When I was in university, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to learn as many things in as many different fields as I had the capacity for. This meant my electives were things like geology, astronomy, the romantic languages, and Japanese. The only one I regretted at the time was computer science.

Computer science was incredibly difficult for me. I dropped it like a hot potato right before the final exam, because even if I had aced it, I still would have only walked away with a D. It looks better to have a W from withdrawal on your transcripts then it does to have a D. At least then you can pretend there were extenuating circumstances.

The focus of the class was to learn the basics of the coding language Python. It seemed like a relatively straightforward code to learn, and I did understand the logic of it, but actually applying that logic to a (working) program was beyond me. The disconnect made me feel incompetent and somewhat stupid.

I remember staring at my screen in the computer lab at 11:00 p.m. the night before an assignment was due, crying because I couldn’t make turtle successfully draw a hat.

Because of that experience, I just assumed that I was no good at coding and I did not have the head for it.

Fast forward 10 years and I’m somehow in the video game industry.

I’m the kind of person who wants to branch out within a company and understand more than just the scope of my job. Luckily, the studio I work for does most if not all things in house. Like writing. Art. Programming.

Despite my earlier feelings about coding, and despite my concern about failing at something so closely related to my job position, I decided that I would give programming another shot.

Now, there are several options for programming languages, and python isn’t one that is particularly useful or prevalent in the video game industry. However, I decided that there was some sort of poetic justice to me learning python, the thing that defeated me, for a job that I was already well settled in.

So I reached out to one of my coworkers, and I asked if they would be willing to teach me some basics. When they said yes, I was both excited and nervous. Here I was, making myself vulnerable by potentially unveiling my stupidity for all to see. Not ideal. I’m sure no harm would have come of it, but I pride myself in at least appearing capable across many fields.

The good news is that I still had a decent grasp on programming logic. I understood variables to a certain extent. I understood if statements to a certain extent. I felt as though from a purely theoretical standpoint, I could do it. Hell, I had learned how to do branching dialogue for Unity in Yarn, so how much harder could this be?

Luckily, the coworker who I got help from was not only very patient, but understood me and could anticipate where my mistakes would be. With their guidance, I learned to make gates, inventory, a monetary system, a shop, and other useful game things. And as a bonus, there was never a point where I returned to that confused university student crying over a half-drawn hat. But I also didn’t touch turtle.

Not going to lie, I was chuffed with all these tools I had in my toolbox, and I felt pretty sure that I could apply them to a very rudimentary game.

Which was good, because that’s exactly what my coworker challenged me to do. Using both the code I had learned from them and a little bit of google, I needed to make a short game.

Frog Delivery Service was born.

At first I just wanted it to be a small text-based game where you navigated an environment and brought other pond-creatures presents.

But then I started fleshing it out. Adding side quests, if you will.

I made a randomizer element for one area. I put in a barter element. I hid a secret ending. I made a fishing mini game. It all looped back to the basic idea of either helping your friends, or making them mad at you. I had it print little faces. The snail’s text appeared slowly. All in all, I was pleased with the way it came out. A thousand lines of code, (I’m sure a bunch of it was redundant, but still!) and I was done.

I had a few people test it. I made tweaks based on their feedback.

Then an idea struck me. What if I were to put it on my website?

Spoiler, I’m fighting for my LIFE trying to get the damned thing working.

WordPress uses PHP. It has options to insert custom html, JavaScript, or CSS. I’ve had to learn about pyscript. I’ve had to learn about running source code as a worker. I’ve had to learn how to add custom HTTP headers through wordpress extensions. Literal hours of my life have been whittled away moving code, downloading plugins, and discovering script and headers are usually premium features. I’ve tried every combination of code I can think of only to be met with a blank box when I preview.

Friends, readers, lurkers. I HATE IT when I am beaten by inanimate objects.

At the time of writing this, I don’t see myself being able to meet my goal of getting the game onto the website before the end of January. February isn’t looking good either. That doesn’t mean I’m giving up, though. I’ll update this post when I succeed, but for now, I have more instructional youtube videos to watch.

Hashtag perseverance? Or stubbornness?