Blog on Catnap Games

Tiny Player for iOS 2.2.0

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 21:12:04 +0000

Tiny Player version 2.2.0 is out now on iOS. It’s a minor update which brings a few tweaks to typography and user interface layout.

Superforce 2.1

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 17:49:51 +0000

Superforce 2.1 is out now on the AppStore. This update brings the following improvements:

Gamepad support
New collision handling system
Tilt sensitivity increased to save your wrist
Engine optimizations

Type Raiders Anniversary Edition

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 05:35:39 +0000

15th anniversary edition of Type Raiders is out now for macOS. It is a streamlined version of the original game, optimized for modern devices.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.6.9

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 09:07:00 +0000

An updated version of Tiny Player for Mac is out now.

Fixed playback controls on latest OS
Updated icon
Added support for m4b audio book files

Full changelog here.

Remastering

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 12:13:14 +0000

I'm rewriting my 3 shipped games. It's a big technical overhaul and I'm also updating some gameplay elements.

Devastro was my first shipped game and it is by far the most complex one. AI, collisions, pathfinding, bots, vehicles, cutscenes, level editor... about 60000 lines of Java in total. I decided to rewrite it in C++ and convert it from PC to mobile.

Type Raiders was my second game, also originally written in Java. The C++ rewrite is almost complete. Gameplay mechanics are pretty simple, so I can focus on getting the graphics right. I dropped the built-in level editor, since I'm not planning on making new ones.

Superforce Anniversary Edition

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 23:49:34 +0000

10th anniversary edition of Superforce is out now. Available on the AppStore.

It's a small update. I made a few UI layout tweaks for recent phone models and upgraded parts of the engine.

OpenGL renderer replaced with a Sokol-based one → Metal
OpenAL replaced with a custom mixer + Sokol → Core Audio
Performance improvements for texture loading & music streaming

Tiny Player for iOS 2.1.0

Tue, 02 Jul 2024 10:41:27 +0000

Tiny Player version 2.1.0 is out now on iOS. What’s new?

Open tinyplayer.net in your browser and the running Tiny Player app will appear automatically. You don't have to type the IP address anymore.

There had been a few minor releases since 2.0:

2.0.4

Fix seeking in files with less common sampling frequencies
Fix saving of playlist

2.0.3

Add support for m4b audio book files
Fix crash during file management operations

2.0.2

EQ tweaks

2.0.1

Show list of supported file extensions on front upload webpage
Drag to reorder playlist items
Enable player controls on startup when a track is selected

If you like the app, you can use the new in-app tip jar.

Bug reports and suggestions are always welcome.

Have a nice day!

Tiny Player for iOS 2.0

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 00:15:43 +0000

Tiny Player version 2.0 is out now on iOS. This is a rather big update:

Refreshed user interface
Import from Files
ZIP support
Equalizer (high-shelf/low-shelf)
Embedded lyrics
Designated "incoming" folder

Removed support for variable playback rate
Removed "autosort" feature
Requires iOS 15 or newer

If you like the app, you can use the new in-app tip jar.

Bug reports and suggestions are always welcome.

Have a nice day!

Quick update: 2.0.1 is out:

Tiny Loader 1.2.5

Sun, 03 Sep 2023 08:00:23 +0000

Tiny Loader version 1.2.5 is out now. Tiny Loader is the companion Mac app for Tiny Player for iOS. This update brings support for Apple Silicon.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.6.8

Sat, 02 Sep 2023 08:00:34 +0000

An updated version of Tiny Player for Mac is out now.

Tweaked the main UI a little bit, extending the playlist to be edge-to-edge
Added support for the mp4 file extension

Full changelog here.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.6.7

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 22:22:04 +0000

A small bugfix release of Tiny Player for Mac is out now. M3U files containing Windows \ path delimiters should be parsed correctly and the “Sudden termination” macOS feature is disabled to make sure the current playlist is saved properly.

New server

Sun, 11 Sep 2022 12:00:07 +0000

For the last few years I had been using DigitalOcean to host this website & a few others, file sync and my git repos. Fairly low traffic stuff on a single VPS instance. It was nice and cheap. But still… the recent 20% price increase got me thinking…

Can I build my own server?

Turns out I could! And it was a lot of fun.

I used a 10th generation Intel NUC with a 6-core i7 CPU, 32GB RAM and a 1TB NVMe SSD. Yes, overkill. But the key parameter is power usage. The whole system draws ~7W at idle. What a wonderful little machine!

Tiny Player for iOS 1.5.2

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 23:26:06 +0000

Tiny Player version 1.5.2 is out now on iOS. This update contains two fixes:

Always show IPv4 address for uploads (instead of mangled IPv6)
Fix dark mode background color in player controls area

If you encounter any problems, please let me know.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.6.3

Fri, 24 Dec 2021 01:00:57 +0000

Recently I had been getting reports that the playlist wasn’t saved properly but I couldn’t reproduce this error. I added tons of extra logging and asked people to send me log files.

Here’s what I discovered:

A database migration was failing while renaming a table column
...and it would happen only on macOS 10.14 or older
...because those systems include an older version of SQLite
...which doesn't support renaming columns the way newer ones do
...and I didn't notice any of this because my old El Capitan Macbook had died
...and some versions of the app silently ignored the migration error

It should be fixed now. Takeaways:

Bundle a private copy of SQLite with the app
Get an old Mac Mini with 10.11 and use it for regression testing

Also new in this version: simple feedback form. Open Preferences → Feedback and let me know what's on your mind. You can attach the application log file & preferences with a simple checkbox.

Happy Ho ho.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.6.0

Fri, 05 Nov 2021 18:41:27 +0000

I'm happy to announce Tiny Player for Mac version 1.6.0. The headline feature of this release is Quick search. Here's how it works:

Open Preferences → Library and add your music folder(s).
Files are not copied anywhere or modified.
Press ⌘F to open the search box and start typing
Drag, drop, boom

As always, if you like the app, you can buy me a coffee. Thanks!

Tiny Player for Mac 1.5.9

Sat, 16 Oct 2021 01:00:22 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.5.9 is out now. I have optimized the loading of playlist items and metadata. This improves the responsiveness of the app when loading many files at once.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.5.8

Sun, 15 Aug 2021 09:17:26 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.5.8 is out now. This update fixes saving of playlists (m3u) and the track info window (⌘I) sometimes not appearing. Download here or update your installation through Preferences.

Tiny Player for iOS 1.5.1

Fri, 13 Aug 2021 18:43:21 +0000

Tiny Player version 1.5.1 is out now on iOS. This update brings one new feature: you can drag down the playback controls area to reveal and resize the cover image.

Tiny Player for iOS 1.5.0

Fri, 06 Aug 2021 22:00:08 +0000

Tiny Player version 1.5.0 is out now on iOS. The app was rewritten in Swift which should make it easier to add new features. If you encounter any problems, please let me know.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.5.0

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 16:33:05 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.5.0 is out now. The app was rewritten in Swift which should make it easier to add new features. If you encounter any problems, please let me know.

UPDATE: version 1.5.7 fixes some stability issues. Download

An important step for Tiny Player

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 23:00:50 +0000

Both Tiny Player for iOS and Tiny Player for Mac have been rewritten in Swift.

It took a lot of time & effort but it was a necessary step and I’m happy with how it went.

