This was the first project I did in ICS 111 at UH Manoa. Although it may not be impressive, it holds good memories for me because it represents the beginning of my journey in formally learning programming and computer science as a whole. I remember building this and being excited at each step because something I was typing was coming alive. Back then, I was much more interested in game development, and so it felt like a step towards that dream as well. Later in the course, we built more games and worked with a team as well. Those ones turned out better, not by much, but there was definitely improvement. But the reason why I hold this one is because it was the first. Not good at all, but I was proud.
The game was built using Java and we were using Eclipse. I had programmed before with Javascript and Python, but never with Java. I personally don’t enjoy Java but the instructor had provided a library to help with all the rendering and image manipulation so it expedited the building process. I’m not sure how long this game took but it wasn’t that long. And if anything, the part that took the longest was the design and choosing what images to use as opposed to the actual logic.
After this course, my impression of Java didn’t really change. I still preferred Python or Javascript or even C/C++. But that didn’t take away from all that I had learned in that class. Although we were learning Java, I realize now that what I was really learning was how to think and collaborate like a programmer. Albeit I’m still learning that now, it’s not as drastic. While I was slaving away trying to make the error flags disappear, I realized that it taught me discipline and patience, while also giving me skills and a new thought process that could only grow and develop from there. I’m in ICS 314 now, with many many more to go. But this project will always symbolize the start, humble beginnings you could say.