Robert Tamayo

Might and Myth Update

February 22, 2024

I haven't written at MightAndMyth.com in a long time. But I'm not giving up on it yet. I have plenty to write about. There are tons of posts lined up, but that might actually be the problem. Writing all these posts seems like a lot of work, and I just haven't felt up to it recen...

Finished Oppenheimer

February 20, 2024

It wasn't that good. It's probably the most overrated movie I've seen recently. My rating would have been as high as a 6 or even a 7, but because it was only "average for an unaverage amount of time", I'm giving it a 4. It's the same thing that happened with Avatar, only that mo...

Sunday Munchies: To Relax Oneself

February 19, 2024

In Spanish, one doesn't simply "relax". Instead, one "relaxes oneself". Spanish seems to agree with English on sleeping, though, as one doesn't "sleep oneself". It makes me wonder if it is possible to use the reflexive verb as a transitive and directly "relax someone", and what,...

Learning the Shortcuts: Lessons Learned from Games

February 17, 2024

This is the second in a series on "life lessons" I learned while playing Diablo 2 Resurrected. It's really just a simple one: learn the shortcuts. Learn the things that make everything you do just a little easier. For example, if you have to ...

Use Every Resource: Lessons Learned from Games

February 17, 2024

In this third entry in the "Lessons Learned from Games" series, I'll discuss the need to use every resource available to you. The scenario in the game goes like this: you have a Big Battle Hammer that does 50 damage. Then you find a Massive W...

Clutter: Lessons Learned from Games

February 16, 2024

While I was playing through Diablo 2 Resurrected recently, I noticed that a lot of the game elements have direct comparisons to real life. I'll start this series off with a short discussion of clutter.In Diablo 2 Resurrected, henceforth referred to as D2R, you find a ton of weap...

For the Love of Adventure

February 15, 2024

I never got the chance to play the original Tomb Raider games when they came out. I missed out on a lot of the games for the original Playstation, actually, and I've gladly purchased any remasters that have come out since. MediEvil, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, and now Tomb Raider I...

February 14, 2024

The benefits of refactoring code are theoretical in nature. Refactoring is effort spent on code that does nothing, business-wise. The theoretical benefits are more strategic than tactical; one trades 5 hours of work now for the hope of saving more than 5 hours of work later. The...

Momentum is Motivation

February 13, 2024

Since April of last year I have been suffering from a lack of motivation. My creative drive seems to have disappeared altogether, and I can't figure out how to get it back. I started looking through my notes and old blog posts to figure out w...

UX by Colin Robinson

December 03, 2023

"I recently suffered a stroke," I told them. The doctors ran their tests and got back to me two weeks later. They assured me that though the symptoms were similar, what happened to me wasn't technically considered a stroke. Instead, what...

A Disappointment of Tropical Proportions

August 20, 2023

As San Diego braces for its first Tropical Storm in 80 years, one must be mindful of how serious this event is. The storm is probably nothing to worry about - I don't think that's the problem here. No, the graveness of the situation lies not in the tempest which imminently threa...

Game Design: Hyrule or Damogran?

August 14, 2023

I found an unexpected source of inspiration for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The boat sped on across the water. It would be some time before it reached its destination because D...

August 02, 2023

Many call themselves perfectionists, but most of those who do should not. Among them are those who strive for perfection in areas where proficiency or even mere competence is all that is merited. Some of these profess a perfectionism that manifests itself in maintaining untarnis...

Quick Zelda Prediction

June 02, 2023

I think Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom will eventually become part of a trilogy. The only reason I have for believing this is the final bosses of the two games.Spoilers AheadThe following predictions are based on elements from both Breath of the Wild and Tears of th...

Balloon Ghost Release Update and a New Project

April 16, 2023

I'm not yet done with Balloon Ghost. I still have a relatively minimal amount of work left to do on it. However, I do have an update regarding when the game will be released.Balloon Ghost will be released around Halloween season in 2023.It fe...

April 09, 2023

Jesus Christ is risen! After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tom...

Time for Another Blog Break?

March 29, 2023

I really don't like writing posts without good content. For that reason, I'm considering pausing blog posts - again. I'll only write something when I have something to write. If I wanted to say little things, I'd be on Twitter writing throwaw...

Weird Powerup in Back 4 Blood

March 28, 2023

I was playing Back 4 Blood again tonight, and the strangest thing happened. As I said yesterday, the game kept crashing on me. I guess it was overheating the GPU or something. So when another bug happened, I figured it was something to do wit...

March 27, 2023

Game developers must play games. It lets them discover what else is out there. It gives them ideas. And for me, it rekindles the passion for making games. There's a reason I got into games, and there's a reason I'm a software developer. Softw...

March 26, 2023

It was a good movie, maybe the best of the series since the first, based purely on the spectacle.But I wouldn't recommend it at all for people who have no idea what a John Wick movie is. The movie doesn't give the audience a clue as to who Jo...

I Miss Couch Co-Op

March 25, 2023

It may seem as though my video game tastes are childish - I enjoy Mario, Mario Kart, Smash Bros, and other Nintendo games - but it's just a matter of not having any other couch co-op games to play. I know there are a ton, but back in my day, ...

March 24, 2023

There's no need to engage in road rage. Sometimes, it's just boys being boys. Other times, people get actually crazy.Either way, just avoid it.In "real life", outside your car, you wouldn't attack someone or threaten them for getting near you...

March 23, 2023

Yes, I've lost the momentum in building Balloon Ghost. One of the problems I'm having with it is that I'm so close to finishing it. And the game is very simple - there isn't anything crazy about it that would cause it to take over a year to f...

March 22, 2023

AI hype is focused on demoralization. That's what I don't like about it. I don't dislike the hype because of a doubt in the technology, but because of the rhetoric behind the hype. "AI will replace your job.""Better start planning your next m...

Is React Just a Huge Overreaction?

March 21, 2023

ES6 javascript has made developing apps using basic javascript much easier. I'm not setting out to "prove React wrong" - I'm setting out to see how far javascript has come in being able to deliver a web app without relying on third party codebases.Keep in mind that everything I'...

Native JS Compared to React for Only Rendering HTML

March 20, 2023

Yesterday, I wrote about using native Javascript to handle tasks which are normally taken care of by a framework such as React. The important thing to keep in mind is that I'm not saying I invented anything here. I'm literally doing the opposite - I'm using native Javascript, so...

A Native JS Framework?

March 19, 2023

I set out to see how far an app can get with native javascript. I named the core function jsapp() because it sounds easy to say like Jay Sap and can be literally read as "js app", but init() might be more suitable. I demonstrated a ton of different ways of loading data, and I in...

Spring Cleaning

March 18, 2023

Spring Cleaning kicked off with a 3 hour session today. We didn't get close to finishing, but we definitely made progress. One thing I learned today is that we don't own a duster. Spring Cleaning represents a fresh start. Throughout the Winte...

Thoughts on an Object-Oriented Javascript Framework

March 17, 2023

I've been thinking about React again lately. Instead of pursuing a project in React, however, I started considering the possibility of creating another Javascript framework. This is the second time I'm considering a Javascript framework. I wrote about one earlier, which I c...

Failure and Playing to Strengths

March 16, 2023

Failure is never something to regret. It's always a learning opportunity. I know this very personally. I've always said that if I were so great, I'd be doing something great. I'm not being hard on myself here, just honest. I have a long way t...

March 15, 2023

I'm not going to talk about past games of mine in terms of what I could have or should have done, but I will use them as examples.For example, a game like Robot Ops would have been a perfect match for a Challenge Mode.The Challenge Mode I'm thinking of is not "Hard Mode" - it's ...

Humans Change Clocks, Dogs Most Affected

March 14, 2023

This Monday morning, my dog could hardly believe I was asking her to go on a walk an hour early. Normally thrilled to be going on an excursion, she was instead already in bed again when I went to grab her leash after putting on her harness. She reluctantly followed me and my wif...

Always Be Basic

March 13, 2023

I've transcended Basic status: I use Pumpkin Spice the whole year long. How do I do this?It's simple. You see, around Fall, everyone starts selling Pumpkin Spice lattes, pretzels, candy corn, popcorn, cereal, and basically anything else you c...

Academic Rigor Mortis

March 12, 2023

I haven't researched the history of education too deeply. I'm aware that the Trivium and Quadrivium made up the material of a medieval education. I'm also aware that a college degree obtained in the early 1900s said more about the individual who obtained it than a degree earned ...

Intellectual IO

March 11, 2023

An intelligent person requires both intellectual output and intellectual input. The input comes from reading, studying, learning, etc. The output comes from writing, creating, performing, etc.Many so-called pseudointellectuals mostly focus on the input; their output is sha...

March 10, 2023

Yeah, it's been a long week. I don't have the energy left to write out the 2 or 3 posts I've been saving up. No excuses - just confessions. I'm tired, call me lazy. The reality is that life as a Software Engineer has its long days and normal ...

March 09, 2023

None of the following is medical advice. Valerian Root and Melatonin are available over the counter.I take Valerian Root sometimes. It's an herb with a known side effect that is exploited. It's a bit like the lemonade out of lemons saying. Bu...

Patience and Letting Go

March 08, 2023

Hope is what we have. It's what we live on. Hope will build you up.What I struggle with in hoping is the patience. I can be hopeful, sure, but I have trouble understanding the patience required to continue hoping. To me, it seems like hope an...

The Red, White, and Blue Triad

March 07, 2023

I don't know where I first stumbled across John Carmack mentioning these archetypes, but I loved them ever since. "Happy B-Day America! I celebrate the archetypes of my choosing -- Puritan work ethic, Yankee ingenuity, and cowboy independence...

Make the Most Opportunities

March 06, 2023

Gamers know how to make the most opportunities. It's an instinctive part of playing any game. In sports, defenders are trained to swat at the ball with every tackle; most of the time it does nothing, but every once in a while it happens to result in a fumble. Gamers can get...

I Still Hear People Talking About Trump

March 05, 2023

And not because he's running for office again. I hear people bringing him up in completely unrelated conversations and placing blame for a problem on him. Next year is the election year, and yet Trump is still somehow the source of all the problems. ...

Upcoming Movies

March 04, 2023

I thought I was completely done with superhero films. But it seems like there are still a few exceptions to that rule, as there are two upcoming superhero movies that I'm not only planning on seeing, but looking forward to seeing. The first o...

March 03, 2023

I don't like writing QA notes for tickets. For that reason, I usually save it for the end, after all my work is done. It's not procrastination - it's just doing things in chronological order.However, I'm now starting to think that I should change this. I might start writing the ...

March 02, 2023

My wife and I watch TV shows with the subtitles on. This recently trended on Twitter, with a poll showing that the age group 18-24 uses subtitles about 61% of the time, 25-49 about 31% of the time, 50-64 about 13% of the time, and 65+ 22% of the time. ...

The Wisdom of Dogs

March 01, 2023

As Plato says, dogs are philosophers. He says this simply on the basis that they bark at people they don't know, and are friendly with people that they do know. Hence, they rely on knowing to make judgments, an important aspect of philosophy. ...

The Rabbit Hole Rabbit Hole

February 28, 2023

The biggest rabbit hole of them all: The Rabbit Hole Rabbit Hole. When was the last time you thought about the term "rabbit hole"? You say and hear the phrase fairly often, but did you ever realize when saying it that rabbits live in holes?&n...

No Matter the Weather, A Day is Still a Day

February 27, 2023

It has been unusually cold this winter in San Diego. By that I mean a high in the low fifties during the day and low in the low forties during the night. Here in So Cal, our lives aren't built for weather. Our rooves aren't prepared for rain, our walls aren't ready for insulatio...

Balloon Ghost Level Sweep

February 26, 2023

I'm now in the process of going through each Balloon Ghost level one by one. I'm starting at level 1, and ending at level 30. Along the way, I'll fix any bugs that come up. I'll also rework each level and tune the difficulty ramp-up. A level sweep like this also opens up th...

The Sorites Paradox

February 25, 2023

The Sorites Paradox is usually illustrated using the example of removing grains of sand one at a time from a heap of sand. If there are tens of thousands of individual grains of sand in the heap, removing any single grain doesn't cause the heap to no longer be considered a heap....

The Most Expensive and Cheapest Months

February 24, 2023

February is the most expensive month. Sure, rent is the same price as any other month, but the month is more than 10% shorter than the longest month. A ten dollar subscription is comparatively cheaper per day in January than in February. Cons...

Separating Physics and Rendering Framerates

February 23, 2023

Ghosts may be able to walk through walls, but they shouldn't be able to glitch through them. While playtesting Balloon Ghost and finishing the game up one level at a time, my PC started slowing down and the framerate dropped in the game. This caused Balloon Ghost to fall through...

February 21, 2023

Chopper was a hardworking bulldog. It was a busy day on the job, as usual. He was fortunate to be able to work from home, or rather, the front yard. His duties were simple: bark at all passers-by. He began by barking at the first dog walker o...

Taking Just Friends Seriously

February 19, 2023

I've like the Wayan brothers for a long time now. It started when my wife was recovering from a surgery and staying in the hospital for about a week. We didn't have much else to do besides watching TV, and Marlon came on. It quickly became one of our favorites, and the laughs we...

Lock Your Doors Tonight

February 18, 2023

"Lock your doors tonight," he added before the cameras cut off. What did he mean by this? I won't repeat his name here, because it's not worth mentioning. The press conference where this was spoken was focused on the subject of the recent UFO...

Listening, Observing, and Learning

February 17, 2023

I didn't notice that the title is "LOL" as an acronym, but honestly, it feels like people will approach Listening, Observing, and Learning with an attitude of lol. Many people simply want to talk, and they are quick to make the "conversation" about themselves. It is almost ...

Hogwarts Legacy First Impressions

February 16, 2023

"First impressions" may not even be the appropriate term here, as I've only played about 2 hours of the game so far. But I do have feelings about the game so far. So here they are.1. The Environment Looks AmazingIt really looks like Hogwarts. The level of detail on the castle wa...

Friends Again: Joey

February 15, 2023

While I personally consider Ross to be the funniest of the Friends, I believe that Joey is the most virtuous of the guys in the group. I have a friend who disagrees with that based on the argument that Joey is a womanizer who sleeps with women and never calls them back. While he...

There is No Tomorrow

February 14, 2023

I'm not saying that there isn't actually a tomorrow. I'm just saying that it's better to start things now as though there weren't a tomorrow. The Benjamin Franklin quote goes "Don't put off until tomorrow what can be done today." The Chinese proverb goes "The best time...

Balloon Ghost: Something to Do

February 01, 2023

Balloon Ghost is a simple game. From a design perspective, the template it runs on is that of a 2D platformer; at the heart of the gameplay is running and jumping over obstacles and hazards.The main difference with Balloon Ghost is that your main objective is to not let the ball...

Universal Boomer Income

January 30, 2023

Boomers are the one group of people without any right to make a criticism of UBI, or Universal Basic Income. Why? Because they are the only ones currently enjoying an actual Universal Basic Income.Only we don't call it that. We call it Social Security.I believe a more apt n...

What is Next for AI?

January 28, 2023

If it's not already in the works, then it should be. But before I say what it is, let me provide a bit of background.A recent batch of AI-generated images showed a combination of Imperial Roman armor, architecture, and aesthetics with modern military weaponry and political image...

January 26, 2023

"Life imitates art," according to Oscar Wilde, but in this case it might be more difficult to identify the chicken and the egg. For one thing, this conspiracy theory doesn't involve a chicken-and-egg pair, but an echidna and an egg. They lay eggs, too, as one is aware. ...

Looking Forward to Hogwarts Legacy

January 24, 2023

Even back in 1997, there were video games with huge, sprawling worlds. And by 2001, there were games with absolutely massive worlds. So, naturally, as someone who enjoyed both Harry Potter and video games, I wanted nothing less than a game where you could explore the entire Hogw...

UI Design in Games

January 22, 2023

I'm very comfortable with HTML and CSS. My site may not look the way a web developer's blog is expected to look, but part of the fun was to build it entirely on my own and use different themes for different pages. The About Me page is a Star Wars title crawler, the Home Page is ...

Incidentally Monochromatic

January 20, 2023

Balloon Ghost is a black-and-white game with one additional color - pink. I chose this aesthetic because it fits nicely into the themes of the game: nighttime, clouds, stars, a ghost, and a colorful balloon lost to the skies. But I was also careful not to force anything to ...

Wanting More Time

January 11, 2023

What would you do if you were given more time to do so? I can personally admit to using the phrase "I need more time" recently. The idea is that I would be able to do so much more if I had a few extra hours in a day. But the thought occurred ...

Words of Encouragement

January 10, 2023

Sometimes we just need a little encouragement. Even the most self-driven of us require a little outside assurance from time to time. There's a reason why such a concept as "home-field advantage" exists - athletes really do respond well to being cheered on. And don't forget that ...

Grand Finale of 2022

January 01, 2023

This year was decent - I won't hold it against myself that I didn't actually accomplish many of the goals I set out to complete in the beginning of the year. Instead, the year was filled with a good deal of traveling, getting a dog, and decent-to-good progress everywhere else. ...

