Nathan Minier wrote:

\they drag you down to their level.

you mean, like gravity? ;P

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

Considering that VB is a Microsoft product, isn't bashing it like getting two birds with one stone? ;P

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

An old article I had read that seemed interesting is this[^]. As mentioned by others earlier, I agree Unity 3D could be a good game engine to start... but as a 9 year old, I'm not sure if your child would have the patience to learn the kind of programming required. I guess with your help it could be fun. I am a game programmer and I can tell you it might be a lot of fun for you as well if you try and help your kid learn game development. If you want to get started a little quickly here are a couple of sites that give you free 3D model and animation downloads. Download FBX format since it can be directly imported into unity: Mixamo[^] - I have tried this for my learning and it is very good. Fbx 3D Models - Free 3D Fbx download[^] - Some of the models are nice, but mostly quite un-optimized. Based on what you posted it seems your kid is writing a story, more in the domains of game design. Again, as someone mentioned above, game development involves a lot of domains, like Design, Programming, Computer Art (2D, and 3D), Concept art (sketching). Gamasutra[^] is a nice site with a lot of generic game development articles. Some might be a little dated... especially programming related articles but a lot of concepts are still valid. Specific links: Design: Gamasutra - The 13 Basic Principles of Gameplay Design[^]. I had liked the points discussed here when I had read it. So, You Wanna Be a Game Designer?[^]. Found this from a google search just now... The author makes some very practical and important points. Art: Li

I like some modes in Unreal, like the domination mode, but in general the first person camera view feels uncomfortable to me. In short, I sucked at those two games and others like them.

Nelek wrote:

And the one that I loved during 2,5 years was Lineage 2.

Never got around to playing that, but I've heard about it. Yes I meant DoTA 2. DoTA 2 and the whole so called MOBA genre has a very interesting history. It's the first time a game / genre has developed, not from a commercial company, but from actual players. A brief history is described here[^] (3 part youtube series). [Tl;dr] Players 'modded' warcraft to create a new game mode within the Warcraft 3 game and named it Defence of The Ancients (DoTA). Players loved the new game mode. It became a big hit. Valve (of Half-life and other fame) decided to make a professional grade game 'like' it and called it DoTA 2. [Tl;dr]

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

Vunic wrote:

You get a free 5 for loving AOE

Thanks, I forgot to vote your post up, how rude of me :). Voted up now. I do not mind the magic and vfx, but some games feel like they don't need it at all. I also loved playing Caesar III, and later Civilization III. Caesar III, like most governance games actually made me realize how difficult a task successful governance can be. It's fun playing these games I've spent over 10 hours a day playing these games. Did you know you could play AoE II online as well? First time I played online was when I realized there was speed and skill required to play too even though strategy and planning were still probably core.

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

Vunic wrote:

AOE-II :O , I'm never ending fan of this game

Me too! :). If you like AoE then maybe you might like to give AoE online[^] (or here[^]) a shot. I had tried it years ago. It was fun to start with but the fun faded away after a while. If you're looking to not having a life, I'd strongly recommend DoTA[^]. Free to Play, Online game. Has a steep initial learning curve but once you get through that, offers endless hours of more learning and fun.

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

The one in the Mankini?

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

I had similar problems after I 'upgraded' to windows 10. I used to have Ubuntu and debian on Virtual box to play around with. Now I have Ubuntu on dual boot. Do most of my home projects (android stuff and studying low level stuff) on Ubuntu. Only use windows boot to play DoTA. :)

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

+5. I have been thinking about this, and I think also mentioned this logic a couple of times on CP in some posts that started off badgering all indian programmers. In a way this might not be all that bad for India. I think we have grown a great deal economically since, and mostly due to, the IT boom(s). I have noticed a change in outlook here lately and see a lot of people shift from IT to things they actually like doing. This has happened mostly due the changes in lifestyle that the technology business has brought in. - People earn more and so are financially more secure than they were before. - Equally important, I think, is that indians have travelled outside India through their companies and that has caused a cultural shift. More and more people realize that there's more to life than 'getting a job'. Although this change is still only in the bigger cities, but it would be highly improbable to expect the IT wave to change the fortunes of over a billion people. All in all, to look on the bright side, hopefully most of those who do get laid off are the ones who aren't meant to be programmers, and hopefully they do find their calling and end up being happy.

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

raddevus wrote:

Might be interesting if Android allowed you to "warn when app uses [named] perm".

I think Android introduced runtime permission checks since API level 23 (or 24). Personally I go for Distrust 100% :) When I see such a required permissions list I try to figure out what I'd use those permissions for. For example, maybe I can understand that Wikipedia needs my identity info (maybe to sign in automatically using one of my accounts if supported) and WiFi / connection info (to get connectivity status). But Contacts, location, media? Nope, I usually cancel install.

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

I feel your pain... well, almost. Never tried Xamarin, but the regular signing process also felt like a pain to me. Long long ago... in 2008. It was complicated and manual... but at least you knew that if you understood the process and remembered the steps you'd be fine. I'd create a certificate, setup a provisioning profile on the dev portal, add devices on the portal and then to the profile, download the profile and install it via xcode or the keychain access. Of course i'd have to add the profile to the device as well. I knew if i messed up it wouldn't work, but with a bit of practice you can get it right. I tried building iOS again recently and with xcode 'managing' everything, I have absolutely no control (or that's how it feels like), and no clue what's going wrong if something goes wrong. It's worse when you have to set up a CI server and people on the team, equally clueless, end up tampering the provisioning profiles! Sorry for the rant, your post just brought back very bad memories.

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

I was just wondering, could / would this also apply to software? Because companies with closed sources would then have to develop their software with clearly defined, and identifiable components (as dlls / libs) with api we documented so, maybe in case I see a bug or a missing feature, i could rewrite that particular component and sort of 'fix' or 'repair' my instance of the software instead of having to go to the software company that created the product for a fix. EDIT: I understand there are a bunch of arguments against this like it's best to have the company fix it because they'd have a tested product etc... but consider open source communities built around developing component fixes for, say, excel?

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

Quote:

upholding a gentlemen’s agreement to not release.”

:omg:

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

DOS Commander.

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

Not sure if you're only thinking about SVN, but since others have recommended GIT I guess Perforce[^] deserves a mention too. It is free to use for upto 5 users and 20 workspaces. So for really small teams it can be used for free. I think it has a clean interface (but maybe that's just because I've used it for a while and become used to it). So unless you plan to do distributed development, Perforce might be worth considering.

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

... maybe if you translated it to ancient Geek... :~

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

Is there still time to trademark 'China' and demand a cut for everything 'Made In China' ?

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

I'd just search for ciritcalize[^]

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

snorkie wrote:

Learning respect for others even when you disagree with them.

Really? In the CP lounge? I hope you can take disappointment and failure well. ;P

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.

I'm surprised no put thought of putting the obligatory XKCD[^] yet

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." -Ornette Coleman "Philosophy is a study that lets us be unhappy more intelligently." -Anon.