A trip down memory lane

Funny how this title works if I literally was walking you through the code, or figuratively through the life of this project

Hello! Today, I'm writing something pretty different*. Strap on, we're diving into Sandwich Factory!

*I don't ever write in the first place so I guess I can't really say that.

       Sandwich Factory is the defining project of my coding journey. It's what started it, in which ever way you look at it. Now, I typically try to forget my old unity projects, no matter how good they were, but there's a special case here.

       Sandwich Factory has two editions to it. My first ever game was Sandwich Factory in Unity, however it was also the first project I made using raylib. Yes, I made a discord bot before them so it wasn't my first time programming, but who cares about that old of a code base. In my opinion, you must grow out of your old projects, finishing them just enough to please you, but not making them perfect. Unfortunately, I am a hypocrite of my own advice.

        Sandwich Factory: raylib edition was in full development from July 2021-December 2021 meaning it took 5 months to get it up to the point it is at. And you know what's funny? I didn't even finish it! I wanted to completely redo the background graphics (or at least wait until they were done... that over-promising FarLostBrand). Feature-creep is disastrous, but in my case I got lucky, and it forced me to learn so much more about programming. First off, a fun fact: the first 3 levels of sandwich factory were done in about a week. A WEEK. I had no programming experience! And it was DONE! Then what I decided to do was take the long route for everything... OF COURSE. Either by being stubborn and not wanting to read tutorials, or me trying to make too much underlying changes that only partially improved the project that the players would see. For the latter, that's where my pride comes from.

        My proudest accomplishment is of course the one which took the longest (and sounds the coolest while talking to fellow programmers). The level files. Symbols, brackets, it almost looks like a little language of it's own! But, now that I'm learning how to properly tokenize text, I almost want to redo this system. It's soo bad, but yet if you use it properly it works... but... why? And how? If you seriously want to know, just comment and I'll respond, otherwise, I don't want to ramble too much in this article. Trust me though, it's shockingly powerful.

        And that's what's shocking about the game. It just works. The physics and collisions are almost perfect in my opinion; accurate, albeit simple. (And, simply thought over. But hey, come on, it was my first time). I won't spend too much time talking about how much I love this game, but you've read up until here so I assume you're ready for it. While working on this project, it made me so proud of myself. Seriously, I hope everyone in the world could have the same feeling about (some of) their stuff. While the code used to look good to me, it pretty much looks like a dumpster fire to the more stuck-up and intelligent version of me as of today. (While not really being stuck up, I'd be stubborn and couldn't allow myself to write such terrible code today). Damn it, it really is terrible, but I love the product it resulted in. As a player, you hopefully noticed the polish. If not, I won't be angry. If nobody understands me, it's my job to explain it to them, so that's why I'm writing this.

        Anyway, where was I? Code! Boo! Scaring away all the people who get bored! AAAAHH! This project seriously needs to be redone, to satisfy my inner-perfectionist, but nothing of value would be created if I were to do it. Unlike this remake, I'd probably just use the same technologies (raylib) and not learn anything new. (To be honest, I would learn some things, but I wouldn't learn enough for it to be worth it).

TL;DR This project is my pride in terms of programming, and I love it to death. But it's not perfect.

This is the first article I've ever written so if you're one of the two people seeing this, please comment any feedback you might have about this article, or thoughts about the game. This is a place to discuss, so use it! But I won't care too much if nobody sees this, this really was just a post to encourage myself; to have enough energy for bigger, better project in the future. If this was possible for a beginner, who knows what my future could be?

Finally, this is tnaz, giving you great thanks for reading, and wishing you a great day / journey / whatever. Keep on keepin' on!