Botman’s blog

Joe Hisaishi Live - Summer (from Kikujiro)

I seem to be using this blog to collect things I like. So here is a song my brother showed me that makes you want to be outside in the sun:

 

Todo list for a small project

All part of the 'get something out there' plan.

This is for a Java Applet. Think gameboy Pokemon Red as the graphical style.

Something small and cool:

• New JumpWorlds namespace, with images directory [done]
• Non-scrolling screen [done]
• Accurate FPS meter
• Animated character controlled by the player
• Blocking tiles (e.g. wall or tree)
• Animated pet moves randomly, blocking player

Art:

• grass
• block
• player standing up
• player standing down
• player standing left/right
• player walking up
• player walking down
• player walking left/right
• pet standing up
• pet standing down
• pet standing left/right
• pet walking up
• pet walking down
• pet walking left/right

Things could add:

• Pet emotes when clicked
  • Animated hop
  • 'meow' text
  • Sound effect
• Pet follows/unfollows player when clicked.
• Pet follows in front, beside, or behind player.
• Player can place/remove objects in front

 

Imgfave.com

I discovered imgfave today and I like what I see.

Three great websites

That I learned about today. :)

• Puppies and Explosions 
• Explosions and Boobs 
• Selleck Waterfall Sandwich (Magnum, P.I. makes me want to visit Hawaii)

Thank you, internet god!
~Adam

JumpWorlds day 5

Not that I've been working on JumpWorlds for 5 days, but there you go.

I think Flash might be a dead-end for now. Over the past couple of
years I have run the same basic experiment: using Flash to make a
bitmap-based platformer (think Mario) rather than vector based. It
seems the raw animation grunt is just not there, the animation becomes
very flickery at any speed.

I have played Flash platformers, but I suspect they use movie clips
for all the onscreen entities which does not scale well
performance-wise either.

Sooo, I'm going to experiment with Java applets and compare the
performance. My concern with applets is that the browser will be
sluggish when an applet loading, but we shall see.

JumpWorlds day 1

I'm relearning the basics of bitmaps in Flash (I use the open-source FlashDevelop IDE), for use on my JumpWorlds project. More on JumpWorlds later. :)

Mah brain bucket

I'm always coming up with ideas (for web based games, websites, and stories) but never make them. In part it is because my ideas tend to be big, and I always find my mind focusing on the next idea when I try to work on one.

The problem is the same ideas have stuck with me for years, and my noggin is getting more and more crowded with things I'd like to do. It becomes a bit of a 'which one should I work on' paralysis.

On the other hand, when something is more structured, such as university, I am quite happy plugging away at it for an extended time. This tells me my problem is not just laziness.

So, I'm going to try using this blog as a self-motivational tool. By sharing my ideas, what I'm working on, and related things I find that interest me, rather than working on my projects in isolation, I think I will find it easier to complete things.

Link round-up: 'Fat models, skinny controllers' design pattern for MVC web-development

When using a Model View Controller (MVC) web-development framework
such as CakePHP or Ruby on Rails, the natural tendency seems to be to
write most code (rules, calculations, conditions, etc) in controllers,
and to think of models as very convenient data access ("Yay, no more
writing SQL").

This creates 'fat controllers' and 'skinny models'. As the title of
this post hints at, there is a better way to do things: fat models and
skinny controllers. It is actually a simple change once you know about
it, and offers important benefits. We can also use software design
principles to justify why it is a better approach.

Here are some good links on the subject of fat models, skinny controllers:

http://www.mikebernat.com/blog/MVC_-_Fat_Models_and_Skinny_Controllers_

http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2006/10/18/skinny-controller-fat-model

http://gluei.com/blog/view/cakephp-best-practices-fat-models-and-skinny-controllers

http://www.littlehart.net/atthekeyboard/2007/04/27/fat-models-skinny-controllers/

http://www.mattwoodward.com/blog/index.cfm?event=showEntry&entryId=EBC6C06A-77A0-4186-BD321D6CB2509401

I recommend reading the comments on those sites too, as there are some
insightful comments.

So what are the good software design principles?

Logic should have only one home. When logic is placed
in controllers, it tends to get duplicated when the same logic is
needed elsewhere, leading to maintenance woes. Moving logic to a model
makes it easy to call from any controller (or another model).

Strong cohesion. It is very difficult to reuse a fat
controller as it is going to be doing a lot of different things
(meaning the controller has weak cohesion). A fat model offers many
different operations related to a specific data type, so it resembles
a library of related functions. This stronger cohesion increases the
opportunity to reuse a model without having to change it.

Another nice thing is how easily fat controllers can be refactored
into skinny controllers over time, moving code blocks to models. So
unlike a lot of design patterns, fat models and skinny controllers can
be introduced into established projects.

Edge of the Web 2009

Photo by NathanaelB

I was lucky enough to be sent to Edge of the Web 2009 last week.

Having not been to a big web conference before, I really enjoyed Edge of the Web. The speakers were inspiring and funny, and I came away with plenty of things to google more on (such as using functional languages for web development).

It's also nice that the speakers were so approachable (both at the conference, and at the pub afterwards)!

Derek Powazek, Anil Dash, Alex Payne and Ash Donaldson all gave entertaining talks and I've love to see them speak again.

Ruth Ellison and Simon Pascal Klein were awesomely friendly at the pub after the Web Awards. :)

So yeah, looking forward to next year's EOTW. :)

A parting comment to make this post useful... Did you know the full saying is:

Jack of all trades, master of none,
though ofttimes better than master of one.

I really like that, it turns around the common meaning entirely.

Hello World

Just testing