A busy week but I’ve:- RF1 – further work on the Django 2.2.x upgrade Oversteer Racing – drafted the latest dev blog Misc – started the process to transfer my business bank account Read on

Another busy week, but I have:- Belatedly wrote a dev blog Carried on working on converting a site to use Jekyll Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing – further work on improving the behaviour of NPC cars Misc – started planning for the move of another site to Jekyll Read on

A busy week but I did manage to:- Oversteer Racing – started work on the beginning of the race. The first part of this is to stop the race starting immediately, which I can now do. Oversteer Racing – wrote a rather late dev blog. Read on

Another busy week and all I managed to do was work a little bit more on the AI for the NPC cars in Oversteer Racing to improve their driving when closely following other cars. Read on

Another busy week, all I’ve managed to do is:- Oversteer Racing – prevented the lap counter from over counting Oversteer Racing – further work on setting the grid Other – upgraded MantisBT Read on

It’s been a really busy week so I’ve only managed to do one thing: Oversteer Racing – worked on code to set the correct grid position for cars Read on

This week I’ve: RF1 – updated to Django 1.11.25 Oversteer Racing – wrote latest dev blog Oversteer Racing – worked on the UI to show car position Read on

It’s been a really busy week for a number of reasons so I’ve only managed to do a tiny bit of planning on Oversteer Racing and nothing substantial 🙁 Read on

It’s been a busy week but I have: Oversteer Racing – carried on working on handling retirements of NPC cars. Oversteer Racing – caught up with writing my dev blogs. Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing – fixed a bug that meant NPC cars would not take on the correct fuel load at a pit stop Oversteer Racing – started work on retirements of NPC cars Read on

It’s been yet another busy week but I’ve managed to:- RF1 – upgraded to Django 1.11.24 Oversteer Racing – did some play testing Oversteer Racing – worked on the code to handle the end of the race when the race is won by an NPC. Read on

A busy week but I’ve:- Oversteer Racing – a range of minor bug fixes Misc – further work to move RF1 Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing – more work on the routines to handle the end of the race Oversteer Racing – checked that the options in the settings screen affect the game Oversteer Racing – fixed some bugs Oversteer Racing – wrote the latest dev blog RF1 – upgraded to Django 1.11.22 Misc – signed up for another web host to try them out Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing – fixed some bugs Oversteer Racing – carried on working on the routines for handling the end of the race RF1 – carried on planning the migration to another host Read on

This week has been quite busy so I’ve only managed to: Oversteer Racing – fixed a few bugs related to tracking the time splits between cars and the particle system RF1 – signed up to a new host and began testing RF1 – improved the anonymisation script I use for testing Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing – more work on the end of the race and a few bug fixes RF1 – upgraded to Django 1.11.21 Misc – set up a test site for another one of the websites I look after on a new host as I prepare to move the site Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing – more work on the end of the race Misc – improved the backups I take of my Git repos Misc – set up a Kualo account ready to move some more websites Misc – closed a Webfaction account for one of my sites Misc – annual data cleanup for shop etc. Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing – more work on the end of the race routines Misc – replaced one of my WordPress sites with a Jekyll site Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing – further work on the routines for the end of the race Glossary – upgraded to CakePHP 2.10.18 Misc – upgraded MantisBT Misc – signed up to a new web host Read on

This week I’ve:- RF1 – discovered and fixed a six year old bug! Oversteer Racing – more work on the routines to handle the end of the race Read on

Another busy week but I’ve done a few things:- Oversteer Racing – more work on the code to handle the end of the race Misc – done some work to improve the mobile usability for one on my sites Misc – a bit more research on finding another host for my sites Read on

A busy week so all I’ve managed is: RF1 – updated the results for the first race of the season Oversteer Racing – more work on the “race over” screen Misc – started researching new hosts for the sites I host with Webfaction as they are migrating all customers to GoDaddy Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing – more work on post race screen Glossary – upgraded to CakePHP 2.10.15 RF1 – work on pre-season tidy up Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing – Upgraded to Unity 2018.3.4f1 Oversteer Racing – further work on the post-race screen Oversteer Racing – worked on further data storage during the race RF1 – worked on changes to the data retention policy Misc – installed WordFence on my various blogs Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing – updated to Unity 2018.3.1f1 Oversteer Racing – updated rival cars to turn wheels during cornering RF1 – updated to use mysqlclient instead of MySQL-Python RF1 – updated T&Cs for coming season RF1 – updated VagrantFile to use an anonymised and encrypted database during the build Read on

Another busy week… Oversteer Racing – worked on the screen shown at the end of the race (the layout, data etc) Read on

This week I’ve: RF1 – Updated Django to 1.11.17 Misc – did some reading on unit testing and CI in Unity Misc – went to Bristech Misc – been on ScrumMaster training Read on

This week has been pretty busy but I’ve: Oversteer Racing – organised some tasks on my backlog RF1 – completed the 2018 season Misc – replaced the AES search Misc – went to a tech volunteers meet-up Misc – went to a Unity3D meet-up Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing – more work on obstacle avoidance Oversteer Racing – changed rival car behaviour so they take defensive lines if followed closely Misc- went to a local Python meet-up Misc – started work to replace some of the functionality for the AES Misc – started a Code Club at a local Primary school   Read on

It’s been a busy week: Oversteer Racing – done quite a bit of work on AI car behaviour Oversteer Racing – posted a #screenshotsaturday Oversteer Racing – written the latest dev blog Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing – more work on obstacle avoidance Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing – more work on obstacle avoidance and overtaking Misc – updated MantisBT Read on

Another busy week… Oversteer Racing – a tiny amount of work on obstacle avoidance Read on

This week has been another busy one: Oversteer Racing – did some planning on the obstacle avoidance work RF1 – upgraded to Django 1.11.16 Read on