Generally I wanted to keep the app working at the end of each programming session. I started with a few refactorings of the Objective-C code that I knew would make things easier later. Then I rewrote the smaller components and worked my way up to the main view controllers. Those took the most effort and multiple nights to complete.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.4.3

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 07:46:40 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.4.3 is out now. This update brings back the flat icon, adds ability to click right time indicator to toggle remaining/total track time and 1 bugfix.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.4.2

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 23:46:35 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.4.2 is out now. This update brings a new design for the “empty playlist” area and 2 bugfixes.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.4.0

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 12:00:26 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.4.0 is out now. This update brings cover art in the main window. Use the horizontal split divider above the playlist to adjust.

Drag the divider all the way down to collapse the playlist completely and show just the playback controls and cover art.

And of course going 100% tiny is still an option, too.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.3.6

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 13:24:12 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.3.6 is out now. This update contains several bugfixes, improved compatibility with macOS 10.11 and improved formatting of playlist duration while loading. And you can now Buy me a coffee.

See the full changelog for more details.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.3.0

Sat, 13 Feb 2021 01:50:56 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.3.0 is out now. This update brings the following improvements:

Control center and media keys support
Customization of displayed track information
Fix sorting of files dropped on Dock icon
Winamp-style keyboard shortcuts (ZXCVB)
Drag playlist items into other apps as files

See the full changelog for more details.

UPDATE: version 1.3.5 is out now with some fixes.

Tiny Player 1.4

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 15:29:22 +0000

Tiny Player version 1.4 is out now. This update brings the following changes:

Dark mode support
New icon set
Optimizations & bug fixes

This version of Tiny Player requires iOS 13.0 or newer. I know this leaves some users behind. Sorry. I need to modernize the code to keep adding new features.

Tiny Loader 1.2.4

Sat, 28 Nov 2020 10:23:52 +0000

Tiny Loader version 1.2.4 is out now. Tiny Loader is the companion Mac app for Tiny Player for iOS. This update brings the following improvements:

Optimized for dark mode
Big Sur style icon

Tiny Player for Mac 1.2.13

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 21:20:54 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.2.13 is out now. This update brings the following improvements:

Optimized for Apple Silicon Macs
Big Sur style icon

App Store Review

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 17:34:33 +0000

I just got charged 0.30£ by Niantic, the publisher of Pokemon Go, to verify my age during the user registration process. The payment was initiated from the iOS app and done through a web form. No IAP.

Now I can only hope Niantic doesn't charge me for something my kids do in the game.

This is exactly the kind of thing I fully expect Apple to protect me from.

Yes, AppStore Reviews Should be Stricter.

Slide

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 23:08:57 +0000

"But Tom, what does this have to do with a game about stopping an alien invasion?"

Just wait...

Homebrew

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 16:00:39 +0000

Keeping track of installed applications on multiple computers is a hassle.

Homebrew had been great for installing command line tools and libraries on macOS. Using Chocolatey on my Windows machine inspired me to take things a step further and try the "cask" subcommand for installing desktop Mac apps as well.

brew cask install firefox blender handbrake vlc

Works great. It's now really easy to keep all the apps updated. Setup on a new computer is very quick. I also found that Tiny Player for Mac already had an entry in Homebrew:

Tiny Player for Mac 1.2.12

Sat, 16 May 2020 10:29:09 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.2.12 is out now. This update brings the following improvements:

Press ⌘C to copy playlist (or selection) as text
Right click title/subtitle to copy info about current track
Organize menu items

MagicaVoxel

Fri, 01 May 2020 16:00:38 +0000

I started playing around with MagicaVoxel a while ago. I’m not going to use it for Devastro 2 but I can imagine some city simulation game using graphics made this way: tiny & cute with great lighting. It constrains things in a way I would be happy to work with.

Sketch icon in 3D

Thu, 26 Mar 2020 20:58:47 +0000

As part of my Blender practice session, I tried to re-create the icon of Sketch.

Here’s the original:

I found two different shapes that could match this image in an orthographic view.

One:

Two:

And a third shape with a flat top if we use a perspective camera and level it vertically with the mid section of the object:

To match the lighting I used a big front light and two emissive surfaces at the bottom and top. I skipped the highlighted edges to save time.

Mobile app testing checklist

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 16:00:59 +0000

Some things to check before releasing a mobile application. Slightly iOS specific.

Startup

Start in different orientations
Start app with no internet connection
Delete all user data. Is the first start behaving correctly?
Install and use previous version of app. User data migrated correctly?

OS

Dark mode support working? Switching on any screen?
OS-wide font size applied?
Locale/language changes applied correctly?
Accesibility labels for everything?

Network

Initial start without internet
Try using each page of the app without internet
Turn off internet, go back to previous page
Is network outage during video playback handled well?
Wake up after a long time (week-month). Detected & refreshed?
Is the app usable on a slow or unreliable network connection?

Layout & navigation

Rotate back and forth each page
Rotate and go back to previous page
Play fullscreen video, rotate during playback, close. Layout updated correctly?
Blurry text anywhere? Enable highlighting of misaligned layers in Simulator
During a call, does the double height status bar break any layouts?
Tap a button 2-3 times really quickly. Only one screen instance created?
Look for navigation loops. Detail -> push info -> push detail -> push info etc.

Buttons

All buttons/elements trigger on touch up and NOT touch down?
All disabled/highlighted/hover/pushed states displayed correctly?
Are buttons large enough to hit on small screen?

Lists & views

Do all lists scroll to top after changing the sorting order?
Do all views show an "empty results" text when no data is available?
Showing a loading indicator when loading data takes >1s?

Tracking

Is analytics tracking working? Correct tracking IDs?
Crash reports actually sent and saved? Symbolication working?

Prolonged usage

Keep app running, use whole day, overnight. Still performing well?
Open & close a screen (open detail, go back). Repeat ~15 times. If it leaks memory it can eventually lead to a crash.

Input fields

Is the keyboard mode correct for all input fields?
Email keyboard layout for email input, numeric for phone numbers etc.
Placeholder text in fields that need it?
Is there a clear "X" button in fields that need it?
In email input fields, is the email format verified?
If maximum length is specified for fields, is the limit really applied? Even when a longer text is pasted? From input fields to local storage, to server and back?
If no maximum was specified, does the app actually work with very long inputs, long words, special characters? Does it break any layout, internal DB, server backend API?
Is it easy to hide the onscreen keyboard when needed?
Does auto-completion work as it should? Does it limit the number of results after typing a single letter? Does input still work when auto-completion API is offline?

Search input

Make a search, open one of the results, go back. Is the search text still there?
Does search for empty string work correctly? Single letter? Spaces? Special @#?:/ unicode emoji characters? Extra long strings? Extra long words?

Interruptions

Put phone to sleep and on again
Switch to another app and back
Simulate memory warning, go back to previous page
Simulate incoming call. App resumes correctly when call ends?

Date & time

Date formatting correct for different locale settings? No broken layouts?
Does it handle daylight saving changes correctly? Really?
Does it handle timezone changes correctly? Start app, suspend, change timezone, resume app. Works?

Sharing

Does social sharing actually work? Posts appear on FB/Twitter site? Correct title, body, images, links?
Correct Facebook app ID?
Does sharing work with and without the official Facebook/Twitter app installed on the device? Automatic login through the app?
Does the app show correct feedback message after sending/cancelling/failing?
Is the sharing email correctly formatted? In GMail, Outlook and Mail? On a mobile device?

