Tools: GitHub & Cloud9

GitHub, the world's largest code host.  Generally terminal command line, the instantly confusing black box with white Courier font, can be intimidating.  It feels if you type one wrong command, or miss a single letter, you could destroy your entire project!  Let's face it, with all these fears you could end up avoiding the tool rather than embracing it.

Familiarity.

I find I am most scared of the unknown or unfamiliar.  Get comfortable with GitHub.  CodeSchool has an awesome course entitled "Try Git" for free.  It teaches you the basics in a very practical and immediately applicable manner.  The "Advice" box to the right of the tutorial explains the vocabulary used within GitHub.

As you progress through the tutorial, you recognize you are starting to understand what "version control" means and most importantly, how to use it.

Freedom.

While Git is social (sharable), for an independent developer it is often just you, or just me.  I don't want to be stuck in my house at a desk all day long.  What if its nice outside?  What if an awesome coffee shop/cafe just opened down the road?  What if I'm feeling lazy and want to work from the couch?  GitHub makes that super easy!  I can download my entire project in a .zip and work away.

Flexibility.

Downloading and setting up an IDE can be a bit cumbersome and working from Notepad might not offer me all the flexibility I want.  Enter new tool Cloud9 IDE.  This online platform connects with your GitHub repository (tutorial).  You can customize the development environment to suit your needs, then use the console to commit just like you would otherwise.  You cannot debug in Cloud9 as C# and JavaScript are not supported languages to Run/Debug (but the awesome-est language Ruby is!!!).  Just test back at your computer with Unity installed.

Your new ease of mobility can take you anywhere!  The "home office" isn't so limited anymore.  So, what do you think?  Where would you find yourself with this new freedom and flexibility??

30 Days of C# Unity and the Lifetime Love

Hey everyone!!

The Hiatus.
Its been a while.  Let's rewind a little bit.  I started 30 Days of C# Unity in April and have since then used Unity on a daily basis.  The reason for my absence?  We needed me to learn faster.

Imagine Me.
I worked on Imagine Me, a 2D-platformer, in various roles up to this point.  On May 16, Chris and I decided to pull the plug on our current random generation system in the game.  We were not happy with it (understatement) and neither was the community.  Chris was (and is) working a full time job.  The indie dev thing is something we have done in our home life because we love it.  He didn't have the resources (time and energy) needed to rewrite the random generation AND continue development on the rest of the game.  We desperately needed a second developer.

Refined by Fire.
The job fell to me - the novice, C#-hating, Unity hesitant, just-getting-her-feet-wet girl.  I was thrown into the fire with a community full of expectations waiting on the other side.  It couldn't have worked out better.  I used the tools already enlisted from my "30 Days of C# Unity" They were a huge help and I stand behind each one listed in this blog.

Today.
Today, work is almost done with Imagine Me's new random generation.  I am tweaking a final few things to give it an appropriate feel, and prepping for adding it into the current game.  Later, I will create a "Projects" tutorial of my own to share with you, but for now my 30 Days of  C# Unity has turned into a Lifetime Love for three words: "Made in Unity".