December 31, 2022

I don't feel like I'm getting older. I'm in my prime years. However, I will say that I always feel older on the even-numbered years than on the odd-numbered years. I guess odd numbers feel lighter to me. Also, on even-numbered years one is exactly twice as old as some other...

December 30, 2022

My birthday has arrived on the fifth day of Christmas. I'm looking forward to this year. The most important advice I can give people is to Stay In Shape. Your physical body gets older much faster if you don't take care of it. I'm feeling great in my mid-30s - as one should - and...

December 29, 2022

I have a bit of nerve damage in both of my arms. I first noticed it one day while working at In N Out almost 10 years ago. It started as intense forearm pain and general arm weakness while I was shaking the fries basket, and it got worse as the shift went on. I knew something wa...

Rolling Up Your Sleeves

December 28, 2022

"Rolling up your sleeves" means things are about to get serious. Some work needs to be done. Anything can substitute this, and in my recent experience it was "taking off my jacket."I had a moment during the Escape Room I did recently when things were falling apart. Our team had ...

Posts Like This

December 27, 2022

Are the reason I won't be continuing my one-post-a-day format after the New Year. I have 2 or 3 posts on a backlog right now, but I was busy this evening and used up my time doing other things. The result is that I have to write about not wri...

Merry Christmas 2022

December 26, 2022

Merry Christmas! Today we celebrate Jesus' birthday - the only birthday that truly matters. I've had the fortune of having my birthday overshadowed by Jesus' for my entire life, being born very close to Christmas. To make things worse, my you...

December 25, 2022

I spend about an hour in the gym each workout. It's actually less than that by 15 minutes or so, but I'll round up to make the math easier. My current routine calls for 5 workouts per week. Adding it all up, that's 5 hours a week.With just 5 hours a week, I've been able to achie...

At Least Fanfiction is Made by Fans

December 24, 2022

Everything I've heard about the Amazon Lord of the Rings has been about how horrible it is. It's not fanfiction, though. At least fanfiction is written by fans.I'm doubling down on the original Lord of the Rings books and the movies. But The ...

Winter is Not Wasting Any Time

December 23, 2022

I have family out in parts of the United States that are getting hit hard by the winter storm. It's negative 7 degrees where they are, and that's not including wind chill. Adding in wind chill, it's more like -35 degrees, which is apparently cold enough to cause frostbite in as ...

Upcoming Project: Game Company Relaunch

December 22, 2022

One of my ideas for 2023 is to stop the daily blog posts, and one of the reasons I for doing so would be to focus on other projects. One of my ideas for 2023 is to "relaunch" my game development "studio." I write "relaunch" and "studio" in quotation marks because my "studio...

Final Shopping Week

December 21, 2022

This is it. The last week before Christmas. It means I have very little time left to complete my gift shopping. Some people plan ahead months in advance and get their shopping done before December even starts. I'm not one of those people. I thrive on the thrill of last-minute sh...

Congratulations Argentina

December 19, 2022

Congratulations to Argentina! The World Cup finale was the one of the most exciting games I've ever seen. There isn't much else to say about it, except that Messi is a phenomenal athlete and the team behind him rightfully earned their right to be called the world champions.

Escape Room Fun

December 18, 2022

Yesterday's escape did not end in success. We failed to complete every puzzle, but we did get as far as the very last puzzle before time ran out. I almost had a triumphant finale as I deciphered a spelled-out number code based on character count instead of decoding, then rushed ...

December 17, 2022

With about 2 weeks left in the year, it's time for an update on a few things. First, Balloon Ghost probably won't be done by the end of Fall.Second, the daily blog post format will probably come to a close. I enjoy the quality of my posts on ...

December 15, 2022

It's a little more cold than usual for this time of year in San Diego, or for any time of year in this city. I don't remember ever experiencing weeks of low-50s temperatures in my adult life. If you laugh and think this isn't that low, then consider that in San Diego we don't ow...

Upcoming Escape Room

December 14, 2022

My wife and I booked an escape room for this Friday. We're going in a group of 8 people. I'm hoping that we'll be successful. The only other time I was in an escape room was with my coworkers. It was a group of 10 or so software engineers all...

Graveyard Mechanics

December 13, 2022

Many games have the concept of "graveyard mechanics". I call it that because that's its name in Magic: The Gathering, but it could go by other names. Graveyard Mechanics refers to gameplay based on the things that are normally no longer in play, such as the discard pile. Fo...

The Only Folly without a Remedy

December 12, 2022

Athos scolds d'Artagnon on the folly of killing himself. In the following exchange, d'Artagnon is uncharacteristically despairing over his impending assassination. Athos is there to correct him on his error in thinking. "Then," said d'Art...

Forget About AI for a Second

December 11, 2022

Forget about AI for a second, and imagine a tool that can generate code for anything you want. Let's say it's powerful enough to do the wildest things, like generating a video game on a prompt. "Make a 2D Sonic game with a Squirrel instead of Sonic", "Make a 3rd person shooter s...

An Upcoming Three Musketeers Movie

December 10, 2022

I was purposely putting off watching any of the film or TV show adaptations of The Three Musketeers until I finished reading the book. It's long by today's standards, but it's an easy read due to its nonstop action and adventure. I highly recommend it, and I'm sure I'll write mo...

Thoughts on AI and Coding Pt 4

December 09, 2022

It's worth pointing out the irony of the current AI frenzy. Neuralink is a computer chip implant for humans that interfaces directly with the host's brain, enabling the host to essentially gain the power of a smartphone. The host can br...

Thoughts on AI and Coding Pt 3

December 08, 2022

I saw another interesting couple of examples of the new chat bot AI yesterday. In this example, specific points on theology were explained. So that's where today's thoughts pick up from.AI as Search EngineDon't be fooled: asking an AI to explain theological points is no differen...

Thoughts on AI and Coding Pt 2

December 07, 2022

I've been looking at examples of what the new chat bot AI can do regarding code, and it's pretty interesting.Notable examples are the user asking the AI to explain what an obfuscated function does in human terms, and then being asked to rewrite it in more readable terms.This tas...

Thoughts on AI and Coding

December 06, 2022

AI has been dominating the memes this year. There are tons of "turn x into y" tools available to the public, and AI-generated text has a particular silliness to it that people find entertaining. I've played with text generators and even Magic: The Gathering card generators. The ...

USA World Cup Run Ends

December 04, 2022

The USA's World Cup is over in the first game of the knockout rounds. It was an exciting match with many opportunities for the US to score, but they gave up too much on the defensive side. Overall, I'm optimistic about the US's chances in the upcoming World Cups. The USA ha...

Visiting the Future

December 03, 2022

I'm interested in mythology, fantasy, and historical adventures. I believe the past was more interesting than we think, and I believe that the ancients were truly brilliant. I also believe that many mythological beasts did exist in the past in some form.However, if I were given ...

December 02, 2022

I've seen every episode of Friends about 5-10 times each. It's easily my favorite TV show. Unlike other sitcoms, Friends gets funnier over time. I actually laugh harder at an episode the fifth time watching it. I think this is because the humor is derived from the character...

No More Superhero Movies

December 01, 2022

There are many superhero movies coming out soon. I'm just not going to see them. I'm officially done with them.I'm not making a rule against watching them altogether. I'm just done with them.I had been growing fatigued by them for a while. The straw that broke the camel's back w...

November 30, 2022

Liver King is known for his physique, which he claims from his primal diet and lifestyle. The short of it is that he claims to have achieved an obviously unnatural physique without taking steroids. The gains come from raw liver, raw meat, his unique training regime, and other fa...

November 29, 2022

I already have enough coding to do on my own projects, so I don't really spend too much time on coding puzzles. However, I did just learn about Advent of Code, a yearly coding challenge that takes place during December. The premise of the challenge is that of an Advent Calendar,...

Balloon Ghost Development Resumes

November 28, 2022

Today I resumed the development of Balloon Ghost. I was surprised at how much I missed working on the game. It felt good to be coding again, as I haven't had time to do so since the Thanksgiving break from work started. I didn't make much pro...

Utter Exhaustion

November 27, 2022

Even though it's a common occurrence, I'm always surprised when I feel even more fatigued during a Holiday break from work. In this case, I'm on the verge of declaring a state of utter exhaustion following the Thanksgiving Day feast and subsequent days. ...

November 26, 2022

The day after Thanksgiving is known fof two things: shopping, and leftovers. So why not make my blog post a leftovers itself? The most famous Thanksgiving leftovers I can think of is the turkey sandwich from Friends. It's a particularly legen...

Happy Thanksgiving 2022

November 25, 2022

Happy Thanksgiving. Today, I'm thankful for my lovely wife. I'm thankful to God for everything he has given me, including the trials. I'm also thankful for my dog, Pearl, who brings much joy to our home.

Finally Finished God of War

November 24, 2022

What was good about the game was good, but in the end, it was just too long and too tedious for me. I'm sure many people will love it, but I find that it neither captured the adventurous mishaps of Norse mythology nor the brutal mood of the original series. Also, while I un...

A Humorous Bit of Norse Mythology

November 23, 2022

It just dawned on me that the two wolves that chase the Sun and Moon in Norse mythology probably have a humorous origin. You see, dogs are known to chase small, round objects known as tennis balls. I'm sure the ancient Scandinavians had similar balls that they used to ...

Why Review God of War Ragnarok?

November 22, 2022

Why review God of War: Ragnarok when I can just use the game's director's own words to describe the "gameplay:" So, I build it all out structurally in Excel. I have all these documents that are like broken down by the beats of the little ...

How Long Can this Game Be?

November 21, 2022

I thought I was nearing the end of God of War: Ragnarok, based solely on the number of hours I've spent playing the game. It turns out I'm only about 60% through the game at 23 hours. I would be more forgiving of the length of the game if most of it weren't spent on drawn-out cl...

November 20, 2022

When someone offers to give you more responsibility, say yes. There is a duty to say yes, but to understand it, try to find reasons for why one would say no.Maybe there is doubt. Maybe there is a lack of desire to take on more accountability....

House of the Dragon

November 19, 2022

House of the Dragon makes up for the poor ending of Game of Thrones. For fans of the original series, I highly recommend this new prequel show, as it will wash the bad taste out of your mouth that was left by the finale. House of the Dragon i...

The Righteous Care for the Needs of Their Animals

November 18, 2022

One of the reasons I'm against vaccines is the animal trials scientists use in their development. Proverbs 12 10 The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel. Killing animals to develop vaccines doesn't qualify as...

Game Design: Enemies that Slow Things Down

November 17, 2022

God of War: Ragnarok is a slow-paced game. There are intense moments of combat, sure, but there is a lot of downtime between them. Kratos' signature Rage mechanic even makes combat itself echo this motif. While most of the time spent in the g...

Using Everything to Your Advantage

November 16, 2022

As a counterpoint to my previous post on not relying on third party libraries too much, I would say that it's also to one's advantage to use everything in one's environment.Think about action movie heroes. What often sets them apart from the basic henchmen they fight is their ab...

Moving Forward, But Never Forgetting

November 14, 2022

Almost everything that looks like an inconvenience in one's career can be turned into an advantage. Recently, the Vax Mandates have seemed like pure inconveniences without any opportunity for advantage. But even something as utterly uncalled for and violating as vax mandates can...

Afraid to Build

November 13, 2022

In modern software development, there is a tendency to want to seek out a pre-built tool for accomplishing any task. This makes sense when it comes to certain things, but it starts to seem completely ridiculous to me when the principle is applied to everything - especially on th...

God of War Ragnarok First Impressions

November 12, 2022

I'm 2 hours into God of War: Ragnarok. I've written about Norse mythology on my other blog, Might and Myth, so I have an interest in this game for its portrayal of the stories and characters in those myths. It's also worth mentioning that Gnarlos - a character from my game Robot...

Head Down Coders vs Hunter Coders

November 11, 2022

Head down coders like to stay focused on the task at hand. They want to work uninterrupted on writing the code to solve the problem without thinking too much about the surrounding objective. Hunter coders, on the other hand, work with their e...

Forgetting the Mission

November 10, 2022

It's easy to forget the mission when the task at hand becomes overwhelming. Many times, people's jobs can become too stressful; the workers forget why they are even working in the first place. The point of work is to accomplish the mission, and the point of the mission to move t...

Enola Holmes is Not Bad

November 09, 2022

I was wrong about Enola Holmes. I thought it would be about Sherlock's undiscovered little sister who was somehow more brilliant than Sherlock even though no one had heard of her and also better at being at fighting despite being a teenage girl. ...

Super Blood Moon Total Lunar Eclipse Election Day

November 08, 2022

Sounds like a Rob Zombie song. What do I think will happen?Well, I do think there will be a "red wave", so to speak. Basically, I predict more red swings than blue swings. That's all.Why?Things are just too bad right now for there to be much ...

November 07, 2022

I finally understand why many authors on the subject of programming look down on "clever" code. I encountered a scenario like this in the wild, though I've changed the data to be about students and height:The requirement was to display the he...

November 05, 2022

Websites need to be fast. I used to work directly on high traffic public websites where the client would want the page to get a perfect score on Google's Lighthouse report. Over the years, I've picked up a ton of tricks on how to speed up pages that need to display data quickly....

Maybe One More 2D Game

November 05, 2022

I wanted to move onto 3D games this year, but that changed when I came up with the idea for Balloon Ghost. After Balloon Ghost, there is a slight chance that I'll make just one more 2D platformer. I say this because the 2D framework I built for Robot Ops is easy to work with and...

Robot Ops Almost a Year Later

November 04, 2022

Robot Ops is available on Google Play. This year, I've been focusing on Balloon Ghost and another game, and so I haven't been talking about Robot Ops too much. I'm going to be making some changes on that end. For one, I'm updating the store l...

November 03, 2022

"Let's Declare a Pandemic Amnesty," writes Emily Oster for The Atlantic. The subheading reads "We need to forgive one another for what we did and said while we were in the dark about COVID."No.I will not be forgiving or forgetting what these people did to me during the pandemic....

November 02, 2022

Some people will say that I just need an ad blocker. Others will even suggest I pay Netflix-a-month for a YouTube Red membership to be able to enjoy videos ad-free. But either way, the ad situation on YouTube is obscene. From what I understan...

Halloween is Healing

November 01, 2022

There were more trick-or-treaters this year than the year before. The year before last year was 2020, and that year was one of the worst Halloweens in history. I saw signs saying things like "please no trick-no-treaters". People were so afraid of getting sick in 2020 that they a...

Admit When You Are Wrong

October 31, 2022

No one is fooled. When you're wrong about something, squirming around and avoiding admitting defeat is not going to make it look like you are somehow right. The use of evasive language should be confined the legal system, as the culture of law is quite different from daily ...

Balloon Ghost Delayed

October 30, 2022

Halloween is in 2 days, and I haven't finished Balloon Ghost. I originally wanted to release the game in time for the 2022 Halloween Season. I started working on the game in June. That's about 5 months ago. It's a very simple game that builds off of what I did in Robot Ops,...

Anecdotal Evidence Against Polyester

October 29, 2022

Yesterday, I wrote about polyester's damaging effects on the human body. It can affect fertility in men, cause miscarriages in women, impact hormones, worsen skin conditions, and disrupt sleep. I have some anecdotal evidence regarding the last side effect: sleep.Do polyester bed...

October 28, 2022

Today I noticed just how many clothes I own that are mostly polyester. I went on a rampage and purged them from my wardrobe, but finding replacements has proven to be not as straightforward as I originally thought. Brands that were once 100% cotton are now sneaking in 40% polyes...

Working in Seasons

October 26, 2022

I started off this year focusing on Might and Myth. I was enthusiastic about all things related to mythology, history, Latin, fantasy, language, and the humanities in general. By this point in the year, however, I've switched my focus over to technology, science fiction, futuris...

The Absolute State of Apple MacBooks

October 26, 2022

I'm writing this blog post on my 13-inch mid-2014 MacBook Pro. It has been 10 days since I flipped open its cover, and probably a few days longer since it was plugged in. Yet, after all this time, it's at 41% battery. Meanwhile, my 16-inch 20...

Documenting Energy Levels

October 25, 2022

I felt great in June, and I looked healthier, too. It was the start of Summer, and I had just come back from a couple of vacations. I was probably also a lot more optimistic back then. I don't know why, but I'm not feeling 100% right now. It'...

Do Ghosts Blink?

October 24, 2022

I don't know. But I do know that Ghosty does: via GIPHY iframe { margin: auto; display: block; max-width: 100%; }

The Enemies of Balloon Ghost

October 23, 2022

Greedy little pigs called Spookies are competing with Ghosty for control of the lost balloons. In Balloon Ghost, they act as the main enemy group and come in a few different variations. The most basic kind is seen here. The Gripper Pigs can cling to the clouds in the s...

October 22, 2022

I've said before that I'm very careful about overloading myself in an area. Right now, I'm feeling that I'm not recovering from my workouts well enough. That means it's time to take a break. I've pushed myself really hard in that area in the past 3 months, and I successfully sur...

October 21, 2022

It has been almost 2 years now since the PS5 was released. I still don't have one. Nor do I have one of the new XBox systems.Why not?Because the stores still don't have them. I haven't been able to find one in a store since they came out. Two months went by, and I thought maybe ...