Storage & output

If the app has some web caching mechanism, does it correctly restrict itself from using too much storage?
Does the app behave correctly when the device storage is full? (Load music or videos to your device to fill it up OR place simulator folder in a APFS volume/disk image with limited size)
Does the app correctly handle having its cache folders deleted by iOS? (Run in simulator and delete using Finder)
Does the app limit its console output in Release mode? ie. no excess debug information printed - only errors.

Legal

Acknowledgements page up to date with all 3rd party code/asset licensing info?
Is it possible to turn off usage tracking? Is the user warned about usage tracking on first start?
If the app has a built-in browser, is it OK to receive a 17+ rating in the app store?

OS versions

Fully functional on all supported OS versions?
Is it possible to run and use the last supported version on older devices/systems? Legacy API?

Devices

Does the app support all screen sizes in both orientations?

Superforce is back

Sun, 03 Nov 2019 16:00:29 +0000

After a short break, Superforce is now available on the App Store again.

Tiny Loader 1.2.3

Mon, 07 Oct 2019 21:00:13 +0000

Tiny Loader version 1.2.3 is out now. Tiny Loader is the companion Mac app for Tiny Player. The app is now notarized with Apple. This makes it easier to launch the first time after downloading.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.2.11

Fri, 04 Oct 2019 16:00:16 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.2.11 is out now. This update brings the following improvements:

Notarized with Apple
Improved UI for empty playlist

Development tools 2019

Fri, 13 Sep 2019 16:00:06 +0000

Here is a list of development tools I’m using at the moment.

Hardware

iMac retina 27" 2015, 32GB RAM
iPhone SE
iPad Mini 4
XBox wireless controller

Software

Xcode 10
Blender
Adobe Photoshop
git + Sublime Merge + GOGS

Libraries

Notes

Recent versions of Photoshop have been not so great. Pixelmator development has almost ceased. Considering switching to Affinity Photo.
Starting to use Blender for 2D vector graphics as well (icons etc).

Previous installments

2006・2012・2014・2017

Git activity graph

Fri, 06 Sep 2019 16:00:35 +0000

Number of commits is not a good metric for productivity, project health or anything else really. But let’s pretend! It may be OK as a simple activity indicator…

Here’s a Python script I made that graphs daily commit counts on a git repository by year.

Download the script here. Requires Python 3 and PIL/Pillow.

Usage:

pip3 install pillow
python3 activity.py /path/to/imgui imgui

Output:

imgui-2014.png
imgui-2015.png
imgui-2016.png
imgui-2017.png
imgui-2018.png
imgui-2019.png

Example output for imgui:

Syncthing

Fri, 02 Aug 2019 11:36:24 +0000

The latest annoying update from Dropbox made me look around for an alternative.

iCloud, Google Drive and OneDrive might seem like the obvious candidates but I’d rather avoid them. Why? They are too much like Dropbox. Sooner or later they are going to introduce a similarly annoying UI blunder, crippling limitation or an unfriendly plan.

So I decided to try Syncthing instead. Simple, free, self-hosted, with Linux, Mac and Windows clients. Sounds good…

Superforce temporarily removed from App Store

Sat, 29 Jun 2019 20:21:34 +0000

I just got a notice from Apple that Superforce has been removed from the App Store. Oh no!

Luckily, it was not due to violation of any of the intricate compatibility or privacy rules… it just had not been updated for a while. Not fresh enough!

I’m going to prepare a new build, test it on as many recent devices as I can get my hands on and submit it for review. Superforce is coming back to the App Store soon.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.2.9

Sun, 02 Jun 2019 19:54:55 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.2.9 is out now. This update brings the following improvements:

Restart current track when double-clicked in playlist
Fix color scheme on older systems
Fix resize bug in compact mode

The Witness Review

Mon, 27 May 2019 11:58:57 +0000

Following the development of the Witness was fun. Jonathan Blow, a very talented game designer, took over 7 years to make it. When the game finally came out, I thought I had seen enough screenshots and read enough blog posts about the process that actually playing it wasn’t necessary.

But one day it went on sale on Steam and I decided to give it a try, just to see if it would run on my iMac at all.

Adam Audio T7V studio monitors review

Thu, 23 May 2019 10:17:14 +0000

I do not need everything to sound great. I prefer hearing things the way they were recorded. Good or bad. That’s what studio monitors are for.

With that in mind, I started looking around for entry-level studio monitors to replace my old pair of Edirol MA-15Ds. I decided to get a pair of Adam Audio T7V speakers. It was obviously a big step up.

The speakers look very elegant and clean. It seems a bit like they were deliberately designed to look more simple than some of the higher models - bass port, on/off switch and indicator are all on the back. Nothing wrong with that though, I like the design a lot.

Repro shutdown announcement

Tue, 08 Jan 2019 23:41:26 +0000

The Repro iOS app and website will go offline next week.

It’s been an interesting project. I built it from scratch and learned a lot making it. Wrote an iOS app, handled user feedback and went through several updates, later I also built and maintained a server backend API and an accompanying public website. Overall, I still like the idea but the thing is that I like some other ideas even more and need more space to pursue those.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.2.8

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 12:37:07 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.2.8 is out now. This update brings the following improvements:

Volume control in status bar
Show # and duration of selected tracks
Add option to export playlist with selected tracks only
Scroll to last played song on launch

Gogs

Thu, 22 Nov 2018 09:10:45 +0000

As I lean towards self-hosted software, I recently switched from Bitbucket to Gogs.

Gogs turned out to be one of the best web-apps I have used in a long time. It’s easy to install and maintain, with a simple and fast interface.

The issue tracking and wiki are quite minimal but work well. I do miss an equivalent of Github’s “gists” to hold small snippets of code independent of any repository.

Rant: fman criticisms

Tue, 20 Nov 2018 10:44:43 +0000

On this reddit thread a bunch of people criticized / made fun of the fman file manager and how the author had spent over 3000 hours making it.

Some argued that making a general file manager application was “easy” and the author of fman had spent way too much time making such a simple app.

I think PapaOscar90 is wrong. Anyone who goes to make a tool as general and versatile as a file manager deserves huge respect.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.2.7

Sat, 29 Sep 2018 07:54:17 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.2.7 is out now. It adds support for macOS Mojave’s Dark Mode:

[twenty20 img1=“1320” img2=“1319” offset=“0.5” before=“Light” after=“Dark”]

Tiny Player 1.1

Tue, 18 Sep 2018 06:54:31 +0000

Tiny Player version 1.1 is out now. This update brings the following improvements:

New layout for player controls
Variable playback rate from 1.0× to 1.4×
Basic accessibility support

Tiny Player for Mac 1.2.6

Wed, 12 Sep 2018 18:08:54 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.2.6 is out now. This update brings the following improvements:

Better handling of M3U files (CRLF line endings)
Added backwards compatibility for macOS 10.10

Tiny Player for Mac 1.2.4

Thu, 26 Jul 2018 15:53:40 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.2.4 is out now. This update brings the following improvements:

Playback → Always enqueue new files (don’t clear playlist)
Playback → Go to current track
Fix zero padding of track number for current track
Fix ⌘L shortcut for changing playback mode
Remember playback mode after restart

UPDATE: 1.2.5 is out now to fix a problem with saving the Playback mode.

