
## Entities & Components

(In [chapter 2] of the tutorial now.)

I re-watched [a great keynote] about ECSs earlier today, to prep for chapter 2 today. (There's also
a [blog post] that covers the same content as the video and then some.) So hopefully this goes well.

Yep, the intro to this chapter is pretty similar to that video/blog post.

Okay, I'm going to go dive into some code.

My editor isn't set up really great for Rust, and I'm struggling to stay on task and not go into the
weeds configuring my setup.

I've finished Chapter 2. I'm happy to have finished it, but I'm struggling with impatience to
finish... Not good.

Okeedokee, I've taken some deep breaths. Zen mode. "Journey before destination." Onwards to chapter
3!

## Walking a Map

(Over in [chapter 3] now.)

Looks like I'll be generating a world in this chapter. Sweet.

This code is all very procedural. Lots of loops indices to keep track of. It's important to note
that I'm using this tutorial as a way to learn; the game it's building will not be the game I'd like
to make. Here's an example of the procedural code I'm talking about; the logic of what I want to
happen (make a bordered map with 400 randomly scattered walls) is obfuscated by the code that
manages the loops & variables and all the "magic numbers" that manage the limits of the viewport.

```rust
fn new_map() -> Vec<TileType> {
    let mut map = vec![TileType::Floor; 80 * 50];
    for x in 0..80 {
        map[xy_idx(x, 0)] = TileType::Wall;
        map[xy_idx(x, 49)] = TileType::Wall;
    }
    for y in 0..50 {
        map[xy_idx(0, y)] = TileType::Wall;
        map[xy_idx(79, y)] = TileType::Wall;
    }

    let mut rng = rltk::RandomNumberGenerator::new();

    for _i in 0..400 {
        let x = rng.roll_dice(1, 79);
        let y = rng.roll_dice(1, 49);
        let idx = xy_idx(x, y);
        if idx != xy_idx(40, 25) { // Don't cover the player
            map[idx] = TileType::Wall;
        }
    }

    map
}
```

Ok, so chapter 3 was also very simple. I made a simple map with a perimeter and scattered "wall"
blocks, and prevented the player character from walking through walls.

## A More Interesting Map

(And now in [chapter 4])

Let's see how much of this chapter I can get through. I only have about 20 more minutes...

Oh, we're going to clean the code up into separate file. Nice!

Okay, I've finished. I've gone about 17 minutes over my planned limit, but cleaning up/organizing
that code took longer than I expected.

## What Kind of Game do I Want Anyway?

I've finished going through the tutorial today, and I started thinking: What I have so far doesn't
feel very game-like to me. But then, I don't think "real" roguelikes appeal to me very much
(_gasp!_). I think [Dwarf Fortress] is amazing, but the learning curve is brutal. I've tried
[NetHack] as well, but I have a hard time getting into it.

I really like resource management games and exploratory games. I'm thinking it'd be cool to somehow
combine [Zelda: Breath of the Wild] with a simplified version of Dwarf Fortress. I don't really know
how to do that (yet!), but it sounds cool. :D

[chapter 2]: http://bfnightly.bracketproductions.com/rustbook/chapter_2.html
[a great keynote]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKLntZcp27M
[blog post]: https://kyren.github.io/2018/09/14/rustconf-talk.html
[chapter 3]: http://bfnightly.bracketproductions.com/rustbook/chapter_3.html
[chapter 4]: http://bfnightly.bracketproductions.com/rustbook/chapter_4.html
[dwarf fortress]: http://bay12games.com/dwarves/
[nethack]: https://www.nethack.org/common/index.html
[zelda: breath of the wild]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Breath_of_the_Wild


Roguelike Dev Day 2: Chapters 2-4

<h2 id="roguelike"><a href="#roguelike">Roguelike?</a></h2>
<p>What's a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike">roguelike</a>? A game like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_(video_game)">Rogue</a>: typically featuring procedurally generated dungeons, an
ascii interface, permadeath, and lots of exploration. There's been <a href="https://hardcoregamer.com/features/articles/what-separates-a-roguelike-from-a-roguelite/47151/">some discussion</a> over what
constitutes a roguelike (vs. a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike#Rogue-lites_and_procedural_death_labyrinths">roguelite</a>), but that's not important to me right now. Before I can
decide what features I want in my game I need to figure out how to <em>build</em> a game.</p>
<p>My first step, then, is to find a tutorial to follow.</p>
<h2 id="tutorials"><a href="#tutorials">Tutorials...</a></h2>
<p>In search of a tutorial, I visited <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev">r/roguelikedev</a>, a subreddit dedicated to people making
roguelikes. They have a list of tutorials in various languages.</p>
<p>I considered following the <a href="https://klepinger.dev/rotjs-tutorial">Typescript tutorial</a>, because I work with Typescript almost every day at
my job, but I work with Typescript almost every day at my job. Instead, I'm going to follow a Rust
tutorial: I like the language and want to become more familiar with it. I found three Rust
tutorials:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://tomassedovic.github.io/roguelike-tutorial/">Using the <code>libtcod</code> library</a></li>
<li><a href="https://bfnightly.bracketproductions.com/rustbook/">Using the <code>RLTK</code> library</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gridbugs.org/roguelike-tutorial-2020/">Using the <code>chargrid</code> library</a></li>
</ul>
<p>I'm going to go with the <code>RLTK</code> tutorial: it seems more fleshed-out and uses an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity_component_system">ECS</a>.</p>
<h2 id="getting-started"><a href="#getting-started">Getting Started</a></h2>
<p>I'm going to start the tutorial now...</p>
<p>...Gotta update Rust, <code>rustup update</code>... Maybe do this <em>before</em> starting the blog post next time...</p>
<p>...I'm skipping the <a href="http://bfnightly.bracketproductions.com/rustbook/webbuild.html">WASM</a> stuff for now. Sounds nice, but I don't even have a repo for my code yet!</p>
<p>...Sweet, I got it to display "Hello Rust World" in a floating window.</p>
<p>I've finished the <a href="http://bfnightly.bracketproductions.com/rustbook/chapter_1.html">first chapter</a>. Not much going on yet.</p>

Start a Roguelike Dev Tutorial

Roguelike?

Tutorials...

Getting Started