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Comment by Spock | Hacker News Reader

Well I sort of get 'writers block'. For example I set out learning PHP a few months ago and created a meme site which would store image locations in MySQL, pull them out in ascending order and have arrow buttons to flick between the images. A random button for an image at random, an upload script, a login script, and a crappy admin area. Doing all tha took me weeks of trail and error and a lot of copying other people's code then all of a sudden I hit a brick wall and couldn't progress. For a month or two I get a rush of enthusiasm and motivation, I start off great and start thinking logically in my everyday life and I start thinking about how something is coded; I even start thinking algorithms for everyday life. But then I just stop dead and can't progress; anything better than command line input/output apps just eludes me!

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What were you working on when you hit the brick wall?

Was there a specific problem or just a feeling that you should be able to do more but didn't know what to do?

Probably the latter. A friend of mine was sort of encouraging me with ideas and he bugged me to add a comments box to each image so people could add and read comments. I failed at that after days of attempting it. I also wanted titles above the images but couldn't integrate it into my admin script because how the script was setup was to iterate through the "uploaded" table of the database and display the results. Basically once things got a bit more complicated than just merely echoing images to the screen, I crashed and burned. This is the case with pretty much any language I use. I've made Space Invader clones with Python (using tutorials, understanding what was going on) but when it came to keeping scores, title screens and stuff, again I'd crash and burn. And today for instance, I've been reading up on C# and I've attempted to create Pong but I can't even get sprites to draw lol.

I've been programming for years, and I probably couldn't make Pong in C#. Game programming is a very different beast. If you want to do games, I would look for a specific framework (maybe PyGame) and tutorial.

If you just want to learn to program, I would stay away from games for now.

Either way, it sounds like you just need someone who can give you hints when you get stuck. If you go the gaming route, any of the major frameworks should have a message board and people willing to help. Ask for their help. Be specific in where you're getting stuck, and most people will be plenty helpful.

If you ever want some to look over some non-game code (like I said, I don't do games), feel free to send me an email. My email address is in my HN profile.

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