I'm an Indie Game Developer

Can I say that? Does it make people think I’ll never focus or settle? Are they sighing and looking at me with frustration and thinking “Not this again?” Does it matter what they think? Answer to all: maybe. I have half a dozen self-published, unfinished games that nobody plays up on a free hosting site. They aren’t very good. Three of them are really poor copies of some of the best games of all time....

February 26, 2018

Roll Your Own Name Generator with QPython3 on an Android Device

Welcome to the first of a multi-part series of tutorials on how to develop, source control, and run scripts to control your Android device, using only mobile apps for development. Dev On the Go I recently went on a road trip, and wanted to experiment with a mobile-only workflow. The main components I needed were an interpreter, an IDE, and source control. The suite of apps I discovered and used are as follows: QPython3 (a python IDE and script runner) SGit (source control) LabCoat (GitLab repository viewer) Dropbox (ad-hoc, easy-access file storage) Dropsync (one- or two-way sync between directories on your mobile device) Epsilon Notes (a markdown editor and renderer) In this tutorial, I will cover my experience with QPython3....

October 3, 2017

Installing Terrarium: An Open Source Terraria Clone

Earlier today, I thought: “Man, Terraria sure is a great game. I should make a clone.” Then later today, I thought: “Wait, somebody probably already did that.” And, lo! An open source Terraria clone: Terrarium! But man, I have to install so many dependencies. This kind of thing is a drag. I just want to try it out. Fortunately, the instructions were pretty good. Following the instructions in BUILDING.md, first I installed MinGW and Allegro....

September 23, 2017

Building a Single User Dungeon With Java: The Knights of Something Notable

I wanted to get my hands dirty while making something fun. I LOVE text adventure RPGs, and I LOVE MUDs, so I’m attempting to build a cross between the two: a Single User Dungeon (SUD). A few notes on code quality Most of this code is pretty rough. I was mostly trying things until they worked and reflecting on what went well and what didn’t. I do love that git captures this process for me....

January 2, 2017