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Unity is amazing, I agree. Moving from scratch to unity seem like a big step. Why not play with a 2d game library on the browser (with typescript, and a teacher

by Heyso 7y ago

Unity is amazing, I agree. Moving from scratch to unity seem like a big step. Why not play with a 2d game library on the browser (with typescript, and a teacher to give a starter project and the basics) ? Making games in 2d is a very similar experience a smaking game in 3d, just easier. Unity can be overhelming with the richness of what it propose.

atoav 7y ago
I was getting into games when Unity was around. But I didn’t just wanted to make a game. I wanted to understand how it works. I knew a bit about computers and played games since beeing a child, but could never understand how a computer does games. And Unity would never have been able to teach me that. So the obvious next step was to write my own little sidescroller from the ground up, with naive physics and collision etc. I think the whole discussion about “true” hacking is a generational shift combined with a change of the role technology plays in society. It became bigger and more accessible and that is a good thing. It is just a bad thing in the eyes of people who tie their whole identity to beeing some kind of mysterious tech wizard only to have the kid next to you solve the same problem with some mobile app in a fraction of the time. That must be how those mathematicians who first operated computers must have felt when a ton of people started flooded in who had no or little math knowledge. The thing that worries me more than easy instructions and tutorials on any possible thing is the degree of abstraction. It is necessary to make understanding tech easy, because it is everywhere and it is getting more and more invisible.
peteforde 7y ago
I promise you that you can build something interesting in VR in Unity with free assets and without writing a single line of code. The optimal outcome - "can I do X?" - where the young person in question is asking to take it further... that's achieved far faster than anything in a browser context. Keep in mind: kids today are not likely to be so impressed with moving a square up and down in a browser. Maybe interesting, but who cares? vs "wait, you can make this sword into a FIRE SWORD?"

by Heyso 7y ago

atoav 7y ago

I was getting into games when Unity was around. But I didn’t just wanted to make a game. I wanted to understand how it works. I knew a bit about computers and played games since beeing a child, but could never understand how a computer does games. And Unity would never have been able to teach me that. So the obvious next step was to write my own little sidescroller from the ground up, with naive physics and collision etc. I think the whole discussion about “true” hacking is a generational shift combined with a change of the role technology plays in society. It became bigger and more accessible and that is a good thing. It is just a bad thing in the eyes of people who tie their whole identity to beeing some kind of mysterious tech wizard only to have the kid next to you solve the same problem with some mobile app in a fraction of the time. That must be how those mathematicians who first operated computers must have felt when a ton of people started flooded in who had no or little math knowledge. The thing that worries me more than easy instructions and tutorials on any possible thing is the degree of abstraction. It is necessary to make understanding tech easy, because it is everywhere and it is getting more and more invisible.

peteforde 7y ago

I promise you that you can build something interesting in VR in Unity with free assets and without writing a single line of code. The optimal outcome - "can I do X?" - where the young person in question is asking to take it further... that's achieved far faster than anything in a browser context. Keep in mind: kids today are not likely to be so impressed with moving a square up and down in a browser. Maybe interesting, but who cares? vs "wait, you can make this sword into a FIRE SWORD?"