Picking up a semi-abandonded project

So, back in 2020, just before that thing hit, I started what was planned to be a recurring series on making a game. That kinda stalled as my attention and energy got distracted. I thought now might be a good time to pick that up again.

It turns out there are a few interesting points to returning to a code base that was left alone more than a year ago…

Remember where you were, what you were doing

I thought I had gotten a bit further than it turns out I had. This is likely caused by the fact that this is my second attempt at making this game. Firing up the ‘game’ with npm start still only showed the passing star field. But what where those warnings when starting it up?

Updating project dependencies

This game is intentionally not relying on other source code. This is on part because I want to learn and play with all the boring/interesting tech myself, and in part because I want it to be as lightweight as possible. At least for now.

This means the package.json file only contains 2(!) dependencies, and those are just devDependencies. Still, npm install slaps me in the face with the following:

20 vulnerabilities (4 low, 10 moderate, 6 high)

This really is the sad state of modern Javascript development. Attempting to fix using just npm audit fix didn’t work out, so manually updating to latest version of typescript and parcel-bundler (now just parcel) seemed like the best option. We all want the latest and greatest, right?

Breaking changes

Of course, it’s not all that simple. The parcel bundler has gotten a bit more strict, and refuses to accept the project as it is currently set up. But all in all, it’s small changes to get it running. And parcel is kind enough to tell me exactly what needed changing.

So with a few changes, we’re back to work. :)