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My name is 31eee384, the31 for short (or for instances where usernames can’t start with numerals), and 31 when possible. I like to program, and for the time being I’m trying to express this by making fun games. The only notable games I’ve created were for the Ludum Dare 48 competition, where a bunch of developers compete to create a good game in 48 hours.

In my bid for the title programmer, I have been trying to pick up languages as they come to me. Here’s a summary of the languages I’ve learned. I tried to organize them by category, but this is tough sometimes.

Programming

• C/C++: My first time making games was with the Allegro graphics library, which is great if you’re just starting out in programming, but suffered (at the time) from a lack of graphics acceleration. Of course, C/C++ isn’t just Allegro, and more recently I’ve been planning white a few things for this language.
• Actionscript 2: Arguably a scripting language, although in my mind it was always a programming language. When I first got Flash MX, I drew a few stick figure fighting sequences (for fun–I had just seen Xiao Xiao and was impressed) but when there was the issue of putting in a simple “Play” button before the animation began I became interested in the programming side of things. I knew from earlier experience that I liked programming games, and I had seen games made with Flash. Although I didn’t make any complete games with AS2, I made a website for my dad using a combination of Flash, PHP, and HTML. After some time learning to to make the three interact in the way I wanted, it was a working photo gallery website.
• Actionscript 3: With my new copy of Flash CS3, I got into AS3, the new, improved version of AS2. This is probably the easiest language I know, yet it is powerful for game development–and it can even be embedded into a browser! Therefore, this is what I have used for all my prototypes, simply because I’m so familiar with it and it is easy to share. I have made quite a few small games using AS3, and redid my dad’s website in this language when I knew enough.
• Java: I had seen this language before and tried it around the time I learned Python, but at the time Python seemed to be the way to go–it was much easier for me to grasp. Recently, I had to learn Java to get my formal education in programming underway. Java is known for its relatively slow processing speed, but so far I haven’t found this to be a problem. I’ve made a few things with Java so far, and now I’m exploring the realm of embedding applets into my website, specifically with OpenGL.
• Objective-C: I learned this language to make stuff for the iPhone/iPod. I signed up as a developer and played with it for a while, and might return.
• Erlang: I decided one day I wanted to learn a functional programming language. A friend had used Erlang, so I decided to give it a whirl with a great tutorial series on the subject. Although I haven’t used it for any real projects yet, it may come in handy for an online game someday.

Scripting

• Python: This was the very first “real” programming I did. It was fun while it lasted, making a console quiz script to help my younger brother memorize multiplication tables. I’ve made a few automatic conversion scripts with it for friends and family since.
• Ruby: I picked up some basic Ruby knowledge to make little utility scripts. I don’t use it very often (preferring Python), but a useful side-effect of using this language for utility scripts was that I learned simple regular expressions (finding a string of characters within text, with formatting. For example, I could find things that are formatted like street addresses, much more than the normal control+f).
• LSL: I did a lot of scripting work in Second Life in its native world-object scripting language (LSL actually means Linden Scripting Language). It was easy and simple, but very limited. My greatest achievement was probably a scripted elevator. There are many elevators in Second Life, but mine has the distinction of being able to bring players between floors without them needing to sit down–a minor annoyance I had with the popular script. Unfortunately I didn’t have the connections to sell my script, so I left for greener pastures.

Web Development

• Javascript: I don’t know the language by heart, but I can use it if I have a reference. I’ve used it some to do little things, like interact with Flash and Java applets.
• PHP/HTML: Although I had done a little html way earlier, it was for the most part authored in Dreamweaver with the WYSIWYG editor. Now I actually spent the time to learn much more about html, and PHP for some input and self-generating pages.
• CSS: I learned CSS while implementing this WordPress blog. It took quite a bit of modifying the source and style sheets to get it like it is now. I’m really glad I finally got a grip on it–it enables me to do so much more on my websites.