This article is all about the wide world of programming so if
your eyes start to glaze over…sorry…come back next week when I cover something
more exciting.
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| from Magic's multiplayer Commander set |
Maybe there is a trading card game (TCG) that you want to play. Maybe you love this TCG with all of your
heart but no one else has ever heard of it and you bought a couple of starter
decks and you just fell in love with it.
Here are 7 steps that will get you started in the right direction.
1. Learn one programming language well. It doesn’t matter if you know C, C++, C#, D, Java,
Perl, Python, Ruby or Lua. I would
suggest studying for a certification test in your language which will force you
to learn all of the tiny details that you otherwise might gloss over and those
details become VERY important when you start to program anything over 1,000
lines. If you want a great book on good
coding practices, I would suggest “Code Complete” by Steve McConnell. This one book taught me more about coding
than my four years in college. (OK, it
was really 6 years because I spent 2 years majoring in music which was really “fun”
practicing 2 hours a day.)
--If you want to get started right away, you can start
programming in a language that you don’t know but it can be frustrating since
you have to look everything up in a book or online.
2. You have to become a rules
lawyer. If you don’t know the rules, you
obviously can’t program them. Learn to
read the “comprehensive rules” that come with many TCG’s. Reading the comprehensive rules will open
your eyes and will answer many of the details when programming like when your
search your deck for a card can the player choose to not find a card even
though it is in the deck. The usual answer
to this is yes because otherwise you have to prove to your opponent that the
card isn’t in your deck, which is annoying and time consuming. Many TCG’s share the same nomenclature such
as zones.
--A quickstart idea is just to code two starter decks and
let other people verify that your program implements the rules correctly.
3. Write the program for only yourself. By tailoring the program specifically to
yourself, you are making many good design decisions. Not everyone will agree with you 100% but
that never happen anyways.
4. Don’t expect
anyone else to help or support you.
I know this sounds a little rough but if you are coding
something that you think will make other people happy, you are in for a world
of hurt. By programming something
specifically for yourself, you are (hopefully) guaranteed to make yourself
happy. And if you are happy, it will
make the work that much more enjoyable.
Internal motivation is much better external motivation, aka writing the
program for somebody else.
Coding is really a one-man activity. And yes you may be working on a team but you
will spend most of your time by yourself.
Many open source projects are supported by only one-man so you have to
learn to rely on yourself. (Yes, you can
ask other people questions but don’t expect them to do the grunt work, you have
to do your own grunt work.)
5. Spent a lot of
time working on the user interface. People
will make snap judgments about your program after using your program for only 30
seconds. The user interface is what
people will be using and it will affect their enjoyment. With that said, I know that working on the
user interface can be hard/annoying.
Making your program look halfway decent is a big challenge. The reason that Forge has a fantastic, boring
gray background is because that is the best that I can do. Programming the user interface can easily take
half of your time.
6. Don’t be afraid to fail.
I didn’t get Forge right the first time.
The current version of Forge is probably by 3rd or 4th version. I would start coding the best that I could
and eventually the project would just crumble right before my eyes. I would pick up the pieces and confidently
try again. And now if I started Forge
again, I think I could program it 80% better because I’ve learned so much. I’ve read that you learn more from your
failures than you do from your successes.
7. Have fun. If you
aren’t having fun programming something…then stop. Find something that is easier and work on
that instead. By working on easier
projects you are flexing your coding muscles so that you can handle that harder
stuff later.
Hopefully that helps point somebody in the right direction. Obviously I left out many subjects like writing the AI, which is a whole book by itself, or stressing that automated tests are your friend (although I admit that I didn't write any). Coding can be fun, especially if you are
working on a videogame.
--mtgrares
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