It’s been another busy week but I have:- Oversteer Racing – carried on working on obstacle avoidance by NPC cars Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing – added code to improve wheel to wheel racing of NPC cars Oversteer Racing – started work on code to allow NPC cars to avoid obstacles Oversteer Racing – started work on code allowing NPC cars to overtake Oversteer Racing – limited the effect of the tow so that a tow only occurs above a certain speed Read on

This week I’ve: Glossary – Upgraded CakePHP to 2.10.12 Oversteer Racing – added code to store pit stop times for cars Oversteer Racing – wrote a (slightly overdue) dev blog Misc – finished reading “It is what it is” by David Coulthard (1/5) Read on

It’s been another busy week. I have been doing some planning and research focussing on how progression might work in Oversteer Racing. I’ve not actually managed to do any coding though… next week. Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: fixed a problem with calculating pit stop time for rival cars related to pit box accuracy Oversteer Racing: fixed an issue that was causing the player UI not to update correctly Oversteer Racing: fixed an issue where rival pit stop duration was calculated incorrectly if fuel was needed Oversteer Racing: fixed an issue where rivals were too eager to stop for fuel Oversteer Racing: wrote the dev blog for July... Read on

This week has been really busy but I’ve done: Oversteer Racing: tiny bit of work on pit stops… I really need to get this finished off! Misc: finished reading “The Phoenix Project” 5/5 Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: worked on code to release rival cars after their pitstop Glossary: updated to CakePHP 2.10.11 Misc: carried on reading “The Phoenix Project” Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: further work on pitstops for rival cars RF1: updated to Django 1.11.14 Misc: started reading “The Phoenix Project” Read on

It’s been a really hectic week but I have: Oversteer Racing: refactored the code to work out how long a car should remain stationary in the pits. Misc: went to the local Unity Meet-up Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: more work on pit stops for rival cars. Cars now stop in their pit box… they just don’t go again 😉 Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: worked on pit stops for rival cars Misc: upgraded MantisBT Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: more work on pitstops for rival cars Oversteer Racing: wrote the latest dev blog (such as it is)   Read on

Another week where I didn’t get much done I’m afraid. I’ve had a bit of a cold so have been taking it a bit easier. I did make some more content changes to the AES site and, on Oversteer Racing, I did some more work on pit stops for rival cars. Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: carried on working on routing rival cars through the pits Misc: updated MantisBT Misc: moved the AES email Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: completed AI pit strategy code Oversteer Racing: fixed a longstanding issue related to car numbering Oversteer Racing: added way points to the pit lane of the test track to allow AI cars to visit the pits Web: completed a web site move from one host to another and reinstated automatic backups Misc: did some configuration work to move mailboxes for the AES Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing: worked on the code for pitstops for AI cars RF1: updated to Django 1.11.13 Misc: moved another website I look after to a new host (in the UK) and also moved the email (mainly for GDPR reasons) Read on

Another busy week so all I’ve managed is:- Oversteer Racing: worked on the code allowing AI cars to decide on their pit stop strategies. Misc: started work to move another (AES related) website and email accounts that I help with Read on

It’s been a busy week so all I’ve managed is:- Oversteer Racing: did some testing of the lap counter and split time calculations. Oversteer Racing: carried on working on the code allowing AI cars to decide on their pit stop strategies. Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: fixed the bug with the lap timing that affected split times and sometimes stated that cars were one lap further behind than they were. Oversteer Racing: the dust particles bug re-appeared but I’m pretty sure I’ve now fixed that for good. Misc: updated to MantisBT 2.13.1 Read on

This week I’ve: RF1: launched the competition for 2018 Glossary: updated to CakePHP 2.10.8 Oversteer Racing: fixed a bug with the particles Misc: updated MantisBT Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: planned a few upcoming tasks Oversteer Racing: fixed a couple of bugs RF1: worked on replacing the current charts Misc: more GDPR work Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing: resolved a bug with the calculation of split times Oversteer Racing: planned out a number of tasks Misc: did some GDPR planning Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing: added extra car sensors to improve the driving of the AI cars and make them more aware of cars near them Oversteer Racing: fixed a bug with the lap counter Oversteer Racing: fixed a bug in the “race director” that meant the player car didn’t always register laps completed Misc: updated MantisBT to 2.11.1 Read on

This week I’ve:- RF1: a few minor changes following the upgrade to Django 1.11 Oversteer Racing: started work on race strategy for AI cars. Specifically, when the AI cars choose to pit. Oversteer Racing: improved the look of the game by adjusting the graphical settings within Unity. Oversteer Racing: produced a #screenshotsaturday Web: finished uploading details of the AES publications from 2017 Read on

This week I’ve mostly: Glossary: upgraded to CakePHP 2.10.7 now that this has been released following a fix to the bug I’d identified and then tested the fix for in 2.10.6 Oversteer Racing: I’ve been working on creating a smoother transition when we change the level of drag or rolling resistance on the cars (for example, when getting a ‘tow’ from the car in front or when off the track). I’m quite pleased how this... Read on

This week I’ve mostly:- RF1 – got the code running under Django 1.11 RF1 – started work on an upgrade/deployment plan Oversteer Racing – mocked up some designs for the home screen Misc: upgraded MantisBT Read on

It’s a pretty busy time of year so I’ve not managed to do much on my personal projects:- Glossary: tried to upgrade to CakePHP 2.10.6 but discovered a bug in the CakePHP test runner and helped test the fix Misc: read Game Project Completed (4/5) Read on

Another busy week but I’ve managed to:- Oversteer Racing: further work on car recovery after a spin Misc: went to a breakfast meeting about AR/VR Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing: worked on recovery of AI cars if they leave the track Misc: went to the local Python meet-up Misc: read some blogs on player retention Read on

It’s been a busy week and I’ve only achieved a few things: Oversteer Racing: no development but I have done some reading on player retention RF1: completed the competition for another year Misc: reading up on GDPR Misc: worked with the Google Search Console Read on

