[{"meta":{"slug":"06-testtools-vs-output-also-comments","date":"2023-03-22","title":"Tools vs. Output. Also, comments!","description":"A reposting of some thoughts I had regarding working on tools vs working on games. Also, there are comments now!","categories":["website","gamedev"]},"path":"/../posts/06-tools-vs-output-also-comments/","content":"\n\n

Tools vs. Output. Also, comments!

Published: 2023-03-22

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I originally posted this on the WebXR Discord, but I thought it might make good blog material too so I’ll repost it here:

What do you prefer: building out your own tooling to have fuller control over the development process itself, or choosing existing tools (be it a library, framework, engine, etc) and working within them to build out the experiences you want to make?

As I come close to finishing up the remake of one of my earlier games in A-Frame + PhysX, I’ve found myself thinking about my next potential project already, where I was thinking of using three.js + PhysX and an ECS like Miniplex to get real nitty gritty with how my whole project is structured and architected, basically building out my own little mini-engine in the process. And then recently I caught myself, thinking I’m going to spend so long working on the tooling for this that I’ll probably never even get to the actual game development part. And actually making games is supposed to be the whole point! So I’ve been taking a look at Godot again and am thinking about making an optimized build template for my own needs, that way I can still produce web-friendly bundle sizes while taking advantage of Godot’s massive plugin ecosystem, including godot-xr-tools (which have been used in this game here).

/repost. Newer developments now:

Of course, trying to go to Godot wasn’t as seamless as I was hoping either. I seem to be having issues utilizing godot-xr-tools in my test project, and there are some odd quirks that didn’t exist in prior workflows (issues loading with the preview web server, meaning I have to export every time), so it’s not the “quickly get up and get going” cureall I was hoping it might be. At this point now I’m considering two things: either experimenting with react-xr (another option with a rich existing ecosystem) or just going through with my original idea of three.js + PhysX + Miniplex. I haven’t decided yet, but I’ll probably make an update on that in a future blog post.

And lastly, there are comments on here now! Given that my audience is almost certainly nothing but techy folks and developers I’m using giscus to power the comments, which in the background just connects to discussion threads on the repo for this blog. I figure the auth requirement will likely also help prevent spambots from running rampant in the comment section too. Plus, you can react to posts! That’s pretty neat! That’s all for now though, talk to y’all again in the near future.

\n\n"},{"meta":{"slug":"05-test-post-please-ignore","date":"2022-12-02","title":"Test post please ignore","description":"Just a little test.","categories":["website"]},"path":"/../posts/05-test-post-please-ignore/","content":"\n\n

Test post please ignore

Published: 2022-12-02

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This is a test post to check that I’ve updated my GitHub Actions deploy properly.

\n\n"},{"meta":{"slug":"04-fediverse-gamedev-updates","date":"2022-11-12","title":"The Fediverse, game dev, and other updates","description":"Another irregularly-spaced update into my daily goings-on.","categories":["fediverse","gamedev","webxr"]},"path":"/../posts/04-fediverse-gamedev-updates/","content":"\n\n

The Fediverse, game dev, and other updates

Published: 2022-11-12

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Hello again! I truly have no idea how many people actually check this blog with any frequency, so anyone subscribed to the RSS feed: you’re very cool.\nSo what have I been up to lately? Taking a look at my last post it looks like half a year’s gone by, and I suppose a fair bit has happened since then.\nTurns out I had the right idea on the whole Mastodon thing, so +1 point for Daniel, though it’s been nice seeing more curated and less toxic spaces develop out of the whole Twitter exodus.\nAlso, since the big migration to Mastodon and other federated services, my BookWyrm instance has gotten an absolute surge of users! At the time of writing I am the fourth most populated instance with 215 users, and I feel like it’s gonna be a while before the growth rate levels back out.\nIn my last post I also mentioned I was working on a WebXR experience that was going to have some fediverse incorporation through Immers Space. That’s definitely still planned, but I am absolutely terrible at working on my own projects consistently so I have yet to really get back to it.\nThat does provide me a bit of a nice segue into my next topic though, which is a project I have been working on: Solitude.

Solitude is the name of the first game/experiment/weird interactive thing(?) in my shared universe of The Unseen City (more on that later).\nI initially started working on it with the goal of keeping it small and avoiding scope creep, but of course I knew it was gonna happen regardless.\nOver the past few months I’ve worked on it in fits and starts, but it’s only been recently that I think I’ve gotten a fairly solid idea of what I actually would like it to be and what I need to do to finish.\nI’m in the process of writing a script for the sole speaking role of the game, which I don’t anticipate to be too long.\nI don’t know that I’d call myself the greatest writer in the world but I’ve got plenty of folks I can run my dialogue by beforehand to make sure it’s not unbearably cringe or pretentious, so as long as I can clear that bar I’ll be satisfied.\nAfter that I’ll need to flesh out the main game mechanic for progressing the story, which I’ve tentatively decided will be sound-based, then it’s just a matter of a bit more environment design and then the music, which I’m really looking forward to working on.\nIt’s been a while since I’ve done anything music-related and having my own game to finish is the perfect excuse to get back into it.\nLots to do, lots to look forward to. I think when it’s done it’ll be pretty great.

