Understanding the JavaScript Event Loop and Browser Rendering: A Deep Dive

JavaScript is a bit of a mystery to many. On one hand, it powers intricate web animations and manages intricate application state. On the other, sometimes it feels like it holds your browser hostage during a seemingly innocent task. Why does this happen? The answer lies within the confluence of the JavaScript event loop and the browser’s rendering cycle. The One-Threaded Nature of JavaScript JavaScript, for all its quirks, runs on a single thread. This Read more…

Crafting Distinct Voucher Codes: Ensuring Human-Friendly Inputs

The art of crafting voucher codes for online platforms involves a delicate dance between user-friendliness and the expansive possibilities that ensure uniqueness. In today’s post, we will not only delve into creating an ideal character set and its vast combinatorial outcomes but also look at a Python example that makes the process seamless. Designing for the Human Eye Our journey begins with choosing a character set that’s easy on human perception, minimizing any potential errors Read more…

Crafting Short and Effective User Stories for Agile Teams

In the vast realm of software development, Agile has evolved as a superhero of sorts. Among its superpowers? The humble “user story”. At its core, a user story offers a simple, human-centric way to express software requirements. But as with any language, brevity can be a powerful tool. Let’s journey through the art of refining user stories, making them both short and impactful. The Classic User Story Traditionally, the user story template reads: As a Read more…

How to Measure Vehicle Speed Using the Doppler Effect

When you stand at the roadside and feel the rush of vehicles passing by, there’s more than just a gust of wind and the roar of engines. Beneath it lies a symphony of physics and mathematics. That changing pitch you hear as a vehicle whizzes past? That’s the Doppler effect in action, and it offers a deep well of intrigue for those curious enough to dive in. 1. The Fundamental Frequency Shift At the heart Read more…

I had to give a wrong answer to get the job

Back in 2007, I was searching for a software developer job at various companies. At one of these companies, the best strategy to get the job was to give a wrong answer. If this seems weird to you, let me explain what happened. When I arrived at the interview, there were 2 other guys present. One would be my direct team lead, which was also the technical lead, and the other was his manager. It Read more…

Haxe development environment setup

Haxe is an awesome programming language for making cross-platform games. And I’m sure it will only gain in popularity. But setting up a proper development environment is not easy. The Haxe ecosystem is still maturing.  There are a lot of very nice things happening. But unfortunately, some basic things are missing. Which makes it hard to get started. So I hope this guild can help you. Since I’m currently moving the ActionScript 3 codebase of Read more…

Indepth look at 2D game engines for Haxe

(Updated on 16/9/2017, after receiving more info at the Haxe Summit) So you want to make a cross platform 2D game using Haxe. Good choice! But what will you choose as game library? Preamble There are a tremendous amount of Haxe game engines out there, so I’m limiting my discussion to the most alive and kicking 2D engines. So I won’t be covering Flambe for example, which has its last commit in 2015. Remark that Haxe is Read more…

Searching for the right game development platform

This post is part of the series moving aways from ActionScript 3 and Flash. There are a lot of programming languages and game libraries available to make electronic games. So which one will I pick to port RPG Playground to? To find out, let’s first define what I need. Must Haves Supports Web Browser games The major advantage of RPG Playground over other game editors is that you can use it straight in your web browser. No download, no installation, Read more…

Moving away from ActionScript 3 and Flash

Adobe decided to put the final nail in the coffin of Flash. Unfortunately, my RPG Playground has been using Flash for some time. The reason is that it allows my users to make games inside their web browser, without the need to download anything. But it seems that if you want a web game nowadays, the only way forward is to use HTML5. It was already clear years ago that at some point I will have Read more…

Zombie company feeds on old Flash games

The Discovery Today I was wrapping up my new release of RPG Playground. But when testing, I suddenly saw the following screen: Which is pretty strange, because I don’t have any ads in RPG Playground whatsoever. After this initial screen, some other advertisement appeared at the bottom-left of my RPG making software: This obviously needed some further investigation! The investigation RPG Playground is built using ActionScript3, and generates a Flash application (I can feel you programmers shivering Read more…