Alternative music players for Mac

Fri, 08 Jun 2018 12:34:04 +0000

Note: From time to time I add newly found players to this page. If you have a suggestion, please let me know.

Tiny Player for Mac

First and obvious choice
Free

Vox

Subscription based, from $4.99 / month
Cloud storage service

Swinsian

$19.95

Tomahawk

Hub for online sources

Audio Playr

$8.99

Cog

Open source

VLC

Primarily a video player, but has a playlist and handles audio as well

Bahamut

Open source

jmc

Open source, media manager

Plexamp

Electron based
Requires Plex server

Webamp

Winamp in Javascript

Nighthawk

Electron based
Open source
Drag & drop breaks it

foobar2000 for Mac

Doppler

iPhone and Mac apps
Sync support
Artwork search
Organization helpers
One time purchase

Petrichor

wide variety of audio file formats
library view
lyrics, playlists
free

Radiccio

multiple sources, including local files, Apple Music, Plex, and Jellyfin
paid subscription called Radiccio Plus!
"librarian" feature for larger collections
pins, favorites, auto skip, journal
available on Mac App Store

Tiny Player for Mac 1.2.3

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 22:24:53 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.2.3 is out now. This update brings the following improvements:

Fix file associations
Add new playback mode: single track
Press ⌘L to cycle playback modes
Press ⇧⌘← and → to seek within current track by +/- 15 seconds
Basic accessibility labels
Ignore keyboard shortcuts when window is out of focus

Tiny Player 1.0.8

Thu, 10 May 2018 19:03:59 +0000

Tiny Player version 1.0.8 is out now. This update brings the following improvements:

Repeat mode menu
New repeat mode: Play single track

Repro 1.5

Fri, 04 May 2018 11:11:05 +0000

Repro version 1.5 is out now.

The most important addition is the online gallery. Now it’s really easy to share your before-and-after photos, directly from the app.

There’s a nice interactive slider on the page that allows people to switch between the two pictures.

Tiny Player 1.0.7

Sat, 07 Apr 2018 07:23:16 +0000

Tiny Player version 1.0.7 is out now. This update brings the following improvements:

New web interface with a nice directory browser
Enable iTunes Document Sharing

Tiny Player 1.0.6

Fri, 30 Mar 2018 06:36:28 +0000

Tiny Player version 1.0.6 is out now. This update brings the following improvements:

• Support seeking from Command Center • Improved seeking precision • Enable remote playback controls • Add way to download music back to your computer • Upload widget now accepts AIFF files

Repro 1.3

Thu, 29 Mar 2018 21:43:58 +0000

Repro version 1.3 is out now.

• New “flickering” mode for photo overlay • Support taking photos using Volume Down button • Slightly updated user interface

Tiny Player for Mac 1.2.2

Thu, 15 Mar 2018 14:08:30 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.2.2 is out now. This update brings the following improvements:

New track info window with cover artwork - press ⌘I
Hide artist/album playlist columns when resized to minimum width
Improved support for AIFF files
Small bugfixes and improvements

Thanks for using Tiny Player.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.2

Tue, 06 Mar 2018 23:04:29 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.2 is out now. This update brings the following improvements:

Support for M3U playlists
File → Open dialog ⌘O
Window → Always on Top
Resize to minimum → snap into "Compact mode" with no playlist
Improved handling of file associations
Various small fixes & optimizations

Thanks for using Tiny Player.

Tiny Player for Mac 1.1

Fri, 02 Mar 2018 00:06:49 +0000

Tiny Player for Mac version 1.1 is out now. This update brings the following improvements:

Track metadata such as title/album/artist info is now cached so loading tracks the second time or after a restart should be much quicker.
Starting with this version, Tiny Player will internally keep history of all played tracks. The records are not used yet but a future version could upload them to Last.FM or show some interesting statistics.
Quite a few issues have been fixed.

Thanks for using Tiny Player.

Tiny Player for Mac

Mon, 01 Jan 2018 12:27:31 +0000

I hate iTunes. So I decided to write my own music player.

Wait. I already did that.

So I did it again. Today I’m releasing Tiny Player for Mac, another simple music player. Tiny Player for Mac makes it super easy to play music on your Mac and keep a playlist of the things you’ve been listening to lately.

Drag, drop, boom! I mean play.

For discussion, see the Hacker News announcement thread.

Development tools 2017

Fri, 08 Dec 2017 16:51:16 +0000

It’s time to do another quick review of the tools I use for game development. Previously: 2006 2012 2014. Here’s the current setup:

Hardware

iMac retina 27inch 2015 model with 24GB RAM (upgraded from a 2011 model)
iPhone 5 (still alive!)
iPad Mini 4

In the hardware section the most important change is definitely the switch to the retina iMac. I got lucky and found a great bargain, had the harddrive replaced with a 1TB SSD and everything is running very smoothly.

My iPhone 5’s battery is dying but I intend to replace it and keep the phone for as long as possible. I only use it for phone calls, playing music & podcasts.

std::chrono vs timer coalescing in macOS

Thu, 12 Oct 2017 22:03:55 +0000

Recently I needed to call a function in the background of a C++ program periodically. I decided to use the STL for the task.

During research, I found a nice article about periodic processing with C++11. The sample code has helped me to quickly put together a solution for my project. However, I noticed that the author was showing average wakeup errors of 20 microseconds on Windows and 96 microseconds on Linux. Running the sample code on macOS yielded errors of up to 2000 microseconds! That is a big margin. I was a little disappointed. My favorite OS is getting worse results… oh no.

Designing a C++ Property System

Mon, 26 Jun 2017 22:55:27 +0000

As I’ve been working on Devastro 2 I thought it would be great to be able to see and adjust properties of the in-game entities in the level editor.

Properties can be generic ones such as position, angle or color but there can also be ones specific only to certain types of objects - for example a “crate” object can have a (bool) property that defines if a pickup item should appear when the crate is broken. An enemy ship can have a property that defines how much damage it can take.

Devastro 2 teaser

Wed, 15 Mar 2017 18:34:29 +0000

Ed Wood house

Tue, 28 Feb 2017 17:55:20 +0000

Another Blender practice session! This one took a few hours and I’m quite happy with the result.

It’s the house from the opening scene of Ed Wood.

I took two screenshots from the scene as the camera moves in towards the house.

I decided to do all my modeling based on those. I started by adding two cameras and attaching a screenshot to each of them using Blender’s “image empty” object.

Saucers

Fri, 03 Feb 2017 08:34:53 +0000

Here’s a concept render of a space scene with saucers approaching Earth. Inspired by the intro scene from Mars Attacks. I might use this in a video teaser for an upcoming game.

Rocket turret

Sun, 29 Jan 2017 18:35:44 +0000

Kind of wishing I had known Blender when making Superforce… but there’s always next time!

Logo

Sat, 28 Jan 2017 16:12:32 +0000

Did a quick conversion of the Catnap Games logo into 3D and added a little animation.

Superforce 3D render

Wed, 25 Jan 2017 17:12:08 +0000

Here’s a 3D rendering of a scene from Superforce, made with Blender. If I ever release another update (or sequel) to Superforce, I might get back to this, add some explosions & other SFX and use it as a proper cover image.

