Published inCloudy Heaven Game Development·Oct 30, 2020Adding and Organizing Content in MonoGameWelcome back to my development log for my game, Brain Bouncer. The previous entry is available here. You can check out the game for free here. One of the most important tasks was to get my art and sound assets into the game. …Game Development7 min readGame Development7 min read
Published inCloudy Heaven Game Development·Aug 20, 2020Game Development Log: Adding Source Control in Visual StudioWelcome to the second entry in my game development log for my game, Brain Bouncer. If you are interested in learning more about my development process, check out the previous entry. You can check out the game for free here. One of the most important things I wanted to set…Game Development8 min readGame Development8 min read
Jul 7, 2020Build Your Japanese Skills by Doing TranslationsIf you are looking to build your Japanese vocabulary, chances are you use an app like Memrise or Anki, or some other similar program or app. Perhaps you even go low-tech and create actual, physical flashcards (I still do!). …Japanese7 min readJapanese7 min read
Published inCloudy Heaven Game Development·Apr 3, 2020Game Development Log: Set Up a Shared MonoGame Project in Visual StudioGame Development Log: Set Up a Shared MonoGame Project in Visual Studio Last fall, I decided that I was going to migrate a video game that I’m working on, called Brain Bouncer, from the Game Maker Studio game engine to the MonoGame framework. If you’ve never heard of MonoGame, it’s…Game Development8 min readGame Development8 min read
Published inDataDrivenInvestor·Feb 27, 2019An Object-Oriented Mushroom Kingdom: Understanding Object-Oriented Programming using Super Mario BrothersBased on and inspired by my own experiences as a tutor, student, and professional developer, I’ve been working on a book that uses…Video Games10 min readVideo Games10 min read
Published inDataDrivenInvestor·Sep 20, 2018Debugging Pitfall: Getting Scanner Input in JavaAs a software developer, at some point, you probably will have to write code that gets some kind of input from the user. Most of the Java students I’ve tutored have been using a standard keyboard to get the user input. There’s several different ways to accomplish this task in…Programming5 min readProgramming5 min read
Sep 19, 2018How I Scored 100% on All My Kanji QuizzesIn middle and high school, one of my favorite classes was Japanese. I had a wonderful sensei, and I was excited to learn something I could apply to playing role-playing games that hadn’t been released in English yet. …Japanese4 min readJapanese4 min read
Published inDataDrivenInvestor·Sep 18, 2018Debugging Pitfall: Object Creation, Loops and Performance OptimizationAs a computer science tutor, I usually tell my newer students not to worry too much about performance optimization, first focus on understanding what you’re doing and getting your program to work. That’s usually my initial approach with my own programs as well, but there have been cases where I…Programming5 min readProgramming5 min read
Sep 18, 2018Learning Kanji and Japanese Vocabulary with MnemonicsI mentioned in my last post that one of my goals is to go to the Tokyo Game Show. Having spoken to a developer who actually exhibited a game there a few years back, one thing I keep in mind is that most of the people I meet there will…Japanese4 min readJapanese4 min read
Published inDataDrivenInvestor·Sep 17, 2018Debugging Tip: Pass by Value vs Pass by ReferenceAs a computer science tutor, and as a developer myself, I’ve often run across some interesting, and frustrating bugs. Fortunately, I can count myself as a pretty decent debugger, but sometimes I get some real head-scratchers that take some persistence. One issue that I’ve seen a lot with new students…Programming5 min readProgramming5 min read
