An Introduction
Hello to everyone who is reading this, I'm Aby, just a normal guy in his 20s interested in making games.
This is my first time ever posting something out in the internet for the world to see.
I wanted to document my game dev journey using SFML and C++ somewhere and thought that here would be a great place to do so.
Why SFML?
That's a good question, at first I tried using the popular engines to make stuff (Unity & Unreal to be exact). But it felt off, I had a feeling or maybe a desire to build the game from the ground up
I wanted to fight my way through many lines of code until I create what I loved and understand what each little part did and how they impacted the final product.
So in the end, I can't really explain why I chose to use Visual Studio and SFML to make games, it just felt right to me to choose this path forward.
Week #1 Recap:
Setting up the environment:
First week was a bit problematic; although I tried to set up SFML 3.0 on my laptop, I just couldn't get it to work when I configured it according to the documentation.
I eventually chose the previous version, 2.6.2, and it worked on the first try which was relieving to say the least.
These lines would give me the most trouble, error after error.
First window:
What I didn't know at the time, was how much seeing the first window up and running would make me happy and excited, even though it's only pasted from the documentation itself.
Following that, and a series of video tutorials I found on YouTube, I could get my actual first window up and running!
For it, I chose random numbers for RGB but it turned out really nice!
Also made it so it could close using the close button on the toolbar and the esc button, just a QoL.
Progress on the window:
Following video taught how to create a simple game object and how to change its size, position, color, outline (and its thickness), and also how to implement a frame rate limit
I went with a red rectangle with a white outline, a bit small, but I love it! I felt like it was slowly coming to life. It was so cute I could cry then
For future parts, I added functions to print out the mouse position. Found out it has 2 variations! One is relative to the screen and the other is relative to the game window itself!
Beyond Coding Life:
Although most days I felt like I'm making no progress, today felt different. Maybe because of how excited (and maybe a bit scared) I was to post on here.
Well since I chose this path of game dev since 2 years ago I've been making changes in my personal life as well believe it or not!
I started learning German using YouTube as well, thanks to @LearnGermanOriginal's amazing and digestible videos.
I also picked up some new books, thought reading new material would expand my horizons and give me a quiet time away from screen.
Bonus fact: My username, Abyebybyte, which I came up with on a whim is a nod to my whole journey!
What's Next?
Well I originally planned for this dev logs to be weekly updates, so I would have more to talk about and share with you, so that's what I will be sticking with
Next part on the SFML would be a more of a deeper dive into whole enemy things, which I'm really excited about!
German has been really nice as well, A1 felt a bit difficult for the first time today with "jemanden kannenlernen" but there's nothing a bit of practice can't fix!
Let's Connect!
If you have any tips for a beginner like me, please share them! I would love to hear new ideas and opinions from people that have been here longer than me.
Or if you want to just share your experiences, feel free to do so!
If you have any questions for me, ask them in the comments! I'll try my best to answer them all.
Hopefully as a first post, it's good enough. But I'm sure with time progress will follow!
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