Day 2 of C# Unity

Day Two brought me to Unity's own tutorials which they have titled Learn.  Simple and straight to the point.  Under this tab you can find Tutorials, Documentation, Live Training (if something is scheduled), and other Support options.  The Tutorials consist of Topics - specific sessions and assignments that you choose from and Projects - guided, step-by-step from set up to final build of example games.

Scripting

As I am most concerned about my scripting practices, I decided to start with the Topic: Scripting.  There are a total of 47 lessons, over half of which are for beginners.  Perfect!  The topics are a series of YouTube videos, and not interactive, but each provide downloadable code and links to reference documentation.

The first four lessons are foundation builders.  I felt they were there to make sure everyone was on the same page.  Collectively, lessons covered the concept of scripts, basic components, and best practices for conventions and syntax within Unity.  I truly enjoyed all of them.

Project: Space Shooter

If you have not yet done a Unity Projects tutorial, I highly suggest it.  By far it was the best experience for me during the Global Game Jam.  The projects allow you to get your feet wet, experience all the things, and provide links to reference material if you have any questions.

The projects come complete with all the assets you need to finish the game and are awesomely organized. This is a big plus for me as I find Unity's importing and file structure something I definitely need to learn.  I watched the videos, took notes, then completed the tasks on my own.  This helped me iterate what I was learning a couple of times. My notebook is a best friend and I often use it as a reference later.

The one downside: these projects can be a bit over the top with the hand holding.  If you just follow the steps are you really learning it?  The notebook helps, but I try and make sure I don't use it as a crutch.  I also take time to play with the tools outside of the project lesson's "scope."  A good friend of mine recently said "When you get a new tool, you should ask yourself 'How can I "break it"?' and then learn from that process."

The first few lessons in the Space Shooter give you an overview of the game you will make, orientate you with creating a new project, and give you a good understanding for creating a player game object.  Each video has a single concept that is fleshed out in a series of tasks.  I really enjoy the setup.

Day 3 is already here! Let me know if you have a similar "notebook" experience in the comments below. 

Day 1 of C# Unity

It's Day 1.   I have checked over quite a few tutorials and guides and will be using the following in my 30 Days of C# Unity:

• Unity Gems
• Unity Cookie
• Unity's Learn Tutorials on Scripting
• Unity's Project: Space Shooter

Now, I must put in a bit of a disclaimer: I have been around Unity for about 6 years and this year I used Unity for the first time during the Global Game Jam.  The vocabulary and UI are somewhat familiar to me.  That said, let's begin!

Unity Gems
    I began with the "Getting Started" card and focused on "Coding Conventions."  Some of you may know I am a huge fan of the book "Eloquent Ruby" by Russ Olsen.  The closer to convention and the more beautiful I can write my code, the happier I am.  "Coding Conventions" provided an extremely helpful foundation in the form of an article.  While I prefer an interactive tutorial, I was very happy with the content and presentation of information.  One thing I didn't notice was the name of the author or contributors.  This might be a useful addition to the site as it appears to have multiple/different contributors.

Unity Cookie
    I continued my Day 1 with Unity Cookie.  This YouTube video based tutorial site was highly recommended to me by my husband ( a Unity veteran of 6+ years).  Chris said it was one of the best tutorials for "Best Practices" within Unity.  I started at the beginning with Crash Course: Learn Unity by Wes McDermott.
    I must admit videos 1.1 - 1.4 moved a little slow for me.  This is where my disclaimer from earlier is most important.  The first video began with an overview of what the next three videos would cover.  The last video was actually a recap of what videos 1.2 and 1.3 covered.  This is excellent practice when giving a talk or presentation, but as each video was divided between links it seemed a bit wasteful.
    As promised, videos 1.2 and 1.3 gave a general overview of all that is Unity 3d. Wes spent time on whiteboards before going into the Unity Editor and identifying items and ideas covered in the whiteboard sessions.  I found it a little dry, but it might be due to the fact I am familiar with Unity's basic concepts already.  If you have watched these videos I would love to hear your opinion in the comments below.  Another perspective is always appreciated.

