Coding vs. Playing

[+Atarius Maximus]

I find myself spending a whole lot more time writing new code, testing or hacking other people's code, debugging code, testing new ideas in code, reading documentation about programming, and generally focusing on programming way more than actually playing my own games or other people's games. It seems like programming and creating new games is much more fun for me than actually playing them for the most part, although I do still like playing them too. Am I the only one? Is there something wrong with me?

[Cybearg]

Nope. As much as I enjoy games as a general statement, creating can be very time-consuming and engrossing. I often fall into a creative hobby that doesn't actually give me time to play other games, which is unfortunate because it stunts my experiences, which in turn may limit the kind of new ideas I bring to the table. It's kind of a weird balance and it's hard to keep, at least for me. I'm obsessive by nature.

[Byte Knight]

I go in spurts - I become obsessed with programming until the game is completed, then get sick of programming for a while and then it's just pure game-playing until I get the programming bug again. But in general I enjoy programming more than playing...

[+Random Terrain]

I go in spurts - I become obsessed with programming until the game is completed, then get sick of programming for a while and then it's just pure game-playing until I get the programming bug again. But in general I enjoy programming more than playing...

 

That's pretty much what I've done since 1983 when I got my first computer. Become obsessed with programming until I get sick of it, then play games and do other things until I feel like programming again.

[+Gemintronic]

Coding IS playing, dawg. Game design is playing. Also, testing is playing. Playing is playing.

[RevEng]

I see three references to obsessiveness in this thread, and I have to say it's a trait I share. I get obsessive over a project and work like a fiend until it's done, and then switch to gaming and other activities to recover.

 

When I am gaming, I find I sometimes have a bad habit of mentally deconstructing the game instead of just enjoying the experience for what it is.

 

[+Gemintronic]

I'm mental about deconstroying games. Most games are so flawed I just enjoy breaking the overly linear storyline. That and exploiting lazy flaws in the game engine

 

Maybe I am being a little too flippant about this. Game making is the ultimate form of game playing. It's the natural next step after playing someone else's game to want to create your own and play it. To me testing is just more game making and playing at the same time. So, no, it isn't weird to enjoy making games more that playing someone elses.

 

I think the artist gets more kicks than the critic. The thrill of creation is quite a high sometimes.

[+Atarius Maximus]

I appreciate the replies, I'm definitely not alone. I too get a bit obsessive about a project once I start, when I'm working on a game I wake up in the morning with new ideas and can't hardly wait to fire up the PC. I think I dream about it. I also agree with loon about the thrill of creation. It is quite a high. Seeing others enjoy your games reinforces that too. Does anyone else occasionally check the download count on their game posts? I'm going to take a bit of a break now and enjoy playing. Once I get my loaner atarivox from the.golden.ax I'm going to dive in to speech support for my next project.

 

EDIT: I sent an email to Richard H. today about a permanent memory allocation space for Gate Racer. It's 99.9% done, and the 4K version will be the last, time to move on to the next...

[+Gemintronic]

I check the download count ALL THE TIME. Feedback is rare and precious. I use signs like download count to verify the silent vote effect. Are people actually playing it? Are they somehow blocked from downloading my game?

 

I frequent a major indie game maker forum called TIGSource. Made a topic in the feedback and announcement sections. After a month only one fellow developer offered to try my game and another user asked for a YouTube video instead of bothering to, you know, click on the ROM and fire up Stella.

 

I guess what I'm getting at here is when an AtariAge member comments on my game I know a fellow enthusiast is digging my game. I know they are getting the same charge out of handling the one button joystick.

[roland p]

I also thought about this subject before. Creating games is like solving little puzzles.

But the puzzles to solve when creating games are just endless. And to make things harder, they are often a compromise between: 'speed', 'looks good','memory consumption'. So solving them is very rewarding.

