For my twenty percent project I want to make something that I can be proud of and that doesn't feel like just another thing I have to do for a grade. My favorite idea of those I have come up with is to do something programming related. I like this idea because programming is a skill that I think I have let lapse, and which I would enjoy developing further, especially in the context of an interesting or useful project. Right now my tentative goal for this project is some kind of space simulator, realistic or not, possibly with a game component. I like the goal of a space simulator because it’s not as overdone as other genres of software, and because it allows for a lot of creativity and interpretation on the development side of things. The obvious barrier to this goal is that my experience in programming is fairly limited, and I haven’t worked at all in the areas of graphics programming that this project would require. I want the universe in my game to be randomly generated, rather than put together by a person, which could require quite a bit of additional programming savvy if I want it be on the same level as a human-made model. I’m not yet sure how close I can get to my current vision by the end of the semester, but I’m very sure that I can learn a lot about computer programming in that time, and that whatever happens this project will be a useful opportunity to build up a useful skill set that has been stagnant for too long.
