When it comes to game dev, random number generation is a subject that comes up a lot. With the advent of Minecraft, No Man's Sky, and other games with procedurally-generated environments, unique variation in your game is an attractive feature which increases replayability and enhances player experiences.
I forgot how deadly the Hill of Death™️ is at university. Kill me my legs are in pain
Why I hate: The claim "Wikipedia isn't a reliable source"
Oliver • Published 8 years ago
Dear friend
Wikipedia is a collaborative encyclopedia. It's maintained by a large amount of people, including anonymous people who only come to fix a spelling error; so you can see why some people might want to call it unreliable. If anyone and any…
Why I hate: Imperial measurements
Oliver • Updated 8 years ago
Dear friend
Every country in the world has adopted the metric system. Well okay that's not true. Liberia, Burma and the US haven't. But the UK has! Sort of. Almost… Okay, the UK has such a fucked up combination of measurements that it leaves many to…
Why I hate: The term "immigrants"
Oliver • Updated 8 years ago
Dear friend
I hate the term “immigrants”. It sounds dirty to most people, doesn't it? You can hear the disgust in the mere utterance of the word. Immigrants. To rhyme with scum. Why is that?
First off, let's get one thing clear. I understand ...
Your opinion is not free from ridicule
Oliver • Updated 6 years ago
Dear friend
For a little while, I've wanted to start a series of blog posts in which I extensively explain my position on pressing controversial topics. My stance may or may not align with popular opinion, it may or may not align with yours, and I'd like to open the floor up to discussion about these things. The problem however, lies when people get defensive and aggressive about it.
I flew
Oliver • Updated 6 years ago
Dear friend
On the afternoon of Sunday, July 13th, 2014, I skydived. Skydove? Skyduv? I jumped out of a plane… How far-fetched. I proposed the idea to my mother some months before my 21st birthday, and never actually foresaw myself doing it. But here we are. A birthday present, 5 months late, giving me a rush of adrenaline I hadn't felt before - and cannot wait to feel again.
Fix what's not broken
Oliver • Updated 6 years ago
Dear friend
I'm starting to dislike the expression don't fix what's not broken. I kind of wish people would stop saying it. I think it's human nature to not just fix what's broken, but to improve on things that aren't. Just because something works doesn't mean it's working the best possible way it can. Black and white TV wasn't broken, was it? Colour TV still came into existence. Candles and oil lamps worked well, the light bulb just made everything so much easier.
Not what I expected
Oliver • Published 10 years ago
Dear friend
I've not been doing much game development lately, and for justifiable reasons (at least, to me).
How I'm watching Netflix on Ubuntu
Oliver • Updated 10 years ago
I wrote this article in 2014 back when Netflix used Silverlight to transmit its content. Since then, Netflix has moved to HTML5 and this article is now obsolete. However, I'm keeping it here for posterity and because frankly I'm a data hoarder.
It's been announced that Netflix plans to ditch Silverlight and go HTML5 with their video player. But until such a time rises, Linux users will have some difficulty using Netflix.
My take on Windows 8
Oliver • Published 11 years ago
Windows 8 hit the shelves recently, so I thought I'd give my input on my experience so far. Based on a 1 day experience, I've already found some very decision-making differences from Windows 7 or any other previous versions of Windows that might affect whether or not I'm going to stick with it.
So here goes!