 

Latest puzzle I solved is reducing velocity of rotofoiles from 16-bit to 8-bit, and still make a believeble experience. speed:faster, 'looks good': almost the same, memory consumption: much less ram/rom. Mission accomplished, achievment unlocked, you go to the next level (next level is inter-rotofoil collision detection)

 

Or sometimes you go back to previous puzzles because you have gained extra abilities (better weapons, like finally getting that cool sword in Zelda ) and you can solve them better now. Creating games have some RPG elements in it.

 

But I also like playing my own created games. Sometimes I just float around with ballblazer and be amazed by the cool patterns it creates due to the low resolution, or the way it creates a sense of extra resolution. Or playing sokoban and see how well the undo buffer, for undoing mistakes does (a ring buffer).

Edited March 16, 2013 by roland p

[+Gemintronic]

I also thought about this subject before. Creating games is like solving little puzzles.

But the puzzles to solve when creating games are just endless. And to make things harder, they are often a compromise between: 'speed', 'looks good','memory consumption'. So solving them is very rewarding.

 

Latest puzzle I solved is reducing velocity of rotofoiles from 16-bit to 8-bit, and still make a believeble experience. speed:faster, 'looks good': almost the same, memory consumption: much less ram/rom. Mission accomplished, achievment unlocked, you go to the next level (next level is inter-rotofoil collision detection)

 

Or sometimes you go back to previous puzzles because you have gained extra abilities (better weapons, like finally getting that cool sword in Zelda ) and you can solve them better now. Creating games have some RPG elements in it.

 

But I also like playing my own created games. Sometimes I just float around with ballblazer and be amazed by the cool patterns it creates due to the low resolution, or the way it creates a sense of extra resolution. Or playing sokoban and see how well the undo buffer, for undoing mistakes does (a ring buffer).

 

I hope you also get a kick from realising making BallBlazer on the 2600 proves almost ANYTHING is possible on that machine. YOU make the Atari rock even in 2013

[+Random Terrain]

YOU make the Atari rock . . .

 

But rocks can't play cartridges. They just sit there and do nothing. Please do not turn the Atari into a rock.

[+stephena]

I find myself spending a whole lot more time writing new code, testing or hacking other people's code, debugging code, testing new ideas in code, reading documentation about programming, and generally focusing on programming way more than actually playing my own games or other people's games. It seems like programming and creating new games is much more fun for me than actually playing them for the most part, although I do still like playing them too. Am I the only one? Is there something wrong with me?

 

This has been my experience with Stella for about 6 or 7 years now (I actually started on the project about 12-13 years ago!). I don't remember the last time I played a 2600 game specifically just to play for enjoyment. It always seems to be about testing it in Stella, and reporting bugs in either the ROM or the emulator itself.

 

I am very obsessive by nature (probably OCD, but never actually diagnosed with it), and have learned somewhat to know when to walk away from things. I say somewhat, since it's a battle that I'll never fully conquer I guess. I sometimes enjoy programming a little too much, in that I get self-inflicted burnout. Then I either have to walk away from it for a while, move to another section of the code, or just play a game on some other system. Lately I've moved from the TIA stuff to the debugger/disassembly stuff, and that seems to help. And I know it's heretical to say here, but for actually playing games for enjoyment, I either go NES or Amiga

[+Gemintronic]

But rocks can't play cartridges. They just sit there and do nothing. Please do not turn the Atari into a rock.

 

Sorry. I didn't mean to take the 2600 for granite.

[+Random Terrain]

And I know it's heretical to say here, but for actually playing games for enjoyment, I either go NES or Amiga

 

I'm usually playing an Xbox 360 game like Civilization Revolution, Battlestations: Pacific, Iron Brigade, or Skyrim.