As for IRL stuff, I recently had the chance to visit Lisbon for AWE XR and got to meet a bunch of WebXR devs! It was a pretty great time.\nI’d like to do something similar at some point on the east coast, but there’s probably a ton of planning that would need to go into that.\nJust something to keep in mind I guess. Anyway, that’s about all from me for now, talk to you all again hopefully in less than 6 months.

\n\n"},{"meta":{"slug":"svelte-svelte-svelte","date":"2022-05-03","title":"Svelte Svelte Svelte","description":"Making some barely visible upgrades to transition from Gatsby to SvelteKit. Also, plans!","categories":["fediverse","site","webxr"]},"path":"/../posts/svelte-svelte-svelte/","content":"\n\n

Svelte Svelte Svelte

Published: 2022-05-03

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Once again, I return with a new update about the website! I’ve been experimenting with Svelte recently and I’m finding myself more and more drawn to it. The way it’s just a step or two removed from writing regular HTML/CSS/JS is really appealing, plus it’s way lighter than Gatsby + all the React boilerplate, plugins, etc. The difference in overall project size is something like 350 MB down to just over 40 MB!

You may also notice the new Mastodon logo down in the footer. With the drama surrounding Twitter ownership I saw more than a few people moving to Mastodon and had my curiosity piqued enough to try it. Though initially I made my account on the standard mastodon.social instance, I soon migrated it over to an instance run by Trevor Flowers over at Wider Web. It’s meant specifically for Web and XR peeps and I find it much cozier than sharing an instance with however many thousands of randoms, but I digress.

So what’s next, now that I’ve managed to spend another weekend basically making the same website again? Well, this recent foray into Mastodon (and Lemmy) has got me thinking about what ways I could incorporate federation into some of my future projects. There’s a group called Immers Space that have been working on federated immersive web experiences, and it looks like they have some stuff built out already that will let me be able to authenticate users through a combination of ActivityPub + OAuth, which is exactly what I’m looking for for my next project. I won’t get too into detail now (that can be saved for a later blog post) but I’m very interested in supporting multiple methods of verifying and persisting identity in my app, whether that be through traditional OAuth through Google + my own DB, an Immers server, or web wallet signing for those that would prefer to confirm their identity on-chain. There are of course various other games, projects, and hacks I have cooking, but nothing too close to completion yet. I’ll make more noise about em when they’re closer to being done.

That’s about all from me for now! I’ll be back, hopefully in the near future, with more updates. Stay tuned.

\n\n"},{"meta":{"slug":"second-post","date":"2022-04-01","title":"Second blog post: I'm alive!","description":"Finally getting back to this blog and adding an RSS feed.","categories":["site"]},"path":"/../posts/second-post/","content":"\n\n

Second blog post: I'm alive!

Published: 2022-04-01

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Hey everyone! Finally coming back to this blog after spending a day setting it up a few months ago.\nI’m playing around with the post styling on the main page and I’ve added an RSS feed.\nI figure that’s probably the easiest way for anyone who’s actually interested to keep up with new posts here.\nI’ll try and post on Twitter also if it’s anything of note, but the RSS feed will be a sure thing.

So what’s the deal? What am I actually going to be posting here, assuming I actually start making use of this?\nI think I’ll try to make this a place for devlogs and maybe just some general thoughts I’ll have from time to time.\nThere’s a couple projects I’ve had shelved for a bit that I’m looking to revive, so expect to hear some news on that soon.

Anyways, I don’t know how to end blog posts, so thanks for reading. I hope I’ll have more to share with you soon.

\n\n"},{"meta":{"slug":"first-post","date":"2021-09-22","title":"First blog post","description":"My first test post with this markdown blog.","categories":["site","webxr"]},"path":"/../posts/first-post/","content":"\n\n

First blog post

Published: 2021-09-22

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To anyone that happens to be reading this, hello.\nAfter much delay I’ve finally gotten around to making a simple blog on my website.\nI’m not quite sure yet what I want to post here; I think I’ll use it post some devlogs and occasional thoughts.\nI’ve been thinking about making some instructional WebXR videos in the future, so I could potentially post some text versions here as well.

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Posts under "webxr"