It's already nearing a new year and so much has happened in the last ten years. It's almost like I'm constantly running a gauntlet with no accolates. Okay, quick recap coming in before I started school and a bit during: I was able to take a small part of this Fallout: New Vegas mod project called: New California. It's the year 2020, I know that I'm about to graduate in one more year; just several more months of game development coursework. While I'm doing good at the rule designing portion: I realize I need to get better at coding. So, I use my local library card and register to use Teamtreehouse. They don't give a certificate but they sure do track a lot. See-- when I was in school, there wasn't much feedback that I could learn from. There was a mention of spaghetti code here and there but that was it. I put my mind to it and then download a few things: Github, Atom.io (RIP, you were legit), figure out what exactly version of unity I wanted to use that probably won't have much deprecation in code, and grabbed a few books.

I burnt out a few times, often and still do, forgot to eat. But my technical growthset increased: I learned what made the code spaghetti (and recently learned, I need to work on my abstraction)' and then the internships. The gaming industry is extremely saturated and most of the positions' I'd find wanted senior development. With the schooling: I finally got to my capstone project, and worked in a group setting with around ten other people. I loved it-- so much, in fact: that experience was what lead me to making my own plugin in Unity. I designed an objective system. Then I realized: I love making the tools that other people can use in the engine. Programming is one of those things I enjoy, and sincerely infuriates me.

My one fault during learning was that I was taught not to plagarize and using other stuff was so bad that it hurt me with learning things: with coding, there's only so much you can do to make your code unique. Even then, it doesn't need to be- it just needs to be efficient: I must know the time and space complexity, and when to use what type of method. Which now, is so helpful: looking back I am more of a person who'd rapid-prototyping and programming level functions. I now prefer working in a team, or cross-department because so much more gets done. If a lot of my portfolio stuff was done in a team-setting. It would have a hell of a lot more polish(it's really the art that hurts most portfolio games), and that's damn shame because technically theres' a lot of great games.

Interviewing Experiences

I thought this part would deserve it's own section. My first ever job interview was Gamestop but I had to move out of the area before I even got a chance to work there. So, I'll restart this: my first ever job interview was at Hypixel Studios I was extremely nervous, it's covid-time and I wasn't in a situation to leave where I live. So, I thought to myself this is amazing! My first ever job offer, and it's remote. But the nervouness did me in: but I was asked a question that stuck with me for a long time and truly helped me learn to code it was: "What's in a block?". I didn't really understand the question: so I didn't make it to the next round. I thought, okay: I'm missing something fundamental. So, I learned a lot about object oriented programming: I essentially crammed and used the concepts to make a game in Unity.

At a specific point, my calendar became a mess of interview after interview; with videos, and technical tests. I sent many more applications but not too many, I only applied to things that I felt like I really fit in the job description. A host of indie studios, but, I never got a email back from those. Which was totally cool. So, I'll just list the ones where I actually learned things and just reallty enjoyed the interview proccess.' Next Interviews:

• Beenox. A subsidary of Activision and I got through five stages of the interview before bombing the panel interview. I didn't even know what a panel interview was until that. Needless to say, with three other peoples', attention on solely me and questioning me. I got extremely nervous and couldn't perform to the best of my ability.
• Google. This was a spur of the moment decision. I'm honestly surprised they even moved forward with me.
• Rockstar, this interview started with video only and you couldn't go back and edit or redo. I didn't know that so, I'm sure I looked goofy. That made me learn that I preferred the interview to start with contact.
• Schell Games. This was a great learning experience too! Most of what I learned and have applied has come from the Art of Game Design by Schell. And I thought, "Word?", this will be fun. The test was a fun one: I had to make a subjectively good design change to Candyland. I did well but sadly, I would have had to relocate to Boston. So that was a no go.
• Treyarch, that one was great. I got a copy of a COD game and was told to make a high level pitch, a written programming/scripting sample and to design that into a level using their engine. The Radiant engine though, there wasn't enough time for me to really get a feel and to start making a level. It was fun though, because total level creation really wasn't my forte. Which is ironic considering what I'm doing now: and felt like I dodged a bullet due to some controversey that happened later.
• Drop Fake, I really felt like I was going to have this one in the bag but a team member from my capstone beat me to it. I was really excited for him though- he got the job. They were so chill and the culture was great, I felt less like I was being studied under a microscope about my personality and skills and more like a natural conversation between two people.

The worst part was- I was a favorable candidate, but I failed in particular at Leetcode. Leetcode turned into a dreaded word, a dreaded thing to go through. That's I'd do the pseudo-code and then start programming. But then I would just freeze. Concepts that I learned would go out the window. If it wasn't leetcode-- it was the distance. It's hard justifying relocating for a job with: no savings and a complete seperation from the safety net. But with each interview that I had- I learned more. After a while, the sting of rejection hurt my self esteem. The silver lining, I got the job at Interplay Learning obviously and I really love it- they're a really amazing bunch, albeit it was a hard long road getting there.

Honorable Mentions are: Castle Hill Gaming, EA Maxis, Insomnia Games, Beat Games!

So, What's in a block?

Thank you if you made it this far: At the time, I didn't really understand what my interviewer meant by asking that question. But it started to become one of those core memories, a defining moment that changed how I approached some things. The question was interated further by, "What's stored in the block?" I think for a split second, and I say: "Data." then it's what kind of data? My next answer that I had would show that I only have a surface level knowledge of programming. In particular, because Hypixel managed Minecraft servers before-- I wasn't really sure what was meant but now I know,
The Data is:

Health Points	Block Type	Inheritance
int(n) amount of times until destroyed	What biome the block spawns in	What does the block inherit from: biomeBlock, weaponBlock, villagerBlock
when destroyed, drop(); and animation,Play();	is the block stackable, if so, how much?	what is overwritten, or made public for other code to see?
during/after, drop a loot from .lootable(blockType)	is the block harmful, or not harmful?	does this need to be a seperate block?

Final Thoughts & Words

It's been a wild right, and it has kept going. This website has been my most recent project: as a friend said, I've not earned my web dev badge. I had to work with Route 53, S2 for the bucket, Amplify for where this app is hosted. Getting the custom domain transferred has was rough too, it kept getting stuck on domain verification. I installed scss/sass and used had to remember front-end stuff and now I'm really about to get into JavaScript to give this site some depth.

All the meanwhile, I'm just passionate about these Simulations and getting my work done. I've had some terrible things happen this year: my mom was murdered and it let to some existental crisis that still makes my heart skip a beat. I really miss her. Now I have my little sister depending on me.

I can do this: I'll get through this, together, we can? Yeah, together we can.

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