Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!news From: "Scott Ward" Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english Subject: Re: Frustration Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 00:31:52 +0100 Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE) Lines: 100 Message-ID: <7tglv9$ict2@chuka.playstation.co.uk> References: <7tfcl4$g7p1@chuka.playstation.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: m36-mp1-cvx1a.hud.ntl.com X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Donal O'Duibhir wrote in message news:7tfcl4$g7p1@chuka.playstation.co.uk... > Every so often I creep on to the ng's and see what people are talking about > and feel real bad for not having started writing any code yet, with college > and 6 million other things, getting to grips with the Yaroze is taking > longer than a while. I reckon I was one of the last people to get one last > April or so, having to talk my way round the guy on the phone who was > adamant the offer was over ....etc > I always thought I was the last to get a Yaroze (some time in March) but I've learnt that there are a couple of others like yourself that got one just before the cut-off point. It's nice to know I'm not the only Yaroze novice. ;o) > What am I waffling about? Well I'm just voicing my frustration with myself > for not finding more time and wondering if anyone else reckons it took them > longer than they thought to get a feel for the Yaroze. > It took me a lot longer than expected to get the hang of the Yaroze but this was mainly due to the fact that I had no knowledge of C code whatsoever. I think if you've already got a good grasp of C then it's probably much easier to understand (or maybe not, who knows? :o) ). I think it's generally felt that the Yaroze manuals just aren't good enough, if it wasn't for these newsgroups and other more experienced members I don't think half of us would get anywhere, not on the Sony docs alone anyway. As for the feeling of frustration, I know how you feel but I think this stems from the pressure (from ourselves) to create a polished game. I've been working on the same game for month's now but it's still far from being finished. However, if I look back at the things I've learned since getting my Yaroze I'm pretty pleased with my progress, I've just not got much to show off to others. :o( I think it all depends on what you want to get out of the Yaroze project. Personally, I'd rather set myself a harder project to achieve than knocking out a cheesy space invader clone every couple of weeks. I may be hitting problem after problem but at least at the end of it all I've learnt how to solve them. You don't get this by ripping off other peoples bits of code and creating a bog standard shoot 'em-up just for the sake of finishing something. I wouldn't feel too bad about not having anything finished just yet. There's some members who've had their Yarozes for years and still not done anything with them, some knock out a number of sub-standard games and some create some really brilliant bits of test code, preferring to work on coding routines and effects rather than games. Just do what you want to do. There's very little support left from the older members (although there's still some very helpful guys around) so I wouldn't bother trying to impress or prove yourself to anyone else. If you're not in the *elite* group of Yaroze members then frankly, no-one's that bothered. Take Marc Lambert's 'Stars Wars' for example, released around the same time as DEnnis' 'DOWN' but for some reason has had no response. It's a much more quality game in my opinion and shows some good coding skills but because DEnnis is more 'well-known' over the newsgroups his game has had more response. The bottom line is that most of the other members don't give a shit how much effort you put into your stuff so don't get all frustrated about how fast you're picking things up. :o) > This is coming from a Computer Science student ( 3rd year ) who somehow has > never programmed C in their lives before......which is weird considering I > started with basic on a Speccy 128K +2 ( And before you ask the +2 is very > important.........I forget why though , was it the tape deck+something > else? ) > I wouldn't know, I was always a C64 kinda guy. ;o) > Anyway, expect maybe a little from me in the future now that college is > under way. > I look forward to it, if you ever need any help with anything let me know and I'll see what I can do. > Ques: does anyone know how many Yarozers there are in Britain in total? > > Ques: what about Ireland? ( I only know of three! ) > > It would be good if DEnnis could create a new list of Yaroze members who are still *active* at the moment. I know of a few people who've tried to get in touch with other members but had no reply because they don't bother with it anymore. Maybe we'd all get our projects finished a little faster if we could drum up some of that old (but sadly depleted) Yaroze spirit! How about it DEnnis, do you fancy setting up another list? Cheers, Scott