Twenty Sided

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Dec 13, 2016

 Object-Oriented Debate Part 1: Many Kinds of CodingPrevious Post

Next PostObject Oriented Debate Part 3: Damned if you do... 

To discuss what Object Oriented Programming is, let’s discuss the problem it was designed to solve. Well, let’s get as close as we can to an explanation while keeping this readable for non-coders.

Originally, programming was procedural…

Note: This is different from the kind of “procedural” you find in No Man’s Sky or FUEL. In those games, when we say “procedural” we mean the art assets are created by the program using a set of procedures. In the field of writing code, when we say “procedural” we just mean a program is nothing more than a set of procedures to follow, one after the other. It’s the most obvious and direct way to go about writing software: You tell the computer what to do.

…but the problem (the argument goes) is that procedural programming (PP) can get out of hand in terms of complexity.

Let’s say we’ve got a game. We’ve got a big list of (say) space marines taking part in the simulation. Each space marine is nothing more than a block of data describing where it is, how it’s moving, what weapon it has, how many hit points it has, what team it’s on, what it’s AI is up to, what character model it’s using, if it’s dead, and so on.

Here, let’s make up a pretend data structure to hold our marine:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Object-Oriented Debate Part 2: Okay, so what is OOP?”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Object-Oriented Debate Part 1: Many Kinds of CodingPrevious Post

Next PostObject Oriented Debate Part 3: Damned if you do... 

49 comments

Diecast 180: Game Design By Way of Twitter

By Josh Posted Monday Dec 12, 2016

Filed under: Diecast 68 comments

 Diecast #179: The Game Awards, Mass Effect Andromeda, VRPrevious Post

Next PostDiecast #181: Rogue One, Super Mario Runner, VR 

Direct download (MP3)
Direct download (ogg Vorbis)
Podcast RSS feed.

Hosts: Josh, Rutskarn, Campster. Edited by Josh.

With both Shamus and Mumbles out, Rutskarn proposed something a little different for this show: Before we started, he asked twitter for game pitches. The following podcast is our attempt to design them.

The pitches:

0:02:10 – WRPG about a prisoner trying to escape a dungeon to start an adventure–never succeeding – @justcallmenmd
0:10:40 – Lovecraft-themed Pokemon – @Barmn89
0:16:30 – Open-world crime, real-time sentences @NerbieDansers
0:28:00 – The Sim City of legislation – @ErikRadman
0:33:05 – Mass Effect from POV of Reapers – @bhleb_bhleb22
0:39:40 – Mystic Messenger via Watchdogs 2 – @MrRicce
0:44:30 – Vending machine manager- @BryceWalton
0:51:00 – Game about podcast about designing games – @BryceWalton

Josh Viel is the primary editor and producer of the Spoiler Warning video series. You can support the show by backing the Patreon.

 Diecast #179: The Game Awards, Mass Effect Andromeda, VRPrevious Post

Next PostDiecast #181: Rogue One, Super Mario Runner, VR 

68 comments

Hangout: Overwatch

By Josh Posted Friday Dec 9, 2016

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 18 comments

 Spoiler Warning Does The Jackbox 3Previous Post

Next PostTwenty Minutes With Pre-Dynastic Egypt 

Link (YouTube)

Still no Spoiler Warning this week. Instead, here’s the archive of the Overwatch PTR hangout we did a few weeks back. We played around with the new hero, Sombra, and spent a lot of time losing. And then we stopped playing Sombra and spent a lot of time losing.

Josh Viel is the primary editor and producer of the Spoiler Warning video series. You can support the show by backing the Patreon.

 Spoiler Warning Does The Jackbox 3Previous Post

Next PostTwenty Minutes With Pre-Dynastic Egypt 

18 comments

My Mother

By Rutskarn Posted Thursday Dec 8, 2016

Filed under: Notices 103 comments

 A Trip!Previous Post

Next PostI Messed With Texas 

Sitting in my freezer is a rack of tragedy ribs.

My mother knew my partner and I liked barbecue. Whenever she got the chance and she knew we were coming, she’d have a slab of Texas-style ribs waiting in the fridge that we’d take home and freeze. Considering ribs were just about the only thing we weren’t equipped to make ourselves, and the expense of the meat, and the time and effort they took to make properly, it was a thoughtful and ambitious gesture–the very kind she excelled at.

