I have always been interested in gaming. Whether it is a card, a board, or a video game, I really enjoy the act of playing. This probably comes as no surprise (Playing games is fun!). What eludes me is why I have fun playing games.

For me, there is something about defined systems (i.e. game rules) that I like. You have this very definite system under which you have to achieve some desired state (i.e. winning the game). I really like forming hypotheses (i.e. strategies), testing (i.e. playing a game), and observing the phenomena (i.e. the results of the game).

In short, learning and exploration are what I enjoy!

Last year, I was working at a job that was… mindless. I easily completed the tasks assigned to me. There was no challenge; nothing inherent in my position duties that let me explore. As you can imagine, this led to boredom at the workplace.

To help prevent my boredom, I set out to learn more about video games. Specifically, I wanted to learn more about the unique challenges presented to game programmers. I started a series of games I dubbed “Nothing Special.”

I wanted to make games. I wanted to embrace open source technology. I wanted to learn. I decided I would start by using Allegro 5 to make a little pong style game. It took me 3 weekends to finish and polish.

While I make no claims that it is actually a good game, I made it. It is technically unimpressive. It is ugly. It only has one mode. It is an invaluable teaching tool.

The knowledge I gained from this game making experience actually made me a better worker. I was able to better understand why the tools at work were slow and was even able to patch them. It helped me stave off boredom… for a little while at least. 😀

All this is good and dandy, but why did I wait so long before posting about it? I thought I had lost those three weekends of code. Our backup drive had failed between formats of my coding netbook. I recently discovered the source code in my e-mail! I also found a pretty awesome course on game design using Allegro.

Alleluia!

In the spirit of open source, I am finally releasing that game. You can find it here. I never found a satisfactory installer package, so you will have to compile it yourself.

Go forth and keep learning!