#learning #digital #gaming
That was the goal: learning Rust by creating a game and having fun, of course!
If you’ve followed the previous episodes, you’ve seen that I was able to follow, step by step, online instructions (in English) to:
1. Install Rust
2. Install the Fyrox game engine
3. Initialize a game: create a project, add graphical elements for the environment, objects, and a player character, and add a few lines at the beginning of a Rust file.
Taking stock midway:
- How do I feel? Am I having fun?
Having fun: not really. But there’s a sense of joy every time I reach a milestone 😊: seeing « rustc 1.72.0 (5680fa18f 2023-08-23) » when I type « rustc –version » (indicating Rust is indeed installed), witnessing the opening of the Fyrox graphic editor with « cargo run –package editor –release », and the Fyrox Game window opening with a click on the green arrow… 🎉🎉
And it’s even more enjoyable when it didn’t work the first time, and by following system hints and online forums, it eventually works! 💪
- Have I learned anything about Rust?
I’ve learned that a Rust file ends in .rs, that there is a « cargo » command to run programs, that there are plugins, templates, and scripts, that comments are made with // in Rust too,… well, a few details here and there.
So yes, besides the satisfaction of taking (initial) steps towards creating a game, I’ve gained some knowledge 💡. But it’s frustrating 😤 not to fully understand what I’m doing, how it works, and the intention behind each step… And this lack of understanding slows down or even hinders solving certain challenges.
As a result, I won’t abandon learning through the platformer tutorial but will pause to explore the basics of the Fyrox engine and Rust language.
So, does learning by creating a game not work? It does work because it brings motivation! I had no desire to read Rust basics initially… Now that I’ve started the game, even on a few parts only, I’m motivated to find ways to continue!
To be continued…
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