The creator of Minecraft, known as “Notch”, is taking part in Ludum Dare, which is a game competition in which participants have forty-eight hours to create a game from scratch. Notch is streaming his screen for the entire duration of the competition, and I find this absolutely fascinating.
Take a look at the stream (13,000 viewers right now) and you will see Eclipse, Java and… well, how to write a game. I checked an hour ago and since then, he’s added walls to what is beginning to look like a maze.
I don’t know what’s the most riveting: hearing him brainstorm with himself (probably for the benefit of his 12,000 viewers, but maybe that’s what just how he codes) or having his game run continually in the background and update itself as he makes the changes. I use Eclipse’s hot replace all the time, but seeing it apply to write a game is… mesmerizing.
Update 1: Notch stopped the stream because it was too expensive, he’s looking for alternatives
Update 2: New stream here.
Update 3: Here is the final game, a maze crawl with six bosses and permadeath.
#1 by John Watson on August 20, 2011 - 11:53 am
It’s kind of painful to watch. I want to teach him to use IDEA and save himself thousands of mouse clicks and extra typing. Think of how much he could build if he either learned to use eclipse efficiently, or used IDEA efficiently.
#2 by Josh Berry on August 20, 2011 - 5:11 pm
That is assuming that spending time learning Eclipse would be wiser than spending time building his understanding of games. Or, if you’d prefer, that learning to use Eclipse more efficiently would actually make someone more efficient at building games with Eclipse.
Simply put, he seems to have become quite efficient with his own internal reasoning and exploring ideas that he wants to create. So much so, that even as painful as it may be to watch him use this tool to create something, he is still able to create a better product than many can lay claim to. Regardless of their proficiency with their IDE.
(I should note I say this as someone who has come to fear that I spend too much time learning the ins and outs of my tools, and not enough time understanding the ins and outs of the problems I am trying to solve.)
#3 by John Watson on August 21, 2011 - 7:09 pm
A fair comment, but I just have to think that the relatively small and shallow learning curve of the IDE would pay great dividends in the long run. YMMV, of course!
#4 by Tetsuo on August 22, 2011 - 1:10 am
@John say that after you use all your IDE efficiency to code a first-person 3D shooter from scratch in 48 hours! 😛
From my point of view, he is doing just fine
#5 by Sam Pullara on August 22, 2011 - 6:11 pm
It always saddens me to see good programmers wasting their time. I’ve never met one that doesn’t think faster than they can type.
#6 by Andrew Binstock on August 22, 2011 - 11:21 pm
Agree with @john. Lack of knowledge of the ins and outs of IDEs/editors is a small but constant efficiency drain. It’s like watching people hunt-and-peck at a keyboard.
#7 by Josh Berry on August 23, 2011 - 1:25 am
To reiterate, I actually have the same mindset as John. I am constantly reminding people what the different shortcuts in any IDE are. Hell, I’m constantly teaching shortcuts in vim to people. That said, with all of my knowledge of the different shortcuts, I have never been able to take a game to completion, much less in 48 hours. This says to me that there is something else to this equation that I have missed.
To take the analogy to music. You are arguing that technique of an instrument is more important than knowledge of musical theory. That somehow knowing how to do hammer ons and pull offs could make people better guitar players. This is a trap I fell in when learning guitar.
#8 by John Watson on August 23, 2011 - 7:25 pm
@josh Of course I would never argue that knowing the IDE is *everything*. You have to know how to write software for your domain, as well. Knowing your IDE thoroughly, however, makes you significantly more efficient.
@tesuo No, I can’t program a game in 48 hours. I’m not a game programmer. However, I do write software for a living, and I know that IDE efficiency translates directly into productivity.
#9 by Josh Berry on August 24, 2011 - 1:34 am
My point is that seeing people like this makes me question the level of importance “knowing your IDE throroughly” matters. It is a point cited by Cedric often, that no matter how good you are with a text editor you will be better with an IDE. Since some of the most prolific coders I have ever witnessed were not using an IDE, I do have to question this.
Not trying to claim they are worthless. Just suspecting there is something more to it.
The rise of Ruby/Rails and similar tools also leads me to question this, as I recall it rose to popularity without a significant IDE to my knowledge. Same for Scala, Clojure, Haskel, etc. Seems that folks are able to write quite amazing things in all of these languages without major IDE support. Is it just the level of skill per coder, or is there something else? If it is skill, is there reason to believe this skill isn’t something that could be built up with study?
#10 by Cedric on August 24, 2011 - 5:35 am
My point still stands: if they are very prolific without an IDE, they would probably more prolific with one. Why they choose not to use one can come from several reasons, but most of the time, it’s a pride thing (“I do things the old school way”).
I have yet to see someone who is not using an IDE, then gave one an honest try (a couple of weeks at least) and then decided not to use it.
#11 by Josh Berry on August 24, 2011 - 11:56 am
You’ve weakened it, though. And it is missing my main argument.
Would someone be more proficient using the IDE if they were to learn the IDE? Probably. My question is if they would they be better served by learning more about the craft they are working in? That is, in this case he knows game building really well. Far better than I do. Because of that, he is able to get a game crafted rather quickly, with seemingly poor IDE skills. My assertion is this is because he built up the understandings for game development with less concern on the IDE skills.
For the folks using these other languages I was mentioning. Many of them have built up a toolbox of inner abstractions and methods for approaching problems at the expense of learning to use the latest IDE. I can’t say this has hurt their ability, in many cases.
Simply put, minute for minute, which provides more “bang for buck”: learning the IDE or learning the abstractions of your domain?
#12 by Cedric on August 24, 2011 - 12:15 pm
Oh ok, I think I see your point: an IDE makes you more productive (write code faster), but does it make you better? I’m pretty sure that the answer is yes and I have some supporting evidence, but I’ll probably save this for a future blog post.
#13 by Josh Berry on August 24, 2011 - 2:36 pm
I look forward to the post! 🙂
#14 by Mère Teresa on August 31, 2011 - 10:57 pm
I translated in French your post : http://gamedevparty.posterous.com/watch-the-creator-of-minecraft-write-a-game-f
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