My avatar

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 game developer, 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 put them in order based on when I first learned them, but some don’t have a specific start date and some may be too long ago to be accurate. It’s not a short list.

• Python: This was the very first “real” programming I did. It was fun while it lasted, but the most I ever got out of it was making a console quiz script to help my younger brother memorize multiplication tables. In the future I might work with it more; it looks pretty popular especially for extensions.
• C/C++: A time with the Allegro graphics library, which is great if you’re just starting out in programming, but it has no hardware support as of yet. Of course, C/C++ isn’t just Allegro, and recently I’ve been trying out some stuff with OpenGL.
• 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.
• Actionscript 2: 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 played 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 this language. I made a website for my dad with 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 website.
• LSL: I did a lot of scripting work in Second Life in its native world-object scripting language (LSL: Linden Scripting Language). It was easy and simple, but a bit 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. After a while, I tried some more C++ and finally AS3.
• Actionscript 3: With my new copy of Flash CS3, I got into AS3, the new, improved version of AS2. This is probably the easiest and most powerful language I know, and it can be embedded into a browser to boot! This is what I have used for all my prototypes, simply because I’m so familiar with it. There are whole sites out there devoted to Flash games, and eventually I hope to upload my own games When I learned this language I also completely redid my dad’s website to be more organized and easier to manage.
• Java: I had seen this language before and tried a little of 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. Now I had to learn Java so I could 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 the library for a while, but never came up with something extraordinary.
• 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, specifically something to modify the size of a Flash movie or Java applet.
• Ruby: I picked up some basic Ruby knowledge to make little utility scripts. Referring to tutorials and references I can do what I need, but I don’t use it often enough to make any of the knowledge permanent. A useful side-effect of using this language for utility scripts was that I learned regular expressions (finding a string of characters within text, with formatting. For example, I could find things that are formatted like street addresses, so I can do more than the normal control+f).
• CSS: I learned CSS as a part of 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 any website. It feels so much better to be able to format a header from a central location, instead of duplicating the same code again every time I need to use it.