Learning to Game Dev #2

Learning a new skill in your 30s is daunting but HOLY HELL do other people make it worse sometimes. As indicated by the title of this blog post I’ve been learning to code (specifically Ren’Py) because I want to make a visual novel game.

If you read my last post on learning game development I mentioned I am participating in my first game jam. It’s for creating a micro-visual novel game and you can only use one of any type of asset. And not only am I submitting one on my behalf but another for a friend.

This friend previously has gone to school for game development and when I was telling him to, “look at Ren’Py G - U - I on itchio” he quickly said, “Stop saying G-U-I it’s gooey!”

I, of course, BURST into laughter because surely that could not be true! So I took to the internet asking “DOES ANYBODY SAY “GOOEY” FOR GUI?” AND oh boy did the internet come out of the wood work.

Since I started writing this post about an hour ago (in-between) other things the Tweet now has over 740 comments, over 2k likes, over 140k impressions and climbing.

At first, it was funny to watch everyone’s reactions… and to learn some other words but there have been a handful of people who have now jumped to saying kinda mean things (not too bad considering it is Twitter). Truly, most people are being silly or kind… honestly, expected to wake up to much worse with the Tweet out overnight.

The worst comment came from YouTube that implied I should get back to taking care of my kids (I don’t have any) instead of trying to Duolingo a culture…. that one made me laugh (then I reported it).

Not a single person seems to come to the conversation from a place that might indicate they understand that learning is not universal and that much language is learned through your environment.

This very much reminds me when I first started working at Twitch and I had to ask several times a day what various initialisms meant because I had never been exposed to FWIW, TIL, NWR, COB etc.

Learning happens through all kinds of avenues and at all stages of life — this is a fact we all know and yet we still collectively shame or embarrass people who are learning.

Anyways, I now know that programmers call it “gooey” and I’ll just stick to GUI or UI because that just feels weird to me. And sounds 1000% weird in this clip from an old show.

The best responses were —

June 20, 2024 Update