đ¨âđťăStarting A New Project!ăăButton Unlocker Proă(AutoHotkey Game Programming Dev Log)
21Hey friends! Today we're gonna look at a little programming project I've been working on the past few weeks, a game called Button Unlocker Pro programmed in AutoHotkey.
Button Unlocker Pro is a pretty simple concept for a game -- in fact, it is based around simplicity. That's basically what you have to go for when you choose to program in AHK, haha, but I think it could be a lot of fun.
I'm really into working with limitations when it comes to stuff like this. Programming, music, art -- anything creative can be interesting when limitations are applied to it. A great example that many of you are probably familiar with is a ROM hack, which is basically a game you are creating within the limitations of another pre-existing game. You can ASM your little heart out and create the craziest ROM hack ever, but Super Mario World is still going to be Super Mario World at the end of the day, and what different people can do within those limitations is very interesting to me.
This is sort of my take on that type of limitation as applied to programming. AutoHotkey is not traditionally a game-design language -- in fact, I'd say almost all of the functionality is geared towards making basic scripts and tools to help you use a computer more effectively. Do you want to type the numbers 1 to 62,000 in a notepad in reverse order, skipping every third odd number and multiplying the evens by two? That's a dumb task, but AutoHotkey has you covered! That's what it's mainly good for.
Making a game within the limitations of a classic application-building language should be fun though. What is a game without graphics and action elements? How do you make gameplay like that compelling?
I think the answer is exploration and progress, just like any other game. There's gotta be something to work towards and find, and working towards and finding it has to be satisfying. That's easier said than done, and I honestly don't know if we'll ever reach that bar, but I'm interested in giving it a shot at least!
So, yeah. This series is going to be somewhere between a dev log for the game and a programming tutorial, but not really much of either. I don't know exactly what it is to be honest -- mostly I just wanted to share what I was doing with y'all! Thanks for stopping by friends, I hope you enjoy this strange little series we're starting up, and if you have any game-dev ideas, make sure you shout them out in the comments! This is pretty open-ended at this point, so any idea could be a good direction for this game to go in. Either way, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks again friends, hope you enjoy the video and have a wonderful afternoon!
đ Squiggs