Editedmind

Wasn't there a challenge to create a webpage with a limit of 5kb or something? This one guy created a japascript of around 5 levels of wolfenstein. There was no color and the graphics were sketchy. But it was 100% javascript and fully 3d. Quite impressive.

Well yes, you can write a decent calculation program with Assembly in no time. But I wouldn't suggest that if you want to run the program on various machines. And when I talk about space shooters I don't mean space invaders. Which has a rather simple set of functions and so forth. I was refering to something with more complex workings such as astroids orbiting along randomly generated paths and enemy ships controlled by a rough yet effective AI. Planning indeed effects every project you start. But not every outcome can be planned. And many times you need to write lengthy workarounds to bypass nasty bugs you were unable to forsee.

A friend of mine will be going to Digipen in the future, so I'm sure it's a good enough school. However, I think too many people these days think that all they will ever have to do is go to a school and learn the right skills. The fact is, that the first steps are made in your free time. And it does not matter what school you go to if your work is top notch. The good thing about learning how to program, is that you can start today without having to attend a specialized school yet. Just searching through the internet for several minutes will make this evident. On a side note, it would be nice to hear about some good schools in Japan.

There is a "game" for the Xbox called "N.U.D.E." developed by the Japanese. I believe it centers around a girl and yourself, much like the early "PC pet" programs. Although it's rather interesting since the behavior patterns develope over time and random behavior is inserted into the personality to give the simulated effect of an indiidual entity. What's more, you communicate with it through talking instead of typing and you can even teach her new languages. Projects like Alice are old. They're good ways for future developers of AI technology to train their skills appropiately, but they are far from state of the art. Back to the topic. As many planescape fanboys I would have to go with wanting to see a "PS:Torment 2".

Yes, even to create something as simple as a calculation program takes a mass of code that could take up many hours of developing, depending on how far you go into fleshing out the program. So when someone actually makes a game, you can expect that they are usually typing out pages of code just for the most basic functions. When I was younger I once made a simple space shooter that took around 30 pages of code.