I just accepted my new life passion to be a master programmer. Suddenly… I feel… full of knowledge! Wait, I mean, full of MOTIVATION! That’s the one. Here I am, full of want-to-be-master-programmer, but there’s still this gap between me and that goal. I know how to program. I know all the fundamental computer science theories, algorithms, and data structures. I can object-orient anything, even your face. I even love coding in C++! The next step, I suppose is to get more experience. So I did Code Kata #2. That’s the one where you recreate a binary chop algorithm 5 times. Simple right? Here are my attempts:
Twilio + Corona
I made a Lua class for Corona SDK which handles Twilio HTTP requests. With it you can build a cross platform app for managing your Twilio account, sending messages, making calls, or any of GET/POST request that twilio rest api can handle. Continue Reading
Student of Yoga
A Data-centric History of U.S. Coins
A Data-centric History of U.S. Coins
(Requires a WebGL enabled browser like Chrome)
I’d like to show off my data visualization project I worked on through an eBay sponsored class at UCSC. The class was focused on user experience and the web, so we experimented with three.js (WebGL), jQuery, and eBay javascript API. I chose to display US coin data from used coin sales on eBay.
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We’re Screwed!!
Gadzook! Robots! We’re Screwed!!
Platform: Ouya, Android, Mac, PC, Linux
Engine: LibGdx (Java)
I’m happy to finally post about my latest game, We’re Screwed!!. For seven months, as my senior project at UCSC, I conceived, pitched, recruited, prototyped, designed, lead, and coded this 2D puzzle platformer targeting the Ouya platform. Whew! Yes I worked very hard on the game. It was a crazy adventure watching my idea progress from a few words scribbled in a notebook to a full on digital game. You can download and read more about the game on the website. I’ve had ample time to think about my experience; rather than describe the whole development story here, I’m going to post some of the things I learned during the process.
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Hyper Realistic Slinky Simulator
This art project I created with Melanie Dickinson and Gabe Robledo was intended to simulate slinkies in real 3D life.
We used Max/MSP, an arduino, tons of wire, a heptagon, and 3 steel slinkies for the interactive simulation.
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Intrepid
Another IF I made last summer. I really enjoyed making this one!! You play as a really unlucky wizard who has to go on a crash course of learning new spells to save your own ass. It’s heavily inspired by Terry Pratchett’s Disc World.
Download Intrepid.gblorb to play on a desktop interpretor of your choice.
I’d prefer you play on your desktop, but if you must you can play through your browser here. Seriously though, you’ll miss out on some amazing in-game artwork if you play in the browser. It won’t take you too long to install a desktop interpretor using the above link I promise!
The Devious Red Baron
A quickie story created in Twine having something to do with hope versus despair and balance versus capitalism.
Play the Devious Red Baron online
Volcano IF
Play Volcano in your browser
This Winter quarter at UCSC, my final winter quarter :(, I took Interactive Storytelling with Michael Mateas (that genius dude behind Façade). It was a brilliant class! Mateas had just come back from sabbatical and was rather perky the whole quarter. We had a chance to break down the do-games-really-need-stories debate in a very academic way, that is to say we determined the two sides are both highly subjective so therefore the debate will never cease. Games are rather expressive but we can probably agree they aren’t expressive enough. So instead of getting caught up in an endless debate, let’s make new and interesting things and make games a better medium overall! (If only you could have been to some of Professor Mateas’ inspiring lectures).