This week has been a busy week and all I’ve managed to do is a bit of planning work for Oversteer Racing. Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing – worked on how AI cars recover when they’ve left the track. Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing – released a video dev blog showing progress Read on

This week I only managed to: Glossary – updated to CakePHP 2.10.4 Oversteer Racing – work on aerodynamic tows and rival car AI Read on

Another busy week but I did manage to:- Oversteer Racing – worked on aerodynamic tows and thought about sensors from AI cars. RF1 – a few minor updates due to driver moves. Read on

Another very busy week but I did:- Oversteer Racing – worked on code to allow a car to receive a ‘tow’ (an aerodynamic advantage by closely following another car) from the car in front. Read on

It’s been a really busy week but I’ve:- Oversteer Racing – solved a problem where the cars would detect the grandstands and try and get a tow from them! Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing: completed work to track race order and calculate split times Oversteer Racing: started work on adding sensors to the cars to enable them to detect other cars Glossary: upgraded to 2.10.3 Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing: worked on code to track split times between the player car and the cars immediately ahead and behind Oversteer Racing: spent some time fixing some bugs with the timing system Glossary: submitted a bug report to the CakePHP team Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: carried on working on code to track progress during the race and to track car positions Glossary: upgraded to CakePHP 2.10.2 Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing: changed the colour of the default shadows to better reflect real life Oversteer Racing: adjusted the rate of tyre wear to separate the effects of tyre wear and fuel usage a bit Oversteer Racing: improved the driving of the AI cars to reduce their lap times to within 0.5 – 1s of the player Oversteer Racing: added support for suggested speeds for AI cars Oversteer Racing: started work on code... Read on

Another busy week so all I’ve managed is: Oversteer Racing: improved how the waypoint system works for rival/AI cars Oversteer Racing: added support for multiple routes for rival/AI cars Read on

This week I’ve been on holiday so haven’t got much to report. I have been doing some research though. Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: worked on rival car AI and now have rival cars that can put together a reasonable lap. The next step will be to help rival cars recover after a crash or off and make theme aware of other cars. Oversteer Racing: upgraded to Unity 2017.1.0f3 Glossary: updated to CakePHP 2.10.1 Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: created a car livery for an example rival car Oversteer Racing: did some research on racing game AI Oversteer Racing: started work on code to support multiple cars Glossary: upgraded to CakePHP 2.10 Misc: read more of “The Curve” Read on

A very busy week so I’ve not managed to do much: Oversteer Racing: further work on tracking race progress and finish Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing: added functionality to allow players to retire from the race. Oversteer Racing: fixed an issue to increase the precision of lap times. Oversteer Racing: carried on developing code to handle the end of the race. Read on

This week I’ve:- Oversteer Racing: carried on working on code to handle the end of the race Oversteer Racing: updated the UI to show number of laps in the race Oversteer Racing: fixed an issue that meant lap times only displayed to hundredths of a second and not thousandths Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: finished off a first draft of the team and driver name editing pages Oversteer Racing: started work on the functions required to handle the end of the race Glossary: upgraded CakePHP to 2.9.9 Misc: started reading “The Curve“ Read on

A very busy week but I… Oversteer Racing: carried on working on the team and player customisation forms Misc: read a few blog posts on “live ops” for games Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: further work on UI Oversteer Racing: created functions to tidy up user data from the player and team editing screens Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: further work on the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship Oversteer Racing: more work on UI Read on

This week I’ve: Glossary: updated to CakePHP 2.9.9 Oversteer Racing: worked on storing team and driver names Oversteer Racing: initial work on storing championship scores Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: upgraded to Unity 5.6.1 Oversteer Racing: further work on customisation scenes Oversteer Racing: came up with some driver and team names Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: carried on working on the game UI Oversteer Racing: did some sketches of menu design ideas Misc: went to the local Unity Meet-Up Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: worked on the UI for customising the game Oversteer Racing: changed how we handle button input from the UI to make it simpler Misc: created a ‘how to’ post on Testing Django applications with Bitbucket Pipelines and MySQL Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: worked on some art work for the background on UI screens Glossary: updated to CakePHP 2.9.8 Misc: tried out a few different Cloudwatch settings for my EC2 instance Misc: updated Ubuntu to 16.04 Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: updated code to remove deprecated API references for level loading Oversteer Racing: updated code for the particle system as some of the current code is deprecated Oversteer Racing: written the latest dev blog Glossary: removed AddThis as it cannot be configured not to set cookies any more RF1: set up Bitbucket Pipelines to run automated tests for RF1 Misc: switched over my backups to the new EC2 instance Misc: drafted a... Read on

This week I’ve: Misc: Had some time off 🙂 RF1: tried to set up Bitbucket pipelines… with only moderate success Oversteer Racing: did another #screenshotsaturday Misc: sorted out backups for Linux machines that need updating Read on

