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Samperson @samperson.bsky.social · 1d

Just fake localize your game.
This is the least interesting "no shit" tip I will ever give, but cool programmers know that "I could simply NOT do the hard part, and it would be good enough for now" is an intuition you have to be reminded of from time to time

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Samperson @samperson.bsky.social · 1d

take it from me, the Foolish programmer:
i woulda saved myself a lotta time by just taking 9 seconds to type

[Serializable]
struct LocString {
string locID, text;
public LocString(string _id, string _text) {
this.locID = _id;
this.text = _text;
}
public string Get() { return this.text; }
}

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Samperson @samperson.bsky.social · 1d

"find references/usages" of that class in your IDE will give you a map of everything that has to be converted - even if you're hardcoding/using it inline!!

you can even add that install-term-to-database behavior into the runtime string-retrieval code if you wanna be really funny, but ya know.

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Samperson @samperson.bsky.social · 1d

simply don't make the database part yet
you still get the benefits of not-having-a-database during prototyping, and you also don't screw yourself down the line by laying out a goddamn scavenger hunt

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Samperson @samperson.bsky.social · 1d

fun stupid trick for stupid programmers- if you don't wanna think about how you'll localize your game, just make a class/struct that just wraps a single string class + term ID

later, you can add a simple helper function that mass installs them into your future loc database

💀 SkeletAnn Lemay 💀 @annlemay.bsky.social · 2d

To every young or aspiring dev out there, look, some free advice. (Older devs, you know better. 💀)

For any game you are going to work on that has any GLIMMER of possible localization. Or editing. Or anything involving writing really...

DO NOT HARD-CODE THE VO/NON-VO/UI TEXT STRINGS.

💀 SkeletAnn Lemay 💀 @annlemay.bsky.social · 2d

"Hard coded text strings."

(My villain origin story.)

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Samperson @samperson.bsky.social · 2d

Exactly! If the code still depends on being able to find certain data in things, or operate on those things in certain ways... what's the benefit of not enforcing that?
I don't wanna knock on something I don't understand, it might just be a fundamental problem-solving approach thing?

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Samperson @samperson.bsky.social · 2d

i can usually Understand what a function does just by looking at its input and output. the in-between is implied

but i get no such benefits from like, Python or JS, where (in my experience) those patterns still exist, but are obfuscated by guesswork

i'm missing something

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Samperson @samperson.bsky.social · 2d

i Want to get it
i Want to like python

i think there's a Mindset issue on my part? when i'm trying to understand problems, the 2 questions i seek towards are
1. what is the data
2. how is it being Transformed

so static typing offers tons of clarity i miss with dynamic typing

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Samperson @samperson.bsky.social · 2d

i'm going to show my ass a bit here: i've never understood the point of dynamic typing in a programming language
it simply feels like a net negative every single time i try it
what resources would you use to help someone understand the allure

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Samperson @samperson.bsky.social · 2d

"there's new technological horrors" and yet i find room in my heart for wonder

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Samperson @samperson.bsky.social · 4d

My comms came from [email protected], I bet if you reach out to the other people who have this in their libraries, they'll have e-mails from that address in their inbox from 9-10 years ago

Samperson @samperson.bsky.social · 4d

It's not "people who have access to Steamworks", it's most likely "people who had a Vive before it came out."
That's how I have it, along with a bunch of other demos from the time!

2

Samperson @samperson.bsky.social · 4d

Yup, this was part of the HTC Vive pre-release thing where you'd activate a key and get a bunch of other developers' in-progress games who also had access to the hardware

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