News
The MacOS set up tutorial is finally up. I swear Apple changes their SDK every month.
I really wanted to do the Linux set up tutorials, but SDL3_mixer is still not on the APT package manager and considering Ubuntu is the most widely used Linux distro, that's pretty big gap in support. I could make a tutorial that shows you how to build from source, but I really, really don't want to. I spend enough time in dependency purgatory at work. I don't need it when I get home.
Either way, I do plan on having some sort of update out next month whether it'd be me biting the bullet on the Linux tutorial or an article update. For now I have family stuff I need to take care of.
Small update today. Just made some typo fixes.
In terms of good news, I started my new job this week. It's not a game industry job but if you were in the game industry for the past few years you seen the bloodbath that is LinkedIn statuses and how people are grateful to even have any sort of job. I will be updating the getting into the game industry article because the industry has turned upside down since 2022. Thanks to everyone who donated. I wasn't proud of having to e-beg but I wasn't going to pretend like it was beneath me because managing to get any sort of job now makes me one of the lucky ones.
In less good news my dad recently passed away. I got a job offer shortly after he passed so the two weeks vacation I was hoping to have ended up being spent on planning and hosting funeral services. Considering I was working more hours when I was unemployed training and looking for a job and just the general stress of having to bury a loved one, I am thoroughly burnt out. I will be taking the next month or so off from site updates, but I plan to have something up by the next site anniversary on August 10th.
I wrote a little something about dealing with the death of a loved one in case somebody finds it useful. Statistically speaking, we are going to start seeing a huge wave of baby boomers dying and you will want to prepare yourself.
Just a minor update: I did some typo fixes and I am working on the remaining set up tutorials.
Hit a bit of snag for Linux. Currently SDL3_mixer is not supported on Advanced Package Tool. I am going to hold out on the Linux set up tutorial until that's ready. I will get to work on the MacOS set up tutorials in the mean time.
What's been good on my end is that interviews are starting to pick up. I am not out of the woods yet because I have heard from more than one colleague about getting to the final round and then getting a rejection email. Thanks to everyone who donated so far.
Unfortunately this also means I have to spend more time practicing for interviews (interviewing is a skill that you need to practice), which leaves less tutorial dev time. I will keep making updates in the pockets of free time I have.
Being unemployed is a lot of work, people.
Time to set up SDL3/SDL3_image: about 5-10 minutes.
Time to create tutorial to setup SDL3/SDL3_image: 5 hours 😵
So I have officially soft launched the SDL3 tutorial with the SDL3 Windows set up tutorial. I would say this is the first time I have ever properly done a set up tutorial now that I have experience with build engineering. Now that SDL3_mixer is out, I have no excuse to not work on the tutorials.
Except for this whole not being employed thing. Having to find positions to apply to, fill out applications, build out my portfolio, finding networking opportunities, and practicing for interviews has me busier than when I was working full time. I was hoping to just bang out the remaining set up tutorials in a week but this was under the assumption that it would only take 2 hours per tutorial and that has proven to be quite the underestimate. I am going to try for a set up tutorial a week but we'll see how it turns out.
Wish me luck because it looks like the 25% unemployment rate (which is about the peak unemployment rate of the great depression) for the gaming industry may be a lower bound estimate and the real number may be in the neighboorhood of 33%.
I'm sure many of you saw that SDL3_mixer is finally out. I did want to have something out last weekend but:
1) I had an (unpaid) project deadline.
2) I got sick.
My plan is to have something out this weekend. I mostly just have to create some tests for Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android/iOS to confirm the tutorial code works on the supported platforms before I create the set up tutorials.
Once I post the set up tutorials, I am going to put a pause on the tutorial updates until I find a job. In case you haven't heard, things are bad in tech and especially bad in the games industry. How bad? The gaming industry has over a 25% unemployment rate, which is roughly the unemployment rate of the great depression. Once I'm working again, I can continue work on the tutorials.
I'm sure many of you saw that SDL3_mixer is finally out. I did want to have something out last weekend but:
1) I had an (unpaid) project deadline.
2) I got sick.
My plan is to have something out this weekend. I mostly just have to create some tests for Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android/iOS to confirm the tutorial code works on the supported platforms before I create the set up tutorials.
Once I post the set up tutorials, I am going to put a pause on the tutorial updates until I find a job. In case you haven't heard, things are bad in tech and especially bad in the games industry. How bad? The gaming industry has over a 25% unemployment rate, which is roughly the unemployment rate of the great depression. Once I'm working again, I can continue work on the tutorials.
The good news is that I finished up the research project I wanted to finish today. The bad news is that I got no tutorial work done, and it's past 1am here and I still have other work to get done.
Guys, I am throughly burnt out. With my research project done, I can focus on getting the SDL3 tutorials out but I need to take it easy for a bit. I do think something will be out this week.
To make up for being late (again), I have some articles that I will be posting.
Ok I did a small update. I added a link to the SDLv1 tutorials at tutorials/SDL1/index.php. I also added an alias for the SDL2 tutorials at tutorials/SDL2/index.php. Hmm, I think there's a pattern going on with these links 😉.
In not so fun news, I am not working at the moment. Getting laid off around this time is the worst because hiring slows down before the holidays and doesn't really pick up until March. Before the 2022 tech bubble burst someone with over 5 years of experience who interviews well could expect a job in 3-6 months but these days there are people who I know are good game programmers with well over 15 years of experience having to do Door Dash to make ends meet. Fortunately I did a pivot to more DevOps/SRE oriented work a few years back and it seems to be helping blunt the effects tech crash. I am getting interviews but no job offers quite yet. Considering I have met people who have tracked their applications and are getting less than a 1% interview to application ratio I consider myself blessed that I am at least getting a handful of interviews.
In the mean time if you have some cash to spare, any donations would be appreciated. I am not in immediate financial danger, but I have seen people lose their houses and I am bracing for the worst.
Alright it looks like the SDL3_mixer API has been finalized. Sam was gracious enough to provide an update to the SDL3 tutorial port. You can check it out at the bottom of the sound effects and music SDL2 tutorial.
This also means I can start running tests against SDL3_mixer to prepare the SDL3 tutorials for official release. At least I will be once I stop working 12+ hour days because my company has a make or break deadline at the end of the month.
So wish me luck and here's to the SDL3 tutorials coming sooner rather than later.
If you guys see any page updates, it's due to fixing some formatting errors.
SDL3 has been out for a short while and I would like to officially release some tutorials, but SDL_mixer still has not seen an SDL3 compatible release yet. Since SDL3 has had an audio API overhaul, SDL3_mixer release is looking to take a while.
This combined with the fact that work is really turning the screws on me has been why the SDL3 tutorials have not been officially released. I am keeping an eye on the situation and if enough time passes I may do some sort of prelimiary release.
If you guys haven't heard, SDL3 is officially out. Sam was kind enough to get us another update of the SDL3 ports of the SDL2 tutorials. Check them out at the bottom of each tutorial page.
In terms of what's left before the first batch of SDL3 tutorials is officially posted:
- SDL3_image/SDL3_ttf/SDL3_mixer need to be released. The tutorials are dependent on these libraries and I want to make sure there's a stable official release before posting the tutorials.
- After the official release is out, I need to build/verify some unit tests for the main supported platforms (Windows/MacOS/Linux/iOS/Android).
- After the tutorial code base is confirmed to be working with the official stable releases, the set up tutorials for the desktop environments will be created (Windows/MacOS/Linux).
- Then the tutorials do need some clean up because they were a bit rushed.
- Finally, the first batch of tutorials will be officially posted.