October 20, 2022

Scope creep is one of the most annoying parts about working in software. Like finding bugs, scope creep adds more work to the project. The feeling is worse than finding bugs, though, as the additional requirements almost inevitably take longer to add in at later stages of develo...

The Speed of Development

October 19, 2022

I sjowed the Balloon Ghost video two days ago, and it's already outdated. I'm working fast, and I'm happy with the updates so far.Some updates are purely cosmetic. For ecample, Ghosty now blinks periodically. He also leans into a big hit on a balloon. And a favorite of mine is h...

Now They Have Griffins

October 18, 2022

Imagine a village under attack from lions. The villagers can hardly do anything in their daily lives without risking an attack from the lions. There aren't many lions, but there are enough that it's a problem.Then, one day the lions leave.The villagers all go outside to enjoy th...

Balloon Ghost First Look

October 17, 2022

First look at Balloon Ghost. In this video, you can see the basics of gameplay: run and jump and hit the balloon to guide it through the course. This is just a development preview. iframe { margin: auto; max-width: 100%; display: block; }

Balloon Ghost Ideas Under Pressure

October 16, 2022

Today I didn't get as much done for Balloon Ghost as I had hoped. However, I did do something far more important: I finalized the visual design. Everything is super simple. I already reduced the colors to black, white, and pink. But now, I fi...

The Scariest Food Ever

October 15, 2022

Growing up, I was told by everyone - parents, teachers, the news - that raw eggs would kill you. It wouldn't be a normal death, either; consuming uncooked eggs would lead to an excruciating last few days of life as one's body slowly succombed to the salmonella.But, in the midst ...

Balloon Ghost Rush

October 14, 2022

I spent very little time today on Balloon Ghost. So, it's not really much of a rush in terms of development effort today - it's more of the state of my mind right now with regards to the game. I'm officially in the rush mode. I have tom...

Balloon Ghost Music

October 13, 2022

I'm not 100% finished with the song yet, but it's sounding great. All I have left to do is to update the rhythm section a bit. It's a song for solo piano, so unlike my other video game songs, this one has no drums or bass. That hardly ever makes it easier to write, though. ...

Balloon Ghost Tiles: Mario Maker Edition

October 12, 2022

This late in the game, I desperately need inspiration. I'm taking tips from one of the best 2D tilesets in the business, Super Mario World for the SNES. I'm also finding that some of the SMB2 and even original Super Mario Bros tiles are not too bad. I'm drawing the tiles, but I'...

October 11, 2022

I was never too interested in I/O operations as a programmer. Reading user input and printing things to the screen seemed boring when I first started, and dealing with String buffers for network I/O was similarly unappealing. But the reason I found it tedious was because I was t...

The Importance of Solution Specifications

October 10, 2022

Part of my programming "restoration" reading material is Code Complete by Steve McConnell. From what I understand, it's a "soft" book, meaning that it doesn't deal with the specifics of any particular programming language or technology; instead, it focuses on the concept of Soft...

The Spooky Game of Halloween Season 2022

October 09, 2022

I'm looking around for a spooky game to play this Halloween season. I usually play one every year just to get me in the mood for Halloween, but this year I didn't have one lined and ready to play on October 1st. I was trying to get the first Dementium: The Ward to work on my 3DS...

October 08, 2022

The mothership bar in San Diego is great. I don't normally drink alcohol, nut but a few things merit exceptions. This bar is one of them.The bar is a Tiki bar, but you will only guess that by looking at the ingredients in the cocktails. The bar itself is an intergalactic space s...

Common Wizard Characteristics

October 07, 2022

I was recently considering the ridiculousness of the wizard's wand while watching Harry Potter. It's not Rowling's interpretation of the wand I find odd - it's the use of a small stick for magic. Why? It got me thinking about the origins of common wizard characteristics. I know ...

Balloon Ghost Rush Day 2

October 05, 2022

I'm only writing this to provide examples of the two rules from my previous post. Music - The music for Balloon Ghost will be most similar to Ragtime. The solo piano will be a good fit for the black and white art style.Menu Screen - The menu ...

Will I Finish Balloon Ghost in Time?

October 04, 2022

It was my intention to have Balloon Ghost finished by now. Instead of working on my next project during October, I'll be frantically trying to finish up a game that I had plenty of time to work on. There really isn't any excuse. To be complet...

Pharmaceuticals

October 03, 2022

I just finished watching the sequel to the annual Halloween tradition Hocus Pocus. The movie was fine. The Sanderson Sisters were just as fun as they used to be. Here is what stood out the most to me about the movie.The Movie Tells the Truth ...

Daring Darlings

October 02, 2022

I watched the movie "Don't Worry Darling" with my wife last night. It was one of those films we both really enjoyed, which is rare for us. The movie does a great job of being creepy; the audience knows something is wrong, but the uneasiness comes from not knowing exactly what. T...

The End of Shakespeare

October 01, 2022

I'm finally done reading all of Shakespeare. The Sonnets were surprising. I wasn't expecting them to be focussed on another man for the first half and his cheating girlfriend for the the second half.Now that I'm done with that, I'm going to be winding down a few other things as ...

Second to Last Day

September 30, 2022

Today I read Henry VIII, Venus and Adonis, and Lucrece.I've been over the "king" plays since King John, and so while I thought Henry VIII was not the worst of Shakespeare's Histories, I didn't enjoy it too much.Venus and Adonis is probably my favorite of the day. It was a pleasu...

Two Days Left to Read Shakespeare

September 29, 2022

There are only two days left in September, and that means there are only two days left to read Shakespeare. I'm on track to finish everything on Friday. I only have one play left to read, and the rest is poetry. After 28 days of this "challen...

Watch What You Say and Think

September 28, 2022

Not because the government or any other party is spying on you, but for a much more practical reason. Thinking of ugliness and saying vulgarities leads to physical changes in one's face. I noticed this recently when I saw Melissa McCarthy fro...

Home Stretch for Shakespeare and Amendments to Poe Challenge

September 27, 2022

I gave myself the task to read all of Shakespeare in September. To be clear, it's not a lot of reading in terms of word count. Many people read more than that daily for enjoyment. The reason it's a challenge for me is that I'm simply giving myself a deadline to finish a major wr...

Seagulls Unabridged

September 26, 2022

AI prompt widges have been on an ascension track lately, and this trend has started to show its fruits in the appearance of many spinoffs, copycats, and clones. One I discovered today is a simple writing level evaluator; its inclusion in this post is merited by its novelty of ma...

Returning to Monkey Island

September 25, 2022

This year's best April Fools joke finally had its punchline come true this week. I am indeed returning to Monkey Island at this very moment. I'm not there yet - still on the first chapter - but the journey has begun. I can safely say that A R...

Your Your is Showing

September 24, 2022

It takes a few seconds to commit to memory the difference between "your" and "you're." If you're still mixing them up after reading this sentence, then you're not trying your best. Failure to get it right is excusable as a typo, but typing should typically not have typos. Too ma...

Second Post on Tears of the Kingdom

September 23, 2022

Yes, I'm posting about this game again for the second time in a week. This time, I have some predictions about when we will get any meaningful previews of the gameplay and storyline. We have very little to information regarding gameplay, stor...

The First of the Books Has Arrived

September 22, 2022

I made a new list of computer science/programming books to read to kick off my "intense and in depth" studies of all things related to technology. There are currently 5-6 books on my list that I will read first, and from there I will start exploring topics in greater detail as I...

September 21, 2022

John 12:24 - "Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." This verse is talking about spiritual growth and casting off our old natu...

The Next Great Era

September 20, 2022

I'm a self-taught programmer. While working full time, I got a Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering. I never learned much in the course of obtaining the degree, but I learned more than I give it credit for. I certainly never would have studied Project Management otherwise. ...

Dementia in Kids These Days

September 19, 2022

Father Time comes for us all, eventually. If he doesn't kill you outright, he'll leave you each day a little more impaired than the last; you'll first be without sense, and then you'll be senseless. But it seems that Time is now catching up t...

September 18, 2022

In video games, it's common for NPCs to blurt out refined commentary on the weather (It's hot!). Sometimes, they helpfully provide the player with a bit of a context as to precisely why the NPC happens to be there (This is my first time here!). Or they spontaneously yet skillful...

Making Better Games

September 17, 2022

I got into game development because I really wanted to see a traditional 2D platformer on a mobile phone. I'm sure there were plenty at the time, but I wanted to create my own. I've made a total of 3 games, and I have a fourth coming out in about a month. But, I see a need to ma...

Right on Schedule

September 16, 2022

athe weather is cooling, and Fall is beginning. I can feel its coming in the air. The crows also speak of its coming; they know Autumn is near.Right on schedule, my creative drive increased. I'm writing songs again. I'm working longer days on my projects. Everything is starting ...

Shakespeare Challenge Update: End of Week 2

September 15, 2022

Today is the final day of week 2 of my challenge to read all of Shakespeare in a month. I'm about halfway through the month and just slightly less than halfway through the book. Here's what I've read so far:King Henry VI, Part 1King Henry VI, Part 2King Henry VI, Part 3King Rich...

The Fate of the Trojans

September 13, 2022

The British trace their heritage back to Troy, as do most other European nations. According to the Aeneid, Rome was founded by the remnants of the fallen Troy. Even the Scandinavians have some connection to Troy's descendents, as the Norse gods are given Trojan counterparts in t...

I Want to Like the Future Again

September 13, 2022

5 years ago, I was thrilled about the future. In my early programming days, I was excited about what new technologies would come out from the great minds of Silicon Valley. I couldn't be more enthused about every new programming language, framework, or update that came out - I s...

So Funny, Right?

September 12, 2022

There was a scene in National Treasure 2 that bothered me. It's a perfect example of psychological warfare, and it's completely unexpected and possibly even entirely intintentional.In the scene, John Voigt is pretending to be fishing near a nighttime event hosting the President....

Possible November Goal: Darkmaxxing

September 10, 2022

I naturally like to go to sleep late, sometime between 2 and 3am. For many people, that's not even late. Amd that's how it used to be for me.I stopped doing it that way when I got a normal 9 to 5 job. Eventually, my wife got a 9 to 5, and the choice was simple: wake up when she'...

Heat Wave Ending

September 09, 2022

The heat wave ends tomorrow. I expect to be fully operational by the end of the week. I've been losing time to the Shakespeare Reading Frenzy I'm doing this month, but there have been unexpected benefits to reading 30 thousand words of plays ...

A Bit of Friendly Advice

September 08, 2022

Don't make plans to quadruple the number of words you read daily and expect to be able to do all the other things you normally do. The Shakespeare reading challenge is taking up fully twice the amount of time I thought it would. I will say, however, that it has been enjoyable in...

Mixed Signals from California

September 07, 2022

California will be banning the sale of new cars that aren't electric vehicles by 2035. That's far enough in the future that most people will believe it's possible.However, today I got a warning on my phone that told me to please turn off my electricity because there wasn't enoug...

Necessary Labor Day Break

September 06, 2022

This weekend was so hot, my productivity fell 80%...from 80%. I basically can't work when it's this hot. Also, I haven't taken a day off in a long time. Sick days don't count. But that's not a good excuse. A better excuse is that the little d...

The Crows are Returning

September 05, 2022

The murder of crows in the neighborhood know: Autumn is coming. Summer is ending, and the humming birds and butterflies will need to make way for their onyx-feathered rulers. This year, my wife was able to discover where the crows meet. We wo...

Balloon Ghost Update: No Updates Edition

September 04, 2022

This edition of Balloon Ghost Updates is very special because there are no updates to report! I have almost everything I need in place from the work I've already on it to finish the game. The problem is that I have completely lost my momentum. And just when I thought I would be ...

Shakespeare Challenge Day 2

September 03, 2022

Over at Might and Myth, I wrote about a challenge to read all of Shakespeare in the month of September. I'm two days into that challenge, and it's been interesting so far.The book I'm reading is The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, which is about 1200 pages long, with each...

Can You Outlift a Lizard?

September 02, 2022

Lizards do push-ups all day. Let that sink in. Lizards are doing push-ups for the entire day.Are you doing push-ups all day? If not, do you even lift? Lizards are doing one set of thousands of reps. That's right - they only live once, and they never stop doing push-ups...

Tiny Houses on Lawns with Gnomes

September 01, 2022

Some people like to decorate their lawns with Gnomes. Most of these Gnomes are left to fend for themselves in their yards, as the owners never provide them with anything other than their placement. From there, a Gnome is free to build what he needs for shelter, plant flowers and...

Enjoying Classic Turtles

August 31, 2022

The Cowabunga Collection came out today, and it's looking good. I'm playing Radical Rescue for the first time in almost 25 years - beating this game will be a test of more than two decades of training both body and mind. Shredder won't be the only one shredding, though - I'm thi...

Blogging Direction

August 28, 2022

I have my reading list planned out for 2022, but after that, I might venture into some more technical mathematics and computer science books. The reading would be similar to my focus on mythology and history, where I would read the "classics" of the natural sciences in an attemp...

August 25, 2022

With the announcement of an upcoming student loan debt forgiveness today, many people have suddenly found themselves with ten thousand reasons to be happy. I don't know the exact details of the plan, nor do I know where the money will come from to pay for the loans. But I do kno...

The Desire to Heal

August 24, 2022

After getting sick, I lost some of my strength and endurance in the gym. It usually takes about a week or two of working out to be completely back to 100%. In the meantime, my workouts have been weaker and not as intense as they used to be. I...

August 20, 2022

I'm a game developer, and I've always used my own characters and environments in my games. I'm impressed with the tremendous effort that ROM Hack makers go through to make their games, but I'm a little confused as to why they wouldn't put that effort into making their own games ...

One Year of Blogging Daily

August 19, 2022

On August 16, 2022, I completed one year of blogging daily. That means that I wrote a blog post every single day for one year straight. If a blog post for a day doesn't appear on this site, then there is a corresponding blog post on MightAndMyth.com for that day.I've blogged abo...

Who Experts the Experts?

August 18, 2022

The recently revised CDC recommendations regarding Coronavirus have left some people disagreeing with the "experts" once again. In addition to removing the requirements for testing people without symptoms for the virus, the changes also include treating vaccinated and unvac...

14 Year Old Dog Acrobatics

August 17, 2022

Maybe it was her enormous ears, or maybe it was pure joy, but whatever it was, I've never seen the 14 year old Pearl jump that high in her life. She leapt onto the couch - a 4 foot jump - and all at her advanced age. She was extra excit...

First Day Back at the Gym

August 16, 2022

I went back to the gym today. It was the first day back after 10 days. I went back at 80% of my normal weights, and it felt better than expected. I still could tell that I wasn't quite up to 100%, though.The reason I went back is because I decided it was time for the sickness to...

Reacher vs Reacher

August 15, 2022

I recently wrote about the need to make screen adaptations of beloved characters true to their origins. With Amazon about to release the textbook counterexample with its Lord of the Rings catastrophe, I'd like to point out another case where Amazon actually treated a character w...

How Much Longer

August 14, 2022

My wife has had this cold/flu exactly a week longer than I have. For me, that means I'm fortunately able to tell when approximately the symptoms will subside. Today marks 1 week since the start of this cold with a fever. I'm guessing I only have another 3 days or so with detecta...

Out of Season Flu

August 13, 2022

I'm not the only one getting sick right now. It's going around San Diego, and has been for a month or so. But the odd thing is that this is completely out of season for a flu. It's sunny and warm, not exactly the ideal conditions for a flu or...

Catching up on Spanish Reading

August 12, 2022

The good thing about not having the energy to go out and do anything is that I have the perfect excuse for staying in and reading. Now that the fever has left, I'm actually able to take advantage of this down time for actual reading. I'm still not quite at the level where I feel...

Morale Improves, Beatings Continue

August 11, 2022

I'm feeling much more optimistic during the day now, as the fever seems to have completely disappeared. It is relieved of its post by a cough and a sore throat, both of which are occassionally more than just annoying background noise. Right now, in particular, the cough is prese...

Nostalgia is Not a Personality Trait

August 10, 2022

Nostalgia is not a personality trait of the games and movies that are considered nostalgic. Much like how "antique" is not a style, but an attribute that applies to some older styles, so does "nostalgia" not represent any particular trait, only the acknowledgment that the materi...

August 09, 2022

One of the few plus sides of a 3 day fever is that I'm slimming down a bit. I don't know how much weight I lost so far, but it seems like 3-5 pounds. I can drfinitely tell I'm a little more toned than before I got sick.Although fevers are painful and probably mlnot worth it, the...

August 08, 2022

The second day of fevers was not as bad as the first, but I'm still unable to focus well on anything. The headache from the fever has also been discouraging for doing any work.The point of this is that I'm unable to provide any updates on my games or other projects, as I've been...

First Fever in Years

August 07, 2022

I was up all night last night with a nasty fever. This is the first fever I've had in years. I honestly can't remember the last one I had.It was inevitable that something would get me sick eventually. I don't know if I hust didn't listen to my body well enough, or what. I had an...

