Play.Fearless: Throwing Pixels

Are U Experienced?

Mad Jay — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 23:55:44 GMT

Hey there, fellow indie game developers, coders, and fans of digital worlds! Welcome back to Throwing Pixels; it’s been a few cycles!

“There must be some kind of way outta here,
Said the joker to the thief.” —All Along The Watchtower, Jimi Hendrix

The Journey So Far
As 2024 wraps up, I’m taking a moment to look back on the progress I’ve made with Grimoires,…

Level Up!

Mad Jay — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 14:01:31 GMT

I'm still standing!

Mad Jay — Wed, 01 May 2024 13:03:03 GMT

I'm still standing! Yeah, yeah, yeah!

—I’m Still Standing, Elton John

I'm certain many of you hobbyists and not-yet-game-dev-full-timers understand when money-bearing projects call. Well, I gotta answer that call. However, this project doesn't go on the back burner. I touch it every day in some manner: Drafting notes, playing with minis on a table to visu…

Don't Blame Me, Blame Brett!

Mad Jay — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 14:18:05 GMT

feature/auto_chess

So, everything I said I was gonna do last update, you can toss it out the window. Don’t blame me, blame Brett! I’m working on my laptop in the parking lot at my kid’s drum lesson. I had some amount of refactoring to do when the siren song of a Muse filled me with wonderment. I found myself scribbling on the back of the envelopes of bil…

Every Sprite is Kung-fu Fighting!

Mad Jay — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 14:01:42 GMT

I have crossed the threshold of building code for prototyping to playing with prototyping! During this sprint, I returned to Itch.io and picked up some new game assets to play with, specifically sprites with attack, idle, hit, and death animations. A trip to Game-Icons to make a skull hit sprite. I split my new strange characters into two teams and set …

Tin Roof! Busted!

Mad Jay — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 20:54:17 GMT

Circle magic in the Last Age of Sorcery!

So I broke my code..sorta. It’s only broken in my feature branch. You know, in Git, when you make a branch off the main trunk to do some work, that branch is a CYA policy when you’re a solo dev! I was making game objects selectable — for targeting, casting spells on, etc. Then I bit off too much; I went in for upd…

Looping Fiasco

Mad Jay — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 21:07:47 GMT

Crossposted from Medium

feature/add_game_turn_loop

This ‘sprint’ was a good one! This branch of work was about having a turn-based loop separated from the game’s render loop. I could see early on that trying to operate the game's turn-based rules from the render loop had problems. A quick Google search revealed agreement but no leads on solutions. 🤷🏾‍♂️…

Who's down with CPP?

Mad Jay — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 12:50:27 GMT

Originally posted on Medium

You know the saying…if you don’t hear from me, I’m working. It’s true for me, which isn’t always good in today’s world of attention currency. I’ve had fun with DragonRuby, Defold, and Lua. It is only as I edit this update that I understand why those tools aren’t working for me. I bet there are folks who make some amazing games…

Looking for Framework.

Mad Jay — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 12:15:03 GMT

Wizard Time! in DragonRuby

Originally posted on Medium

Hello World

I not only sling code for a living, but I’m also the owner of a code-slinging consulting business. These days, I work on a lot of bespoke software for small businesses. Full-stack stuff. Ruby-on-Rails is my workhorse around here, often paired with a React front-end. We’ve done a few project…

Initial Commit.

Mad Jay — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 16:40:57 GMT

My ancient rig, TRS-80.

I Got a Game Plan

I’m going to make a video game. I think this was always true. I’ve just been resisting it for half a century. My very first PC was a Radio Shack TRS-80. My mom kept it over the years, and I plan to get one of those display cases to "archive" it. I wrote A LOT of Basic code and recorded it to a cassette tape--that'…