Week One, Semester 2

   Sadly, I was not able to accomplish as much as I would have liked this week: due to my laptop being broken and my only alternative being an old Macbook (which has poor Internet connection--a necessity for research--and does not support several programs that I may use to practice ), I have been limited in my research and exploration of coding. As such, I decided to spend my week researching which programming languages would be the most useful for me to use, both for this project and for me to be knowledgeable of in general. Many articles and blogs I have read on the subject suggest coding in whichever language the programmer feels most comfortable with; as such, I have decided to choose the language that is not necessary the most simple or easy to learn, but the language that is the most versatile and the most useful inside and outside of the game programming spectrum. Java seems like a reasonable choice, as it is the language that most of the Internet uses, and learning it will give me a head start in next year's programming class. The language "C++" is simple and has many applications when putting it to use with physical objects (robotics), but I would prefer to choose Java as an introductory language more than anything else. In class on Thursday, I did manage to take a few free lessons from a useful website called Codeacademy (link below*). I did not have the chance to learn much, but I now understand that all programming can be simplified to "If... then..." statements, such as "If x button is pressed, then y will happen".

   As for the topic of the game I plan to make, I think I should hold back on deciding what the game will be mechanics- and story-wise. I don't have a good grasp of any language yet, so I don't know what I will and will not be capable of programming. I plan to learn a language first, or at least the basics, then use the creation of a video game as a means to test my skill.

   All in all, I think that I was fairly productive this week, given my constraints. I could not learn much at home due to my damaged equipment, and did not have time to learn much on school computers given the PARCC practice testing; I may be behind where I wanted to be initially, but my position is mainly due to factors outside of my control and I feel I worked to the best of my ability. This coming week, I plan to do some more research and practice with Java, as well as brainstorm some simple game ideas for the future.

*http://www.codecademy.com/