The End of JavaScript

August 06, 2022

A short while ago, I encountered some disgusting syntactic sugar in a JavaScript file, which made me realize that JavaScript had indeed jumped the shark and was on its way out. I'm happy that one of the language's key contributors and early supporters is of a similar opinion: ...

Altering Beloved Characters

August 05, 2022

It's a bad idea to change characters that fans are emotionally attached to. This means it is never a good idea to make female characters male, male characters female, blonde characters brunette, or any possible swap imaginable. There are a few reasons for this. But they aren't n...

The Harm of Clutter

August 04, 2022

I don't mind things getting a little disordered, but I don't like when they are cluttered because of a lack of space. The drive in life is to seek opportunity in order to better your prospects. Being in a tight space with no room for expansion actively stunts your brain and your...

I Find it Hard to Make 2D Tilesets

August 03, 2022

I good at drawing. I'm good at patterns. I'm good at coming up with environmental ideas for my game worlds.Those three qualities should make me a natural at creating tilesets, and yet I struggle with them.If my 2D games haven't had an artistic quality to them, it's not because I...

Taking Care of the Dog

August 02, 2022

So far, taking care of Pearl has been going pretty smoothly. She mostly sleeps all day. When she's in her "active" moods, she doesn't run around the house and demand you play with her; she's too old for that. Instead, she'll just roll around on the couch for a bit until she wear...

Balloon Ghost Art Design

July 31, 2022

This is the area I'm struggling the most in. I have the gameplay down, and I know how to improve it before release. I have some music on standby, and I also have some new tunes I'm working on that might be better suited for the game. But when...

The Science is Settled Part 2: Testosterone

July 30, 2022

The science is settled. Testosterone causes aggressive, selfish, and risky behavior.Except, of course, that it doesn't.Testosterone doesn't cause aggressive behaviorA study from 2009 shows that testosterone doesn't cause aggressive behavior. Instead, higher levels of testosteron...

The Science is Settled

July 29, 2022

"The science is settled," right?Case 1: Alzheimer's Study was Possibly FabricatedAlzheimer's was thought to be caused by plaque buildup in the brain. Other studies have shown that Lion's Mane mushroom is beneficial and can potentially treat Alzheimer's, but how could that be if ...

What Brings Joy

July 28, 2022

I was watching Erock on YouTube last. The guy is such an amazing guitarist. But if you look at his face while he's shredding, he's not even trying. He's smiling. Tapping arpeggios at 280bm sixteenth notes is amusing to him. He genuinely enjoys playing guitar. He's just having a ...

Escape Room Mobile Games are a Guilty Pleasure

July 27, 2022

In early 2020, I found myself working from home and without much to do outside of the house. So naturally, I started to get addicted to Escape Rooms. It turns out there are thousands of free Escape Room games on mobile. They all look identical. They have a particular style ...

Rest Before Getting Sick

July 26, 2022

I don't normally get sick. It just doesn't happen to me that often. I do, however, start to get sick. What that means is that I start to feel extra tired and hungry, and I stop making any progress in the gym.I generally notice when this start...

July 25, 2022

When I was 16, I used to do standup comedy. During the past 2 days of my 100 day challenge, something I have been doing must have awoken that side of me again.I found myself writing jokes for the first time in about 5 years. The style of these new jokes is different than they us...

100 Days Until Halloween

July 24, 2022

There are only 100 days until Halloween! I can't believe it. I only found out because I made a strict goal for myself related to things I want to achieve in the next 100 days. Conveniently, 100 days from just so happens to be Halloween. I gue...

Quality of Life Improvements for Balloon Ghost

July 23, 2022

I'm working on the more "boring" task in game development: the menus. I enjoy the gameplay more, but getting the menu to work smoothly is very important. I'm making a few Quality of Life improvements in the menu system over what I used in Rob...

July 22, 2022

I bought tickets for San Diego Comic Con almost 3 years ago. After postponing it for 2 years, it's finally back. And to my tremendous disappointment, they have vaccine and mask requirements to attend. If you are unvaccinated, you need to have proof of a negative coronavirus test...

The Little Details

July 21, 2022

After playing Duke Nukem Forever's main campaign, I decided to try out the DLC "The Doctor who Cloned Me". When I got to the game room section of the game, I noticed something I hadn't the first time I played the pinball machine in the main campaign: Duke's hands actually move t...

Adjusting to Taking Care of a Dog

July 20, 2022

I haven't had the time I was hoping to have to work on my projects this week. I'm now watching a dog for the next few weeks, and I was trying to get adjusted to it. It's not too much work, but it does take up bits of time. In addition to that...

The Joy of Playing Guitar

July 19, 2022

I finally started playing guitar regularly, again. I'm doing so in preparation of writing harder music for games, with the goal of being able to record my own metal guitar riffs for game music. So far, all I can say is that I've missed playin...

July 18, 2022

My wife and I are now watching a dog for the next 1-3 months. It's a 14 year old chihuahua mix, so it's not too much of a hassle so far. That said, it will take some adjustments to get into the pattern of taking care of dog when it comes to making time for my side projects. A do...

JSON is Not Free in Java

July 17, 2022

In PHP and JavaScript, dealing with JSON is "free". It's a given. There are built-in functions that parse Strings into JSON and vice versa. In Java, however, JSON is not free. It usually requires creating a bunch of objects that represent the...

Knowledge is Not Action

July 16, 2022

Knowledge Itself is Not ActionKnowledge is not action. Action is what counts.Using knowledge to do something is awesome. Using knowledge to tell someone some random fact is not awesome.Knowledge is not impressive. Action is impressive. If knowledge enables one to do more, then t...

If Something is Missing, Make It

July 15, 2022

I saw a YouTube video suggestion today titled something like "I've been waiting my whole life for this" with a screenshot of a portable gaming device shaped like a Super Nintendo controller. I'm not making fun of the creator of the video. I didn't watch it. I don't know his view...

Less Difficult is Not Always Less Fun

July 14, 2022

It's sometimes just less frustrating. This applies mainly to parts of games that require extremely precise jumps or tricks that leave absolutely no room for error. Since I've been playing Duke Nukem Forever, the example that comes to min...

Beavis and Butthead Do the Universe

July 13, 2022

I was shocked to see that there was another Beavis and Butthead movie. I never really liked the show, but I thought the original movie was funny. I also really enjoy Mike Judge's work, particularly King of the Hill. When I heard there was a new Beavis and Butthead movie, I had t...

Not That I Want to Make a Game Engine

July 12, 2022

But I'm having so much fun doing the necessary bits of coding for Balloon Ghost that I kind of want to. Just a little. The reality is that I wouldn't do that, since there are a lot of things that go into an engine that I wouldn't want to have...

Duke Nukem Forever is Awesome

July 11, 2022

I've played 5 hours of Duke Nukem Forever so far...and the game is awesome. I can't believe it received such horrible reviews when it was released in 2011. Not only does it hold up well to a brand new player more than 10 years later, it's act...

Going to Play Duke Nukem Forever for the First Time

July 10, 2022

I'm going to be diving into Duke Nukem Forever. It's a game that many were looking forward to, but at the time it was determined that it didn't live up to the hype. Many critics claimed that the game was repetitive, outdated, misogynistic, an...

Syntactic High Fructose Corn Syrup

July 08, 2022

I recently discovered a new JavaScript feature: let value = obj?.member?.value ?? 'defaultValue'This isn't syntactic sugar - this is syntactic high fructose corn syrup. I got a sugar rush just looking at it.I was a fan of the fat arrows becau...

Plans After Balloon Ghost

July 07, 2022

After Balloon Ghost, I'm between making a penguin point-and-click game or making a sequel to my first game, Bad Blaster. I'm leaning toward making Bad Blaster 2, at the moment. I would use a more detailed flat design style, similar to Robot O...

Making Obstacles for Balloon Ghost

July 06, 2022

I've taken a lot of inspiration for many of the obstacles in Balloon Ghost from other platform games I've played in the past. There's an interesting problem with building obstacles for Balloon Ghost, though. The gameplay revolves around jumpi...

Are Modern Programmers Even Programmers?

July 04, 2022

I'm a modern programmer. Reading things like Donald Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming has shown me that I lack a tremendous amount of knowledge about programming and computer science in general. Lacking that knowledge has not stopped me from making anything. I still code g...

Stranger Things Season 4: Part 2

July 03, 2022

I just finished watching Stranger Things Season 4, Part 2. After watching the first 3 episodes of Season 4, Part 1, I wrote a post about my impressions for the season at that time. I said at the time that if the season continued as well as it had started, it could have the poten...

July 02, 2022

Tonight I'm playing Cuphead with a small group. It's a really challenging game. I was never a huge fan of the boss battle game type, but this game handles it really well. athe best parts of the game are the animation and the music. The game w...

Troll Levels: Anti Design that Works

July 01, 2022

I enjoy watching people play so-called Troll Levels in any game. I used to hate Troll Levels because they are the antithesis of good level design. But I've come to appreciate them for a few reasons.Good Troll Levels are Designed for the MetagameThere are bad and good troll level...

Freedom is an American Tradition

June 30, 2022

Look no further than to Westerns to understand that Freedom is an American value we hold dear to our hearts. But Americans don't want freedom to sin or to do evil; we want freedom to our lives without the burden of bureaucracy or the nobles managing the details. It's not in the ...

Survival when Unmotivated

June 28, 2022

When I'm not feeling motivated, that's when it's really important to get something done. Doing the bare minimum keeps my momentum alive. Even if it doesn't boost my morale, it at least keeps it from falling. Feeling unmotivated can lead to loss of morale, so that's why it's impo...

June 26, 2022

After finishing reading volume 1 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, I knew I needed some "quick wins" to get me enthused about reading again. After setting aside countless other books to read through one bigger book, I was only 1/6 of the way complete. There are still ...

June 24, 2022

Some bad news came up today that I was not expecting, and so I will be another day delayed in putting together my posts on Might and Myth. In better news, Balloon Ghost is almost at a point where I can share the first screenshots. At this tim...

June 23, 2022

I made a code blooper today. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what the syntax error was for a try/catch block I was writing in a javascript file. It turns out I was editing a php file.Other updatesI'm preparing to write a couple more ...

Longest Day of the Year

June 22, 2022

It's officially Summer! Unfortunately, my abs didn't come in as well as I had hoped. Oh well. I still have 3 months to get there I suppose.Also, it's time to announce my plans with Balloon Ghost. I'm making this another Fall release title. Ho...

June 21, 2022

I recently discovered "Mom Hid my Game", a minimalist point-and-click puzzle game that wins on its humor. The game has you trying to find your "game", a Nintendo DS-style handheld gaming console, which your Mom has hidden. As you search for the game, any number of mishaps can ca...

2D Level Decorations for Balloon Ghost

June 20, 2022

I enjoy creating characters and enemies, but I've always struggled with doing the visual design work for the levels. I don't find it as appealing to spend time crafting character into the level environments I make. I bring this up because whi...

Trinkets for the New Game

June 18, 2022

I was able to get enemies to crawl around walls. Next up is getting them to crawl up a wall that they are approaching. I'm basically creating one tiny new level with one new mechanic at a time, and I'll build out the new mechanic as I come up...

Balboa Park Museum of Art

June 18, 2022

My wife and I visited the Balboa Park Museum of Art today. We have dinner plans shortly, so I'll keep my summary of the experience brief. Art is importantWithout it, a modern culture would be nothing but a weird combination of numbers and puz...

Dior Cruise 2022

June 17, 2022

I was not expecting to enjoy the Dior Cruise 2022 show, but I actually ended up really liking it. It was everything I did not expect from a modern fashion show. There was no pop or house music, no raunchy outfits, no celebrities or guest singers. It was just a classy, elegant sh...

Still Having Problems Making Something for the New Game

June 16, 2022

I'm still having problems implementing enemies that walk on walls. It's kind of ridiculous that I'm having this issue, since this kind of movement was inspired by enemies I saw in games dating back to my childhood. I'm learning a lot, though....

The Temptation is Real to Build a Level Editor

June 15, 2022

Currently, I'm using Tiled for my 2D mobile games. It's a great program, and it's very easy to use. It has served me well for 3 games so far. However, the temptation is real for me to want to build my own level editor to build my game, someth...

Gravity Should be a Vector

June 14, 2022

As I make the prototype for Balloon Ghost, I'm adding little things to the "engine" I made for Robot Ops. I decided I wanted an enemy that would be able crawl around blocks, similar to the spiky enemies found in both Metroid and Mario games. I don't know what my ultimate so...

The Road of Champions

June 12, 2022

Tonight the plan is to take on Champion's Road in Super Mario 3D World with 3 players. It's a very challenging level, and I haven't completed it solo yet. But nonetheless, we will try. As I've said before, Super Mario 3D World is a great mult...

A Lazy Friday Night Watching Peaky Blinders

June 11, 2022

I'm feeling more exhausted than normal for the end of a week. I believe this is because I spent the last weekend driving almost 24 hours across California. It's time for some much needed rest. Fortunately for me, the new Peaky Blinders season has just come out. ...

More than Just Coding

June 08, 2022

I really enjoy coding. What's even better is when I really enjoy the thing that the code builds. In fact, while the details of the code are interesting, the really fun part is figuring out how to build something. Oftentimes, I end up bored when I know "how" to build something; t...

How Much Sleep Do I Need?

June 07, 2022

I slept 10 hours on Saturday, waking up past 10am on Sunday. I felt great afterward. Last night, though, I only managed to sleep less than 8 hours. I can definitely feel the difference. Children sleep longer than adults, usually around 10 hou...

Balloon Ghost Prototype Development Continues

June 06, 2022

I spent a little time today working on the prototype for Balloon Ghost. I have a good handful of levels that prove the basic concept of "short and sweet" with increasing difficulty between levels. The challenge now is that I need to start coding again to get all the new types of...

Lots of Driving

June 05, 2022

In the past month, I've spent 4 full days driving. I went to Arizona the first trip, and I just got back from driving up and down California. Needless to say, I'm exhausted and need about 22 hours of sleep to recover.

The First Time I was Startled by Gas Prices

June 02, 2022

The first time I was shocked by gas prices came from an article claiming gas reached 8 dollars a gallon in California over the Memorial Day weekend. I can handle $6, and $7 wouldn't have had the same effect. But $8 is a psychological marker that only existed in my brain to denot...

Balloon Ghost Prototype

June 01, 2022

The side quest I'm working on is a miniature 2D side-scrolling puzzle platformer called Balloon Ghost. You play as Ghosty, a cute little ghost who has taken on the important task of guiding all lost balloons to safety. The objective of the game is simple: hit the balloon through...

May 31, 2022

I'm working on a mini project that's forked from another project of mine. While copy-paste-modifying a class, I noticed that I was deleting a ton of commented-out blocks of unused code. I don't do that in my professional code, but I guess in my personal projects I'm definitely a...

May 29, 2022

What are you supposed to go if there is a white rabbit going in one direction and a yellow brick road going in another direction?I've never read the Wizard of Oz, but I did see the original movie plenty of times as a kid. And of course, I loved anything Alice in Wonderland - boo...

Game Inspiration from Real Life

May 29, 2022

I was inspired to make Revolve Ping Pong when I noticed how much fun I was having bouncing bouncy balls off of a wall. I figured people would like to do something like that in a game, and so I made a Pong-style game where the player controls both paddles; the goal is simply to k...

Stranger Things Season 4: First Impressions

May 28, 2022

I haven't finished Season 4: Part One of Stranger Things yet, but so far, I'm impressed. I'd say this season is setting itself up to be at least on par with Season 3, and possibly even better.I will avoid spoilers in this post, but if you don't want to know anything about the ne...

Software Development vs Web Development: Part 1

May 26, 2022

Software Development is typically a higher paid position than an equivalent Web Development role. Having worked in both for the entire time I've been coding, I have a lot of knowledge of their similarities and differences. I'll keep these posts very short. ...

Late Night Web Dev Interrupted by Leg Cramp

May 25, 2022

I was in the middle of what would have been a full night coding when my left hamstring cramped up. It was a bad cramp, too, and I've been sitting on my couch since.This happens fairly often on leg days, especially if I have increased the weight after a deload. In this case, it w...

First Day Web Developing in a While

May 23, 2022

Building off of yesterday's post, I decided to return to one of my old React projects and add some much-needed improvements to it. It was my first day putting in "serious" work in a personal web dev project in a long time, and I spent most of my time relearning my old code. Not ...

Component Oriented Programming

May 22, 2022

I can't remember where I heard it recently, but I was moved by a simple piece of advice to "follow the market". Essentially, one can't resist the market forces. What the people want, do that. It's kind of like "if you can't beat them, join them," but in a business sense regardin...

May 21, 2022

Every once in a while, I find myself with a lack of energy and a feeling of tiredness. I'm fairly strict with my diet due to my workout, and so I often will not attribute these feelings to food. Usually, I will assume that I'm just "getting sick" and need sleep, but today I real...

Thoughts on Game Design: Approach and Positioning

May 20, 2022

The Romans lost two battles to the Persians in the plains of Mesopotamia. There was no source of water, no cover from the sun, and no easy way to break rank to gather resources. The Persians easily whittled them down with arrows and outlasted them. The Romans were essentially de...