And here’s a quick animation. It’s just a concept so the 3D scene doesn’t match the screenshot but I see some potential for this kind of presentation.

Happy holidays

Fri, 23 Dec 2016 11:43:17 +0000

Download hires version.

Tiny Player 1.0.4

Thu, 15 Sep 2016 17:17:03 +0000

Tiny Player 1.0.4 is out now on the App Store. This version brings some minor improvements and fixes:

Prevent device from going to sleep mode when uploads are enabled
Improve sorting - case insensitive, ignore diacritics
Replace underscores with spaces in file and folder names
Avoid using Autosort for files with no album/artist info
Update WiFi name more quickly after opening Uploads tab (pull down to see it)
Improve drop area on upload webpage

Thanks for using Tiny Player.

Tiny Player 1.0.3

Thu, 01 Sep 2016 20:41:57 +0000

Tiny Player 1.0.3 is out now on the App Store. This version brings some new features and improvements:

Pull down playlist to see # of tracks and total duration
Pull down library listing to see library/folder info (# of tracks, disk space and duration)
Pull down upload listing to see name of WiFi network

Thanks for using Tiny Player.

A tiny reminder: on a Mac you can use Tiny Loader to make loading music into your phone even easier.

Tiny Player 1.0.2

Sun, 28 Aug 2016 19:29:34 +0000

Tiny Player 1.0.2 is out now on the App Store. This version brings some new features and improvements:

Repeat
Shuffle
Faster loading of track titles
Gratuitous intro animation (see below)

Thanks for using Tiny Player.

A tiny reminder: on a Mac you can use Tiny Loader to make loading music into your phone even easier.

Tiny Player 1.0.1

Mon, 22 Aug 2016 17:15:50 +0000

Tiny Player 1.0.1 is out now on the App Store. This version contains a few small bugfixes:

Resolve issue where items failed to play after the containing folder was moved
Fix crash when trying to load invalid album artwork

Thanks for using Tiny Player.

Announcing Tiny Player 1.0

Wed, 17 Aug 2016 05:17:09 +0000

A while ago my wife asked me to put some music on her iPhone. I tried. But iTunes deleted all her existing music and then got stuck on loading the new tracks. Damn!

I hate iTunes. So I decided to write my own music player.

Today I’m releasing Tiny Player, a simple music player for iOS. Tiny Player makes it super easy to put music on your iPhone. All you need is a desktop browser. No cable, no “syncing”, no mess. Drag, drop, boom! I mean play.

Superforce Soundtrack OUT NOW

Thu, 04 Aug 2016 12:13:21 +0000

OUT NOW!!! gargle and expel presents the Superforce videogame soundtrack featuring remixes by Filtercutter and Karaoke Tundra!

Listen on Bandcamp.

Tiny Monitor 1.0 released

Mon, 23 May 2016 18:54:34 +0000

I just released a new app for the iPhone called Tiny Monitor. You can use it to quickly check if your website is up and running using the following rules:

Page must contain a certain term
Server response must have a certain status code (200 OK)
Hostname must resolve to a certain IP address

Pull to refresh and get the current status. Tap the results to see what's wrong.

Superforce 1.2

Fri, 11 Mar 2016 07:31:28 +0000

Superforce 1.2 is out now on the App Store. This version brings:

iPad support
High resolution textures
Improved menu animations

Gun

Sat, 13 Feb 2016 13:58:01 +0000

First pass at a simple lowpoly machinegun:

Inspired by Devastro cover art:

New sound mixer

Tue, 19 Jan 2016 12:08:45 +0000

The audio effects you get with OpenAL are:

pitch
pan
gain
that's it

It's a shame that OpenAL doesn't provide more built-in effects or some equivalent of OpenGL's shaders. HW accelerated or not - they could provide a lot of flexibility without having to rely on vendor-specific extensions.

With Superforce we had to make do with pitch shift where we really wanted a lowpass filter (in-game pause menu slows down the background music to 50%; this workaround actually turned out nice but lowpass or a combination of the two could have been even better). For the next game I decided to write my own audio mixer.

Holiday greetings!

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 20:34:50 +0000

More Blender

Sun, 13 Dec 2015 13:35:30 +0000

Learning Blender

Wed, 28 Oct 2015 18:15:20 +0000

First month, in pictures:

Superforce 1.1.1

Fri, 09 Oct 2015 19:06:11 +0000

Pushed a quick Superforce update to the App Store. Version 1.1.1 fixes an issue which could prevent the game from launching on some devices.

It turned out to be a rather nasty bug involving ARM memory alignment requirements and a memory mapped file… ugh.

13 interesting sound design videos

Sun, 13 Sep 2015 15:01:09 +0000

Some really nice ones. Filed for future reference.

Devastro trailer

Fri, 04 Sep 2015 09:18:49 +0000

After 8 years, Devastro gets a video trailer. Hooray!

Superforce 1.1

Tue, 25 Aug 2015 16:01:43 +0000

Superforce 1.1 is now available on the App Store. This update brings the following changes:

Font rendering quality is improved.
Fixed a small visual glitch in menu background animation.
Fixed a problem with uploading gameplay statistics to server.
Your missiles now automatically target more dangerous enemies.

And here's a video TRAILER for Superforce:

Font quality

Fri, 21 Aug 2015 08:23:35 +0000

In the upcoming Superforce 1.1 update I stopped using stb_truetype and went back to pre-rendered fonts made with Glyph Designer.

Before & after switching away from STB Truetype

Unfortunately I had some problems with stb_truetype which I wasn’t able to solve. Some characters from some fonts were cut off on the left and sometimes on top a bit, with no reasonable explanation. Also the glyph shapes in general did not have the right amount of sharpness and smoothness I wanted. Perhaps I’m too used to Mac OS X font rendering? Who knows.

Devastro and Type Raiders Mac apps now signed

Thu, 30 Jul 2015 19:20:54 +0000

To make it easier to launch Devastro and Type Raiders on modern Mac OS X systems, I have signed the app bundles with my Mac developer certificate.

When you first launch them you should now get this:

instead of this:

You could still work around that latter dialog by ctrl-clicking and choosing Open or changing your system preferences to run any app without asking, but this seems nicer.

To sign the app bundles I used the following commands:

Repro app updated to 1.2

Thu, 16 Jul 2015 17:58:45 +0000

My before-and-after iPhone camera app Repro has been updated to version 1.2.

This update brings support for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus screen sizes, adds 64bit support and contains some small fixes.

Superforce for iPhone released

Thu, 14 May 2015 08:37:38 +0000

You will not believe this... My new game Superforce is out now for iOS. Download it on the App Store. There's lots of shooting and many, many explosions. Enjoy & take care.

GUI editor

Sat, 07 Mar 2015 21:07:22 +0000

As a little diversion from working on Superforce, I added an interactive GUI editor to NLEngine.

Pressing a hotkey anywhere in the game switches to GUI editing mode. In this mode, I can drag any GUI element around. I no longer need to re-launch the game several times and check if I’ve set the correct coordinates. I just move it around with the mouse until it looks right, then press Save and I’m done.

Debug buttons

Sat, 31 Jan 2015 10:31:54 +0000

Some shortcuts for testing and debugging Superforce:

Die
Win
Slow down time
Collision detection overlay

Wouldn't it be great to have #2 and #3 in real life? Or #4, when coming back from the pub?