[+Gemintronic]

You'd think it's bass ackwards to code for a 2600 yet play PS3. However, anything that involves logic is foreign to me. I'm playing SNES games on my PSP via component out to a VGA convertor

[+Atarius Maximus]

And I know it's heretical to say here, but for actually playing games for enjoyment, I either go NES or Amiga

Not heretical at all, I would assume everyone here has more than one game system that they enjoy. I do prefer the classic systems, though. My most recent accomplishment on a modern console was beating "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune" on my oldest son's PS3, and that was 3+ years ago. I haven't really played a modern console since then. Lately I've been playing with my 800XL quite a bit since I just got a cool SIO2SD device from Lotharek. I also got wrapped up in Dragon Warrior on the NES last year and finally beat it, that's also one of my favorite classic consoles. I also have an Amiga 500, but don't use it as much since I don't have a modern device to load games, using floppies is painful now. Because of my SIO2SD and my uIEC for the C64 I use those old computers a whole lot more.

[+Atarius Maximus]

You'd think it's bass ackwards to code for a 2600 yet play PS3. However, anything that involves logic is foreign to me. I'm playing SNES games on my PSP via component out to a VGA convertor

I also have an old PSP 1000 that I hacked to allow loading games from the memory card. I use it quite a bit for Emulating classic consoles.

[+Gemintronic]

I also have an old PSP 1000 that I hacked to allow loading games from the memory card. I use it quite a bit for Emulating classic consoles.

 

You get to use a keyboard but I get TV out with my PSP 2000. Even when I'm playing 2600 games on my PSP I'm actually involved in game design. You can go through your whole collection and review what the masters did; See what is possible. Playing is so heavily intermixed with game making I don't even see where one ends and the other begins.

[Arcade]

I wouldn't call myself a programmer as I just started with Batari. Granted, I've had a class or two in C++ (but that was years ago in college, so doesn't truly count). Coding a game is something I always wanted to do but I never could learn the language. A friend of mine taught himself how to code on the TI-80 something calculators way back in high school, but I never could figure it out.

 

Thanks to Batari (and everyone who has helped me in the threads) I have learned so much. I enjoy doing things at my own pace and not forced to "learn this by this day or you fail" type deal. I've been having a blast coding since I started.

 

Don't get me wrong, playing video games is fun and I've done it since the 80s. I enjoy seeing the worlds that people took time to create and their imaginations come to life and being able to explore their creations. Sadly, games for a long time have been copy this copy that type deal and require less imagination in my opinion. Not saying they're all bad mind you.

 

I've always wondered if playing my own game would be fun vs playing someones game they made. The reason I say that is because I would already know where everything was and what to do yaddi yaddi so the experience wouldn't be as fresh and stuff.

 

After just my short time coding, I appreciate more so the effort that people put into making a game. Yes, even a "bad" game if you want. Seeing the restrictions that are placed on people nowadays and the difficulties that programmers faced on other systems in the past I applaud them for their efforts. Doesn't mean I still won't enjoy a game that was made, but again my appreciation level has grown.

 

Finally, I've obviously played some 2600 games and have a good number of homebrews. I tell you though, my respect for the programmers (old and new) is at an all time high and applaud their time and work into their creations. Thanks to all you coders out there, and keep on pushing out those awesome games!

[+Gemintronic]

You can get spoiled by batari BASIC. I say don't lose your C chops as that's the standard way for beginners to go NES or Sega Genesis.

 

I've come to realize not everyone thinks the progression from playing games is making games. I'm glad I'm in good company

[Arcade]

It's been close to 10 years since I've done any C++. Mind you I still remember a little bit. I want to go back someday and learn C++ again (I really enjoyed the way the language worked) but right now I want to learn as much as I can with batari BASIC and not confuse myself too much!

 

Everytime somebody posts a demo of their "in progress" game or their final product, I def want to try it out. Maybe it's just me, but honestly I feel creativity is not dead with making new games and all of you out there show it. Sure, you might have some inspiration from a game at times, but it doesn't matter...you still seem to find a way to make the game "your own" (even if it's another Adventure game. I love Adventure games!). You all have shown that even with the limitations in place by the Atari 2600, you still find a way to show that there truly aren't any boundaries. Whenever I'm done with with my current project, I want to try my own Adventure-style game and see what I can come up with and hear the responses and suggestions from people who play it.