The Classic Stars Screensaver

May 18, 2022

One of my favorite screensavers was the classic starfield that would fly toward the screen and disappear off the edges. It was as though you were flying through space and watching the stars pass by. I liked the screensaver so much I made a ga...

Spyro Reignited Trilogy OST: My Musical Guilty Pleasure

May 17, 2022

Spyro Reignited Trilogy's OST is my musical guilty pleasure. The tunes are very well made, and my favorite are the songs from the first game. They demonstrate the "elevator music" quality of all video game music from the time; they are meant to serve as background music that wor...

Super Flower Blood Moon Eclipse

May 16, 2022

It seems every time there is a "once in a lifetime event" in astronomy, I miss it. For whatever reason, whether due to clouds, timing, or forgetting, I'm never able to enjoy the event.Tonight, however, I was finally able to enjoy the Blood Moon Eclipse. The timing was right, the...

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

May 15, 2022

It occurs to me that another meaning of "cross" is "to oppose (someone)". So why did the chicken cross (oppose) the road? Because it was egging him on.

Creativity, Categorization, and Configuration

May 14, 2022

CategorizationCategorization is the act of labeling and organizing existing facts, ideas, and things into more usable models. It is distinct from creativity and does not involve creating anything. Discovery is part of categorization; biologists discovering a new species of plant...

May 13, 2022

I don't follow crypto too closely. I hardly know anything about it, except that it's digital and there are wallets involved. However, it was wild watching what happened to Luna today. The Luna printer was going berserk, and printed over 5 trillion Luna between 6pm and 7pm. It wa...

Turn-Based Sports

May 11, 2022

Of America's top 3 sports, 2 are turn-based. Much like turn-based RPGs, Football and Baseball implement turn-based "combat" in their gameplay. Football is the easiest to see as turn-based. One team plays offense, and then they switch to defen...

Programming Books

May 10, 2022

I've spent a lot of time this year reading old books. In that time, I've accumulated a backlog of programming books to read. I'm going to go through them. Here's what's on my list: Learning C++ by Building Games with Unreal Engine 4C++ Primer...

End of the Week of No Game Development

May 09, 2022

I spent the last week with my wife in Arizona. We traveled there to get away from the big city life and to enjoy a change of scenery. After getting settled in in Prescott, I can say something strange came over me. I was filled with an overall feeling of peace. I don't know ...

I Wonder if Twitter Will Face Similar Consequences

May 08, 2022

Nvidia was recently fined $5.5 million dollars because they didn't sufficiently report that many of their GPU sales were going to crypto miners instead of PC gamers. From an article titled "Nvidia Fined $5.5 Million For "Inadequate Disclosures" Of Sales To Crypto Miners", found ...

Conquering a Fear of Heights

May 07, 2022

My wife and I visited the Devil's Bridge in Sedona, Arizona. It's impressive. And really scary. I'm "afraid" of heights. It's not so much that being in a high place gives me anxiety, or that I fear being in a high place. It's more that I actu...

Elden Ring is More of a Big Map Game than an Open World Game

May 06, 2022

I was thinking of writing this post earlier today, and then I stumbled upon an article titled "‘Elden Ring’ Has Without Question The Best Open World In Gaming History" from Forbes. How strange that I would be thinking the exact opposite thought before learning that people ar...

Haunted Mansions are a Psyop

May 05, 2022

You will see a beautiful building from 1894 and think it is haunted. You will notice the detail of its gate, the intricate designs and careful metalwork, and be horrified by what it guards. You will think the older the building is, the more evil lurks within its walls. You will ...

BobBlog Dashboard Mobile-Friendly Speedrun

May 04, 2022

I'm going to spend 10-15 minutes making quick updates so that I can better use my own blogging platform on mobile to write blog posts.The scope of this quick project will be small. This is the section of development I call "stop the bleeding". Others refer to the changes I'm abo...

Why my Blogging Dashboard is Not Mobile Friendly

May 03, 2022

I'm writing this post from my phone. I don't have my usual writing setup at the moment, so I have to log in to my personally-built blogging platform called Bob Blog to write blog posts frommy mobile device, not my desktop as usual. The proble...

The Grand Canyon

May 02, 2022

As we came closer to the edge of the Grand Canyon, I saw massive mountains in the background covering the whole horizon. My wife looked at me and said, "those aren't mountains, that's the other side." "It can't be..." I thought to myself.A dozen steps later, it was clear: what I...

Free Speech and Anonymity

May 01, 2022

Some people argue for total free speech. Others argue for a subset of free speech, such as political free speech. Still others argue for free speech as long as anonymity is removed; you can say what you want, but you must be able to be held accountable for it. ...

One Week Break from the Game

April 30, 2022

I'm going to be busy doing other things for the next week. I'll return to my patterns established earlier this year. Instead of working on the game, I'm going to be studying Latin, reading mythology and other books, and doing some minor programming projects. ...

Appropriate Use of Pixel Art in Low Poly Design

April 29, 2022

The title will be longer than the post this time. Basically, it's my opinion that the most appropriate use of pixel art is in low poly 3D models. This recreates the early days of 3D gaming, and it's what will feel nostalgic to the newer gener...

Quick Game Update - Creating 3D Map Elements

April 28, 2022

I was "successful" in creating simple shapes in Blender that I pulled into Unreal. I'm going to use basic slopes, platforms, blocky obstacles, and zig-zaggy paths in order to test out the character's movement. It's also clear to me that the decorations are going to make a big di...

Bumble Knight is Now Attacking

April 27, 2022

The attack animation is finally working. I'm getting a lot more comfortable with the blueprint system in Unreal. I'm getting the idea that the blueprints are very powerful, but it's difficult for a beginner to even know what's possible with them in terms of the options.I'm going...

Why is it So Hard to Get the Character to Attack?

April 26, 2022

I'm having a lot of trouble getting the character to attack. At first, it was impossible to get him to attack when pressing attack, so I added some logs. It turns out there wasn't a problem with the input detection, as the logs were showing that the input was being registered. T...

April 25, 2022

I spent Sunday in the Sun, outside, at the beach. For a San Diego native, that shouldn't be too uncommon. But for me, it's a treat to be able to do that. Working on games and code has me indoors for most of the day, and on the weekends I'm usually reading or doing some other pro...

Decent Development Day

April 24, 2022

I had a decent development day today. I managed to get the lance and shield into Unreal. That was harder than it seems, as Unreal doesn't like separate objects. The weird part was that once I finally added them into the engine, they weren't working with the animations. It turns ...

What Happened to California?

April 23, 2022

California used to be cool. What happened? It used to be a state people admired. People wanted to move to California for the weather and for countless other reasons described in dozens of popular songs, from "California Dreaming" to "California Girls". ...

Animation Debugging: The Floor Should Be the Root Bone

April 22, 2022

I had set up inverse kinematics for my rig by following along with Imphenzia's YouTube videos. Everything was working perfectly. However, when I went to import the model into Unreal Engine, I was getting errors about there being multiple "Root" bones. To resolve this, I set my I...

Thoughts on Making Games with Unreal and Blender

April 21, 2022

After a very short amount of time working in Blender and Unreal, I had a character running and jumping around the demo level. By that point, I hadn't written a single line of code. It's actually quite incredible what Unreal Engine is capable of doing with very little effort.&nbs...

April 19, 2022

Authors need to read books for research, and game developers need to play games for research. I'm a little wary of gamers who say they are playing a game for research, though, since they often don't make games. In my case, I'm currently making a new game, and I need to do some r...

Importing the Character into Unreal

April 17, 2022

I just imported Bumble Knight into an Unreal Project. He's gigantic. I remember seeing a video a while back where you needed to adjust the units Blender uses before importing into Unreal, otherwise things like that would happen. My next steps...

Co-Op Multiplayer Chaos

April 16, 2022

I always have a great time playing couch co-op with friends. If we have 4, even better. Nintendo does this very well, and the chaos that results from trying to play Mario 3D World with a couch full of friends brings nothing but enjoyment and laughter. What would be simple t...

Pokemon Quest as Source of Inspiration for Art Style

April 14, 2022

I like the 3D blocky and pixelated look of Pokemon Quest. I don't have much experience with the game, only having played a demo because the art style appealed to me and it was free. I might have continued had the gameplay allowed for direct control of the Pokemon during com...

Some Ideas for My New Game

April 13, 2022

As I've said before, I'm a fan of punk game design. Right now, that means I just have to make the game fast. I have to use power chords in the meantime, and let the melody fill in the key.Since this game is in the very first stages of developments, I only have rough ideas of gam...

Weekly Game Update - April 10

April 11, 2022

I might do weekly game updates instead of daily updates. I'll do them on Sundays, and provide any new screenshots I have. So far, I have modeled the main character modeled and created his running and idling animations. Here's the character as...

End of Day 4 of Making a New Game

April 09, 2022

This will be my last Daily Update on the game progress for a bit. I really just wanted to gain some momentum on working on the game. By the end of day 4, I have the model for the main character. He has two animations, running and idling. I wi...

Day 3 of Making a New Game

April 08, 2022

So far, I have the prototype of the character for the game created. I'm now adding his animations. I had a little bit of work to do with weight painting, and I noticed some glitches with his feet when they move. I can work out the glitches. The first two animations I'm making ar...

Day 2 of Making a New Game

April 07, 2022

Again, I'm not so much making a new game as I am learning how to make 3D games. So, for that reason, I'm going to start the journey by prototyping a game. The goal is to get as far as possible in a month using basic character models and a simple level. The purpose will be to get...

The Start of a New Game

April 06, 2022

I'm making a new game now. The purpose of this game is to learn Unreal Engine and Blender modeling so that I can make games in 3D. Because this is my first time using Blender and 3D models, I'm going to make a compromise and stick with a low-poly art style. I'm going to mak...

No Good April Fools Jokes Today

April 02, 2022

I enjoy encountering April Fools jokes from the sites I visit on a daily basis. It seems like April Fools articles were absent, this year. I'm a little disappointed by that, since it could be a sign of the decline of humor in society. However, it could also be simply my perspect...

Algorithmically Ambiguous Mechanical Imitation

April 02, 2022

Don't take this seriously. I'm only analyzing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning on the basis of the origin of the words used to define them, not on the basis of the actual content of the research. This is more of an etymological and pedantic musing than an intellectua...

The Combination of Language and Coding

April 01, 2022

I'm sometimes torn between my love of coding and my love of languages. I hadn't realized until today just how interesting NLP could be. The entire field is an interesting combination of linguistics and computer science. There is a strong chance that I will start learning NLP as ...

Breath of the Wild 2 Delayed

March 31, 2022

Originally planned for a release in 2022, Nintendo recently announced that Breath of the Wild 2 will be delayed to Spring 2023.The fans seem to be in good spirits over the delay. Nintendo has been giving us plenty of good games recently, and there are still plenty to come in 202...

Learning As I Go

March 29, 2022

I'll be learning Unreal Engine as I go. In my experience, it's best to just dive in and start making something. After about 3 months of working on something that was previously unfamiliar to me, I usually feel very comfortable with the new technology. In fact, I often feel so co...

Separating Implementation from Interface

March 28, 2022

Years ago I had to do a C++ project for school. It was my first time working with C++, but I was experienced with Java at the time. What confused me about C++ was that there were two kinds of files, .h files and .cpp files. I couldn't understand why I had to make .h files to def...

Do You Even Code, Bro?

March 27, 2022

Bodybuilders spend a lot of time in the gym. If he only ever picked up something heavy while he was in the gym, then he would never be able to move a mattress to another bedroom or change the water jug in the office. The point is that a bodybuilder who never uses his strength ou...

March 26, 2022

The 3D Kirby game is finally here. It's everything I wanted in a Kirby game. It's cute, funny, and has weird music. The game follows the 2D Kirby level design pretty closely, particularly the style from Kirby's Nightmare in Dreamland. There is an overworld hub from which di...

Interesting Notes

March 23, 2022

I often keep notebooks, and whenever I stumble upon one, it's interesting to see what I was thinking at the time. But I don't usually care about how I was feeling at a particular time. I usually just move on from those entries. Instead, I'm always completely captivated by m...

The Next Learning Project and Game

March 22, 2022

I found some old notes of mine regarding a character design for a quick 3D or 2.5D adventure game. The idea for the character was to make him simple enough to create animations and models for, cute enough to feel emotion for him, and provide a theme for overall game. I think it ...

Why is Elden Ring Considered Difficult?

March 21, 2022

I've now played Elden Ring for 50+ hours. I had never played a Dark Souls game before, but everyone I talked to would always warn me of the difficulty of those games. The games are notorious for their merciless combat and overpowered bosses. I better beware, they warned. ...

Loading Screens

March 19, 2022

When I first started working from home two years ago, I would take a 15 minute walk around the neighborhood at the end of the workday. I did this for both the fresh air and to draw a clear line of separation between working and resting. Normally, the drive home from the office w...

How to Be More Lucky

March 18, 2022

The best way to be good at something is to be lucky at it. Being lucky is by far the most effective and easiest life hack. If you can't actually be lucky, though, then there are a few things you can do to improve your luck. 1. Never Show your...

TMNT 3: Radical Rescue

March 17, 2022

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue was released for the Nintendo Game Boy back in 1993. It was one of my favorite games on the Game Boy, and I played it for countless hours. Throughout the years, I would often think about it and wonder if I would ever get the chanc...

Darkness vs Cuteness in Games

March 16, 2022

I've been enjoying playing Elden Ring lately, but the tone is very overbearing. After spending dozens of hours in the game, I started looking to other games to brighten my mood. Kirby and the Forgotten Land couldn't come any sooner.It may seem strange that I enjoy the more carto...

Where are the Flying Cars?

March 14, 2022

Millennials were told there would be flying cars when we grew up. Instead, there are social media apps. Now we can look at pictures of people we no longer talk to.We were told the Earth had been conquered, and every area explored. Instead, Antarctica is censored on Google Maps.W...

Inserting Thousands of Rows into a SQL Database with Prepared Statements in PHP

March 12, 2022

When you have many rows to insert into a SQL database, you probably want to batch them up into as few insert statements as possible. Adding three thousand rows one by one might cause a strain on the database server. Here's how I recently did that in PHP using PDO.1. Split the Ar...

Modern Technology Made from Old Technology

March 12, 2022

Unreal Engine 5 is the newest game engine from Epic. It is the most "modern" game engine around, or at least one of them. For all the talk people make about "keeping up to date with current trends and programming languages", Unreal Engine 5 uses C++, a language originally releas...

March 10, 2022

The "Git Gud" meme is used in video games as an insult to inexperienced players who complain about the game's difficulty. The best thing about the meme is that it applies everywhere, to anything. A lot of things are hard to do. And a lot of people would rather the standards by w...

Robot Ops Links

March 09, 2022

Robot Ops Links Here are all of my posts for my game Robot Ops, as well as the links to every video and the game itself on Google Play.Google Play:Robot OpsYouTube:Robot Ops PreviewRobot Ops PromoRobot Ops OSTBlog Posts:Robot Ops OST Released...

March 07, 2022

The Batman (2022) is a great film. I went into the movie knowing little about it, but from the footage I had seen in the trailers I expected it to be a little closer to The Joker. It ended up being very similar tonally and aesthetically to that film, and it was fantastic because...

Productivity and Working from Home

March 05, 2022

When it comes to productivity, morale is an important factor. Most companies focus on improving the office culture to boost morale, and I will admit that I miss the office culture at times. Mostly, I miss the spontaneous lunches, the catering, the trivia, and the company-sponsor...

March 04, 2022

In Spanish, the word for "fun" is "divercion". To enjoy something is "disfrutar". If something is fun, it's "divertido". These words look like "diversion", "un-fruitful", and "diverted".Having fun is good. The Latin origin of the word, as see...

March 03, 2022

Immersion is a powerful tool for passive transformation. To be immersed in something is to be completely and fully engaged in it. Every day, we are immersed in something, and whatever that is will slowly transform us as our bodies and minds adapt to our environment.What we choos...

Distractions, Distractions

March 02, 2022

Distractions abound. Current events are particularly distracting. The best thing to do is to simply ignore them.The goal of news networks is to sell ads. They need people glued to their TVs and phones. Newspapers aren't dying in the digital age; while their print versions may no...

Branding vs Signature

March 01, 2022

Great artists don't have a personal brand. They have a signature.A brand is what you leave on a product you sell. It's what you put on cattle. Don't brand yourself or think about matching your branding when doing something. If you're branded, you're a product. ...

Blog is Getting Chonky

February 28, 2022

Yes, the blog page is getting chonky. There are over 190 blog posts on it. There is no way to search except ctrl+f. There are no "tags" or "categories" pages. There is way to view posts by date published. It's getting kind of ridiculous.Things are worse at Might and Myth; even t...

First Day Gaming in a Long Time

February 27, 2022

Today was the first day I spent playing games for an extended period of time. I usually prefer to be more productive with my time, but with all the hype around Elden Ring, I needed to spend a few hours playing it. A few hours turned into nearly 10 in just one day. So far, I...