Level editor

Fri, 26 Sep 2014 12:48:42 +0000

Devastro had a built-in level editor and it was the best thing ever.

For Superforce I did the same thing. Putting extra time into making an editor is paying off. Making levels is really fun.

Superforce levels use tile-based maps with freely moving objects on top. The editor has three modes to allow me to edit everything in a single view.

Object editing mode - for placing enemies and pickups on the map. Objects can be selected and dragged around.
Tile editing mode - editing the map itself. The map is tile based. I first tried to use Tiled for editing the map but the TMX file format is too complicated for my needs and the workflow was really awkward.
Collision mask editing mode - editing materials for tiles. I can draw with a "grass" brush over one tile and all the tiles of the same type get updated instantly. The mask is used for collision detection (water vs. terrain) and also for creating visual effects. Bullets hitting water create a little splash; when they hit grass, a little bit of dirt flies up; hitting a metal object creates sparks etc.

Pressing "P" switches into playing mode, so I can playtest immediately. ESC resets the game and goes back to editing mode.

The user interface is based on the IMGUI concept: all UI elements are rendered and evaluated at the same time and it’s all done on each frame. There are buttons, lists, draggable items, multi-selection for objects, undo/redo, native Mac OS X dialogs for saving, keyboard shortcuts etc.

Development tools 2014

Sat, 30 Aug 2014 21:54:49 +0000

As time goes on, I try to keep my development tools up to date. Right now I’m using the following tools.

Hardware

iMac 27inch 2011 model with 32GB RAM
iPhone 5

Software

Xcode
Adobe Photoshop
Pixelmator
Glyph Designer
Git

Libraries

I have also started working in my new home office. In my new house.

1 day workweek

Thu, 28 Aug 2014 18:27:44 +0000

I had a promising game prototype for about two years. It was just lying there... I wanted to turn it into a full game but I just didn't have enough time and energy to do it. I spent long hours each night trying to move it forward but I was just too tired. It wasn't going anywhere.

In Spring 2014 I decided to reserve one day of the week to work on my game. So each Friday, instead of commuting to my regular job, I go upstairs into my home office and work on Superforce all day long.

Superforce for Mac? Not really...

Tue, 26 Aug 2014 10:21:55 +0000

I have a working build of Superforce running on Mac OS X. Am I going to release it? Nope. So what is it for?

The iOS Simulator is fast enough for running apps. It is way better than the Android emulator, but it's not fast enough to run a game at 60FPS. And it is completely useless for running a game that is controlled by the accelerometer. There's a way around that, but it's too complicated for my taste. I want to iterate quickly, so I've invested some time to optimize my workflow.

Superforce details

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 00:22:37 +0000

Superforce is a one man project. It has a limited scope. Instead of generating tons of content, I'm focusing on making the core mechanics as good as possible, adding some nice details and generally having fun making it.

Design goals

Easy to play
Simple controls
Quick 5 minute sessions
Destruction = fun
iPhone only

Non-goals

Storyline
Enemy & weapon variety
Boss fights
Huge number of levels
Launch on multiple platforms

Would be nice

NLEngine

Fri, 15 Aug 2014 15:49:40 +0000

As I wrote in my previous post, I’m using C++ to write Superforce. I had to unlearn a lot of Java habits and get up to speed with C++ again. C++ is much more powerful and expressive than Java. Not having garbage collection actually helps me write better code. The C++11 update is great.

Hello C++, it's great to be back

I didn’t want to use a 3rd party engine for the same reasons I stopped using Java. I want to be in control of the core technology and I want to build it myself exactly the way I need. So even before writing any game code, I built an engine.

From Java to C++

Tue, 12 Aug 2014 07:36:27 +0000

My previous games used Java and LWJGL but I decided to make a big change and leave Java behind.

Superforce is written in C++.

When I started making games, I thought Java was a good choice. It is a nice language. I know it really well. The IDEs are super powerful and garbage collection usually doesn't hurt too much.

But when the iPhone and the App Store appeared and started gaining momentum, Java left me out in the cold. First, I was just disappointed. Perhaps they would add Java support in a few months. But it didn't happen. Disaster.

Superforce

Wed, 06 Aug 2014 11:33:45 +0000

Hello, it's time to announce my next game.

It's an action game called SUPERFORCE. It will run on the iPhone.

Superforce is going to be my first iPhone game. It is inspired by River Raid, Renegade Ops and Devastro.

There is no release date. Keep an eye on this blog for updates.

Devastro and Type Raiders now free

Sat, 07 Dec 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Devastro and Type Raiders are now completely free.

Mac versions now include their own private Java runtimes. This means that they will run fine on systems that don't have Java installed.

Windows versions are no longer available.

Big thanks to everyone who has purchased either of the games throughout the years. Sales have obviously gone down since the game had been released and I no longer feel the need to keep the purchase system working. It’s been fun.

Devastro updated to 1.9

Sat, 07 Dec 2013 11:00:00 +0000

After a long time I’m releasing a small update for Devastro.

What’s new in Devastro 1.9

The game is now completely free. Demo limits have been removed.
Mac version now includes its own Java runtime, which means it should run on any new Mac without the need to install Java separately.
Windows version is no longer supported. Sorry.
Updated the LWJGL library to 2.9.0 for improved compatibility and stability.
Enable crash reporter. Crash reports contain no personal information.

Type Raiders updated to 1.1

Sat, 07 Dec 2013 11:00:00 +0000

After a long time I’m releasing a small update for Type Raiders.

What’s new in Type Raiders 1.1

The game is now completely free. Demo limits have been removed.
Mac version now includes its own Java runtime, which means it should run on any new Mac without the need to install Java separately.
Windows version is no longer supported. Sorry.
Updated the LWJGL library to 2.9.0 for improved compatibility and stability.
Enable crash reporter. Crash reports contain no personal information.

Repro app updated to 1.1

Fri, 06 Dec 2013 11:00:00 +0000

My before-and-after iPhone camera app Repro has been updated to version 1.1.

The update brings support for iPhone 5 screen size, brand new iOS 7 UI and a new way to show the photo overlay. I'm very happy with it.

NLDatabase - Lightweight C++ wrapper for SQLite

Fri, 27 Sep 2013 10:00:00 +0000

Another piece of C++ code I wrote recently: a C++ wrapper for SQLite. Thanks to a few C++11 features I think it allows for really clean and concise code in many common cases. As part of the example code, I also wrote a basic schema migration function.

Get the source code here.

NLTemplate - HTML template library for C++

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:00:00 +0000

Don’t ask me why, but I needed a simple HTML template library for C++. I looked at a few of them, but there wasn’t a clear winner. Most were too heavyweight, hard to build or I didn’t like the syntax.

So I decided to write my own. How hard can it be?

NLTemplate is really simple. It comes in a single source file, has no extra dependencies and you can just drop it in your project and it will work. It does variable replacement, optional or repeatable blocks and file includes. You can define your own file loader to deal with path resolution and file I/O. To insert a variable, you write {{ variable }}, to define a block, you write {% block name %} and then end it with {% endblock %}.

