Today was a very busy day. I completed Section 2 Lessons 35–41 today. All were smaller groups, but each had a lot of content. Signals are still confusing to me. They seem like custom functions that can be added to everything. And yet, they connect more than just functions. Spawning was a cool section. I learned about marker2D nodes. They allow you to set points on the screen to act as well as markets.

Todays goal is Section 4 subsection 33 Signals & 34 Spawning. Per the Godot documentation, “Signals are a delegation mechanism built into Godot that allows one game object to react to a change in another without them referencing one another. Using signals limits coupling and keeps your code flexible.” Now, do I understand that? Nope, not really. I mean, I understand the idea of it, but until I use them a couple of times and get an idea of their uses, I will probably just be confused about them.

Pipes and Lasers Today I have finished Section 4, Subsections 30-32. We made scenes for the pipes and the lasers for the plane to fly between. The laser is acting as the goal, and the pipes are acting as the failure states. This section was pretty easy, but at this stage in learning Godot, it still feels more like watching and copying than creating my own. I am proud that I have been able to follow this Udemy course so far.

Today I went over section 4 subsections 27-29. The course shows how to make the plane ‘die’ when colliding with the ground. Jump when hitting the space bar. I added a jump when the A button is pressed on an Xbox controller because, why not? And an animation of the airplane aiming up and back to flat when jumping. I am a bit worn out today in general, so this is all I can do today.

Day 5 Today I have completed sections 21–26 of Section 4. These felt easier than the previous sections 1–3. This was a very fast section covering: Setting up Godot. Setting up a game scene. Setting up the plane scene. Animating flight of the plane. Adding gravity physics to the plane. I am taking the 5-hour, 30-minute version of this game course, and I truly appreciate how the instructor is breaking this down into how to use the Godot engine more than copy these commands to make a game.

April 13, 2024 - Finally completed the into portion to the course. I did not do much work this past week on learning Godot. Work was very busy. I have a new job, and I am really enjoying it. I finally have time to work on my hobbies and my relationship with my fiancé. I am happy again. Okay, so far, today I have finished section 2: Introduction To Godot, and I am just about to finish section 3: Pre-Flight (Excuse the pun).

Day 3 April 8, 2024 - Udemy Course on Godot. Today I am continuing Section 2: Intro to Godot. The lessons I want to cover today are: 11. Dictionaries 12. Functions 13. Classes 14. Scripting a scene 15. Setters and Getters 16. Aspect Ratios I look forward to learning about these! Just game creation has been fun to learn. But, man, why is it challenging to get motivated to start learning?

April 7th 2024 I started section 2 of the course and made it to Arrays and Loops. I did take programming intro courses and level 2 courses in the little college I completed, so many terms are not foreign to me. But I have not really used operators, arrays, loops, or just any programming in my career. Having this refresher has been really nice. The instructions are very clear and show you as you progress, not just a blanket statement of X does Y.

April 6th was my first day learning Godot. I have started (Jumpstart to 2D Game Development: Godot 4 for Beginners)[https://www.udemy.com/course/jumpstart-to-2d-game-development-godot-4-for-beginners/learn/lecture/38272406#overview] course to learn Godot. I completed Section 1: Introduction before I ran out of time for the day. This section was straightforward. In fact, it was so easy that all I needed to do was watch the intro and the video explaining the author, Richard Allbert explaining that the course will be updated as Godot updates.

I have completed my first-ever game! I followed a guide on making the old classic Pong. I am calling mine Paddle-Ball because I do not know what the copyright of Pong is, but here is what I have learned so far. Godot has numerous settings, and so far, I know what a couple are, like how to turn on grid squares or set view port resolution. Not everything is included by default.

I have decided to use the Godot game engine. Why did I pick Godot? Honestly, it is free. That is the biggest reason. This was never meant to be a huge endeavor, but a hobby that I could make some money from. I did not really want to go through the hassle of figuring out who I owe royalties to.

What is HomeMadeGames? HomeMadeGames is my LLC that I will be using to develop games under. I just wanted to say I own a game company, and this is part one down. Now to make my first game. :)