Today I’m taking a train from Amsterdam to Paris, a trip I’ve done several times in the last few years. Looking out the windows as we pass by canals bordered by tall leaning houses, I am reminded of our last trip to France six months earlier. We drove down to Caen (pronounced Kah) for five
Category: Uncategorized
The Wheel of Time Books Ranked from Worst to Best without Spoilers
I have read the Wheel of Time in its entirety, three times now, and have read a good number of books in the series as many as five times. It is quite the undertaking, and a younger me would be very surprised at my repeated return to these novels. After all, getting through all fourteen
Continue reading The Wheel of Time Books Ranked from Worst to Best without Spoilers
Writing Better Practical Tests For The Games Industry
This is a repost of my article from the Tiny Hydra blog posted May, 31st 2021. I have been doing design and development tests for over a decade now (I even did some art tests early in my career) and I have come to the conclusion that most tests are bad. The idea of testing
Continue reading Writing Better Practical Tests For The Games Industry
Great (But Not Really Easy) Sourdough Recipe
I consider myself an experienced chef. I started cooking in restaurants when I was 16, well I started cleaning dishes in restaurants but I moved onto salads fairly quickly. By the time I was in my sophomore year of college I knew I did not want to be a professional chef, and quit that job
Continue reading Great (But Not Really Easy) Sourdough Recipe
GIST for Games (Development): Is GIST the Right Tool for Your Project Planning?
One of the weaknesses of the game industry is that we are fairly slow to adopt new processes. A great framework that has come out in the last few years is GIST. It allows teams to eliminate the use of road-maps and stay Agile in their planning as well as their implementation. This article will
Continue reading GIST for Games (Development): Is GIST the Right Tool for Your Project Planning?
Niche Game Development Disciplines: How to Specialize in Technical Design
This is a repost of my post to the Tiny Hydra blog. To read the original go here. I’m often asked by my former students, “What skills should I really be learning to get into the industry?” The answer to this question is really complicated, and depends largely on what the person wants to do.
Continue reading Niche Game Development Disciplines: How to Specialize in Technical Design
A Sourdough Starter For Homebrewers
As a brewer I have a lot of ingredients that, surprisingly, we don’t think about much when it comes to baking. In my home I have malted grains, I have wheat, I have yeast. Oh we think about this stuff in the sense that we think about where we need to go buy this in
Game Systems Analysis: Creating a Competitive Pacifistic Build in Stellaris
With Covid-19 we are all spending a lot of time at home, and have taken up many hobbies. But it can’t all be fun and… never mind, sometimes your professional appetites leak in. To that end I’ve been trying to do a deep dive on a highly complex game Stellaris. If you haven’t played Stellaris,
Continue reading Game Systems Analysis: Creating a Competitive Pacifistic Build in Stellaris
Musings on Improved Efficiency During COVID-19 Shelter in Place
Does a time come for every business when the CEO thinks, ‘We really should just get rid of our offices…’? Right now, I’m hoping our CEO is thinking something along those lines. Maybe not getting rid of our offices entirely, but just paring down to a nice place to show visitors and a storage space
Continue reading Musings on Improved Efficiency During COVID-19 Shelter in Place
Animated Shorts MDC 2017
Last semester I taught the Production course for Animation Studio at MDC. It was a really challenging experience. I was told, after the projects were pitched, that I would have about 40 students in the capstone production course. We didn’t, I started production with only 17 students and two of them dropped. As their faculty