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+--- Thread: News - The hands-free development of Dig Dog (/thread-84283.html)
News - The hands-free development of Dig Dog - xSicKxBot - 02-13-2018
The hands-free development of Dig Dog
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<p>– Developer of <em>Dig Dog</em> Rusty Moyher on the process of coding by voice.</p>
<p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/02/coding-without-a-keystroke-the-hands-free-creation-of-a-full-video-game/">In an interview with Ars Technica</a> published earlier today, game developer Rusty Moyher shared how he programmed and created art assets for <em>Dig Dog</em> using his voice and an interesting alternative to a hands-on mouse. </p>
<p>After being diagnosed with Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) five years ago, Moyher needed to find an alternative to traditional keyboard and mouse development.</p>
<p>Relief came in the form of taking full breaks from typing and using a mouse, but that wouldn’t be good enough. “I still want to make games,” <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/02/coding-without-a-keystroke-the-hands-free-creation-of-a-full-video-game/">he admitted.</a> “It’s hard to imagine any career or job that doesn’t involve computers.”</p>
<p>In the pursuit of proving that video games could be developed without using his hands, Moyher found a video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SkdfdXWYaI">by developer Travis Rudd</a> which broke down how he customized the voice recognition software Dragon NaturallySpeaking to write code in Python using only his voice.</p>
<p>Despite warnings from various forums about the limitations of coding using Dragon, Moyher decided to give it a try. “The commands you come up with, basically in a made-up language, are all built to be quickly and easily recognized by Dragon,” Moyher explains, <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/02/coding-without-a-keystroke-the-hands-free-creation-of-a-full-video-game/">saying he recommended</a> “short, tight words or phrases that can be executed quickly.”</p>
<p>Coding using this method meant creating an entirely new vocabulary. “I needed to build a vocabulary that was suited for what I was doing that I was familiar with,” <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/02/coding-without-a-keystroke-the-hands-free-creation-of-a-full-video-game/">he said.</a> “The process of coding by voice is, I have to do programming tasks, like normal, and come up with commands and modify the system. On top of that, all at once, I also have to remember these [shortcut terms].”</p>
<p>With the programming taken care of, Moyher needed to figure out how to create art assets for <em>Dig Dug</em> without needing to use a mouse. <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/02/coding-without-a-keystroke-the-hands-free-creation-of-a-full-video-game/">The full interview at Ars Technica</a> goes into how he did just that. </p>
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