Started on 10th October 2017 22:46 PM (GMT)

Collaborators: Jordan Peters (Rollersteaam)

This project was made as part of the NEA (Non-Exam Assessment) for AQA Computer Science in A Level.

The Physics simulation built in Processing (Java). Nanobuilder was a rather stressful project. First of all, it was created in Processing with next to no knowledge of OOP programs aside from very early work into Heart of Gold that spanned over the past year, but if you've worked with both C# and Java you will understand it is not a cake walk to simply switch between the two on a constant basis, and additionally apply one thing you learnt from one language to the other. This goes DOUBLY so when you are still learning syntax.

Suffering from 2 major refactors in the development of Nanobuilder, I learnt and dealt with every mistake under the sun you'll make when trying to develop OOP structures. It gave me a lot of character in the way that I code now at least, and my knowledge of Processing is really strong. I learnt all about the vectors and physics equations along with the ways they can be integrated into the drawing process, quite literally building a physics engine from the ground up. This was not an easy task at all, much like trying to get the camera and object selection functionalities to work. That was the biggest nightmare of the project.

Unfortunately, while it's possible that my 150-page project that I handed in was the most complex coding structure out of the whole class, it underperformed as a project as a whole. It would be more useful to a developer to use than for a user to use, and that's really not the point of what the NEA is trying to mark you on. I failed at delivering the Physics-ey A Level student-y helper that I was dreaming for it to achieve, but the reason for that was two fold - the complexity of the project, and the time drain that my game entry into BAFTA had caused. My report and my project couldn't be perfect to achieve the full potential - so I was predicted a B on my project despite the level of techniques and the hell that I had to go through.