Just discovered an absolutely brilliant project – version of #Doom that is perfectly playable on Raspberry Pi Pico – the $4 board with 264K RAM and 1-dollar CPU.
This is the full game, no corners are cut either in graphics or sound.
I'm a German web developer currently living the rural life in Spain making #olive oil, breeding #goats and growing vegetables.
Before that I spent 23 years in the UK, studying sound engineering, working at and then running a #CommunityRadio station and volunteering at a #CSA (community-supported agriculture) project.
I joined the Fediverse pretty much exactly a year ago at @axwax and am happy there, although its timeline doesn't fully reflect all the stuff I'm into.
I'm attempting to teach myself how to code using Python, MicroPython and CircuitPython. I am using a device called "Pygamer" that also lets me code games using Microsoft's makecode arcade. I am using a raspberry Pi 4b as my main computer. I chose to use a raspberry Pi 4b for a couple of reasons. The biggest reason is power consumption (8 watts vs 100+ watts) but the other reason is that it forces me out of my comfort zone. I also just wanted to see if it were possible to learn this stuff without a faster computer. It is possible but it's not plug and play that is for sure!
I am teaching myself this stuff becuase I became disabled around 4 years ago and was no longer able to work doing what I used to do (construction). Disability income is not enough to live on and grow unless you work really hard at learning a skill that doesn't require a large financial investment.
My ultimate goal is to reach a point where I can start tutoring programming and maybe even start a summer camp style electronics thing in the future!
So for now, as I learn, I document everything. I am attempting to build somewhat of a curriculum while I also learn the fundamentals. One day I'll use these materials in my lessons!
I'll be working on this stuff for the next few years as I have a roadmap that leads into 2028. Here is hoping by 2028 I can laugh at my terrible attempts at programming today!
I will mostly be using microcontrollers for my journey as devices like the adafruit Pygamer and pimoroni PicoSystem are relatively cheap and they give you a choice of a few possible languages to learn. Not only that, the extremely limited hardware forces you to focus on game design principles and coding with memory in mind. This will keep me from running away with ideas like I did back when I was playing with Godot as I am very limited in what mechanics I am able to implement!
Those tiny game systems are going to be the basis of ALL my projects moving forward. The Pygamer especially as I was able to grab a few right before they sold out for good!
My favourite genre of games are RPGs and text based adventures. Ever since coming on Mastodon I have been thinking about what it would take to make a vision impaired or blind friendly rpg/tba. This would be my ultimate goal, to code accessible games but for now unfortunately I'm going to have to use the materials that already exist which don't have vision impaired people in mind whatsoever. That is okay though. I will be keeping accessibility in mind once I start actually coding my own game!
I never shared anything on the old social media sites but Mastodon seems infinitely more friendly and filled with similarly motivated people. I look forward to sharing with you guys and meeting others who are doing the same!
Hi, Francisco from #Argentina here, this is my #introduction. I'm an independent software #developer, compulsive #learner and things #maker. Looking forward to bounce ideas off with people that share interests. Currently into:
This is what I have: When you scroll the knob it shows the number on the display (with brightness set dim) and then when you press the knob/button
it sends that value via MIDI output and then flashes 4 time and shows the number at full brightness.
The flashing lets you know you've set the value and sent it.
And "dim" means you are selecting a value and "bright" means you have chosen the value to send.