8 ms·

Watching Notch hacking on the Ludum Dare competition is such a comforting experience - to me he is the Bob Ross of game development. He also seems to end up dev

by eamsen 12y ago

Watching Notch hacking on the Ludum Dare competition is such a comforting experience - to me he is the Bob Ross of game development. He also seems to end up developing the same thing over and over again with different shades of green on the leaves. Even though you may don't like his style, you have to admire his pragmatism, productivity and humbleness.

jiggy2011 12y ago
http://notch.net/games/ http://notch.net/games/ There's a pretty big variety there.
- eamsen 12y ago
  You're right about him putting out a few little games, which do not share the same game mechanics, but a lot of his work is based on repetition and refinement. Or to quote [1] himself: "I am forever cursed to keep making the same game over and over again!! But at least it's fun.. Now, space!" [1] https://twitter.com/notch/status/189315622818168832 https://twitter.com/notch/status/189315622818168832
smrtinsert 12y ago
That's so dismissive, Bob Ross was the running ironic joke of the painting world.
- gnarbarian 12y ago
  The analogy is apt. Notch isn't known for being a stellar programmer.
  - laxatives 12y ago
    I'd rather be a successful programmer than a stellar one (probably).
    - gnarbarian 12y ago
      Of course! "perfect is the enemy of good" Minecraft itself was a clone of the game "infiniminer". Whose developer had given up and stopped work after the source code was stolen. When I think of the rise of Minecraft I am drawn to a few things he did differently. 1) He set up a way for customers to pay him for the game early (as soon as he had a minimum viable product). This gave him tons of feedback, money to keep working, and incentive to keep going because people were constantly asking him for features and tweaks. 2) He employed a simple and fun mechanic that allowed users to create their own things in the game (forts castles etc). 3) all of the content is procedurally generated. So every time you play it you get a different experience to some extent. 4) From very early on you would get weekly updates pushed out constantly adding new features. For most people new things were being added far faster than they could get bored with them. 5) it ran everywhere. 6) He didn't focus on graphics. He made design choices that would drastically simplify development at the expense of quality and/or performance. This lent itself to a blocky 'style' that was both easy to handle and visually unique. What do you guys think? am I missing anything?
      - 59nadir 12y ago
        > 6) He didn't focus on graphics. He made design choices that would drastically simplify development at the expense of quality and/or performance. This lent itself to a blocky 'style' that was both easy to handle and visually unique. This one is widely considered to be false. There have been numerous catastrophic overhauls of many of Minecraft's sub-systems because they are very poorly designed, leading to stalled overhauls and whatnot. The architecture of systems was definitely not Notch's strong suit. That he chose an easy way to structure the world is only one of many design choices.
        jdmichal 12y ago
        This is why the "mod kit" is still a pending feature. And at this point would probably be too late considering the amount of community work put into creating their own environments.
        gnarbarian 12y ago
- jgon 12y ago
  I would say that Bob Ross being the running ironic joke of the painting world says a lot more about the painting world than it does about Bob Ross. Every episode I watched contained a man with the calm manner of Mr. Rogers guiding his watchers through the process of creating something, providing them constant reassurance that they possessed the ability to create art and that they weren't making mistakes but merely going through the process of creation. A quick trip over to reddit will reveal dozens, perhaps hundreds, of posts from people who have followed Bob Ross' methods and create a piece of art that brings them joy and satisfaction despite possibly a lifetime of doubting that they had the ability. In that sense I rank him up there amongst other great teachers who have been able to find methods that allow people to get past the initial stages of self-doubt and embarassment and begin participating in a fulfilling activity. Think "The Inner Game of Tennis" or "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". Anyone who can let the everyman participate in the satisfaction that comes with creating something is pretty darned ok in my books. I am not sure if Notch quite lives up to that legacy, but it is a comparison that I think anyone should be flattered to receive.
