About the second part of yesterday’s theme…
You would think that by saying I’m going to focus on becoming an expert in the field of video game development, that in order to ‘publish’ what I know – I would have to create a video game.
Well, you’d be wrong.
Think about the last time you used an ATM. You interacted with a computer screen. It asked you questions, you responded to those questions with the chip or magnetic strip on your card and by pushing buttons. Was the experience pleasant, neutral or frustrating? Someone wrote the code, designed the layout of the screen, tried to predict what you would do next… 
How is that any different than playing Angry Birds on your phone? How about Facebook or Twitter? Same thing – a screen, some code, some attempts at predicting how a user (player) would most like the experience to go. In the end – all the same tools are being used for those interactive experiences as are used creating a big game like Call of Duty or World of Warcraft.
In order to achieve my goal of becoming an expert in video game development – I have to become an expert in using the tools that are used in video game development. In my particular case, I’m going to use a Game Engine called Unity. (Thankfully free – since I am poor!) A game engine is a tool that has pre-written almost all the code you need for a typical game, so that you don’t have to re-invent the wheel. Things like how to deal with mouse clicks and especially how to incorporate all the stuff you need to make a game look nice. The other (also free!) tool I’m going to use is called Blender – it’s a 3d modeling software. Most animated movies use 3d models now – it’s a lot like making the clay models used in stop-motion animation.
I’m not going to write anymore about the thing I’m going to make – mostly because I don’t have all the details worked out yet. But also because I want to have it be a big surprise when I launch my project on January first.
The point is: although I am using video game development tools – I’m not making a video game.
Mind of a Mouse 