July 2024
I recently attended a workshop where we were pointed at p5.js, shown a few examples, and then just given time to play with it. The simple API for drawing shapes immediately reminded me of Elm Collage which I had used years ago to make a little game titled Hungry Snowman. With only 45 minutes left in the workshop, I quickly decided to try and remake Doodle Jump, one of my favorite old iPhone games. By the end of the workshop I had a circle bouncing up and down on my screen with rectangles falling past it and I was HOOKED.
The process of making a small Javascript game was a perfect project to pair with ChatGPT and some fun sketches created by my illustrator friend. Leveraging AI made it possible to generate much of the boring code and quickly get past any hiccups due to my inexperience with the p5.js library, freeing me to focus on the creative and fun decisions. I was even able to generate a custom typeface for the title page using GenType and a little soundtrack for the game using Strofe.
Hope you have as much fun playing it as I had making it 🤘
