Processing is a software I had to learn back when I started my course two years ago. It helps to learn programming in the context of visual arts. Its free to download and can be converted into Java for online use. There are many books and websites to help users in working on their projects.
My first project was a Harry Potter inspired game as Alan Rickman who played Snape has died that year and I was quite upset with the news.
The concept is simple, its a potion class that Harry has in the movies with Snape and he needs to combine the right combination of potions in order to pass the class. If he fails, Snape is turned into different monsters and the player has to try again.
The player has 4 attempts.
I got all the images online and edited them in a way to suit my game using Photoshop. I added the cauldron and Processing is switching between 2 animations of Snape blinking and the pot boiling. There is the main soundtrack playing in the background as well as the sound of the potion boiling.
There are two potion combinations that need to be made , which will then create special potions:
There are many concoctions that Harry can make...
You get the idea, there is a lot of potion combinations.
And if clicked , Snape drinks the potion to test it and if incorrect he will turn into random things from the movie or fantasy beings in general.
If a correct combination is met then Snape didn't turn into anything and moves on with his lecture.
To keep it fair, there are 2 right potions Harry can make.
The player can try making more combinations or turn back to the start screen.
The programming behind the game isn't perfect as it was object oriented ( I didnt understand it at the time) . So I literally have over a thousand lines of repeated code switching between scenes that are created constantly. Processing does allow for OOP (object oriented programming) and I do plan on editing my code to make it work smoother in the future.
The assets I got online and I changed some of them, you can see a list of some of them that I have here:
All my images, fonts and sounds are in the data folder in my game folder.
Conclusion,
Processing is a great way to learn programming and I strongly recommend for anyone that wants to get the basics of it , to try it out. I don't agree with how my lecturers are teaching students in my course. When I started my course I didn't even understand the basics of programming and how to have a logical mind , I still don't , the lecturers give us work which we have to research ourselves and do to pass the course as otherwise we fail and have to repeat it. I taught myself by reading a lot of books however some things are always hard for me to grasp. Processing helped me a lot to understand how different lines of code work and how to create something...out of nothing!
Hope you guys liked this post, and if you want to see more things like this in the future write it down in the comments bellow !
Love ~ Eriluks .