This week I’ve (been pretty busy with other things): Oversteer Racing: planned some future activities Oversteer Racing: did some further research Misc: finished setting up the new EC2 instance and started using it for backups. I’ll complete the switch over soon. Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: got the pit stop animation the way I want it RF1: upgraded to Django 1.8.18 Glossary: upgraded to CakePHP 2.9.7 Misc: more work on a new EC2 instance, almost ready to use Misc: played around with some NFC tags Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: carried on working on pit stop animation Oversteer Racing: wrote a dev blog RF1: migrated site to a new server Web: a few minor updates to the AES site Misc: more work on a new EC2 instance Misc: did some reading up on NFC tags/labels Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: updated code to store wear on sets of tyres RF1: updated the component scores table to include price RF1: calculated the scores for the first race of the season Misc: more work on a new EC2 instance Misc: went to the local Unity meetup group Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: been working on the animation of the pit crew Oversteer Racing: finishing off the final few remaining tasks for pit stops RF1: further work on replacing the current graphing API Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: updated the project to Unity 5.5 Oversteer Racing: wrote the latest dev blog RF1: spent some time looking at charting solutions to replace the deprecated static image Google Chart API Misc: updated content on the AES site Misc: went to the local Unity Meet-up Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: made changes to allow cars to be detected in the pit box if entering higher entry angles Oversteer Racing: added code to track tyre set usage and determine the best tyre set to be used at a stop RF1: reviewed some changes needed to switch to a different charting API Misc: spent some time playing with a microbit Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: adjusted to pit stop menu to account for the fuel still in the car Oversteer Racing: created a circuit metadata object to store data about the track Oversteer Racing: changed tyre grip after pit stop to simulate tyre change Oversteer Racing: refuelled the car during a pit stop based on player selection Oversteer Racing: fixed car damage if requested by the player Oversteer Racing: added some debug code to help... Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: shared the video dev blog more widely Misc: worked on my company accounts It’s been a busy week so I’ve not had much time 😉 Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: more work on the pit stop UI so players can select the changes to make and see how it affects pit stop duration Oversteer Racing: wrote the latest dev blog Glossary: updated to CakePHP 2.9.5 RF1: posted a blog post outlining some changes to the rules for 2017 RF1: added functionality to add and delete races which will make administering the game easier if a race is cancelled mid-season Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: added opposition skill and advanced handling settings to settings form Oversteer Racing: fixed a bug that meant that reversing in gravel was faster than driving forwards Oversteer Racing: started work on a function to calculate pit stop time based on what the player requests (i.e. if damage is fixed, whether tyres are changed and how much fuel is required) RF1: drafted a blog post on rule changes for the new... Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: worked on the settings form Oversteer Racing: created a settings manager to control the settings throughout the game Oversteer Racing: linked the settings manager with the test race so we can double-check the effect of the player settings RF1: reviewed the work needed to better handle cancelled races Misc: started researching the best setup to replace my current EC2 backup setup (I’m still intending to keep it in EC2 though) Read on

This week I’ve: Glossary: updated the glossary to CakePHP 2.9.4 Oversteer Racing: a little bit of work on UI Misc: did my review of 2016 Misc: listed my goals for 2017 Misc: did my personal tax return Misc: started work on my company tax return Read on

There’s lots going on at the moment as it’s the festive period so I’ve not had much time to work on things. That said I did: Oversteer Racing: updated the I2 Localization plug-in Oversteer Racing: added some notes to the wiki to make syncing the Google sheet of translations with the game easier in future Oversteer Racing: did some work on the draft UI Oversteer Racing: added a lot more tasks to Pivotal and set... Read on

This week I’ve mostly been: Misc: celebrating Christmas 🙂 Misc: finished reading “Hints & Tips for Videogame Pioneers” (5/5) Read on

This week I:- Oversteer Racing: did more work on the menu screens Read on

This week I: Oversteer Racing: carried on working on pitstops (specifically the menus and recording when a car leaves the pit lane) Oversteer Racing: refined the car artwork a little Oversteer Racing: started work on the menu screens Read on

This week I (was just as busy as last week 🙁 ):- Oversteer Racing: I did a bit of work on localisation Oversteer Racing: wrote a third dev blog Misc: Did a lot of interview prep Read on

This week I (was really busy with other things 🙁 ): Glossary: updated to 2.9.2 Read on

This week I: Oversteer Racing: did further work on pit box positioning Oversteer Racing: started adding support for multiple languages Misc: Visited the Red Bull Racing F1 factory! Misc: Went to WiFiWars – which was fantastic Read on

This week I: Oversteer Racing: worked on pit box detection Oversteer Racing: created code to assess position within a pit box Oversteer Racing: did some research on localisation options RF1: upgraded to Django 1.8.16 Read on

This week I: Oversteer Racing: added code to register the car being in the correct pit box Oversteer Racing: added a pit lane speed limiter Oversteer Racing: made some minor tweaks to the test track texture Oversteer Racing: wrote a second dev blog Glossary: updated to 2.9.1 Read on

This week I: Oversteer Racing: worked out how damage affects performance Oversteer Racing: set up debris for display after a collision Oversteer Racing: stopped the car being driven if damage is too great Misc: went to the October meet-up of the Unity group Read on

This week I: Oversteer Racing: finished the first attempt at a damage model for the cars Oversteer Racing: created a particle system to show fragments during an accident Oversteer Racing: created some artwork for use during collisions Read on

This week I: Oversteer Racing: carried on working on the damage system Misc: went to a Bristech meetup on AI in games Read on

This week I: Oversteer Racing: fixed the particle issue introduced when upgrading to Unity 5.4.1 (seems like I was working around a bug in 5.3 that was fixed in 5.4.1, so then my workaround stopped) Oversteer Racing: now using the SpriteLamp shader and a normal map to dynamically light the car sprite Oversteer Racing: started work on the damage model for the car Web: updated RF1 to Django 1.8.15 Read on

This week I: Oversteer Racing: Upgraded to Unity 5.4.1 (this introduced some issues with layering, playing dust/smoke particles and resized the controls) Oversteer Racing: fixed layering issues caused by update Oversteer Racing: re-sized the controls Oversteer Racing: wrote my first dev blog Web: updated Glossary to CakePHP 2.9.0 Read on

This week I: Oversteer Racing: did quite a lot of work on the scripts to control the movement of the camera. Oversteer Racing: fixed a bug that made the car jitter/shake when reversing Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: updated the telemetry scripts to cope with cars going through the pit lane as well as following the track Oversteer Racing: did a bit of research on alternative shaders for lighting the car Oversteer Racing: tried a few new ideas for moving the camera with the intention of fixing some bugs but also making the game look better Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: updated the car code to programmatically link in the various car components (e.g. wheels and wings) Read on