Her condition fluctuated beyond the doctors’ ability to predict, never mind ours, but some time ago she went through one of her rare and merciful upswells. For a week or two she was well enough to get up, stretch her legs, and–apparently–cook one more Texas-style rack. We ate them as a family, and when we were finished, and I had to go back home, I took the lion’s share home in a Ziploc. We went through them fast, but a few lingered, and a few times late into the night I thought to myself I really needed to eat the damn things fast. I didn’t want to eat my dead mother’s barbecue.

Two months after I found out she wasn’t going to get better, she passed away. That was a week ago.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “My Mother”

Rutskarn is a writer, author, wordsmith, text producer, article deviser, prose architect, and accredited language-talker. If you enjoy his contributions to this site you could always back his Patreon.

 A Trip!Previous Post

Next PostI Messed With Texas 

103 comments

Spoiler Warning Does The Jackbox 3

By Josh Posted Thursday Dec 8, 2016

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 17 comments

 Until Dawn EP12: Dano CliffPrevious Post

Next PostHangout: Overwatch 

Link (YouTube)

So, no Spoiler Warning this week.

But we dicked around for an hour streaming The Jackbox Party Pack 3 on Campster’s twitch channel on Saturday. Rutskarn got to play a Jackbox game for the first time. And Glitch showed up!

So… yay, content! We’re not lazy, we’re just… really lazy.

Actually the Until Dawn season is up in the air for the next few weeks, since holiday shenanigans are now in full swing and we’ve got no idea who’s going to be available when and for what. We’ll see what happens. We also have a few older streams to post, so you can expect to see those later this week. We’ll see what happens.

Josh Viel is the primary editor and producer of the Spoiler Warning video series. You can support the show by backing the Patreon.

 Until Dawn EP12: Dano CliffPrevious Post

Next PostHangout: Overwatch 

17 comments

Crash Dot Com Part 5: It’s in the Can

By Shamus Posted Thursday Dec 8, 2016

Filed under: Personal 77 comments

 Crash Dot Com Part 4: A Moral QuagmirePrevious Post

Next PostCrash Dot Com Part 6: The List™ 

It’s early in the year 2000, and I am trying to build a virtual shopping mall because of the dot-com boom.

Like I said, our company isn’t the typical dot-com startup. Our company is small. There are less than a dozen of us. We’ve been around since the early 90’s, and while we’re not taking over the world we have been self-sufficient for several years.

This is one of the reasons I haven’t run away from this project screaming. The place where I work isn’t some soulless corporate meatgrinder. I don’t work for Dilbert’s pointy-haired boss. I’m not a cog in the machine. I’m a valued member of a small team of friends who have built something valuable together. This team-up with the virtual mall guys has thrown the company off-kilter, but right now this feels like something temporary. I’m not going to quit over one bad project. I’m thinking that someday this project will end and things can go back to the way they were.

Hi. Me-from-2016 again to remind you that the above is how I was thinking at the time. I’m not suggesting my company was perfect. Obviously SOMETHING had gone wrong that we went into business with this other outfit. They didn’t storm the building and point guns at us to make us join them for the virtual mall project. But I didn’t really understand the thinking that drove this decision, and at the time I wasn’t really curious. So let’s just leave it at that, rather than speculating about events I barely remember that involved information I wasn’t privy too in an area of business I didn’t understand.

Anyway, back to THE YEAR TWO THOUSAND…

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Crash Dot Com Part 5: It’s in the Can”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Crash Dot Com Part 4: A Moral QuagmirePrevious Post

Next PostCrash Dot Com Part 6: The List™ 

77 comments

Master of Firin’ Sword CH4: Human Resourceless

By Rutskarn Posted Wednesday Dec 7, 2016

Filed under: Lets Play 50 comments

 Master of Firin' Sword CH3: Knight ErrandsPrevious Post

Next PostMaster of Firin' Sword CH5: The Christmas Bonuses of Sin 

After a day or two in Snechko I find my coffers, and palette of Polish obscenities, greatly expanded. From my interactions with the populace I’d allow that this village provides apprenticeships to all of Poland’s artisanal whiners. One strange Swede rides in and collects taxes at gunpoint on behalf of a warlord and they cry “coercion.”

I intend to give them some perspective on the subject.

But amassing riches isn’t all I care about. All the wealth in the world is worth nothing measured against the company of friends. This is why I’ve elected to buy some.