tie between volunteering as newsletter editor for a local artists' group, and joining a small local theatrical dance group.
A few years ago I attended a workshop about communication. And one thing that I learned there and I will never forget was: Try to understand why people act as they act, try to understand their motivation doing things as they do. That helped me a lot, especially in managing the management...
I took a teaching course and have been doing a lot of teaching.
Where I work currently has some material about improving one's Emotional Intelligence which is something that has been quite beneficial for me as it helps demystify some of how the world works.
In terms of not learning something, working on making small talk and being a bit more laid back has also improved my skills as not everyone wants every little thing analyzed to death and beyond.