  - gnarbarian 12y ago
    interesting fact, Bob Ross was a drill sergeant: "I was the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work. The job requires you to be a mean, tough person. And I was fed up with it. I promised myself that if I ever got away from it, it wasn't going to be that way anymore." [1] [1] http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/career-advice/military-transition/famous-veteran-bob-ross.html http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/career-advice/military-...
    - jasonlotito 12y ago
      There is a reason the military limits how long a person can be a drill sergeant for. 2 years, iirc, with an option for 1 more. My step father was a drill sergeant.
- eamsen 12y ago
  It wasn't meant to be dismissive. To me, Bob Ross's art wasn't so much in painting as it was in creating that synergy of education and relaxation by taking you with him through the joy of creation. Something in Notch's live streams triggers the same nerves for me.
- noonespecial 12y ago
  I'm not sure Bob ever noticed. He was too busy painting.
  - krapp 12y ago
    Aside: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGN5xaQkFk0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGN5xaQkFk0
    - Sophistifunk 12y ago
      I was wondering how this thread got so long without anybody linking to ERB :)
- photex 12y ago
  Bob Ross was a national treasure who dedicated his life to helping others see that it is wonderful to make or create for the sake of it. Anyone I've met who thinks he's a joke have been illustrators who hadn't yet come to terms with the reality that they were craftspeople and not fine-artists. As if there is some dishonor for being a dedicated and skilled craftsperson. Having a passion for and love for a craft at any skill level is a beautiful thing.
  - ehurrell 12y ago
    I live in a country where Bob Ross isn't really known at all, and I spend a lot of my free time doing illustration or painting (http://ultimatehurl.tumblr.com http://ultimatehurl.tumblr.com is where I post stuff, to give an idea). Having relatively recently learned of him and his show I think it's amazing and encouraging. I have no formal training yet frequently have people say to me 'I could never do something like that!', Bob Ross worked to prove that's not true, because it's really not.
Alupis 12y ago
is this really live? I mean -- hardly see him pause for thought or anything. Interesting to see he just uses plain 'ol Eclipse (Eclipse FTW!).
- lytedev 12y ago
  Yeah it's really live - he's done a lot of work on stuff similar to this so he's probably got a mental checklist of everything that needs to happen. He's pretty good at what he does: making games! Rarely is watching somebody write code entertaining, but he makes it so.
  - Alupis 12y ago
    i like his games -- been playing minecraft off-and-on with some friends for years -- but I have to admit, most of his games look very similar. the thing he's working on now looks like it could have been made from in minecraft. Use Craftbukkit or MineForge and you can just add things like new overlays and ui's... bam! new game.
    - worldsayshi 12y ago
      It's probably akin to a many types of artists, like painters. A certain style will always follow. But evolve as you go.
  - Torgo 12y ago
    >he's probably got a mental checklist of everything that needs to happen. I would love to see someone make such a list explicit and then post it as a submission here.
  - hyp0 12y ago
    his minicraft certainly was, but also super-engaging
- tosh 12y ago
  He is using the Dart Editor (an editor using the Eclipse platform written from scratch for Dart support): https://www.dartlang.org/tools/editor/ https://www.dartlang.org/tools/editor/
hyp0 12y ago
and he's worth like a million million bucks, yet still does what he loves, and gives $ away to his team, like keanu. may he live as long
- marktangotango 12y ago
  Corrections: he's worth $10's or even $100+.

