Certification

Biproduct:

• linear.py Created a python library for solving linear algebra problems.

Why I Made This

Castle Siege is a vertical slice of an Action-Adventure game made with Unreal Engine. I wanted to learn how to make action games in Unreal using C++ and blueprints. So in January I started taking a Udemy course on Unreal Engine. After completing the course, I wanted to challenge myself to make a game using the concepts taught in the course to prove that I had learned and internalized them. To do this, I used exclusively Unreal documentation and my notes from the course to build Castle Siege. This project gave me a chance to use Anim montages, Anim blueprints, C++, blueprints, and UI widgets without using any tutorials. I completed the course over 4 weeks and the subsequent Castle Siege project in over 2 weeks.

Intro

Earlier this year, I was looking for an alternative to Magic and Hearthstone. Both cost so much to get back into or have really excessive amounts of randomness built into the game. For the few hours I played Hearthstone earlier this year, it became apparent that often you draw a random card and each card you play also causes a random effect! When looking to get back into Magic, I played for a little bit, but after a while it just felt like gambling because the cost of entry into events requires real world money and you had to perform well enough just to play the game for a long time without spending a lot of money. At some point it just felt like the house always won. Then this video about Legends of Runeterra’s economy from The Professor, an MtG content creator, popped up on my youtube recommendations and I haven’t looked back. Legends of Runeterra(LoR) is the best player versus player digital card game I’ve played.

Why did I make this?

There were two goals that I wanted to achieve in making this game. The first was understanding what goes into creating video games. The second goal was to create a turn-based RPG that I could share with friends. This game idea was a mashup of deck builder, rogue-lite, and JRPG genres. Thematically, I wanted the player to experiment, push their limits, and learn that failure can inevitably lead to success.

I used RPG Maker MZ (RMMZ) because it was simple to learn, used javascript for the engine, and would provide a good base to build off of. Since RMMZ is written in javascript, it was easy to share the game with friends through itch.io. They could play the game in their browser.

Project Roguelite Strategy (PRLS) was completed over 1 month, April-May 2021.

Intro

Chrono Trigger is NOT my favorite game. The story was interesting and handled time travel well, but lacked strong emotional beats. “Optional” content wasn’t really optional as the final boss would delete your party if you weren’t 5-10 levels above the previous dungeon’s expected level. That being said, if I played this game when I was 13, this would 100% be my favorite game. I had a blast playing it and despite these small issues, I could easily see myself replaying this bad boy every couple of years.

History

I’ll always hold Final Fantasy X (FFX) as my first “real” game that I played as a kid (I was 8!). FFX was very different from Banjo and Kazooie, or Jak and Daxter. From every intentional note of “Zanarkand” to the mystique of being introduced to characters that wouldn’t be referenced again for 30 hours (I’m looking at you Auron and the kid in the opening scene). But I do think that looking back that’s a bit of a misnomer. This was really the first game that I played with a mature story. I never was able to beat FFX as a kid, and recently I’ve had the itch to go back. I want to share some thoughts on FFX 20 years later. I’m writing this not as a review, but as a way of reflecting on my experience with FFX.

Hackbot inspiration

I’m a Teals volunteer, which means that I volunteer to teach high school students computer science. On day 1, we have the kids load up this game called Light Bot. It’s a pretty short introduction to programming and it’s never really referenced later in the curriculum. I think we can do better.

Why did I make this?

I had the idea for a peasant cube in high school when I realized that a lot of cool draft cards were never played again after a new set came out. I wanted to be able to share some of the coolest cards in magic with my friends, especially as I was about to move to college in Rochester. This set was designed to be easy for new players due to it’s simple cards. It should show off some of magic’s most iconic cards while showing off some of the best synergies in magic focused around the Ravnica guild colors. Lastly, it should be replayable and fun for advanced players to explore interesting card combinations that they’ve never been confronted with before.

My last week at CoverMyMeds was a lot of fun. It was satisfying to have no loose ends left untied. One of the benefits was being able to work with a co-op on our team, Braden. Braden started a few months ago and pairing in the office made me wish that I had spent more time pairing with him since he started. Pairing with Braden reminded me of what it was like when I first started, deer in the headlights, confused about everything going on. The inspiration for this post started when he asked me to review his code, and that led me down this rabbit hole.

Apprentices are a fundamental part of the cycle of knowledge that keeps a craft alive. A member of the older generation would take in a young student and teach them the ‘tricks of their trade’. Nowadays apprenticeships are thought of only being used by plumbers and technicians. I challenge this. For any skilled work, without this cycle, deep technical knowledge would take lifetimes to learn and we don’t have that kind of time. RIT recommends taking a year off to work on a co-op, internship, apprenticeship, whatever you call it, you’re going to be working ‘software’ for a year. I think this is one of the best things aspiring software engineers can do and I’d like to share some pitfalls and lessons learned from my year on co-op.

Recently I gave a presentation at The Ohio State University’s Collegiate Web Developer Club on JQuery. This has been one of the first times that I’ve been in the front of a class instead of sitting in its seats. It was quite an odd experience and I can now empathize with my prior teachers. Getting a room of 15 students to focus and pay attention to what you have to say can be extremely daunting. However, I recently took a class on Learning how to learn on Coursera and I tried to apply some of the techniques that I learned in the class to my presentation in the classroom.

You’re up and running… this is where we all start. It’s hard to start a blog when you’re not really sure what to write about. I guess the best place to start would be an introduction to myself but you can also find something a little more exciting here.