I stopped there and will begin Unity's Learn Tutorials on Scripting and the Space Shooter project tonight.  Watch for a blog post tomorrow morning on the results!

30 Days of C# Unity

Today starts a new chapter.  As you can surmise from the title, I will begin learning a bit of C# and the Unity game engine.  I will be using a variety of learning tools, tutorials, and as always, writing a response to the day's exercises here :)  I would absolutely love it if you followed along on my 30 day journey and always welcome comments, questions, and tips.  Are you ready?  30 Days of C# Unity begins... now!

Its 7am on a Saturday and I'm responding to Twitter

All the good things.  Imagine Me has taken over as primary in my life, and I absolutely love it!  Working from home lets Chris and I spend time together while working crazy hours.  We recently relocated to a townhouse and set up an in-home studio space.  We live our work so its perfect!

I've always been a firm believer in a 'small house is a happy home.'  The open floor plan fits perfectly with our transparent lifestyle.  When friends and family come over they see our life as it is.  In case you were wondering, the kitties love it.  There are huge windows, trees filled with birdies, and hardwood floors to run and slide on. 

Now that we're all set up and things are moving smoothly, watch for more updates! :D Wife of an indie dev, its all in the Life of Buckets.

Under Construction!

I'm editing a few things today - you may see some pretty crazy layouts for a bit.

Here's a picture of Soot as Santa as compensation. He is so cute!!

November GUSH! List

Hey friends!

Its been almost a month!  Eep!  This is going to be more of a GUSH! list of amazingness, so here goes:

• If you still haven't checked out Codewars I don't know what you are doing in life. 
• Web Dev training is going awesome!!  I'm about 50% done with Treehouse's 'Ruby on Rails' track.  It includes 13 sections including  Responsive Web Design, jQuery, Ruby, and Rails to name a few.
• Buffer This fantastic social media manager has given me the opportunity to really come into my own as Imagine Me's community manager.
• How NOT to Suck Online - I printed out the PDF and its hanging, framed, on my desk.
• Web Development Tools!  Gosh, way to many to list here - I am like a little kid in a candy store with all the goodies I've found lately.  Here are a few:
• Pattern Lab - An awesome way to save time, space, and resources when building web sites!!
• Subtle Patterns - You all probably already knew about this gem, but it has been a tantalizing 'goodie' for me full of subtle patterns to tile to my little hearts content! 
• Brad Frost - A web design god in human form. (Twitter: @brad_frost)
• Responsive Design Resources - Awesome set of tools from said god (see above)

Its been a month full of learning amazing things and I couldn't be more excited!  

Making vs Taking the Time to Code

Hello friends!

I have to admit my fervor for coding has been sparked anew!  It may be the cold weather snap in Minnesota has pushed me indoors or perhaps the mental check on the difference between "making" and "taking" time.

Lately, I've been trying to "make" the time to code.  However, I am neither a Time Lord nor a deity and cannot make time.  Instead, I made the mental switch to dedicating myself to "taking" the time to code. Each and every day.  There are awesome tools that provide daily code challenges (see my last post where I gush all over Codewars) as well as multiples of sites dedicated to "meat & potatoes" learning.

Albeit a little expensive, I finally dove into all that is Treehouse.  I've flirted with the site for a while, but what really drove me to pay the fee (usually I pick free sites) was the combination of languages in each track.  In reality, each language has its strengths and weaknesses.  A wise developer knows how to use Javascript, HTML, and CSS in harmony (or uses AbsurdJS but more on that another time).  Treehouse really impressed me in that there isn't a single track in which you only learn a single language.  Its well worth it to check it out!

Finally, I have another GUSH! post.  DEVICE 6 from Simogo (the game studio that brought Year Walk to the world).  Where should I start!?!  Its an experience.  I absolutely love the puzzles. I love the interaction. I love the audio. I love that Anna gets a whole song.  I love the style that brings a fantastic feel to the game.  And despite what most reviews say - I love the length.  I played through the game in around 3 hours.  It was worth every penny of the $3.99 on the app store.  Expensive you say?  That's half the price of a micro brew and still less expensive than a Pumpkin Spice Latte - and it will last longer than either of those.  If ya decide to play it, please let me know what you thought!