How to: July 5, 2024
1. freeCodeCamp just published a game development course that will walk you through coding your own Metroidvania style game. The term “Metroidvania” comes from a genre of platformer adventure games where your character explores a large interconnected game world. Some of my favorite Metroidvania games include Hollow Knight and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. This beginner-level JavaScript course will show you how to implement enemy AI, room-linking logic, boss battles, and more. (5 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/javascript-gamedev-with-kaboomjs/

2. Learn the fundamentals of the Go programming language (Golang) by coding your own payment platform. Georgio Tunson is a software engineer who uses Golang extensively, and he teaches this beginner-friendly course. You'll learn about Golang's basic syntax, data structures, concurrency model, and more. (5 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/go-for-absolute-beginners/

3. On this week's freeCodeCamp podcast, I interview Alison Yoon. She started her career in Korea's fashion industry before transitioning into web design. From there, she used freeCodeCamp to further expand her skills. She now works as a front end developer at a tech company in London. We talk about her coding journey, and her leadership of the freeCodeCamp Korean translation effort. (1 hour watch or listen in your favorite podcast app): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/from-fashion-to-software-engineer-with-alison-yoon-podcast-130/

4. Learn about State Management in JavaScript with this new Redux Data Flow Handbook. Joan Ayebola is a Front End Developer who has a knack for explaining technical concepts in a way newbie devs can understand. Her book will teach you how to harness the power of Unidirectional Data Flows in your app. You'll learn about Reducer Functions, Dispatching Actions, Redux Middleware, and more. (full-length handbook): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-data-flows-in-redux/

5. And finally, tell your Spanish-speaking friends: freeCodeCamp just published a new course on React for beginners. Carpi Coder, a Spanish-speaking software engineer, will teach you how to leverage the flexible React front-end JavaScript library. You'll also learn how to fetch data from a Firebase API and display it in your app. (5 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-react-in-spanish-beginners-course

Quote of the Week: *"When I make characters, I try to design them in a way that teaches players how to play the game. In other words, if an enemy looks too pretty, they won't seem like an enemy to the player. But if you give them an enemy-like appearance, then the player won't need to read the manual or anything to know: ‘oh, I've got to avoid this guy.’"* — Gunpei Yokoi, who helped develop the original 1986 Metroid game that spawned the Metroidvania game genre