15-112 Simulator

Multiple time have I thought to write about this, though I never felt I can talk much about this project, despite being the author.

The idea of 15-112 Simulator came directly from my TP mentor, most of the feature in game are credited to TAs/professors that I talked to, the project itself was below average on both complexity and effective lines of code, not to mention the code structure, I only realized I can create a reuseable button class after I finsihed the project lol.

Regardless, that four weeks of TP did teach me things outside of computer science and coding, and these are what I wish to draw down here.

Ask For Help

Back in highschool I was pretty reluctant to reach out in most situations, felt like I can handle everything on my own. During TP it was eh, a completely different story. There were times where it took me hours to figure a feature out, only to realize later that it broke other parts of my project :’).

It was, quite a stressful time, but even then I didn’t really think about asking for help, as I thought my code has became so complex that only a few could comprehend. And as expected, every TA that I met during office hour were quite confused on what I wrote, but it wasn’t a waste of time, to my surprise.

Some TAs left advices on coding best practices (which I only started following after the term project), some gave me alternatives features that’s more doable, and there was one TA, who sat with me for over an hour, half naked on Zoom, just to figure out how I can run my game without crashing the canvas three seconds later. Nathan, if you ever happens to read this, thank you.

Being completely honest, even after going through office hours, most of the bug I encountered ended up still not getting resovled, and oftentimes I had to figure ways around them. I rarely got what I asked for when I reachout for help, but the passion shown by these TAs, along with a sense of responsibility they posses, was something that left impressions on me in coming semesters.

Listen and Understand

One sad things about making a game on a course is that, you only have a limited view on what it is like; and if you want to get a more objective view of it, you have to ask for other’s input.

And this was probably the single thing that I appreciate the most, being forced to ask for opnions and feedbacks, consantly. I learned to pick up words that my counterpart is using, rephrase what they are trying to convey, and ask for clearfications whenever I don’t understand.

Besides gaining experience on reaching out, was surprised how many idas I got just by talking with others. Almost every feature in the game were taken inspiration from one of the professor/TA/student who are involved in the course at the time. Compare to doing things solely by myself, things does get a lot eaiser when you have other people by your side helping you out.

This was also the time where I realized that, yeah everyone in CMU is smarter than me, as much as I don’t want to admit :’).

Reflecting on College

Back in highschool I was pretty excited about college, thought it would be a time to learn something new, and a place to change myself a little. TP season happens to be the time where a global pandemic hits, so I ended up moving back to California to live with my family.

Sitting in my old bedroom, realized that, after a semester of college, I am still very much the same person lol. And knowing that nothing really changed despite my best effort, I sort of lost motivation for most things that semester, this project included, as I wasn’t so sure about what I want to do in coming semesters.

It was a bit hard to get myself to write code during that week of TP, remember laying on bed, wishing everything to be over soon, only to wake up the next morning, found out nothing has really changed, and there are now more works left for me to do.

Not the best time I had in college, but this was also the time where I get to think back on my college experience, adjust my expectaions, and reflect them directly on my project in the end. Going back to reaching out and listening to others, turns out I wasn’t the only person who felt that way in a global pandemic, and surprisingly, not the only one who struggled to complete things. Thanks to everyone that I met during that period of time, was able to collect myself together, and finished this project at the last possible minute.

Ending Thoughts

I got more out of this project than I have contributed to it, and felt quite grateful on what I’ve experienced, along with everything I’ve learned. I am still passive, uncurious, blunt, and still have a hard time understanding people around me, but realizing that there are more than one way I can resolve this, and I don’t have to do this along, this was probably the best lesson I got in 2020 :D.