This is very true, i made my TB RPG source readable, I hadn't worked on it in about 9 months, but I was able to jump back on it and start modding away.

However it is not as easy to jump from one code project as it is to jump from one art project to another. HOwever if I mess up on code, it's very easy to fix, my ink never drys!

This is possible, yeah. But if there're a lot of game dynamics with facts and figures you musst know off the head to work fast this becomes a little more complicated - and that's not about code, it's just about the complexity of a mathematical or logical problem.

It's one thing to draw the head for a model a year later than the body (except your style changed drastically) and another to know, how a whole game works and how the two lines long equation works.

That really depends on the view. As I said, I have to understand very old code projects from my older customers. That is the business and I cannot whine because of that. I see no problem in it.

When you want to work on an old model you also have to understand your mesh flow and the UV-map. When you change a uv-map then you might move a few hundreds or even thousands vertices. When you draw a texture with 50 layers of shadows, specularities and folds then even this is not easy to jump in later on.

I would not say one job is more work than another job. That sounds arrogant. I used to do that as a small boy as I thought that my sport (swimming) would be the one and only sport. But I know it better now. Every type of sport has advantages and disadvantages. The same counts for jobs and tasks.

As a beginner coder this is true, i had to restart a few projects because I dind't understand them and my style had changed so much, but after you progress you learn how to do it right the first time, to comment the lines and to have a huge comment at the start of a function which tells what this function does. Soon it becomes like reading a book.

As you go further you also learn how to use "paramters" and "retruns" which helps lessen the amount of global vars you need which also makes it much easier to understand the code.

For more proof of this coders often use "templates" in which they can connect their own library togetehr and make quick games very easily with this.

I agree that programming isn't a tougher task than modelling or composing music but to me it looks like modellers have a lot time to create a model just for fun. I don't have time to program a game just for fun because there's always work for me to do. Maybe that is because indie games need a good prototype first before models are created...

anyway I was a bit selfish... I don't have time for a contest (but I'm pretty sure you can encode an ip with 6 characters)

its not the case but unlike coders a modeler can show off his work faster and easier plus it gets more and faster feedback.
also not any coder wants to show all of his stuff to everyone...maybe one reason we still dont have the windows source code. you can hardly copy and reuse a screenshot of something but code on the other hand...

also the most impressive and best code doesnt have to have the "wow" effect once shown. weather calculations are impressive but i havent seen anybody post something like "damn, thos pressure field calculations rock!"...."this is the damn best temperature forcast i have seen in my whole life!"

and most important: you simply dont have much time left to show your work when you are ploting world domination from your parents garage

personaly i admire anyone who is capable of making code files be more then just words written after another.
also the ammount of sardism someone has to have to survive weeks and weeks of bug hunting. beside lots of coffee this also requires a talent and lots of stamina.


while for obvious reasons i wouldnt participate on a coding contest (dont know if i could win with a hello world ) i think its an great idea and i would keep my eyes on it.

cheers and good luck

well, it's been a while, but why not having another task for us all?

write a c-script function that rotate's an entity by a given speed in the given directory. the entity must start rotating smoothly and must stop rotating smoothly when the function is called again for this entity. you may only use one skill. the function definition has to look as follows:

function anim_ent_rotate(&v);

good luck.

oooh, i like this one, i think i might enter because my game uses this, i integrated it into my movement, rotation wouldn't be a change, so what's the prize?

btw, I could push down the IP for 4 letters

Or, did I miss the mainpoint?

EDIT: no wait, I can't my quick brain gives out 6-8 letters :|