Coding Adventure: Coding a Coding Game

Attempting to create a little game where programming is the core mechanic.

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[SebastianLague]

Hello, sorry for the rather short episode today! Spent a lot of time experimenting with this, but didn't end up with much to show for it unfortunately.
I think coding as a gameplay mechanic is a really interesting concept, but I struggled to make something fun out of it. Would love some recommendations for games to play, if you know any games which do it well?

Finally, in case anyone here is wondering about the source-code to the last coding adventure (since I've been promising to upload it for a while) -- I'm probably going to start working on a part 2 of the ecosystem sim in the next few weeks, and I'll try tidy up the project and release it then.

[freeonethree]

"I failed to make a game out of it like I'd planned"

*shows super polished nice little minigames*

Dude...

[eugeneyoush]

Job interview :
- Whats your game development level?
- Sebastian Lague

[xHamza]

Uninspired?? That game looks really fun! And it's probably an excellent way to teach people programming.

[Danidev]

That's so cool, well done! Let's hope you're hit by some sudden inspiration at some point :D

[junpeiiori]

Even if you consider this coding adventure a failure, thank you for sharing it anyway. Watching the video sparked some ideas in my brain already.

[kaizen]

You may become uninspired but you do something more important, you inspire us!

[Rallion]

The turret example makes me imagine a cool spy/secret agent game where instead of being the spy, you're their support. You have to hack in and provide them support by hacking turrets, cameras, doors, etc. That could be really fun!

[webbguitar]

I like how instead of doing a generic programming tutorial using arbitrary Car and Animal classes, you actually walk us through how you tried to do something new by building a simple test project around it (which I feel is how most developers learn new things anyway).

[progrstick]

You should definitely revisit this idea, Sebastian. It looks really cool as a game.

[MattiaConti]

I really like you calm when you talk in video. You are an inspiration for me. If it's possibile i really appreciate some other video about the world with foxes and rabbits.

[oli-maewilson]

I love how this is what constitutes a failure in your eyes, but it's literally unachievable to someone who can only dream of reaching this level, like myself.

[joshcaithness]

If you made a full game out of that I would 100% buy that! That looks awesome! I love the idea of the turret in particular, that whole mini game is so good and actually really challenging. Please end up finishing this project🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

[Twisted]

The way the blocks break and fade to black is super satisfying.

[TheKishinhunter]

this is actually super helpful for me. ive got an idea for a game that uses coding, but i had no clue where to start when i comes to actually implementing a coding feature. every google search ive tried turns up results like "how to code a game from scratch!" or "How to make a video game without programming!" so this is a really useful starting point for me. thank you.

[timotheeoliveau]

I wanna play this 3D turret game so much !!!

[mip]

Congradulations! You just made C Python - Simplified edition!

[kxsteve]

Same project for different people:
Sebastian: This game is a failure.
Me: Mom I finally made a game! I'll be rich!
Respect bro.

[nittin]

Since you mentioned Shadertoy, I think it would be really great to introduce your audience to shaders and how that works, I think a lot of people would really enjoy it (me included). This is an awesome video by the way!

[LtDan-fylc]

Just found your channel today, and you've made me want to download unity again. I tried once long ago (I have always dreamed of making a video game ever since I was a little kid with an N64), and I've always been able to come up with neat ideas for different mechanics (especially for RPGs and the like), but the actual nuts and bolts of it all was just a little bit much to take in at once. Since then, I have gained more experience with small projects (making minecraft mods, following a roguelike tutorial using Python, messing around in Blender, that type of thing), but you've really inspired me today. This is a type of game I have always wanted to play but could never find one that was decent enough. I envision something that someone who doesn't code at all could sit down and actually have fun playing instead of spending three hours following an online (or in-game) tutorial just to be able to get past the first puzzle. I picture something that can present a problem that is complex enough to make a professional programmer scratch their head a bit, but that your average layman could also solve given enough time and clues.

You could have a setting where you work for some manufacturer of automated machinery set in the not-so-distant future. Your goal is to debug the faulty machines that have been returned to the company. You'd have a little test bed set up specific to whatever machine it is you're working on, and a console displaying the current program that is loaded onto the machine, which can be edited, compiled, and re-uploaded to the machine. Your job would be to try and fiddle with the code, then test the machine to make sure it runs properly, then send it back as a refurbished product. You could make it interesting and allow the player to send out something that is still incorrect, causing it to be returned again, opening the door to a sort of meta game where your work influences the success of the company and what contracts they can obtain, and maybe you can even get fired, and that would be how you lose.

You could even have the "correct" program available to the player, in the form of reference documents, which could also be edited by the player (adding notes, or creating entirely new documentation for some piece of coding the player came up with). The first several "levels" would be small syntax errors in the code (missing parentheses/brackets/semicolons, mis-capitalized letters, etc), so that way you could slowly ease the player into formatting and what looks right and what doesn't. As you progress through the game, you get more and more complex errors (missing lines of code, arithmetic errors and so on), and less and less help from your reference documents (maybe the paper only describes the root nature of a function, but the problem requires you to string several functions together in a creative way, or maybe your reference displays the code in C# but you're trying to work with Python, or something like that). You could eventually open it up to allowing the player to create new custom machines that operate off of scripts written entirely by the player.

It'd lean heavily towards one of those "simulator" games (the setting I have put forth reminds me a bit of car mechanic simulator but with software), but hey, plenty of people enjoy those (myself included).

Another idea: Programming robots for robot fights in your back yard. That would be more action-y and if accompanied with a 3-D editor allowing the player to create custom robots with articulating parts, could have a lot of potential if done right. Coding the bot to properly respond to its array of sensors and inputs from a controller would be a challenging problem for the player, but also very rewarding when you crush the opponent's robot. Would actually be really fun if it was a multiplayer game. Of course, you'd have to create the fighting portion of the game, simulate the robots as well as the damage they receive (which could be as simple as having a health bar or simple value (x/100) for each part), including sensor blackouts (getting a camera knocked out would likely impede the bot's pathfinding), but the more I think about it, the more I want to throw my wallet at whoever decides to make it.

I won't pretend to know how complex making a game like that would be, and I could never hope to create even a small portion of what I described here, but I still wish it existed.