Introduction
Hello, my name is Gabriel Fuente. I was born in Mexico City in September 2005, and I am currently developing SnakeSpace. I am really passionate about developing solutions using algorithms and making my own web applications. I have recently become interested in videogames and how they are built; this is possibly why I started this project, SnakeSpace.
Although game development is my primary focus, I am also interested in other fields like graphics and rendering, procedural generation, and natural algorithms. I recently launched an Instagram account where I publish natural images of trees and plants generated using fractal and recursive algorithms. You can visit my virtual garden, or look at some of my best renders bellow.
Reasons behind SnakeSpace
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Challenging myself
Before I started this project, I challenged myself to recreate the well known game "Snake" using javascript. The game was really simple, only the basic gameplay of a game many years old. However, I wondered how would that game looked, if multiple people could play it together; That was the perfect opportunity to Challenge myself again, doing a snake game with new mechanics, and multiplayer.
I can really say it wasn't easy to make this project, there are many things a good game must have, including aesthetics, good collision detection, and being optimized; too much for one human (really, my pc was overheating and so my head too!). I had to learn new topics like how an ECS architecture works, but I guess that's what I looked for, learning.
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Learning
My family sometimes asks me, why on earth would you self-punish yourself by building a game from scratch (not the cat one) if there are tonnes of libraries and frameworks already built for you to use? My answer is always learning. Are you really going to learn if you had a tool that did the deed for you? Would programming be as exciting? What would you do if you didn't have those tools on your hands?
I work under the philosophy "take the steep path, to gather potential quicker, the rest will be downhill". The day I use a game engine, everything will be It would be exponentially easier as I would have already studied topics like collision detection, 2D rendering, optimization techniques, and topics related to communication with servers.
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Starting my Career
As a high school student, my aim is to start my professional career before entering university, or at least gather as much experience and knowledge in fields related to software engineering as possible. The path I will end up following is a mystery. Now is the time to explore the branches of the vast tree of software.
Game development in a web environment is where I am standing. With SnakeSpace, I am not just looking to develop a game, I am looking to develop my skills and knowledge as a person and programmer. Soft skills like organization, time management, and problem solving are not something we are born with,but something we can acquire and boost with practice.