First Couple Hours of Elden Ring

February 26, 2022

Elden Ring is the perfect counterpart to Cyberpunk 2077. Both are highly anticipated games by big game development studios with huge fanbases. Both are open world. Both have celebrity tie-ins, Cyberpunk with Keanu Reaves and Elden Ring with George R. R. Martin. Both received lot...

Current Daily Routine and Upcoming Tasks

February 24, 2022

I'm feeling like I'm finally caught up with things I've been working on. Unfortunately, though, that only means that I'm starting to feel like I have time to go through my backlog. There is a huge list of things I need to do, and I never quite feel caught up with them. The best ...

Nihil Sub Sole Novum

February 22, 2022

"What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun." -Eccleisastes 1:9As a software engineer interested in technology and building new things, I've often pondered this ...

Spanish Mondays: Playing Games in Spanish

February 21, 2022

Estoy jugando todos los videojuegos en espanol. Lo bueno es que muchos de los videojuegos modernos tienen demasiadas conversaciones, y son traducidos a casi todos los idiomas. Esto lo uso para me ventaja. Puedo practicar leer y escuchar, y tambien puedo divertirme.

The Mandalorian is the True Star Wars Sequel

February 20, 2022

From the opening scene of The Force Awakens, I felt that something was off. It just didn't feel like Star Wars, and I thought it was because the movie didn't have the George Lucas touch. Say what you want about the prequel trilogy, but even with all of its weirdness, it had Geor...

Inspiration for Coding

February 18, 2022

We often need inspiration for the things we want to do in life. The key to my self-driven nature is that I let myself become wildly inspired by the achievements of others, and then I use that energy to work as hard as I can at something. I will talk about how this relates to wei...

Dividing and Conquering

February 17, 2022

I've been on "vacation" for quite a while now, meaning I haven't had any coding projects on the side that I've been working on. Instead, I've been spending the last 6 weeks since publishing Robot Ops to work on some other things. I've been studying Latin and going through my mas...

The Time a Seagull Ate My Sandwich

February 12, 2022

Point Loma Seafood makes a really great tuna sandwich. My wife and I decided to go to the beach last summer and have a picnic. The seagulls were circling overhead, but they didn't dare come near us. The day was sunny, and the breeze was pleasant. I was eating my sandwich when I ...

Getting Some Much Needed Rest

February 11, 2022

Tonight, I'm taking a bit of rest from blogging. Around this time of year, as we start to approach daylight savings change, my sleep schedule starts to update in anticipation. Basically, I'm not getting good enough sleep these days, and the toll on my body has been noticeable. I...

Looking Forward to Kirby and the Forgotten Land

February 10, 2022

Today's Nintendo Direct featured an update on the upcoming Kirby game. I'm looking forward to this game.The simplicity of Kirby games always appealed to me. He's a cheerful guy with an interesting range of abilities. The music is usually cute and highly energetic. The next ...

Casting to Resolve PHP Array_Merge Warnings

February 09, 2022

PHP Warnings are annoying, but at least they don't break the page or stop the script. I learned something about Warnings and PHP's array_merge function today, and found an easy way to avoid them. $array = ['list', 'of', 'words'];$not_array = ...

Spanish Mondays: Not Doing Well Reading

February 08, 2022

Necesito Leer Mas La ultima mes, no lei tantos libros en espanol que esperaba leer. Todavia tengo la habilidad de entender y escribir en espanol, pero no estoy mejorando tan rapido como antes. El ultimo ano, leia cada dia sin fallar. Pero aho...

Getting Better Through Projects

February 06, 2022

I was asked 6 years ago how I keep up with new trends and technologies in web development. My answer was simple: I'm constantly doing new projects, and the research I do to solve new problems is what keeps me updated on the latest tools for the industry.Since then, I've included...

Keeping SQL Queries Fast for Large Tables

February 05, 2022

I don't have expertise in this topic, only a bit of experience with a problem concerning a particularly large table. Basically, SQL databases can handle lots of data pretty well. There are better databases for handling hundreds of millions and billions of rows of data, but SQL d...

Time for a Makeover

February 04, 2022

Last time, I wrote about the need for doing some upkeep on my blog. Well, it's worse than that.The blog code has had a bug ever since the beginning (about 4 years) that makes it annoying for me to write new posts. I didn't really care about the bug when I first encountered it, s...

Upkeep Necessary

February 01, 2022

Yesterday marked the end of the first month of writing at Might and Myth. I wrote 20 posts and almost 9500 words. The issue I'm having now is that that entire site is on a single html file, so there is no post navigation or links to posts. To make matters worse, I didn't add ids...

Holding the Popular Opinion Does Not Make You Smart

January 28, 2022

For the past year, I've interacted with people in real life who claim anti-vaxxers are unintelligent, science-denying troglodytes. Years and years ago, my old roommate showed me a book that claimed sunscreen was causing cancer, not the sun. I mocked the book's author and said su...

Weirdness with Wordle

January 26, 2022

I saw a game mentioned on Twitter called Wordle. It's a simple word game where you have 6 guesses to correctly guess a hidden 5-letter word. The game is very simple, but it's pretty captivating for what it is.It's so simple and so captivating, in fact, that some people have alre...

Gaming as a Service

January 25, 2022

My only thoughts on the recent Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard are related to the Game Pass subscription service. I'm guessing a lot of people are excited about this as it would open up Game Pass to plenty of big titles from both companies. And with this, it seems m...

The Goal of Technology

January 23, 2022

As I continue my studies in the "humanities", my vision and goals for what I want to accomplish in the field of technology become more clear to me. Ultimately, it comes down to understanding the purpose of technology: to improve people's lives. Technology should be used where ne...

Reprioritization

January 22, 2022

After I finished Robot Ops in December, I started immediately tinkering around in Blender. However, I've decided to put that off for a while. It has been almost 3 weeks since I did anything directly related to my next video game, and I haven't even had a side project to write co...

Robot Ops OST Released

January 20, 2022

All of the music for my game Robot Ops found here: Robot Ops OST I'm pleased with the result. There's a huge variety of music in this game. The tracks feature music inspired from a variety of genres, including electronic dance pop, 80s s...

January 19, 2022

I finally put together all of the music for Robot Ops in a video. In a short while, the video will be finished writing. After that, I'll upload it to YouTube. And after that, I'll update this post or a followup with the link to the video. I might still release the music in an mp...

Some Crossover between IT and Software Development

January 18, 2022

I got my start in programming by learning to code in order to make a video game. At the exact same time, I was studying to take the CompTIA A+ certification. The A+ study guide and a Java For Dummies books were the only resources I had that introduced me to the world of computer...

January 15, 2022

I'm a software developer and mobile game developer. I've published a few games to Google Play under the developer title "Mad Coat Productions", and I have one of those games on the Apple App Store. I maintain two blogs where I write daily. My writing on Might and Myth focuses...

Procedural Thinking vs Problem Thinking

January 13, 2022

Procedural ThinkingProcedural Thinking is when you work out the solution to a problem in a step-by-step fashion. Examples would be following instructions for setting up a dev environment based on company documentation, going through a text document you created for yourself to re...

First Week, Long Week

January 07, 2022

The first work week of the year was indeed a long one. I didn't feel refreshed coming back after the holidays, since I didn't take a vacation. Despite having unlimited PTO, I didn't use any of it in an attempt to finish off the year strong working on a longstanding issue. ...

How the Daily Posts Will Be Handled from Now On

January 02, 2022

Since I now have 2 blogs, I will divide the daily post-writing between them. This will give the illusion that I have skipped days of writing should I publish something over there instead of here. However, that is not the case. I assure you, I have every intention to continue wri...

January 01, 2022

I will be migrating all posts related to Mythology, History, Literature, Lifting, and Language to https://www.mightandmyth.com.

December 31, 2021

2021 has been a huge year for me. I've accomplished all of the goals I set out to. I'm very happy with my achievements this year in a number of areas. 1. Finished Robot OpsFor the first time in several years, I released a new game. This game ...

Break from Tech

December 30, 2021

Programmers are naturally interested in technology, yet there is a trend among them to let that interest define their personality. This is the geek culture side of software. It's something that probably mostly exists online, as that is where I normally see it. If it's in the act...

A Day of Doing Nothing

December 29, 2021

I was enjoying doing nothing so much that I almost forgot to write about it. Today is my birthday. My wife had been asking me all week what I wanted to do, and my reply was always simply "nothing."I'm a simple man. I want nothing more than no...

Learning Blender

December 28, 2021

A year and a half ago, I started learning Blender. I created some decent beginner models -- 3D versions of my characters from Bad Blaster. Then I stopped for some reason, and this year I started making Robot Ops. I'm now continuing Blender, a...

December 27, 2021

It's no secret that I'm biding time by writing quick posts to keep up with my post-a-day routine. The issue is not that I lack content to write about, but it's about the content I have to write about not having its home yet in my new blog. I ...

Next After Robot Ops

December 26, 2021

I'm finished with Robot Ops. So now, I have a ton of free time. Here's my to-do list.1. Learn LatinFor Christmas, I received the Latin Vulgate Bible. That concludes all of the "starter" resources I have for learning Latin: Wheelock's Latin, a Latin dictionary, Latin Grammar for ...

Merry Christmas

December 25, 2021

Merry Christmas!

Bad News for Robot Ops iOS Release

December 24, 2021

Looks like the iOS release for Robot Ops will be delayed indefinitely. The reason for this is that the game is only compatible with OpenGL 2.0, and that graphics library is deprecated on new iOS devices. I can't build the game on iOS without some tools that are not yet available...

The Matrix 4: Reviews

December 23, 2021

WARNING: SPOILERS!There will be spoilers for The Matrix: Resurrections in this post! Turn away now if you haven't seen the movie yet!Second warning: Spoilers AheadI just finished watching The Matrix: Resurrections. I previously wrote about my predictions for the movie. While par...

Robot Ops iOS Release and Next Steps

December 22, 2021

Robot Ops is available for Android on Google Play. Tomorrow, I'm starting the process of getting it ready for iOS. The App Store review process usually takes a little longer than the Google process, so it might take about a week for the game to be available for iPhone.After the ...

Robot Ops is Available Now

December 21, 2021

Robot Ops is available now on Google Play! Get it here

Robot Ops is Officially Submitted to the Google Play Store

December 20, 2021

Robot Ops will shortly be available on Google Play. I spent the evening creating last-second assets for Google's store listing. The app has to go through review nowadays; it's not like the wild west when Google would publish anything. But hav...

December 19, 2021

I just finished development on version 1.0.0 of Robot Ops. I'm ready to release it. I made it just in time for the end of Fall 2021. I don't know if the game will be live on Google Play by tomorrow, but I will submit it tomorrow. More updates soon. In the meantime, here's t...

Finishing Strong

December 18, 2021

I'm finishing up the final 2 items for Robot Ops. Afterward, I'll start working on the assets for release, which will include launcher icons and a short gameplay video. This is it. This is the final stretch. Time to finish strong.

Last Weekend of Robot Ops Development

December 17, 2021

This is the last weekend of Robot Ops development before its release. I'm still not sure how much more time I'll end up spending on it, but as of right now, I don't have much work left to do. The final thing I'm going to be trying to improve ...

Why Make Games?

December 16, 2021

Recently, I've begun to wonder why I bother making video games. I enjoy games, and I enjoy creating little characters and such. But, there are easier ways to make those things "come to life." Video games are one of the hardest ways to make them come to life, in terms of the amou...

Final Push Day 3

December 15, 2021

This is the third day in the row of me trying to finish my game before the 21st. I made some progress yesterday, but I still have a few things left to do. Mostly, I'm struggling with deciding what not to do. That's a little more difficult than I imagined it to be, because as muc...

Day 2 of Final Push

December 14, 2021

This is Day 2 of my final push to finish Robot Ops. Progress is looking great. All music is done. All sound effects are done. I've made all the art and animations, and I've double checked every map in the game. I'm still not sure if I'll be a...

Robot Ops Release Schedule

December 13, 2021

Winter starts next Tuesday, which means I have one week left to finish Robot Ops if I want to make it within my release window of "Fall 2021". I do care about missing the window. But, as much as I try to make the release date, I don't know if it will be possible.I don't have any...

Arcade Galaxy Music from Robot Ops

December 12, 2021

Arcade Galaxy is one of the areas in Robot Ops. Heroes can jump higher in the low gravity of Arcade Galaxy, a colorfully decorated, giant, abandoned space station orbiting the planet. This area's name is of a rather grim origin.Arcade Galaxy's OriginArcade Galaxy used to be an a...

Feels Weird, Picking it Up

December 11, 2021

"Feels weird, picking it up" I can't say how many times that line has interrupted a YouTube video I'm watching. It's the first line from a "Falcon and Winter Soldier" commercial, and it's meant to somehow convince people to watch the show. I ...

Writing Music for My Game

December 10, 2021

I thought I was done writing music for Robot Ops, but after surveying the levels I have and the songs in the game already, it turns out I was missing 2 or 3 songs. So I'm back to writing music for Robot Ops. There is a distinct difference in the music I wrote toward the beg...

Updating the Implementation

December 09, 2021

Updating the implementation of a product is fun, but it's not a substitute for creating actually new products. Sometimes the reason for updating a project is due to what's called Tech Debt. Other times it's simply a project decided to be necessary by a lead engineer. Either way,...

Cyberpunk 2077 is the Future, and That is Not Good

December 08, 2021

The cyberpunk future silicon valley and big tech promised us is failing to materialize. Keep in mind that cyberpunk is the more disgusting take on the technologically enhanced future we envision for ourselves; the more optimistic aspirations more closely resemble Star Trek or St...

Feeling Good About Games

December 07, 2021

While working on Robot Ops, I went through many phases of emotions about the game. Sometimes I felt enthused about it; other times I felt discouraged. I've noticed a pattern while working on games where I tend to lose energy right when I'm about to finish. This time, I'm relying...

Spanish Mondays: Last Spanish Monday

December 06, 2021

El Ultimo Dia de los Lunes en EspanolEste es mi ultimo "Spanish Monday" en este blog. De hoy en adelante, voy a escribir en espanol en mi segundo blog.Este es parte de mi plan para escribir mas en este blog sobre las temas de la programacion, los videojuegos, y cosas asi. Quizas...

You Are Not Sick, You Are Damage Boosting

December 05, 2021

Gamers don't get sick. We damage boost.Today I'm talking about Damage Boosting in video games and comparing it to modern game's regenerating health damage systems, which incentivizes what I call Damage Roosting. Damage Boosting is fun. Damage Roosting is not. There is an alterna...

Is Programming Logical or Linguistic?

December 04, 2021

I know people who consider programming to be a very logical thing to them. They approach programming as they would approach solving a math problem. When I learned programming, I didn't know any other programmers. I was sitting in my room writ...

December 03, 2021

I've been writing every day for over three months now, and it has helped me in ways I didn't imagine. That said, there is merit in having a general theme to write about. I've noticed that there is definitely a drawback to writing every day without a true focus. I change up the t...

Suggesting Improvements

December 02, 2021

When someone does something funny, interesting, spectacular, or even just notable, don't recommend what you would have done to improve it. For example, if someone announces that they are learning to paint in watercolor, don't recommend that t...

Entering the Last Month of Development for Robot Ops

December 01, 2021

At this point, I have about 3 weeks left until Fall is over. I said I would release Robot Ops in Fall 2021, and that's what I still intend to do. My least favorite part of releasing games is creating the app store icons, copy, and store listi...

The Journey Does Not Wait for You to be Ready

November 30, 2021

In The Hobbit, Bilbo was not ready for an adventure. Gandalf came to him and said there was an adventure; he was needed the next day. Bilbo liked his quiet life in the Shire, and he was neither prepared for nor desiring a long journey across Middle Earth. But nevertheless, ...

Spanish Mondays: Reading in Spanish Pt 2

November 29, 2021

Leer en Espanol Leer en espanol es la cosa que ha mejorado mi nivel de entender el idioma mas que nada. Si, es importante platicar con otras personas, pero leer me ha servido bien. Leer es una de las cosas mas imporantes que se puede hacer pa...

A Look at Robot Ops Animations

November 28, 2021

I wasn't planning on doing any more "how to" type posts on my blog, so this one won't really be a "how to". Instead, I'm just going to take advantage of an image I captured recently that shows some of the workings of how Robot Ops' animation and drawing framework works.While wor...

November 27, 2021

Fun Fact: Fun facts are not interesting. When someone announces an incoming "fun fact" in normal conversation, it's very annoying to the normal people who just want to follow the flow of the conversation. A fun fact is always never about the ...

Trucks and Buying the Christmas Tree

November 26, 2021

My wife and I have bought Christmas trees together every year since we've been married. And every year, I would have such difficulty stuffing it into one of our 4-door sedans that I would swear to buy a truck for the next year's tree. I never did buy a truck for 4 years. But tod...

Happy Thanksgiving

November 25, 2021

Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy the time with your family. Don't count your calories. Just enjoy the food, stay warm, and relax. This is a day to enjoy the harvest of your labors, and to be thankful for all that God has given you.

November 24, 2021

I don't like the archetype of "The Nice Guy". There are so many men who try to be the "nice" guy, but it is a horrible thing to aspire to be. This thought came to me when my wife was watching Vampire Diaries and asked me which character I liked better: Damon or Stefan. I said Da...

