Okay, here’s my blog post about “Iron Invasion 2023”, written from my personal experience, using simple language, and formatted with basic HTML tags:
So, I jumped into this “Iron Invasion 2023” thing. I’d heard some buzz about it, figured, why not? It sounded like a fun coding challenge.
First, I scouted around for some info. What’s this thing even about? Turns out, it’s a game development competition. Cool, I like games, even if I mostly just play them, not build ’em.
Getting Started
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I downloaded their starter kit. It was a pretty basic setup, some pre-built stuff to get you going. I’m no coding wizard, so this was helpful. I poked around the files, trying to figure out what was what.
- Checked the rules. Gotta know what I’m getting into, right?
- Looked at the example code. See how other folks did things.
- Messed with the basic setup, just to see if I could get something, anything, to work.
It was a bit messy at first. I broke a few things, naturally. But hey, that’s how you learn, right? You smash it, then you fix it. Or, you know, Google it until someone smarter than you explains it.
The Grind
I spent a good chunk of time just trying to make a simple thing move on the screen. Seriously, it’s harder than it looks! I wrestled with the code, tried different approaches, and muttered a lot of frustrated words under my breath.
I did lots of practices on:
- Moving character.
- simple AI.
- basic shooting.
Then I hit a wall. I just couldn’t get this one feature to work. I spent hours on it, going in circles. Finally, I decided to step away, clear my head. Sometimes you just need a break.
Making (Some) Progress
I was so excited to finally get my character moving on the screen. I stared at code for hours and it was my most fulfilling moment.
After that, it felt like things started to click a little more. I added some basic enemy AI, figured out how to make them shoot, and even managed to create a simple scoring system. It wasn’t pretty, but it was working!
I still didn’t have all the fancy features I’d originally envisioned. But you know what? I built something. I took a bunch of code I barely understood, and I made it do something. That’s a win in my book.
It was not easy at the beginning,
I was about to give up.
Wrapping Up
In the end, I didn’t win any prizes. My game was rough around the edges, and probably a bit buggy. But I learned a ton. I pushed myself, I got frustrated, I celebrated small victories, and I came out the other side with a better understanding of how this whole game development thing works.
Would I do it again? Maybe. It was a lot of work, but it was also kinda fun, in a masochistic sort of way. I’ll do better on this, I will improve myself to be a better game developer.
