I've attempted to quit social media several times, so this article really resonates with me but breaking away completely is difficult. Often, online searches steer me towards threads on Reddit, which makes it hard not to get pulled in. I believe it's train yourself to use these platforms intentionally, rather than just mindlessly scrolling.
Just revisited the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie, which has always held a special place in my heart. I've written a review to practice my writing, discussing its strengths and weaknesses, as well as its status as a cult classic. Any constructive feedback is welcomed!
Maybe it's just anecdotal but I remember having very vivid dreams almost every day when I used to leave my Nintendo 3DS in sleep mode (really bright pulsing blue LED) on the nightstand.
I've always wanted to try to replicate this effect by using an Arduino or something like that and playing with the various LED colors, brightness, etc.
I have fond memories of playing Doom RPG on my old Sony-Ericsson on the train ride home from college. The screen was so small that after a few minutes I started feeling like my eyes were on fire. Great game tho.
I'm not sure if it's really that popular but Visual Programming gives the ability for designers to quickly implement their ideas without having to ask and waiting for a programmer to implement them via code.
For example, in the case of Unreal Engine, gameplay programmers build the basic blocks via C++, and game designers can access them via Blueprint (Unreal Engine's visual programming tool).
I agree that large projects have different challenges than small ones.
Learning how to successfully manage and complete a large project is definitely something that needs hands-on experience and cannot be completely replaced by doing lots of small projects instead.
That said, the core process is the same and, especially for beginners, doing many small projects instead of one large one is important to become familiar with the gamedev process and get as much practice as possible in the shortest amount of time.
I usually do short projects (usually 4 months or less) so that I plenty of time to explore the subject while still short enough to avoid procrastinating.
Once I complete a project, I usually open-source it and write a blog post so I can have something to show it to somebody like a prospective employer. The most recent project I completed is a ray tracer made completely from scratch ->
I recently went through the process of creating a ray tracer project from zero for learning purposes. It was a humbling and eye-opening experience. I've written an article[0] to explain my process in detail if you're interested.