I haven't been on this path very long. I've only been more seriously on a development path in the last 6 months. During that time and the time before, I've learned a lot about myself and processes that work for me. 

That is an important word, process. It's hard for many to understand that process is important  most people think it's the tools you have at your disposal. Most people may not even realize that they are so focused on the tool that they forget the process.

For instance, in my new role in QA at my new company, I am a creature of process. I have bugs and features that must be tested. Usually 9/10 times I am planning my test out in detail before I get going.

What's the problem? What details do I need to know? What are my different cases? How can I intentionally break this thing? Those questions all buzz through my head before I even test the system.

Now, let's dovetail this back into game dev. While working on my break out game, I needed to not just figure out if I have my ball and paddle colliding, but where are these things colliding? My ball was reacting properly to hitting the paddle, but it was not always changing the proper direction. 

I pulled pencil and paper. And I drew out the problem. From there, I was easily able to see how I can detect where the ball is colliding with the sides of the paddle and not the top.

Once I saw it, I wrote out the logic I needed on paper  after that, I translated the pseudo code into C#. Code ran, and I was able to update my classes easily to accommodate this change.

The moral of these stories, do not underestimate the most important tool that you have, your brain! Figure out your process. Work within it. A little planning can save your ass in the long haul.

Thanks for tuning in!

Boris