by eamsen 12y ago

jiggy2011 12y ago

http://notch.net/games/ http://notch.net/games/ There's a pretty big variety there.

eamsen 12y ago
You're right about him putting out a few little games, which do not share the same game mechanics, but a lot of his work is based on repetition and refinement. Or to quote [1] himself: "I am forever cursed to keep making the same game over and over again!! But at least it's fun.. Now, space!" [1] https://twitter.com/notch/status/189315622818168832 https://twitter.com/notch/status/189315622818168832

smrtinsert 12y ago

That's so dismissive, Bob Ross was the running ironic joke of the painting world.

gnarbarian 12y ago
The analogy is apt. Notch isn't known for being a stellar programmer.
- laxatives 12y ago
  I'd rather be a successful programmer than a stellar one (probably).
  - gnarbarian 12y ago
    Of course! "perfect is the enemy of good" Minecraft itself was a clone of the game "infiniminer". Whose developer had given up and stopped work after the source code was stolen. When I think of the rise of Minecraft I am drawn to a few things he did differently. 1) He set up a way for customers to pay him for the game early (as soon as he had a minimum viable product). This gave him tons of feedback, money to keep working, and incentive to keep going because people were constantly asking him for features and tweaks. 2) He employed a simple and fun mechanic that allowed users to create their own things in the game (forts castles etc). 3) all of the content is procedurally generated. So every time you play it you get a different experience to some extent. 4) From very early on you would get weekly updates pushed out constantly adding new features. For most people new things were being added far faster than they could get bored with them. 5) it ran everywhere. 6) He didn't focus on graphics. He made design choices that would drastically simplify development at the expense of quality and/or performance. This lent itself to a blocky 'style' that was both easy to handle and visually unique. What do you guys think? am I missing anything?
    - 59nadir 12y ago
      > 6) He didn't focus on graphics. He made design choices that would drastically simplify development at the expense of quality and/or performance. This lent itself to a blocky 'style' that was both easy to handle and visually unique. This one is widely considered to be false. There have been numerous catastrophic overhauls of many of Minecraft's sub-systems because they are very poorly designed, leading to stalled overhauls and whatnot. The architecture of systems was definitely not Notch's strong suit. That he chose an easy way to structure the world is only one of many design choices.
      - jdmichal 12y ago
        This is why the "mod kit" is still a pending feature. And at this point would probably be too late considering the amount of community work put into creating their own environments.
      - gnarbarian 12y ago
jgon 12y ago
I would say that Bob Ross being the running ironic joke of the painting world says a lot more about the painting world than it does about Bob Ross. Every episode I watched contained a man with the calm manner of Mr. Rogers guiding his watchers through the process of creating something, providing them constant reassurance that they possessed the ability to create art and that they weren't making mistakes but merely going through the process of creation. A quick trip over to reddit will reveal dozens, perhaps hundreds, of posts from people who have followed Bob Ross' methods and create a piece of art that brings them joy and satisfaction despite possibly a lifetime of doubting that they had the ability. In that sense I rank him up there amongst other great teachers who have been able to find methods that allow people to get past the initial stages of self-doubt and embarassment and begin participating in a fulfilling activity. Think "The Inner Game of Tennis" or "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". Anyone who can let the everyman participate in the satisfaction that comes with creating something is pretty darned ok in my books. I am not sure if Notch quite lives up to that legacy, but it is a comparison that I think anyone should be flattered to receive.
- gnarbarian 12y ago
  interesting fact, Bob Ross was a drill sergeant: "I was the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work. The job requires you to be a mean, tough person. And I was fed up with it. I promised myself that if I ever got away from it, it wasn't going to be that way anymore." [1] [1] http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/career-advice/military-transition/famous-veteran-bob-ross.html http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/career-advice/military-...
  - jasonlotito 12y ago
    There is a reason the military limits how long a person can be a drill sergeant for. 2 years, iirc, with an option for 1 more. My step father was a drill sergeant.
eamsen 12y ago
It wasn't meant to be dismissive. To me, Bob Ross's art wasn't so much in painting as it was in creating that synergy of education and relaxation by taking you with him through the joy of creation. Something in Notch's live streams triggers the same nerves for me.
noonespecial 12y ago
I'm not sure Bob ever noticed. He was too busy painting.
- krapp 12y ago
  Aside: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGN5xaQkFk0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGN5xaQkFk0
  - Sophistifunk 12y ago
    I was wondering how this thread got so long without anybody linking to ERB :)
photex 12y ago
Bob Ross was a national treasure who dedicated his life to helping others see that it is wonderful to make or create for the sake of it. Anyone I've met who thinks he's a joke have been illustrators who hadn't yet come to terms with the reality that they were craftspeople and not fine-artists. As if there is some dishonor for being a dedicated and skilled craftsperson. Having a passion for and love for a craft at any skill level is a beautiful thing.
- ehurrell 12y ago
  I live in a country where Bob Ross isn't really known at all, and I spend a lot of my free time doing illustration or painting (http://ultimatehurl.tumblr.com http://ultimatehurl.tumblr.com is where I post stuff, to give an idea). Having relatively recently learned of him and his show I think it's amazing and encouraging. I have no formal training yet frequently have people say to me 'I could never do something like that!', Bob Ross worked to prove that's not true, because it's really not.

Alupis 12y ago

is this really live? I mean -- hardly see him pause for thought or anything. Interesting to see he just uses plain 'ol Eclipse (Eclipse FTW!).

lytedev 12y ago
Yeah it's really live - he's done a lot of work on stuff similar to this so he's probably got a mental checklist of everything that needs to happen. He's pretty good at what he does: making games! Rarely is watching somebody write code entertaining, but he makes it so.
- Alupis 12y ago
  i like his games -- been playing minecraft off-and-on with some friends for years -- but I have to admit, most of his games look very similar. the thing he's working on now looks like it could have been made from in minecraft. Use Craftbukkit or MineForge and you can just add things like new overlays and ui's... bam! new game.
  - worldsayshi 12y ago
    It's probably akin to a many types of artists, like painters. A certain style will always follow. But evolve as you go.
- Torgo 12y ago
  >he's probably got a mental checklist of everything that needs to happen. I would love to see someone make such a list explicit and then post it as a submission here.
- hyp0 12y ago
  his minicraft certainly was, but also super-engaging
tosh 12y ago
He is using the Dart Editor (an editor using the Eclipse platform written from scratch for Dart support): https://www.dartlang.org/tools/editor/ https://www.dartlang.org/tools/editor/

hyp0 12y ago

and he's worth like a million million bucks, yet still does what he loves, and gives $ away to his team, like keanu. may he live as long

marktangotango 12y ago
Corrections: he's worth $10's or even $100+.