The Meteor Galaxy Game

Meet the creator of Meteor Galaxy, Eric Hoelscher! Eric is a Senior at Cedar Park Christian School in Bothell, Washington. He is passionate about programming and sharing his love for computer science with other students.

What inspired you to build the Meteor Galaxy game?

In 2018 I made a very similar space game in the CodeHS sandbox. One of the coolest things about this game was the way the stars were set up as a parallax background. This was a neat way to create a feeling of depth in the game world. Now in 2020, I decided to make a video series to share the programming techniques I have learned over the years.

I realized that I could reuse this game concept and make it into a complete, polished game for the tutorial series.

What was the biggest challenge you came across while building Meteor Galaxy?

In my previous CodeHS Javascript projects, the web images would not finish loading before they were needed, so for a moment there would be empty space on the screen where there should be a web image. I found my solution by reading the full CodeHS JavaScript Library documentation. I discovered that I could set a callback function for when a WebImage object loaded. This allowed me to keep track of the number of loaded web images, then start the game when they all finished loading.

When did you first start programming? What do you love most about it?

My first experiences with programming go back to my elementary school years when I did projects with my Lego Mindstorms set. The visual block based programming format made it easy to work with and helped me understand programming concepts. I later learned to write code during my freshman year of high school through the CodeHS Javascript course.

I enjoy programming because of the endless possibilities of things to create.

I can program anywhere and there is always something more that I can learn. I find great satisfaction in solving problems through code.

Who inspired you to start programming and why?

My dad is a software engineer and he has always been encouraging to me as I learn computer science. My teacher Mr. Yang has also been influential in my learning. He taught me how to code at school using the CodeHS platform.

Do you have any other projects or games in the works?

One of my recent projects that I have been working on is my automated window blinds project. I designed, 3D printed, and programmed a device that raises and lowers window blinds and can be controlled by Amazon Alexa or with an infrared remote. The brain of the device is a $3 ESP8266 based microcontroller that I programmed using the Arduino IDE. So far I have finished the first version of the blind opener, and now I have some improvements to implement in the second. I also have been working with Google’s artificial intelligence platform called Tensorflow for a STEM project.

What advice do you have for other students who are starting to program?

Don’t worry about making something huge for your first programming project.

My first graphics projects were animations of shapes moving around on the screen. One of the best ways to improve your programming skills is to practice the techniques you learn in the CodeHS sandbox. From there you can work your way up to making something awesome!