November 23, 2021

I wrote recently about my backlog. One of the items I'm now pursuing is learning Latin. I have various reasons for wanting to learn Latin. The foremost among them is to go back through the early Church history and read the writings of the early Christian church in the origi...

Spanish Mondays: Reading in Spanish

November 22, 2021

LibbyEstoy usando un app llamado Libby para leer libros en espanol. El app esta buena, y es muy facil para obtener libros. Pero, el problema es que es un app de unas bibliotecas. Esto quiere decir que hay que devolver los libros dentro de unas semanas. Ahorita, estoy en la pagin...

The Backlog is Real

November 21, 2021

I have a really large backlog of things to do. I'm keeping everything focused for now and sticking with making Robot Ops and Spanish, but there are things I've added to my list that will take me a lot of time to finish. The more focused you can be, the better, and that's why I'm...

Making the Final Boss for Robot Ops

November 20, 2021

This week, I started brainstorming ideas for the final boss fight in Robot Ops. I'm about 40% to 60% done with the design of the final boss fight, so I still have a bit to figure out. This is the second final boss fight I've made in a video game. I can say that from a game desig...

The Rainbow Bridge Bifrost from Norse Mythology is Real

November 20, 2021

The Rainbow Bridge called the Bifrost from Norse Mythology is real. The Bifrost in Norse mythology is the rainbow bridge that connects the land of humans to the land of the gods. It's described as being a gigantic bridge made of light -- yes,...

Keyboard Problems

November 19, 2021

My post today will have to be short. I was about halfway through writing today's original post, but my keyboard started to fail. I spent about 20 minutes trying to fix the switch, but I think it might be an electrical issue. It's a shame, because I really like this keyboard...

Speculation on Pyramids

November 18, 2021

I previously wrote about the existence of unicorns and the existence of cockatrices. I actually believe that there is a good chance cockatrices were simply the old term for dinosaurs, but that's not the point of this post. Today I'm talking about my process for coming up with th...

Playing Halo for the First Time in 10 Years

November 17, 2021

The last Halo game I played was Halo 4. It really wasn't a terrible game, but I didn't really enjoy it like I had enjoyed Halo 3. The first 3 Halo games felt like a complete trilogy, and Halo 4 felt like it was trying to recreate some of the dynamics of the first game, but witho...

Connections to the Past

November 16, 2021

I recently read part of the Christian mass in Latin. Reading it and repeating it in Latin felt different to me than merely reading it in English or Spanish. I couldn't figure out why, at first; the New Testament was first written in Greek before Latin, so it couldn't be that I w...

Spanish Mondays: Ephemeral Artifacts

November 15, 2021

Artifactos Efimeros Las civilaciones antiguas nos dejaron sus artifactos. Podemos aprender sobre los griegos y romanos porque escribieron poemas, crearon esculpturas, e hicieron edicifios bonitos. Tambien tenemos las catedrales medievales her...

Time Jumps in TV Shows

November 14, 2021

Time jumps are an interesting feature in tv shows. Time jumps are the term used to describe a rapid advance in months, years, or even decades in stories. In TV shows, they most commonly occur between seasons. Time jumps occur in other media, too, but tv shows seem to abuse them....

GTA Definitive Trilogy: Draw Limits

November 13, 2021

I haven't played the GTA remastered trilogy yet, and I generally hear good things about the gameplay. The main criticism of the game is coming from people pointing out its silly graphics. I'm not sure how they remastered it, but in some cases, the remastered graphics are noticea...

Application of Mythology: Robots are not New

November 12, 2021

The word "robot" is a new term, first appearing in a 1921 play. In Czech, it means "slave". Though it's a new term, the concept of an automaton is an ancient one. Robots are not sci-fi; they are part of mythology. Ancient RobotsI'm quoting fr...

November 11, 2021

I recommend every man read and understand mythology, particularly classical mythology. To get the Cliff's Notes version of mythology, read Thomas Bulfinch's Mythology. In it, he summarizes classical mythology pretty thoroughly, summarizing almost everything and explaining where ...

Work When You Do Not Feel Like It

November 10, 2021

It's always nice to feel inspired to work. Sometimes, I feel driven to a frenzy with my passion in a project. But, most of the time, it is only discipline that drives me. Some of my best days in the gym have been when I didn't feel like it, a...

I Oppose the Vaccine Mandates

November 09, 2021

I'm against the vaccine mandates. I don't support the so-called right of a company to require its employees to be vaccinated; I also don't support the right of a company to tattoo its employees. I was never against vaccines, but the insanity that the COVID-19 vaccines have broug...

Spanish Mondays: Dune

November 08, 2021

DuneAyer, vi Dune con mi esposa. Estuvo buena la pelicula. Recomiendo verla en el cine en vez de HBO Max. La pelicula se trata de un hombre noble que tiene suenos y visiones del futuro. Su familia es ordenado a viajar a la planeta desierta Ar...

Daylight Savings Time

November 07, 2021

I'm glad daylight savings time is over. I know many people love the sun, and I agree with them. It's just that I enjoy the evenings, also. Since I keep to a strict schedule for morning workouts, I need to go to sleep fairly early. During the summer time, I hardly get any nightti...

Robot Ops Preview: Blizzard Mountain

November 06, 2021

Blizzard Mountain The final section of the game, Blizzard Mountain is located in the frigid regions of the land. Once thought to be uninhabited, it turns out the place is swarming with difficult enemies. Perhaps this is where the final boss w...

Maybe I Should Try Social Media

November 05, 2021

I really don't like social media. My facebook page hasn't been updated in 10 years. I have a Twitter account, but I'm not really doing anything with it. The same goes for Instagram. But maybe I should give some of them a try. Maybe I can gain some attention for my game, rig...

November 04, 2021

I'm so close to finishing Robot Ops. During my "level sweep" I've been balancing the map tiles and changing around the enemies. I've gone through every map but two. Once I'm done with these two, then the game is finished. I'll still have a ha...

Industry Trends and Standards

November 03, 2021

Games are games, and a good game is a good game. Long before video games were invented, the game of chess came into being. Chess didn't update over the years as the game industry was updated. But if chess were invented today, it might look a bit different. It might follow today'...

Envision the Product, Not the Success

November 02, 2021

I don't have any tips on how to be successful. I don't even have any tips on how to make a really great product. But here's a shot at it. 1. Don't envision the success of a product. Focus on its quality.Don't get caught up in ideas of how wel...

Spanish Mondays: The Roaring Twenties

November 01, 2021

Los Felices Años Veinte En los Estados Unidos, los años mil novecientos veinte son conocidos como los Felices Años Veinte. En el año 2019, toda la gente estadounidense estaba emocionada por la proxima decada, los dos mil veinte. Ya la estabamos llamando los Feli...

October 31, 2021

Every Halloween season, I play some horror games and read some horror books. Nothing special about that. This year, I wasn't as successful, since I didn't really read any horror books. The closest I got was "Mirabella y la Clase de Pociones". Oh well, I'll make up for it next mo...

Gamers Cannot Be Tricked

October 30, 2021

I didn't like the new James Bond movie, mainly because of how the character was changed or broke away from tradition. Everyone else in the theater loved it, and everyone I talk to loves it. That's fine. I'm honestly glad they enjoyed it.I learned this lesson about 15 years ago w...

Working Weekends

October 29, 2021

Working weekends isn't fun. Your days off are meant to be your days off. But every once in a while, it happens. For me, it seems to be that every 2-3 months, I get a crazy "work-though-the-weekend" kind of problem at work. As long as it is sp...

October 28, 2021

I will sometimes work very late, way past midnight, when I get into the zone while working on a project. However, due to my strict workout regime, I need a ton of sleep. When I miss sleep due to working late, it affects not just my workouts, but everything else. It's like being ...

Gym Updates: End of Year Goals

October 27, 2021

I haven't had a good gym milestone ever since reaching the 1000 lbs club. I attempted a 425 pound deadlift, but failed. No worries. I'll try again later. With 2 full months left in the year, I'm planning out my end-of-year goals. For Bench Pr...

Cutting Corners vs Wrapping it Up

October 26, 2021

Screw Attack was cut from Metroid Prime. Kraid was cut as well. For Metroid fans, these two things would have been amazing to see in the game, especially Screw Attack. When I played the game as a kid, I always felt like it would have been cool to see a 3D Screw Attack. I even an...

Spanish Mondays: Mirabella y la Clase de Pociones

October 25, 2021

Mirabella y la Clase de Pociones Para practicar espanol, me gusta leer libros que son muy faciles para leer. Lo que estoy leyendo ahora es un libro de ninos que se llama Mirabella y la Clase de Pociones. Se trata de una chica mitad bruja, mit...

Robot Ops Level Sweep

October 24, 2021

I'm sweeping through every level in Robot Ops one by one to finish up the game. Each map is used for 3 different Ops, and so I have to go through each one to update the enemies and double check collision bounds. This isn't a lot of work to do, but it feels sort of tedious. The r...

October 23, 2021

Yesterday I wrote about playfulness and its usefulness in coming up with creative solutions. There's another important ingredient to creativity: risk. Risk is necessary. A life without enough risk is dull, repetitive, and dull. Creativity is ...

October 22, 2021

While striving for excellence, it's important to not get caught up in the seriousness of the pursuit. Creativity comes from playfulness. The best and most creative solutions come from a place of playful experimentation. Seriousness can be hel...

Having Fun while Making Games

October 21, 2021

I don't have a grand grand scheme in making games. It's just something I do for fun.I added characters and abilities to Robot Ops because I thought they would be fun. I thought it would be cool for the "shotgun" attack to be an attack that shoots a ton of bubbles. I though...

Cut the Cutscenes

October 20, 2021

There are many video games these days that are entirely composed of cutscenes. The term "cutscene" itself is no longer even a proper term, as there is no "cut" to a "scene", but rather the entire "game" is a movie and the "cuts" are to "gameplay".Cut the scenes from the ga...

Fake Problems and Irrelevant Questions

October 19, 2021

I've written before about fake problems. Fake problems are those problems related only to the implementation of the solution; they are separate from the original problem being solved in the first place. A fake problem in programming might be tabs-vs-spaces, a company's disagreem...

Spanish Mondays: La Musica

October 18, 2021

La Musica A mi no me gusta escuchar musica con palabras. Prefiero musica instrumental porque escucho musica cuando estoy trabajando. Las palabras me distraen y interrumpen mis pensamientos.Se recomiende escuchar musica en espanol para aprende...

Robot Ops is Almost Complete

October 17, 2021

I'm very close to being done with Robot Ops. I've been working on this game since the beginning of the year, so it feels good to be so close to having it complete. This game is the realization of a game I had envisioned since 2014. Even though I've only been working on the game ...

Robot Ops Character Showcase: Acro + Ghost

October 16, 2021

Acro is the final playable character in my upcoming game Robot Ops. Unlike the other characters, she is accompanied by her own drone named Ghost. Like Robo, she is a ranged attacker. She dual-wields two fully-automatic pistols. She can't use Dash Attack, but can Double Jump inst...

My Short Time with Blender

October 15, 2021

Last year I spent a little time learning Blender 3D modeling and animation. Here are my thoughts after using it for a short time.The Community is AwesomeThere is a ton of community support for Blender. There are hundreds of Blender tutorials on YouTube, and a ton of articles eve...

The Cult of New: Smoke Signals

October 14, 2021

New isn't always better. The pursuit of novelty for novelty's sake is often outright bad. Instead, the pursuit should be for excellence. Why Emphasize "New"?Pay attention to when "new" is used instead of "better". The assumption i...

No Regerts: Why I Will Not Get a Tattoo

October 13, 2021

I have nothing against people with tattoos. They work for some people. I just won't get one. I see getting tattoos as letting someone put permanent graffiti on your body. A tattoo is not your art. It's someone else's. It's their drawing, thei...

St Patrick Drove the Snakes from Ireland

October 12, 2021

As the legend goes, St Patrick drove all the snakes from Ireland in the fifth century A.D. He was in the middle of a 40-day fast, and snakes attacked him. So he chased them all to the sea, forever leaving the island without any snakes.When I heard this as a kid, I just thought i...

Spanish Mondays: Learning Spanish Pt 2

October 11, 2021

Aconsejas Para Aprender EspanolHoy continuo mi serie de aprender espanol con tres aconsejas adicionales. Como he dicho antes, no pretendo dominar espanol. Las cosas siguientes son las que me han ayudado a alcanzar mi nivel actual de habilidad.1. Revisar Diccionarios Especializad...

Skull Fiesta Will Have to Wait

October 10, 2021

I'm pushing back the completion of Skull Fiesta until after I finish with Robot Ops. I'm making too much progress on Robot Ops to justify leaving it alone for a while. I wrote about the importance of momentum recently, and right now the momentum is strong with Robot Ops. I also ...

October 09, 2021

John Carmack on focus: "Focus is a matter of deciding what things you're not going to do.""Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and just keep taking the next step towards completing it. If you aren't sure...

The Importance of Being Cozy

October 08, 2021

I work hard all the time, but I understand that it's important for me to relax here and there. That's why I really enjoy the Fall and Winter months. These months are the best for being cozy.Being cozy means curling up on a couch with a blanket, a book, and a hot drink. I love be...

Thoughts on Game Development: Going Forward

October 07, 2021

I'm a game developer. I don't work for a game development studio, and I've only made 4 games so far. I enjoy games for being games. I don't put ads in my games, and the ones I've released to the public so far have been free. Which means I haven't made any money out of game devel...

Code Thoughts: A Contradiction Operator

October 06, 2021

There is a word in Spanish that is used to affirmatively negate or contradict a previous declaration: "sino". For example, in English I might say "I don't like cats, but dogs." In Spanish, this would be "No me gustan los gatos, sino los perros." In this example, sino is used in ...

Just Shave Your Head

October 05, 2021

If you're balding, just shave your head. The shorter you keep your hair after starting to bald, the less attention you will draw to your baldness. When I see a bald actor in a movie, I usually don't think of them as bald. But when I see someone with long hair and a very obvious ...

Spanish Mondays: Learning Spanish

October 04, 2021

Aprender Español No estoy diciendo que domino el espanol. Todavia estoy aprendiendo el idioma. Aunque no escribo ni hablo bien, puedo entender lo que oigo en espanol y tambien puedo leer muy bien. Estas son tres recomendaciones para aprender...

Robot Ops Character Showcase: Bolt

October 03, 2021

Bolt is one of 4 playable characters in my upcoming game Robot Ops. Like Gnarlos, he is a Melee fighter. However, he differs from Gnarlos in two key ways: his sword can attack enemies all around him, and his abilities are Passive abilities instead of Active. He's also the first ...

Weightlifting is the Ultimate Confidence Booster

October 02, 2021

The easiest way to boost your confidence is to start weightlifting. It's simple. You get stronger, and you look better. There's nothing special about it.You Get StrongThere are other ways to boost your confidence, like getting better at anything. But weightlifting enhances your ...

Halloween Season is Here

October 01, 2021

Halloween Season is here. The blog has been updated, the house has been decorated, and the spooky-themed blog posts can begin. The month of October has always been one of my favorites because of Halloween. Here's what I love about it.The Spooky ThingsI love the decorations, the ...

September 30, 2021

If you come across code you don’t understand, just call it “Tech Debt”. If you find even more code you don’t understand, keep calling it Tech Debt. Eventually, you will have enough Tech Debt to be able to declare bankruptcy. Then you can rewrite all the code in a new lan...

Momentum Defeats Burnout

September 29, 2021

These past few weeks, I've been making a ton of progress on my game. A few days ago, however, I started to feel like I was "burning out". Things at work have been very busy for the past few weeks, I've been recovering more slowly from my workouts this whole month, and I was runn...

Some Harsh Lessons I Have Learned

September 28, 2021

Shut Up and Do the WorkDon't complain about having to do something. If you are going to do it anyway, just get it over with. Complaining about it only makes other people uncomfortable and less likely to appreciate your effort. Make the People...

Spanish Mondays: The Final Monday of September

September 27, 2021

La Ultima SemanaDecidi que iba a escribir en espanol cada lunes en el mes de septiembre. Tambien decidi que iba a hablar espanol cada dia. Hoy es el ultimo lunes del mes, y por eso voy a hablar sobre mi progreso. La semana pasada, si he habla...

More Thoughts on Rhetoric: Feelings Do Not Care About Your Facts

September 26, 2021

A popular conservative has a tweet permanently pinned on his twitter account: "Facts don't care about your feelings." While reading Rhetoric by Aristotle, it became clear to me why that tweet always bothered me:Feelings don't care about your ...

The Real World Resembles Fantasy, Not Sci Fi

September 25, 2021

As I've shown in my posts on unicorns and basilisks, creatures from mythology and fantasy are oftentimes real. But even with today's scientific advancements, the best NASA can do is come up with excuses for why we have to delay going back to the moon by a few years every time th...

Robot Ops Preview: Game Modes

September 24, 2021

There are 4 different "ops" in Robot Ops. With 16 different levels and 3 ops each, that's 48 stars to collect per character, for a total of 192 altogether. Here are the various non-boss ops in the game: ClassicClassic the simplest mode. In Cl...