Development tools 2012

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Six years and 2½ games later, this is what I'm using now for game development:

Hardware

iMac 21.5inch 2011 model with 32GB RAM
iPod touch 4th generation
iPhone 3GS

Software

Xcode
Adobe Photoshop
Pixelmator
Git

Libraries

C++ STL
RapidXML
~~Sarah Thompson's SigSlot~~
~~Boost~~

Out now: Repro camera app for iPhone

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Today I'm releasing a small iOS application called Repro. It is not a game but I have enjoyed working on it and I'm having fun using it. Hope you will, too.

Repro

Overlay a picture in the camera viewfinder to take multiple perfectly aligned shots.

Take a picture with your camera or pick one from your photo library
Repro shows it as a transparent overlay in the viewfinder
Align your camera to match the overlay and take another picture that is just like the original!

Get it from the App store

Tempo, a PHP static site generator

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:00:00 +0000

I got tired of the constant Tumblr outages and keeping a Django site up and running seemed like too much work, so I made Tempo. Tempo is a small static site generator written in PHP. I use it for this site and will probably use it for some others in the future. It takes

A small PHP config file
Text files with a simple header
Source images of any size
PHP-based templates

and transforms them into a static html site. It can

Resize images to fit the specified page width
Create a blog archive listing page and an Atom feed
Skip "draft" posts (filenames that start with #)
...not much else, really. Isn't that enough?

URLs are built like this:

about.txt becomes about.html blog-2011-10-10-blog post title.txt becomes blog/2011/10/10/blog-post-title.html etc.

Simple tilemap collision mask editor

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:00:00 +0000

To try out pygame, I wrote a simple editor in it. It is nice to see what can be achieved with 100 lines of Python. I wouldn’t necessarily choose it to write an entire game, but for a simple interactive tool or a prototype, it is nice.

This simple editor opens a tileset image and lets you edit its collision mask. Use case: you have large graphical tiles but want them to have a more fine grained collision mask. For example, the graphical tiles are 128x128 but you want the collision mask to be 32x32.

Simple TMX tilemap parser

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:29:59 +0000

Here’s a simple C++ class for loading tile map data from TMX files produced by the Tiled map editor. Contains Xcode project with demo.

USAGE:

NLTmxMap* map = NLLoadTmxMap( "map1.tmx" );
std::cout << map->width << " x " << map->height << std::endl;
delete map;

Download the project here.

LIMITATION: you need to select “CSV” map data encoding in Tiled preferences. I didn’t bother with decoding the base64/gzip formats that Tiled also supports.

Java game development

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Java had the potential to be a very good platform for game development.

A garbage collected language significantly cuts down development time. The editing and refactoring tools are fantastic. Compilation is lighting fast. Debugging is easy. There are solid OpenGL and OpenAL bindings available. Runtime performance is fine.

Java runs on many platforms and it is not at all a bad choice for any of them. But it is not the right choice for any, either.

A curious neighbour

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:00:00 +0000

I got a little curious to see what libraries other indie games were using. So I opened my Steam folder and took a quick look.

Osmos uses OpenAL, FreeType, libvorbis, libogg, libcurl
Super Meat Boy seems to be using its own “Tommunism Engine”
World of Goo uses ODE, SDL, parts of the PopCap framework, TinyXML, irrKlang, libcurl
Machinarium is a Flash game. Uses funny filenames for the data, by the way.
Aquaria uses ZLib, SDL, libvorbis, libogg, Lua, FreeType, FMod and more
Braid seems to be using no 3rd party libraries beyond DirectX
Revenge of the Titans uses LWJGL and Java

Some more findings:

What is touch typing?

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 10:00:00 +0000

My definition:

"Using the keyboard without looking at the keys and using all or most of your fingers."

Another one:

"Typing that is fast enough."

Official from Wikipedia:

Touch typing (also called touch type or touch method or touch and type method) is typing without using the sense of sight to find the keys. Specifically, a touch typist will know their location on the keyboard through muscle memory. Touch typing typically involves placing the eight fingers in a horizontal row along the middle of the keyboard (the home row) and having them reach for other keys. Both two-handed touch typing and one-handed touch typing are possible.

Type Raiders released

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:00:00 +0000

It is my great pleasure to announce that I have just finished and released my new game, Type Raiders. It is a nice little game with gorgeous graphics that makes it really easy and fun to practice touch typing.

Windows and Mac OS X downloads are available here.

If you like it, have some suggestions or if you find bugs, don't hesitate to email me. Thank you.

Games are art, pt. 2

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Something went very wrong with the positioning of windows and doors in buildings. With strangely charming results.

Good luck getting home drunk.

Sharing space-time continuum with my neighbours: no thanks.

Alien aircraft authoring

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Made a simple editing tool for creating new saucer animations.

I have a basic body of the saucer produced by the renderer. Then I add some overlay details that move back and forth and make it look like it is rotating. They need to be positioned precisely and each has to have its radius set according to its position on the saucer body.

Didn't want to edit this by hand.

Various dishes, esp. saucers

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Adding flying saucers to Type Raiders has proven to be quite difficult. It took several very different approaches before I settled on the right technique.

Making a flying saucer by itself can be quite easy. The basic Devastro saucer, for instance, is actually a photo of a cooking pot.

So first thing I tried was doing the same for Type Raiders. But after a few moments it turned out that a closeup photo of a small object just doesn't match the precisely looking buildings and ground textures. It's completely out of scale.

Washing a keyboard

Mon, 18 May 2009 10:00:00 +0000

My favourite keyboard, the flat Logitech UltraX Premium, had been giving me trouble. Some keys were getting stuck down when pressed and only popped back up after a few seconds, very slowly. Quite frustrating.

So I decided instead of sending it in for replacement to do a little experiment and see if it was true that you could wash your keyboard with water.

I found what I hoped would be a temporary replacement keyboard, unplugged the Logitech keyboard and took it to the shower.

Bye-bye Baby! Hello 70 points!

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Today I got a little sidetracked by cars. I was working on road and pavement surfaces and thought about adding cars to the game. Or car wrecks, to be more precise.

Initially I just wanted to add cars that were already wrecked, since that’s pretty easy. But then I thought it might be feasible to actually have pristine cars that would explode as the game progresses and make them part of the gameplay. So I did an experiment with a single car to see how it would go.

Simple undo/redo system for C#

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:00:00 +0000

So you want to add an undo/redo system to your program? OK.

First, we need to separate the GUI from the code that actually does stuff. This is sometimes called “a command design pattern”. Each command should know how to “do” stuff and how to “undo” it. It may be as simple as this:

public interface Command
{
    void Do();
    void Undo();
}

Second, we need a class that will keep track of what commands have been applied and which ones haven’t. Let’s call this class History. It knows where we are and what to do (or undo) next. Again, pretty simple. So let’s add some more functionality while we’re at it. Our History class will notify us when a command is executed and will know if there are any unsaved changes. Here goes:

