Welcome Aboard
Oh boy, I can already tell this is gonna be an exiting experience! This past week has been full of new stuff, and I knew that could be the case. I am a “Nervous Nelly” as some people might say. I didn’t know what to expect, and so I was worried to death I would screw up.
But yet here I am! First week done and everyday I am itching to get some more work done! The whole team has been super chill, which helped for the first few meetings when I was in Panic Mode. The onboarding process was fairly smooth, and the several meetings to learn Tools were quite useful without being too long, and I’ve already been working deep into Monochrome’s systems, which is a lot of fun.
Visible Progress is Amazing
I was surprised by the large number of tools DVNC uses to keep track of people, progress, files, and time. Seemed redundant and confusing to me at first. But after using them for just a week, I felt the importance of visible progress. I am mainly using Toggl to track time and Basecamp to track assignments and to have a digital checklist. It is super encouraging to be able to look at these sites and keep record of all my productivity. These tools have become a welcomed addition to my daily routine.
Getting a Handle on Source Control
One thing I knew I would encounter, but have never personally used, is source control. I have always heard of it being useful, even for solo projects, but have never had the opportunity to explore it for any of my personal projects.
This week I was thrust into their system, and I have learned so much in this short period. With it being a huge part of my role as a programming intern, I am glad for being able to get a grasp on it so quickly. I would hate to cause unnecessary file conflicts.
Weekly Work Breakdown
A lot of my time this week was spent learning and reverse-engineering the Plug-ins and Systems within the Monochrome RPG so that I can effectively work in them to fix bugs and implement assets. The ORK plug-in being used, which handles a lot of the RPG elements in the game, is particularly intriguing to me. It seemingly simplifies all of the deep systems that code would require, and allows creative freedom through their editor. I had a lot of fun using it for battle events and scanning it for bugs this week.
Other than that, I have been working on bug elsewhere in the game, such as animation implementation tweaks and dialogue setup fixes. I found it to be a great way to dig into the structure of the game and explore how things are put together. And knowing that the source control allows me to revert to a previous state takes away any stress of hugely messing up until I find a working solution. And when the bug is finally fixed, it is super rewarding and satisfying to check it off the list.
Next Week’s Goals
Looking to next week, I hope to be able to knock out a lot more of the bugs affecting Monochrome and possibly get assigned larger tasks involving the ORK Framework.
What I’ve Been Playing
I’m a big fan of progression in games, and battle passes are no exception. Been having a blast in COD Cold War recently. Season 2 just got a huge update with some more content, and so the grind continues! Sometimes you just need to spend some time blasting virtual players with powerful guns to de-stress from life, and it’s always a good time.