Day 2: Math + Math = More Math

For those of you keeping watch over my daily progress you may have noticed that today's entry is marked Day 2 instead of Day 3. (Yes, I do know how to count and no, I'm not cheating.) The reason is actually a tough one. Yesterday was a very surreal day of personal tragedy in my wife's family. I'm not going to elaborate on the specifics here as it isn't the purpose of this blog to document personal matters. Let's just say that despite my best efforts to spend time on my gaming goals every day this month something completely out of my control took precedent and leave it at that. I did manage to get a few tiny research things done, but not enough to count as a day in my mind.

So then, on with the 30-day game challenge.

Remember how your teachers always used to say how important learning math would be someday? Remember how you scoffed in their face because you were going to be an artist or a sports star and there was absolutely no practical use for algebra, trigonometry, geometry and stuff like that in your memory banks? Remember that?

Well, this is one of those moments in life where it bites you! Suddenly, you realize they were right the whole time. It turns out math is important after all, imagine that, and not just elementary math the big stuff! Yup, it's time to start thinking like a genius again and getting reacquainted with your old friends sine, cosine, tangent & the Pythagorean Theorem. I spent a better part of my day today doing just that. Reminding myself about the joys of higher learning and how good I will feel knowing the "useless stuff" I learned in high-school actually was worth learning.

The moral of the day: No matter how simple a game concept may seem on the surface, and no matter how user friendly a "code free" game development engine may appear on the surface, the reality is at some point you are going to have to roll up your sleeves and dive into the mathematics of game development.

For me it was figuring out an equation that launched my main character into the air at a trajectory determined by the angle of the user's touch and the distance between the character being launched and the user's finger. After a bunch of attempts, partial successes and outright failures I employed another math equation and solved the problem.

Want to know what that equation was?

Frustrated Me + Help from Friends = Productive Day

Never underestimate the power of a second pair of eyes. If you set out on a 30 day challenge of your own, it doesn't mean you have to do it alone.

Now before I sign off for the day, I wanted to introduce you to somebody important. After considerable thought I've decided the storyline for my game is most certainly going to center around a bunny rabbit. Why? Because bunnies bounce, they're super cute and they are hard to take seriously when angry. Awwwww...see what I mean? A face like this is worth millions on the app store.

Meet Bounder. He's going to be our lovable hero for the remainder of this journey. Just so you know, I created this character a couple days ago while pondering if I should tackle a 30-day game challenge like this. Well, today it's official. I'm using this little dude for my gameplay and he's already turning out to be a ball of fun (and trouble). He's a mischievous, bouncy and loyal furball who is always ready for adventure.

I have long-term plans for our leaping little lad, but his first game needs to be something I can really sink my teeth into. Something fun, but simple. And with a spring-loaded figure like Bounder, I'm thinking it should be something with some serious pouncing in it...don't you?

I wonder how high he can jump?