Český jazyk

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:00:00 +0000

This post is in Czech. But only just…

Co se stane, když lidi zleniví a začnou komolit a kumulovat anglické odborné výrazy v běžné řeči? Toto:

ajtema = položka
alfový imidže = obrázky s údajem o průhlednosti
autlajna = obrys
bagy = chyby v programu
begraundovej = na pozadí
čůznout = vybrat
debagátor = nástroj pro ladění programů
defaultní = výchozí
deskripšna = popis
devajs = přístroj
dizejblovaná = vypnutá
eksepšna = výjimka
ekspa = úroveň zkušeností herní postavy
ekstenžna = přípona názvu souboru
esajnout = přiřadit
esefikska = zvuky
fajlnejmy = názvy souborů
fajlujou = nejdou
fajtit = bojovat
fíčura = charakteristická vlastnost nebo rys
fiksnout = opravit
gárdovat = hlídat
getnout = stáhnout
invalidnout = zneplatnit
karentní = stávající
kjůnutej = zařazený ve frontě
klása = třída
kolamny - sloupce
kolory = barvy
kondišna = podmínka
kveráče - dotazy
kvesčna = otázka
lajna = řádek
lejer = vrstva
limba = končetina
loknout = zamknout
louduje = nahrává
lýd = vedoucí
merdžátor = nástroj pro sloučení dvou variant textu
nafejkovat = napodobit, vytvořit maketu
nakauntit = spočítat
očekovat = zkontrolovat
odzůmovat = oddálit
opšny = nastavení
pejntění = zobrazování
prioritnější = důležitější
proprta = vlastnost
randomní = náhodný
recenzátor = recenzent
rektangly = obdélníky
rekvestnout = vyžádat
restórnout = obnovit
risórsy = data
rispónovat = znovu se objevit
roudmapa = plán práce
sabmišna = podání
šejpy = tvary
selektnout = vybrat
serčovat - hledat
skanclovat = zrušit
skily = schopnosti
skrýna = obrazovka
sortnout = seřadit
stórovat - ukládat
tajly = dlaždice tvořící herní plochu
templejta = šablona
tred = vlákno programu
voeditovat = upravit
vohekovanej bak = nedbale opravená chyba
vybildovat = sestavit
vydebagovat = vyladit
vyimportovat = exportovat
vykilovat = vypnout
vyklínovat = promazat
vylevlování = zvýšení zkušeností herní postavy
vyreportovat - nahlásit
zafiksovat = opravit
zasetovat = připravit si pracovní místo
zkonvertovat = převést
zmerdžovat = sloučit

A nyní si vyzkoušíme celé věty:

From Russia with love

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 10:00:00 +0000

Devastro is being released in Russia! A localized Russian version of Devastro is about to go into retail stores. Under a different name, as you can see from this revisited CD cover:

The cover was almost completely re-created by Noviy Disk, the company that stands behind the release. For comparison, here is the original cover design that I did:

The new one is more simple and “in your face”, whereas I think my design was more subtle and had more detail.

Cattle Show back again

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 10:00:00 +0000

After some technical difficulties cattleshow.net is back up and running. Plenty of stop-motion animation weirdness for everyone and there’s even more coming this Spring.

Config survey summary

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:00:00 +0000

Indie game developers might find this useful. What sort of computers will their games run on? Impossible to tell, sure, but easier to predict if you look at statistics for other games. Valve has been publishing their HW Survey Summary for quite a while but people playing their games could be considered hard-core audience. Let’s see what we can dig up for Devastro.

The following data comes from Devastro 1.5 or later so it’s fairly recent. The number of machines this info comes from? 5-digit number, OK? The game has to start successfuly in order to send the stats. This means that machines without OpenGL support are not included in the charts at all. But hey, it’s all damn lies anyway, right?

Packing textures

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:00:00 +0000

When preparing the graphics for an OpenGL or Direct3D game it’s generally a good idea to pack all images into larger textures instead of creating hundreds or even thousands of small ones.

Packing textures has two advantages. First, it saves video memory because there’s less padding to power-of-two dimensions that’s required. Second, it makes rendering significantly faster because there are less texture state changes (ie. glBindTexture). That’s an expensive operation and doing it 20 times instead of 600 per frame really makes a big difference.

Devastro updated!

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 10:00:00 +0000

Devastro has just gone through a major overhaul. What’s new? Plenty! Now there’s water in the game! And tanks, new enemies, twice as many levels, more intuitive controls, a truly grandiose finale and countless other improvements.

If you’ve been reading this blog you already know about some of the changes but now you finally get the chance to try it out yourself.

What’s new:

Tanks
Over 50 levels
Water
Giant flying acid-spitting brains
Aliens with laser guns and with animation
New and improved sound effects
Improved visual effects (thanks to smooth alpha blending)
Muzzle flashes for the machine guns
Full version now separate from demo (has higher audio quality)
Support for localization
Improved controls (ie. you can hold the “walk” button)
Status bar and better team management
Clouds that cast shadows on the ground (looks great)
More cutscenes (and new graphics for the General)
Reworked finale (hilarious!!)

Devastro updates, part II

Sat, 26 May 2007 10:00:00 +0000

Just finished the AI for the new aliens! Now the only remaining “big” item on my TODO list is to finish the rest of the new levels and go through the original ones and add some of the new stuff to them as well.

Otherwise it’s just small stuff, fit and finish as they say, some code cleanup, testing, writing announcements, updating website etc.

And now - screenshots!

You can swim. If you are in water, the aliens won’t see you.

This is art

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 11:00:00 +0000

People have had countless arguments whether games are art or not. Now it’s clear - yes, games are art. At least when something goes wrong. Observe:

A new Vertex array rendering technique doing its magic.

I sense a strong “goddamn you OpenGL” accent here.

One of the author’s recent works called “WTF is going on!?”

Devastro updates, part I

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:00:00 +0000

I decided to do some extra work on Devastro. I need to make localization easy because there are some distribution deals coming and I want to keep all the different builds in sync. Second, there will be more variety to the missions and some enticing mid- and long-term goals. Third, the controls, handling and graphics get some fine-tuning to give the game a better “feel”. Yes, even the aliens get a proper walk animation. I’m so generous.

Devastro project postmortem

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 11:00:00 +0000

What’s a postmortem? Did somebody die? Not really... it's actually about a game being born. It is an after-the-fact analysis of a completed project, in this case, the computer game “Devastro”.

Yes, let’s start

Introduction

Devastro is a fast-paced 2d action game. With a team of up to 4 soldiers your mission is to stop an alien invasion by destroying all flying saucers and killing all enemy. Some missions have different objectives, such as herding sheep to save them from the aliens.
The theme of the game draws inspiration from 50s sci-fi B-movies such as „Earth vs. the Flying Saucers“ and „Forbidden Planet“.
It took 9 months to create Devastro from start to finish. Everything except music was done by a single person – me. I designed it, programmed it, created all the graphics, sounds, and levels myself.

Development tools

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 10:00:00 +0000

Here is a list of development tools I’m using at the moment.

Hardware

Athlon XP 2GHz
1GB RAM
21inch monitor (important!)
Low-end NVIDIA graphics card
Nikon Coolpix 4500

Software

Java 1.5 and some 1.6 betas
Eclipse
Subversion
BMFont
Adobe Photoshop
Apache
Ant
Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS)
Retroweaver
Pngcrush and Jpgcln

Libraries

LWJGL
Commons Http Client
Log4j
Jorbis
XMLtp
Args4j

Built-in level editor

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 10:00:00 +0000

When I started working on Devastro I thought I could create most of the data in external editors and by hand. I can draw the sprites in Photoshop, export to PNG, add some hand-written meta data. I can draw the levels on paper, then hand code them in some human readable text format. Easy.

Forget about it. It gets messy very quickly. Not that there’s so much metadata for the sprites, but there are many sprites. Not that there’s much stuff in a level, but there are many levels.