Bob Ross, Game Developer

November 2, 2015 8:10 PM

Within each of us is a developer. You too can make a game.
posted by SpacemanStix (13 comments total)

This is my favorite single-purpose Twitter account right now.

The secret to writing great code is believing that you can do it. You can program anything as long as you believe in yourself.
Remember to use version control. It's like a scrapbook for all the wonderful memories of your game.
A bug is just a feature that you haven’t yet befriended.
Don’t forget to comment your code. It’s important to let imagination guide you, but the comments are there to help you find your way home.
etc. So many good/friendly things.
posted by CrystalDave at 8:35 PM on November 2, 2015 [5 favorites]

This is delightful!
posted by hot_monster at 9:33 PM on November 2, 2015

Devs tend to use the version control commit notes as the commenting system a lot of the time these days.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 12:28 AM on November 3, 2015

Bob Ross may have been one of the few artists who could paint fast enough to do fully animated oil painting artwork for an entire videogame's cut scenes and gameplay elements.
posted by fairmettle at 1:42 AM on November 3, 2015

BTW, Bob Ross served in the US Air Force from 1961 to 1981 in Alaska. Here's a picture of him in those days, and a pledge to himself:

Having held military positions that required him to be, in his own words, "mean" and "tough," "the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work" Ross decided that if he ever moved on from the military, he would never scream again.

posted by fairmettle at 1:53 AM on November 3, 2015 [5 favorites]

Love that picture! Is he Rick Astley's dad?
posted by comealongpole at 2:14 AM on November 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

Love that picture! Is he Rick Astley's dad?

Clearly his hair had always been aching to bust out from the military discipline.

...also, one more aside. In the course of my catching up on Bob Ross triggered by this thread, I just discovered that his son Steve Ross carries on in the family tradition ("You know if your wrist is wore out by the time you get done doing this, you did something right.").
posted by fairmettle at 2:45 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

I would cheerfully replace almost any one of my CS professors at college with Bob Ross Game Dev.

He might be more suited to TAing though. TAs seem to end up doing a lot of moral support.
posted by BungaDunga at 4:04 AM on November 3, 2015

I am this close to putting that feed up on the wall screen in the office now. Nobody in Norway knows who Bob Ross was though, but I hope the tone of the thing will get through.
posted by Harald74 at 4:27 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Having held military positions that required him to be, in his own words, "mean" and "tough," "the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work" Ross decided that if he ever moved on from the military, he would never scream again.

DID I TELL YOU TO USE BURNT SIENNA, MAGGOTS?
posted by sebastienbailard at 5:09 AM on November 3, 2015 [4 favorites]

Happy little B-trees.
posted by ardgedee at 5:11 AM on November 3, 2015 [8 favorites]

Reticulating the happy little splines....
posted by blue_beetle at 5:30 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

This is great. Gamergate must hate it.
posted by Theta States at 11:14 AM on November 3, 2015