Upgraded website
Got back to web development a while ago and started by updating the dependencies and development tools for my website.
I'm using Preact-cli and as they have reached release candidate status on their new version I decided to give it a try. The new version comes with builtin support, or better support, for most of the things I had added with my Preactubats template. It's always nice to be able to remove your own configs and dependencies!
I also went ahead and updated Preact to the upcoming Preact X release. This also allowed me to remove/switch some of my own dependencies to new features that now comes builtin.
It took a while to fix and update the code for all the small changes that broke the website, but all in all it did go smoother than what I first thought it would. New site is live, it looks the same, works the same, but I promise it is all new...
If you work with React, do make sure to look into Preact!
Cool website. I like how you've set up your portfolio on there. I've seen some of your work before but I don't think I've seen your website before.
I noticed on your website when talking about one of your games you mention GoDot and that you preferred it to Unity. I've seen that one before too but haven't actually tried it out. What's it like? What did you prefer about it compared to Unity?
I've never used React or Preact. I do have a portfolio on my website but its more just a bootstrap elastic grid with modules. Some of the projects on the Preact website are pretty interesting though. Will have to have a better look at some of them I think.
Godot is tiny! It is only 25MB to download, but is quite similar to Unity. Has a great builtin editor and a Python like language that is very easy to use.
I actually changed one more time after writing that, I ended up putting together a package for developing using Phaser, Preact and Tiled instead.
Cool. I've been teaching myself Python programming my Anki Vector robot (and will be doing so for Cozmo in the future) so a python like language sounds interesting. I thought I read about drawbacks of Python for game development but I'm not sure. I think it related to how far removed from machine language it is compared to more complex / harder languages and that has some effect but I'm not sure. It might only matter for certain types of games anyway. If the game engine itself isn't made with the Python like language, maybe those drawbacks don't apply for the code used to make a game within it using the editor though as if the game engine is doing the heavy lifting, maybe it doesn't matter. I know more about programming in general than how game engines interact with user code etc so I'm not sure about all that.
I have a feeling I looked at Tiled myself during one of the game jams on Steem. I just looked at Phaser and that looks interesting too. I hope it all worked well for you.