Primary Technology is a good place to work, the main reason being is that I have a lot of freedom to be creative. The ability to be creative means I get to work with a lot of different platforms and technologies. The next project I have been asked to do is a “web based really real time light-weight open source collaborative sticky note tool” AKA PrimaryWall. o_O
So let’s break that down… Web based, easy.. Really real time, not so easy when using conventions… light-weight, easy-ish.. open source, sort of easy.. collaborative, not so easy…
I could go ahead and make something with AJAX & Apache but it wouldn’t be as really real time as a lot of genuine really-real time so I’m going to be better off using NodeJS and Web Sockets. I did an example using Socket and Node a week or so ago that really got me thinking about how I can/could apply what I had learned to the projects I work on at Primary Technology.
The biggest problem I face is my lack of experience with Javascript. If I went straight into building PrimaryWall I would probably build it in a linear fashion and that would suck for an open source project because it wouldn’t feel appropriately structured.. Sure I “could” structure it all out based on what I know so far but I feel like I should do a test first and that test is to build a game using the same structure and hopefully at the same time build my knowledge of NodeJS, WebSocket + Javascript.
So I have 4 weeks to build a game then 4 weeks to build PrimaryWall (It is due at the end of March). The game will be called either “Tag” or “You’re it” and will be a simple multi-mouse game where moving the mouse is all that is required to play.
Any developers that read this think that I’m wasting my time and should just go for it?
I think this post is mostly me justifying spending the next month building a game that has been ultimately funded by the public sector.. I know this may seem a little strange but NodeJS is relatively new and so is Javascript and I really need to learn before I create as to create something that is worthwhile for other people to contribute towards….