So over the past couple of months I’ve challenged myself with learning Javascript in my spare time. I decided on Javascript to be my next language as I really want to improve my front-end development skills. I know HTML, CSS, SASS and I’ve dabbled in PHP. I can create WordPress themes so Javascript was the next logical step for me. I started off by going through the entirety of the CodeAcademy JS course. This helped an awful lot with the basics, understanding functions, variables, loop etc. What I found this lacked was putting it into practice as some of the tutorials didn’t link together very well.
I wanted to create something with the basic knowledge I had so far so I could get a true understanding of how it worked. Matt, our senior developer, challenged me to create a Snakes & Ladders game! Now to say the least I was overwhelmed with this task but with Matt’s guidance I got through it. With so much being new to me I didn’t know how certain parts could work together so getting over that hurdle was the first thing I had to nail. Though once I’d got past that, it was a great way to learn how things could work together and the problem solving was great fun.
My next challenge was down to me. Matt suggested I create a fighting game and being a gamer in my time outside of work this sounded like a great idea. I decided to base my task on The Hunger Games – making it interesting with various zone elements and having multiple fighters. Whilst this project is a work-in-progress so far it’s already improving the skills I learnt creating the Snakes & Ladders game.
What’s even better is that learning this stuff can be classed as training [so I get paid to make and play games] and of course also apply my learning to the ‘real’ world by adding some really cool s**t to our customers’ websites. Bring it on.