Login System

So after much trial and tribulation, I have finally got myself a working login system with extensive form validation and what seems to me to be some pretty hardcore password encryption, as well as the user database set up and running. Pretty impressive, I think, considering that prior to a few days ago I had no idea what a 'salt' was as far as encryption goes. Next up is an email authentication system and a lost/reset password page.

Never in my life have I been so excited about successfully logging on to a page that says nothing but "Member-Only Content Here".

What motivated me to tackle this is I want to get some kind of bare-bones alpha program thrown together and add functionality from there. From my experience working on student games at the Gamepipe Lab at USC, I have learned that this is definitely the way to go when building your game. It's so easy to get lost in perfecting cool details that you never end up with a demo-able game or integration of features (or you run way over if you have a deadline), which in addition to making it hard to show off your work, can create problems when you try to merge things later. Better to see what problems might arise from that process early on before you spend hours and hours perfecting a feature.

As I continue to work on this game, I have the sinking feeling that down the road when I've learned a lot more, I'm going to be doing a LOT of rewriting and/or restructuring code. Oh well, I guess that's what the learning process is all about, and it's better to get in there and get your hands dirty than trying to perfect your plan first. Like Joel Salatin says, "Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly first."