Robot Ops Preview: Volcano Pyramids

September 23, 2021

Volcano Pyramids Explore the ruins of ancient pyramids carved from a volcano. The lava is still flowing through the halls of these once-massive structures. The ancient civilization was prideful enough to build their temples out of volcanos, a...

The Start of Autumn

September 22, 2021

I love the Fall because the weather gets cooler, the skies get darker, and I become filled with creative energy. I've always said that Autumn and Winter are my most productive seasons; the idea for Robot Ops came to me in the Winter, and now I'm going to be publishing the game i...

Dev Resources: Colors

September 21, 2021

Whether I'm working on a website, a game, or digital art, I'm constantly concerned with choosing the right colors. For Robot Ops, I used a triadic color scheme in the initial stages of development. For my website, I needed to find certain colors that were part of the same family...

Spanish Mondays: Un Poco Mas que Nada

September 20, 2021

Un Poco Mas Que Nada Esta semana, hable un poco mas que hable la semana antes. Pero, eso no significa que hable mucho. Todavia no estoy hablando espanol cada dia.Una cosa interesante paso esta ultima semana. Mi esposa descubio mi blog. Al lee...

Marcus Aurelius Meditations: Quality of Mind

September 19, 2021

Marcus Aurelius' Meditations is a book I consider required reading. It shares many themes with Ecclesiastes; I consider the Meditations to be in many ways a zoomed-in view of the practical advice given in Ecclesiastes. Later, I will compare the two directly. But for now, I want ...

September 18, 2021

One Year Ago... ...my blog had 23 posts. My first blog post was published on March 17, 2018. On August 18, 2020, I wrote the 23rd post, called Music for Programming. My rate for writing blog posts at that time was 1 post every 39 days. I was ...

Game Design: Cats vs Dogs

September 17, 2021

I'm a dog person, but when it comes to game design, cats are a better choice for playable or main characters. Dogs are better as supporting characters or companion characters.DogsDogs' key qualities are loyalty, expressiveness, and trainability. They are often bred to assist hum...

Spooky Songs from Robot Ops

September 16, 2021

I can't resist Halloween posting in September. Here are the 3 songs from the Deep Dungeon levels in Robot Ops. Robert Tamayo 2 · Robot Ops Deep Dungeon Deep Dungeon -- HuntDeep Dungeon -- GatherDeep Dungeon -- ClassicDeep Dungeon is the "...

Bad Blaster OST

September 15, 2021

Bad Blaster is the first game I made, and it was the first OST I made for a game. The mixing on the tracks is horrible, so use good headphones when listening to it. My personal favorites are "Night", "Embark", and "Escape". iframe { ma...

PHP is a Chimera

September 14, 2021

I don't get the hate for PHP. It's a decent language with cool features like variable variables.But after working with PHP professionally for 5 years, I've noticed some strange things about the language. I didn't notice anything that made me hate the language -- I just noti...

Spanish Mondays: An Update with Little Progress

September 13, 2021

Primero, Lo BuenoLo bueno es que sigo escribiendo en espanol. Por eso, estoy contento. Tambien estoy leyendo en espanol cada dia. Leer es muy importante para aumentar el vocabulario.Segundo, Lo MaloLo malo es que no estoy hablando espanol con mi esposa. No se por que. La verdad ...

Eat the Ingredients

September 12, 2021

I'm currently 165-168 lbs. At my heaviest, I was almost 190 lbs. I was able to drop from 190 to 175 in just a few months by only doing one simple thing: I only ate the ingredients. Eat the IngredientsThe rule is simple: when you go to the sto...

Punk Game Development

September 11, 2021

I don't consider myself an Indie Game Developer. I'm a Punk Game Developer. The 4 games I've released so far would be classified as Indie Games, but I don't see them that way. They are Punk Games.What's an Indie Game?Indie Games are games mad...

Skull Fiesta OST

September 10, 2021

Skull Fiesta is an upcoming remake of a mobile game I created years ago. I never released the game to the public, but the game was 100% complete at the time.I'm planning to release the remaster this October. In the meantime, enjoy the music from the original:Skull Fiesta OST ...

Matrix 4: Predictions

September 09, 2021

When the new Matrix 4 trailer was announced, I made some predictions about what this new installment would be about. I had literally nothing to go off of but the memories I have of seeing the original trilogy more than 10 years ago. I didn't look at anyone else's predictions or ...

September 08, 2021

I've been an INTP every time I've taken the Myers Briggs test. For years, I've thought that an INTP was simply an INTJ that doesn't follow through on their projects. I also believe that an INTP can become an INTJ by striving to work harder and complete the various projects he st...

Robot Ops Character Showcase: Gnarlos

September 07, 2021

Gnarlos is one of 4 playable characters in my upcoming game Robot Ops. Unlike Robo, he specializes in Melee combat, utilizing an array of weapons in various fighting styles.Melee attacker with 6 different fighting stylesHas a more powerful dash attack than RoboAll attacks stun e...

Spanish Mondays: Progress Report

September 06, 2021

La Semana PasadaLa semana pasada, decidi que escibiria en espanol los lunes. Tambien decidi que hablaria en espanol con mi esposa cada dia. Hoy, estoy escribiendo en espanol. Pero, la verdad es que no hable con mi esposa cada dia. Nada mas hable en espanol con ella unos dos o tr...

The Best Part About 3 Day Weekends

September 05, 2021

Whenever a 3 day weekend rolls around, I see it one way: time for me to get more work done. I always have some kind of project I'm working on. An extra day off work means an extra day to work on my project. Robot Ops is almost finished, and I...

Gym Milestone: 365lbs Squat and 1000 Pound Club

September 04, 2021

Last Saturday, I wrote about my milestone of reaching Category IV for Squats at my bodyweight. I didn't feel like doing squats today, so I went ahead and trained for my 1RM instead. I know I said I didn't like doing 1RM attempts because they ...

Halloween Site Theme Preview

September 03, 2021

I update my site every October to a Halloween Theme. Since last year didn't have enough Halloween things, I'm adding the Halloween theme early. But it's behind a link on my home page. Click on "Halloween Theme" on the home page to change the experience to Halloween Theme.The Lin...

CSS That Responds to User Color Theme Preference

September 02, 2021

Many users prefer dark color schemes on their computers. I'm one of them. CSS media queries can be used to change the look of a site using the user's preference. I made an update a while back to my website and blog so that the home page and blog will respond to a user's color th...

The Importance of Routine in Creativity

September 01, 2021

Creative people tend to be thought of as non-conformists. They are regarded as eccentric and capricious rebels. Maybe they are thought of as troubled. They don't fit in with normal society.But I think that's just how they seem at a glance. Im...

Skull Fiesta will Live On

August 31, 2021

In 2015, I released a game called Skull Fiesta on the Google Play store. I left the game in a closed Beta status since then. Eventually, it was taken down. It's a very simple mobile game, and by "mobile game" I mean a small, pickup-and-play minigame of sorts.Skull Fiesta in 2015...

August 30, 2021

Hoy Día Normalmente, los lunes no trabajo en mi videojuego. Los fines de semana son mis días mas productivos para trabajar, y es común que para la noche de Domingo he laborado una docena de horas en mi proyecto. Para que no me ca...

The Asch Experiment and Rhetoric by Aristotle

August 29, 2021

I've only just begun reading Rhetoric by Aristotle, but one of the early lines reminded me of the Asch Experiment. Aristotle says in Rhetoric: ...before some audiences not even the possession of the exactest knowledge will make it easy fo...

Gym Milestone: Category IV for Squats

August 28, 2021

Today is a good day for my lifting progress.I've reached the Advanced level for SquatsUsing the Starting Strength standards found here (pdf link), and the 1 Rep Max Calculator found here, I can finally say that I've reached Category IV (Advanced) for Squats at 165 lbs. body...

Were Basilisks and Cockatrices Real?

August 27, 2021

In a previous post, I wrote about the existence of unicorns. Today, I'm going to explore the possible existence of the Cockatrice, also called a Basilisk. The Cockatrice ...

Why Some People Never Make Video Games

August 26, 2021

In yesterday's post, I talked about how I got into making video games. Getting into video games was mostly a culmination of various other skills that I had acquired over the years. I play video games, and yes, I'm a gamer. But most people I know who want to make video games neve...

How I Got into Making Video Games

August 25, 2021

Full disclosure: I haven't created anything that could be considered a "success." However, I have created many things in my time, and I've gone through many creative and obsessive cycles. My current cycle has me creating video games. I don't work for a video game studio, an...

Robot Ops Character Showcase: Robo

August 24, 2021

Robo is one of 4 playable characters in my upcoming game Robot Ops.He is a ranged attacker with 6 different weaponsHis dash attack enables him to cross large distances or rebound off of enemiesHere are his weapons in action! Star Shot via GI...

How Easy it is to Sell Out

August 23, 2021

It's easier to sell out than you think. You might have already done it. I know I have...in the past.Selling Out Selling out typically means supporting a view you wouldn't normally be bothered with supporting, or adopting a style that you woul...

Revolve Ping Pong

August 22, 2021

Introducing Revolve Ping Pong. I released this game 2 years ago. Featuring music from Exist in Sound. It's a free game; no in-app purchases or ads. Available on Android and iOS.Revolve Ping Pong Get it Free for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.m...

Hosting Problems

August 21, 2021

Earlier this week, I wrote a post on how programming requires little more than your own head to build things. I had intended to follow it up with a post about what programming actually does require in terms of physical materials and resources. I wasn’t in a rush to write it, t...

Avoid Syntax Highlighters when Learning Code

August 20, 2021

To gain the superpower of being able to instantly spot syntax errors in code, write your code in Notepad or TextEdit when learning. The syntax highlighting is helpful, but the lesson is not learned. You won't learn to see errors; you will only learn to look for the red and make ...

Learning by Doing vs Learning by Learning

August 19, 2021

One of our local high schools emphasizes project-based learning. They claim this is superior to "book-learning", but I'm not convinced. Both have their uses, but project-based learning especially excels when breaking new ground. A typical high school education is merely a survey...

Introducing Robot Ops

August 18, 2021

I've been busy since January working on my latest game. Enjoy the preview.Robot Ops Maybe I'm too much of a fan of this recent trend of remasters and remakes; this game is itself a sort of a remaster of a game I released in 2014. That game was ultimately removed from the Andr...

Unicorns Are Real

August 17, 2021

Intuition is a valuable quality for a programmer to possess. And while Sherlock may tout deductive reasoning as supreme, inductive reasoning can lead to many correct, albeit fuzzy, beliefs. These fuzzy beliefs are a great resource, as they keep the mind open and free, ready to a...

The Appeal of Programming

August 16, 2021

The appeal of programming is the ability to execute an idea and build a product out of thin air. John Carmack understands this and articulates it perfectly: "In the information age, the barriers [to entry into programming] just aren't there. The barriers are self imposed. If ...

Music for Programming

August 18, 2020

A while back I saw a post on Hacker News called "Music for Programming". It turned out there is a site called just that – musicforprogramming.net – and it has some very good music for programming. Their about page lays out their philosophy; the best music for programming is ...

The Best Life Hack is to Improve Yourself at Something Every Single Day

August 11, 2020

This is a life hack aimed at fixing pessimists. Yes, pessimists need to be fixed. Although they are unpleasant to be around, this fix isn't for me; it's for them. Negativity can cause you to die sooner. Pessimism and hopelessness causes your ...

Being Smart Means Nothing if You Are Not Dumb Enough to Do Something About It

August 10, 2020

Analysis Paralysis is what happens to smart people. With increased intellect comes the ability to think about a problem from many different angles, finding the perfect solution. And if you're smart enough, you will be able to think about it much more deeply, iterating over a wid...

Modern JavaScript is Full of Glitch Hacks

June 09, 2020

Modern JavaScript is full of glitch hacks that aren't tolerated in other languages. A glitch hack is a video game term describing a glitch (bug) that has been exploited by the player to give them an advantage. One of the most famous glitch hacks is Wave Dashing from Super S...

Create What You Consume

April 27, 2020

One of the reasons I blog about code is because I write a lot of code. It's always on my mind. At the end of a day I have always solved some kind of problem, created some new product, or fixed some crazy bug, and it gives me material to write about. I also spend a lot of time re...

Weird Things in JavaScript

January 31, 2020

"Mastering" a programming language is more about understanding why things aren't working the way you expect them to work. A common example of this is when working with an array that is passed into a function as an argument. Inside the function, is the array the exact same array ...

January 30, 2020

Comparing React and Java would have been as silly as comparing fiction to sculptures a few years ago, but ever since JavaScript went all "shots fired" against Java with React Native, the comparison is actually relevant. I work as a Software Engineer. I cu...

How Hard is it to Make Video Games?

January 02, 2020

I taught myself Java while making a mobile video game for Android called Bad Blaster. The game is a very simple 2D platformer. I drew everything, coded everything, and made all the music. I released it in 2014. It has 2 playable characters and 41 levels across 3 different wor...

Are You Thinking, or Do You Just Think You're Thinking?

October 28, 2019

There is no such thing as "thinking in React". There is no "thinking in JavaScript"; there isn't even a "thinking in code". If you think that you are thinking in React, you only think you are thinking.That's true by definition. If I am thinking in React, then technically React i...

Super Simple Javascript and HTML Syntax Highlighter

July 07, 2019

Before last week, all the code on my posts was in one color. I built this blog myself, and so instead of finding a 3rd party solution, I decided to build the syntax highlighter myself. My solution was very simple. The constraint was that it h...

This Time I Make Something Silly, Like a JS Framework as a jQuery Plugin

July 04, 2019

My most recent 2 web apps were made using React. I enjoyed React's benefits over jQuery for managing large amounts of data and updating the DOM accordingly. So naturally, I wanted to cheat a little the next time I was working on a project that only had jQuery.There were 3 parts ...

2D Procedural Graphics with WebGL – Tornado Attack from My Game RoboBot

March 11, 2019

After finishing my first game Bad Blaster in 2015, I started making another one called RoboBot. I had spent a lot of time on the artwork for Bad Blaster, and so for RoboBot I wanted a simpler graphical design that was still visually impressive. I then went on a rampage and creat...

Enhancing the Simple JavaScript Template Renderer

January 29, 2019

Previously, I wrote about making a simple JavaScript template renderer. It was basically a simple function that would take data in JSON format and use it to render a template.Recently, I needed to enhance it a little. I originally built it so that I wouldn't have to pull in a 3r...

How Important is Math to a Programmer?

January 17, 2019

Before I knew what it was called, I was using something called procedural graphics. I figured that as a solo game developer, I couldn't spend too much time drawing everything I wanted to draw, so why not code it instead? In the process, I created some pretty incredible effects f...

How to Write a Script to Approve Comments Before Displaying Them

January 13, 2019

I recently added the ability to add comments to this blog. I checked in a month later, and there were of course plenty of spam comments. Some were even posing as me. But of course, that's all fixed now, because I wrote a very simple script that forces comments to be approved bef...

Locking a User Account with PHP and MySQL

November 04, 2018

Locking users out of their accounts after a certain number of unsuccessful login attempts is one of the most basic security measures you can take. I have a handful of personal applications which require a user to log in, and so I needed a way to lock out people who might try bru...

Who Built That?

September 08, 2018

A coworker just finished a project he had been working on for weeks. The product manager sent out an email congratulating him, and then gave a demo of the new product. As he was demonstrating it, I thought to myself, does he think it was he who built this, and not the developer?...

Sending a POST Request in Android

August 13, 2018

It's easy to send an ajax request with POST data from the web, but the first time I needed to do this in Android I found it was a little different. To make things more complicated, Android has deprecated the DefaultHTTPClient class, so when I wanted to reuse old code for sending...

ES6 Javascript Features and Modules Using Rollup, Babel, and Uglify

July 04, 2018

By now, almost all browsers support es6 JavaScript modules, but because Internet Explorer still doesn't support them, I needed to find a backwards compatible solution. In addition, other es6 features such as arrow functions aren't supported by Internet Explorer, and Uglify has t...

Adding Comments to a Blog Part 2: The Frontend

May 27, 2018

In part one of this series, I covered how to prepare the backend API and database for blog comments. This time, I'm going to cover the frontend, which is what the user actually sees and interacts with to write and post a comment. When I first design something, I think in terms o...

Adding Comments to a Blog Part 1: The Backend

April 17, 2018

When I first began learning web development a couple years ago, I decided to take on a couple of "big" projects to help me learn, the first of which being to write my own blogging platform that I could use on websites I build. The blogging platform I'm using to write this post i...

ADA-Friendly Audio Web Page Navigation

March 31, 2018

A while ago I was working on making a store locator ADA compliant. This was my first time working with things like aria-label attributes, screen readers, skip links, and tab-based navigation. I got to the point where the page was working with a screen reader and by using tab nav...

Simple Javascript Template

March 17, 2018

Javascript templating frameworks separate code from html. They also keep things clean. Let's say you have two variables, className and content, and need to use them to create a message somewhere on your page in an async callback function. ...