Second Semester Update: The Coming Projects

Hello, readers, once again!

We're now in the second semester of the academic year, and I have had enough time to put some thought into my dissertation project, and where to take it from here.

As you may or may not know, the original plan was to follow a similar setup to the previous semester of using online tutorials to learn new coding techniques with C# and build small game prototypes with that knowledge every two weeks. However, this will be changing slightly, as I will detail here:

Firstly, the previous two-week development cycle for the projects will be changed for a three-week cycle, allowing another week of work on the Conversion Phase so that I can hopefully put together something more polished and ready for submission. Please expect an update to this blog after the completion of each Tutorial Phase, an update one week into each Conversion Phase, and a final update at the end of each Conversion Phase.

Second, I will no longer be using Unity, as it wasn't offering me experience with C# as much as UnityScript; while useful, that wasn't the purpose of this dissertation, and has therefore been changed. From here, I intend to use Microsoft's Visual Studio Express 2013.

Third and finally, I have reduced the number of tutorials from three to two, allowing myself enough time to complete both with the new three-week development cycle, and still having plenty of time to work on the final project for the semester.

At this stage, I believe I have enough understanding of coding to be fairly competent with C#, provided that I learn the basic syntax and Visual Studio software, so the focus of the tutorials will be on those two goals.



So, then, with no further preamble, here are the two tutorials I will be completing and reworking over the next six weeks:

1: I will be following the following three tutorials available on the Microsoft Developer Network that cover the basics of Visual Studio 2013.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd492135.aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd492162.aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd553235.aspx

These should give me enough knowledge and confidence to use Visual Studio itself, whilst allowing me some freedom to use C# in a basic capacity. Once the tutorials are complete, I will estimate what my capabilities are to experiment with the software and coding techniques, and spend two weeks trying to fulfil that estimation, possibly pushing the prototype a little further if I feel I'm able.

The Tutorial Phase should be completed on Sunday the 8th of February, and the Conversion Phase should be completed on Sunday the 22nd of February.

2: I will follow a YouTube tutorial creating some small games using XNA and MonoGame frameworks in Visual Studio.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8YsBsQXUFy-tilPKhtxtrdanVmIQvzzX

Parts 4 and 5 currently appear to be missing from the playlist, but can be found on the uploader's channel. I will link these if necessary in my summary post after the Tutorial Phase is complete. Again, I will estimate my capabilities after completing the tutorials and work towards what I think is a realistic goal before beginning my Final Project.

The Tutorial Phase should be completed on Sunday the 1st March, and the Conversion Phase should be completed on Sunday the 15th of March.

Following this, the Final Project for the Semester will begin on Monday the 16th of March, and should be concluded for Friday the 1st of May, following Easter.



I believe that's all I have for you for now, readers. The only thing left to do is to declare that the Fourth Tutorial Phase has officially begun.

Please do have a fine evening, readers, and wish me luck in the coming months.