This week I’ve: Been on holiday 😉 Oversteer Racing: Done some research by reading the Haynes owners’ workshop manual for the Williams FW14B Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: Added code to show tyre marks on track when oversteering Oversteer Racing: Updated the car model to use individual components for wings and wheels Oversteer Racing: Added code to turn wheels based on user input Web: Updated the Glossary to 2.8.6 Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: Been reading a couple of books for research Misc: Spent some time learning SketchUp Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: Lots of work on creating sparks from the cars #RaceLikeThe90s Oversteer Racing: Started work on creating skid marks on the track Web: Got RF1 running under Docker so that local development is considerably easier Web: Updated WordPress Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: set up particle system for adding sparks Oversteer Racing: added new tag to identify cars Web: done further work trying out BluePark Misc: added a new blog post about the dex format error Misc: Went to the Unity meetup Read on

Back in 2014 I blogged about how to solve the “Unable to convert classes into dex format” Unity error. I thought I’d post a follow up as I had the same error recently but with a slightly different message and cause. The error was: UNEXPECTED TOP-LEVEL EXCEPTION: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: already added: Lcom/google/android/gms/analytics/ExceptionReporter; I looked for ExceptionReporter and found it in: Assets/Plugins/Android/google-play-services_lib/libs/google-play-services.jar Temp/StagingArea/android-libraries/google-play-services_lib/libs/google-play-services.jar Temp/StagingArea/android-libraries/play-services-analytics-7.5.0/bin/classes.jar The original error report also said: Created unique file for imported asset as file... Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: Improved the control GUI Web: Created a test account with BluePark to try out their eCommerce product Web: Upgraded MantisBT Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: Created the official announcement for Oversteer Racing Oversteer Racing: Tagged UI elements Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: Started work on the on-screen controls Oversteer Racing: Linked on-screen UI to car control Oversteer Racing: Rotate steering wheel based on corner controls Misc: Went to the local Unity meetup Read on

This week I’ve: RF1: fixed a minor issue to set ordering of drivers by team not by id (fixes an issue caused by driver moves) Oversteer Racing: Started work on announcement text Oversteer Racing: Created new car textures Oversteer Racing: Further work on particles for smoke and dust Misc: Play tested EVA Spacewalk Emergency VR Read on

This week I’ve: RF1: Upgraded Django to 1.8.13 Oversteer Racing: Reduced the update rate of the UI Oversteer Racing: Updates to change car performance based on tyre grip Oversteer Racing: Started work on particles for smoke and dust Oversteer Racing: Initial work on car engine failures Web: Technical work to help launch the website for my wife’s company Read on

This week I’ve: Web: Further design and CSS work for my wife’s company Misc: Went to the Unity Meetup Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: Added code to increase tyre wear when the car slides Oversteer Racing: Created an initial implementation of power induced oversteer Oversteer Racing: Updated brake and power oversteer so that these are affected by grip levels Oversteer Racing: Removed some unused scripts Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: Finished the first implementation of brake induced oversteer Oversteer Racing: Moved tyre grip and fuel usage ‘solvers’ to separate methods Web: Design and CSS work for my wife’s company Read on

This week I’ve: RF1: Updated to Django 1.8.12 Oversteer Racing: More work on the brake induced oversteer physics Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: More work on pedal and steering wheel art assets Oversteer Racing: Started work on the advanced handling model (just brake induced oversteer so far) Web: Additional work on the recurring billing module for my wife’s company Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: Created pedal and steering wheel art assets Web: Installed recurring billing module in the online shop for my wife’s company Misc: Went to the local Unity Meetup Read on

This week I’ve: RF1: Replaced some hardcoded info on a page with a variable as the value changes between seasons Oversteer Racing: Did a bit of code tidying Read on

This week I’ve: RF1: Updated to Django 1.8.11 Oversteer Racing: Linked fuel and tyre grip to performance so to the consumables affect performance Oversteer Racing: Fixed the direction the car turns when reversing Oversteer Racing: Added an option to enable/disable the tyre wear simulation Read on

This week I’ve: RF1: fixed a typo and a couple of minor design issues RF1: launched the 2016 competition RF1: upgraded to Django 1.8.10 RF1: Updated the function to count the possibe team permutations to also report on the number of teams containing both top drivers and top teams RF1: Minor styling update Oversteer Racing: Added data for fuel and tyre grip to the temporary UI Oversteer Racing: Removed some magic numbers Oversteer Racing: increased... Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: Fixed a bug detecting the movement of the car around the circuit Oversteer Racing: Tidied up scripts that are no longer used Oversteer Racing: Added new/temporary UI elements for showing position, lap number, best lap and last lap Oversteer Racing: Moved start/finish line to coincide with track texture Presentation: presented my ‘work to date’ on Oversteer Racing at the local Unity Meetup group Read on

This week I’ve: Oversteer Racing: Created a “race director” to manage telemetry data from cars and to store data related to the racing (best laps/sectors, what cars are on track and so on) Oversteer Racing: Written code to count laps and check cars perform a full lap Oversteer Racing: Added colliders to run-off areas and gravel traps etc Oversteer Racing: Reduced car speed when in gravel and run-offs Oversteer Racing: Added a new track texture... Read on

This week I’ve: Web: Launched the landing page for my wife’s new company RF1: Upgraded RF1 to Django 1.8.9 Web: Moved some of my sites to use SSL (including this one) Oversteer Racing: Did a bit of house keeping on the Pivotal Tracker board for Oversteer Racing Oversteer Racing: Initial work on the fuel system Oversteer Racing: Initial work on track limits Oversteer Racing: Added messaging and callback system to help track cars Read on

This week I’ve: Web: More design work on the landing page for my wife’s company Oversteer Racing: Improved reversing Misc: Submitted company accounts to Companies House Misc: Submitted corporation tax return to HMRC Read on

This week I’ve: Web: More design work on the landing page for my wife’s company Oversteer Racing: Started a wiki to help trac game design decisions Oversteer Racing: Limited steering angle with speed to make the game more challenging Read on

This week I’ve: Web: Initial work on the landing page for my wife’s new business Oversteer Racing: Improved acceleration and braking Misc: Wrote my goals for 2016 Read on

