I am become delete, the destroyer of code.

Sorry again for a lack of flashy gifs this time. I intend this log nontechnical and visually demonstrative. Since my recent updates aren't anything I can show, this a wordy exception.

I have successfully replaced my laptop screen (with a nice new glossy one) and am back to looking at a beautiful Visual Studio window. As I have been researching code for specific problems I have come to realize how I can improve a lot of what I have in place. I have reached the critical point where the effort to destroy and start again is less than to fix what I currently have. So right now I have filed away the project I was working on up to this point and started fresh. Don't think this died, what I'm rebuilding will look very much the same.

I suppose I'm doing things more the "right" way now. For the first time I have done a lot of planning on paper before typing any code out. I am laying out all my header files as a skeleton before I define what anything does. I spend a lot of time learning how to use templates correctly to find templates aren't a good solution for me. I'm becoming a little more familiar with using pointers without making a mess.

My goal is to get back to the point I was previously with much better code, then to implement the ability to load and unload several Tiled map files on the fly for a seamless 2d world. I also want to work to put my initial 2.5d perspective trick back into the game. At that point I think I can save this as an extendible template for different possible projects going forward. Once it's a little more complete I may throw up a Github for it.

I've decided against using Box2d as previously planned. The more I learn I realize physics engines really aren't that great for platformers. Sure, tech demos can fill your head with cool ideas for bosses or puzzles but more realistic physics engine like movement for your character will just feel sluggish and odd or wild and uncontrollable. We're used to how Mario and Megaman feel. Maybe there's a way to hybrid the two, using physics for only what you want to show off, but that's a out of my scope for sure.

So coming up later: The same things you've seen before! (The stuff you can't see is better this time. I PROMISE!)