This week I’ve: Upgraded RF1 to Django 1.8.8 Did my tax return Started work on my company accounts Updated Glossary for 2016 date change Moved Oversteer 2D to Git Worked on 2D car physics Read on

Still lots going on at home so all I’ve done this week is upgrade the current Oversteer2D code to Unity 5.3.1 Read on

Further work on Oversteer 2D. I’m still thinking that 2D physics throughout is now the correct way to proceed. I still need to set up an entirely new BitBucket repo as I don’t want to remove all the work/code from the existing one. I’ll just park the existing repo and start a new one based on my experiments to date. Read on

This week I… Updated the Glossary to use CakePHP 2.7.7 Updated RF1 to use Django 1.8.7 Did some more work on car handling in Oversteer 2D Wrapped up RF1 for another season Read on

I’ve been working quite hard on Oversteer this week. For some time I’ve been trying to get the “feel” of the car right and have not only been struggling with the controls but also the physics. Previously I’d assumed that Oversteer would use 2D models but with 3D physics. However, I want to spend some time trying 2D physics instead. In Unity the 2D and 3D physics engines are separate (although the API is quite... Read on

This week I mainly worked on Oversteer: Test driving using Virtual Joystick Added code back in to provide keyboard control Started work on controlling turn rate based on speed Read on

This week I… Updated the Glossary to use CakePHP 2.7.5 Updated RF1 to use Django 1.8.6 Oversteer: Tidied up a bit of code in Oversteer Updated Oversteer to allow us to easily toggle between the PS3 controller and the virtual joystick Tagged test scenery objects Stopped constraining the virtual joystick in a circle as this stops us being able to set full throttle and full turn Lots of tweaks to acceleration and deceleration rates Read on

I’ve not had time to do much work on my other projects this week. However I did try changing Oversteer so that the car turning code uses AddRelativeTorque instead of just AddTorque. This hasn’t had much of an effect on the handling so I may revert the change. Read on

This week I: Updated Oversteer to use Unity 5.2.1 Added some test scenery Created a new version of the car control script that combines the acceleration/deceleration code from one script I’ve been working on and uses the code for turning the car from another. Read on

This week I did… Further work on car control for Oversteer Updated the Glossary to use CakePHP 2.7.5 Read on

This week I… Upgraded RF1 to use Django 1.8.5 Fixed a minor bug on RF1 Updated Oversteer so I can play it with a PS3 controller (which better mimics a phone in terms of input) Read on

Still working hard on car control and physics Read on

This week I did… More work on car control and physics Added a virtual joystick to aid control Added a script to make the camera follow the car in a smooth way Switched to using “Visual Studio Code” as it’s a much nicer editor than MonoDevelop Read on

This week I: Created a new scene for the test track and corrected the orientation so that gravity is along the Y axis and not the Z. Made further tweaks to try and counter the over rotation when turning the car. Read on

More work on car physics… that is all 😉 Read on

I’ve not managed much this week but have mainly been focussing on car physics. Read on

This week I… Upgraded RF1 to use Django 1.8.4 Went to the Unity meet-up group and tried out a Samsung Gear VR More work on car physics – now trying out wheel colliders Read on

This week I’ve been doing a lot of reading and research on car physics… and that’s about it 😉 I’ve been reading: Brian Beckman – Physics of Racing Marco Monster – Car physics for games Punyawee Srisuchat – Development of a car physics engine for games Ted Zuvich – Vehicle Dynamics for Racing Games Read on

This week I’ve been working fairly solidly on the car control scripts for Oversteer Racing. At this stage there are three different things I want to try: Moving the car with transform.position and transform.rotation – the downside of this is that it conflicts with the physics engine in Unity. Reading around it seems that, if you want to use physics at all, then it’s best to do everything with physics in Unity. Move the car with... Read on

This week I… Updated Bubblision to use Unity5 and updated all the plugins Set up git repo for Oversteer Racing Created a basic start screen for Oversteer Racing Experimented with creating a test track and car model Read on

I’ve not managed to find much time to do anything except work this week. This is mainly because I’m on holiday from work next week and so have a few things I want to finish off before then. I did do a little bit of planning for my new game but that was it. Read on

This week I… Did some 3D modelling for my new game.  I’ve created a pretty quick 3D model for a generic racing car in Blender and it seemed to work out OK… or at least sufficient for my needs (especially as I’ve not used Blender before) Created some normal maps for the 2D models. Tested out the normal maps. Tried generating normal maps from the 3D model. Read on

This week I… Did a bit of research on 3D models… and that was about it 😉 Read on

This week I… Upgraded Bubblision to be a Unity 5 project, this included: New version of EchoLogin Core Framework, GameAnalytics, UnityTestTools I had to change some code to work with the new GameAnalytics Unity SDK only to then find it won’t work with Android until later this month Fixed some display issues Fixed some new bugs to prevent code trying to destroy objects that had been destroyed I had to change the mesh renderer on power-ups as... Read on

This week I… Upgraded Unity to v5 and began converting Bubblision Carried on with removing hard-coded links from RF1 Read on

This week I… Created some new promotional screenshots for Bubblision Released v1.11 of Bubblision (this feature release allows players to skip a bubble by swiping) Added caching to the Mucky Creature web site Carried on working on the RF1 link changes Began work on the first Annual Return for my company Updated the blog with all the SunUps I’d missed 😉 Read on

This week I… Made some changes to balance Bubblision now that players can skip a bubble Released a new alpha version of Bubblision to the testers (v1.11) Carried on with the RF1 link changes Read on

This week I…  Released an alpha version of Bubblision (v1.1) – the main change is that it has added game functionality allowing players to skip the current player bubble colour. I think it makes the game more fun but I’m worried it’ll make it too easy. More work on the responsive redesign for the shop – almost done now! Upgraded RF1 to use Django 1.8 Began work on changes to RF1 to use the URL... Read on

This week I… Carried on working on the shop responsive redesign… it’s a laborious process but I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel Released version 1.01 of Bubblision. This is a bug fix release and mainly addresses the problem with the adverts. Carried on working on adding swipe support to Bubblision Read on

This week I… Carried on with the responsive design work for the shop Set up the Mac so I can do Android builds on the Mac (yay!) Started adding swipe support to Bubblision Fixed a bug with the ad handling in Bubblision Read on

I’m really pleased to announce that Bubblision is now available on SlideMe: http://slideme.org/application/bubblision Up until now Bubblision has only been on Google Play but over the next few weeks I hope to add Bubblision to some of the other app stores. I also tried to register as a seller on Samsung Galaxy Apps but their site is currently rejecting signups. Bizarrely they set somewhat draconian restrictions on passwords… 6-15 alphanumeric characters but their site currently... Read on

I can’t believe it’s a month since I released Bubblision – time flies! I’ve had some really good feedback and people seem to be enjoying it. As a month has elapsed I thought it worth sharing some of the stats so far. Item Stats Installs 23 Daily Active Users 3.43 Session length (average) 3.8 mins Session length (max) 13 mins Retention rate (day 1) 30.43% Reviews 4 Average rating 5 stars So, not setting the... Read on

As Bubblision has now been released I thought I’d share some of the statistics I’ve been keeping throughout the project. As I’ve been using the game to learn how to use Unity and also been working in my spare time the timescales are not indicative of how long it takes to develop this sort of game (unless you’re in a similar situation…). Duration Milestone Date Hours spent Project start 10/07/2013 – First Alpha 13/11/2014 (491... Read on

Bubblision, my first game for mobile, has been released and is now on the Google Play Store: Read on

Having had no time to work on the game last week I managed to find some time this week. I’ve also come across a couple of tricky bugs which, having solved, I’ll blog about separately (when I find the time). Some tasks completed during this sprint: Added ads from AdMob to the game Configured test ads for my devices Made some design changes to the various game screens Update: now blogged about one bug: How to:... Read on

I recently came across the following error when trying to build my game in Unity “Unable to convert classes into dex format. See the Console for details.” The console error is pretty long but starts with: Error building Player: CommandInvokationFailure: Unable to convert classes into dex format. See the Console for details. C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_38\bin\java.exe -Xmx1024M -Dcom.android.sdkmanager.toolsdir="E:/adt-bundle-windows-x86-20131030/sdk\tools" -Dfile.encoding=UTF8 -jar "E:/unity/Editor/Data/BuildTargetTools/AndroidPlayer\sdktools.jar" - stderr[ UNEXPECTED TOP-LEVEL EXCEPTION: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: already added: Lcom/google/android/gms/common/internal/safeparcel/a; at com.android.dx.dex.file.ClassDefsSection.add(ClassDefsSection.java:122) at com.android.dx.dex.file.DexFile.add(DexFile.java:161) at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.processClass(Main.java:685) at... Read on

It’s been a bit of quiet week this week as I’ve been largely hamstrung by not having a business bank account. That said, I now have a bank account…. finally! It’s not like anything about the application has been contentious it just seems that the bank is spectaclarly slow. Still, I now have an account and can start signing up with ad networks and so on. Read on

Some tasks completed during this sprint: Wrote three integration tests More play testing A few other things I did: Continued to try and set up a business bank account… sigh Created some test fixtures for the Identifier Read more of Electronic Brains Read on

Some of the things I did this week: Finally created some integration tests for Bubblision. I’ve only done two so far but it’s a start. Went along to the monthly Unity meet-up – a talk on editor extensions. Great talk and an excellent night. Did a test upgrade of the Glossary to CakePHP 2.5.2 (from 2.5.1) Prepared test fixtures for the Identifier tool prior to attempting to upgrade it from the CakePHP 1.3.x branch to... Read on

Sprint stories My priorities for this sprint are:- Write some tests More play testing Other things:- Company web site Company bank account Sign up for an ad network (company bank account permitting) Expected duration Two weeks (ending 29/06/2014) Read on

Some tasks completed during this sprint: Updated the design of the game spikes Updated Unity Test Tools to 1.3.1 Updated GameAnalytics to 0.6.3 Changes some of the shaders to more mobile friendly ones A few other things I did: Returned forms to the bank for my business account Read more of Electronic Brains Read more of Unity 2D Game Development Read on

Some of the things I did this week: Finally got the forms for the business bank account from NatWest. Having done the initial sign-up online it’s pretty frustrating to wait two working days for a phone call then three more working days for them to email you forms to print out, complete and post back to them. It’s also the first form I think I’ve ever had to complete that switches back and forth between... Read on

Sprint stories My priorities for this sprint are:- Write some tests Finally decide on a design for the spikes More play testing Other things:- Company web site Company bank account Sign up for an ad network (company bank account permitting) Expected duration Two weeks (ending 15/06/2014) Read on

Some tasks completed during this sprint: Adjusted NPC bubble speed depending on the number of bubbles remaining Redesigned the end game screen Tried redesigned the playing area (still don’t like it) Updated NGUI to 3.6.1 A few other things I did: Went to a UKIE session on tax relief for games development Went to the Bristol Games Hub monthly social – excellent talk on sound and music in games Tried to set up business bank account…... Read on

Sprint stories My priorities for this sprint are:- Write some tests Adjust speed increase based on how many NPC bubbles remain More play testing Other things:- Company logo Company web site Company bank account Expected duration Two weeks (ending 01/06/2014) Read on

Sprint stories My priorities for this sprint are:- Write some tests Adjust speed increase based on how many NPC bubbles remain More play testing Other things:- Set up the company Expected duration Two weeks (ending 18/05/2014) Read on

This has been a pretty hectic week and I’ve not got much done on Bubblision. The two tasks I’ve completed are: Upgraded GameAnalytics to 0.5.9 Installed Unity Test Tools The main reason I’ve not got much done is that I’ve been working hard on RF1. The new F1 season is rapidly approaching and it’s the second pre-season test this coming week. I hope to launch the competition after that test and there are a number... Read on

This has been a bit of a mixed up sprint as I’ve had a lot of other things to do at the same time so I’ve not been able to put in as much time as I’d have liked. Over the next few weeks I’ll launch my fantasy F1 game so that will impinge on the time available for Bubblision too. Tasks completed this sprint: Increased the speed of the restored NPC bubbles an increased... Read on

I got a few things done this week. Most importantly I think I’ve now resolved the annoying duplicate player bubble bug that I’ve been trying to solve for a few weeks now (further details). This week I’ve finished: Give restored NPC bubbles an increased speed Fix duplicate player bubble bug Code tidy up Investigated how to pause the game Read on

Sprint stories Fix duplicate player bubble bug Give new bubbles an average speed rather than starting them at the slowest speed Add ability to pause the game Install NGUI (a library to help with the in game GUI) Create the designs and artwork for the remaining scenes Code tidy up 😉 Expected duration Two weeks (ending 09/02/2014) Read on

After a slow start I managed to get a few things done during this sprint. I’ve still been unable to fix the duplicate player bubble issue and this will have to roll over to the next sprint. I’ve a few things left to try, including a rewrite of the code, as a lot of the other things I’ve tried haven’t worked. To date I’ve tried making the player bubble a singleton, trying to detect and... Read on

This sprint was disrupted as the last week coincided with Christmas so I didn’t get to spend as much time on the game as I’d hoped. However, I did complete a reasonable number of tasks although didn’t finish some of the big tasks associated with “power-ups”. Tasks completed this sprint: Decide on power-up types Create icons for power-ups Show score in game screen Populate remaining scenes with GUI etc Game GUI – score Store player... Read on

Last week I completed the following tasks, it was a pretty good week but (as mentioned when I started this sprint) it’s likely to be cut short due to Christmas etc. Decide on power-up types Create icons for power-ups Show score in game screen Populate remaining scenes with GUI etc Game GUI – score Store player data Add points graphics Game score on final screen Read on

Well, Sprint 5 actually went rather well, so well in fact that I completed all the tasks I’d assigned to the sprint and also a few more besides. One of the tasks I hadn’t planned to complete this sprint was implementing analytics on the game. Mobile games track a lot of data about how players use their games (whether the player realises it or not) and this guides a lot of the decisions about how... Read on

The last week I completed the following tasks on Bubblision: Add sound for NPC bubble collisions Add sound for player bubble burst Add sound for NPC bubble burst Add sound for collision between player and NPC bubble Slow down NPC bubbles if colour matches colliding player Regular readers might realise that the above represents all the tasks for sprint 5… so next week I’ll be working on the next tasks in the list. Other things... Read on

Wow, these sprints are rattling along! It’s the end of Sprint 4 already and I completed all the stories. Towards the end of the sprint I came across a rather frustrating issue with the collisions in the game but this turned out to be something I’d overlooked and easy to fix… albeit after spending a couple of hours researching Unity’s collision detection and reviewing all my code. I’ll write a blog post about that separately... Read on

For a variety of reasons I’ve not had as much time to devote to my game project as I’d hoped this week. As a result I’m a bit behind where I’d like to be in terms of the current sprint. That said, I still managed to complete a couple of tasks: The non-player bubbles now burst (albeit the particles still needing a lot of work) and are removed from the game area if they reach... Read on

Sprint stories Create NPC bubble burst particles NPC bubbles burst and remove Create spikes at the bottom of the playing area Create player bubble Launch player bubble on tap Expected duration Two weeks (ending 17/11/2013) Read on

Set up Pivotal Tracker for Bubblision Added all Bubblision stories to Pivotal Tracker and ordered the majority in the Back log “Nice to have” stories added to the Ice box Set release markers for first Beta version and final release Made read-only Pivotal Tracker dashboard for Bubblision publicly accessible: Default view shows the stories in the “current” sprint and the “back log” but you can access the “Done” and “Ice box” lists too The current velocity is... Read on

Sprint stories Set up Pivotal Tracker to keep track of all the sprints, stories, back log and ice box etc. Set collisions on NPC bubbles Configure the screen limits Create background artwork Set up video capture Upload game progress video First Android build Expected duration Two weeks (ending 04/11/2013) At the end of the first sprint I decided to reduce the sprint time from three weeks to two weeks. Read on

Sprint stories review Set up Git repo Create Unity project and configure it to use Git Create game design document/summary Basic screens/menus Movement of NPCs – currently just moving around a bounding box. The bubbles bounce off the walls but not each other Additional stories: Set up Google Docs spreadsheet and data collection form to keep track of time spent on various tasks Added a glow (light) to each of the bubbles Randomly switched bubble... Read on

Background Bubblision was a (very) basic Flash game I created in 2003 for our Staff Art Show. Now I’d like to create a much improved and bigger version in Unity – for deployment on Android (and hopefully iOS). The game is a small puzzle (casual) game and my plan is to use it as a manageable project for my first experience with Unity. Building on that I can then work on some of the bigger... Read on

For my first game with Unity I want to create a mobile version of my 2003 game Bubblision. It’s basically a casual game and the objective is to prevent four coloured bubbles from bursting for as long as you can. You do this by firing another bubble into the path of one of the coloured bubbles and knocking it away from spikes. As this will be my first mobile game I don’t have particularly high... Read on

Recently I’ve been keen to do more games development. It’s something I really enjoy, having written a few Flash games in the past, but not something I get to do at work. With work a little uncertain at the moment it’s also a good time to add to my skills etc and have a bit of fun. Having decided I wanted to get back into games development and specifically mobile gaming on iOS and Android... Read on