About on DataGreed

About on DataGreedhttps://datagreed.pro/Recent content in About on DataGreedHugo -- gohugo.ioen-usMon, 28 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000On Resources in Game Designhttps://datagreed.pro/thoughts/on-resources-in-game-design/Mon, 28 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/thoughts/on-resources-in-game-design/<p>I recently picked up <em>Metro: Last Light</em> on Switch for €1.50 during a sale. The game has plenty of questionable design decisions, but I want to talk about one in particular: the resources available to the player.</p>How I wasted $4k+ and half a year of my life to develop a game that earned only $30https://datagreed.pro/thoughts/drunk-shotgun-postmortem/Wed, 30 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/thoughts/drunk-shotgun-postmortem/<p><em>Postmortem analysis of Drunk Shotgun</em></p> <p>It’s been nine months since the initial release of <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/drunk-shotgun/id1482872349">Drunk Shotgun for iOS</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pro.datagreed.DrunkShotgun">Android</a>. I realize that I should have made a post-mortem analysis in two weeks after the game launch while my memories were fresh, but the game failed so hard that I was in a very fragile state and just decided to forget about it for a while for the sake of my sanity. Its December, 2020 and I feel like I cannot end this year without getting some kind of closure and the least I can do is to follow up this project with a post-mortem.</p>Bad API design — studying confusing AppsFlyer Server-to-server APIhttps://datagreed.pro/thoughts/bad-api-design-appsflyer/Mon, 10 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/thoughts/bad-api-design-appsflyer/<p>If you want to learn how <em>not</em> to design APIs, you can just look at the AppsFlyer’s <a href="https://support.appsflyer.com/hc/en-us/articles/207034486-Server-to-server-events-API#setup">server-to-server events API</a>. The purpose of this API is to enable developers to send additional events about user behavior after they installed your app.</p>When helmet dropshttps://datagreed.pro/thoughts/when-helmet-drops/Tue, 11 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/thoughts/when-helmet-drops/<figure><img src="https://datagreed.pro/img/thoughts/when-helmet-drops/1_NjF4fEkoiGwMkxKRpioqJw.jpg" alt="Motorbike on the road"></figure> <p>American bikers have a saying that I can really relate to. It goes like this: “Bullshit stops when helmet drops”.</p>Casually walking through an airporthttps://datagreed.pro/thoughts/casually-walking-through-an-airport/Sun, 18 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/thoughts/casually-walking-through-an-airport/<figure><img src="https://datagreed.pro/img/thoughts/casually-walking-through-an-airport/1_ESSYIXGCxSIcFvukhdg5Rw.png" alt="Airport terminal"></figure> <p>Punctuality has never been among my strongest traits. I tend to underestimate the travel time to the meeting or can just forget to get my outfit ready and end up being 10–15 minutes late with messed-up hair and non-matching clothes.</p>On fear of riding, confidence and my first timehttps://datagreed.pro/thoughts/on-fear-of-riding/Fri, 09 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/thoughts/on-fear-of-riding/<figure><img src="https://datagreed.pro/img/thoughts/on-fear-of-riding/1_TRqhkdKRVKVW5qiGs1j4dQ.jpg" alt="Motorbike on the road"></figure> <p>I know people who are afraid of riding a motorbike. I am not talking about the ones who don’t have a driving license for a motorcycle. I am talking about the ones who have.</p>The Need for Sleephttps://datagreed.pro/thoughts/the-need-for-sleep/Mon, 05 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/thoughts/the-need-for-sleep/<figure><img src="https://datagreed.pro/img/thoughts/the-need-for-sleep/1_GBW4LRsozcdt71JEMbssag.jpg" alt="Night light"></figure> <p>– Hello, my name is Alex and I cannot accept that people need to sleep.</p>What No One Tells You About Riding a Motorbikehttps://datagreed.pro/thoughts/what-no-one-tells-you-about-riding-a-motorbike/Wed, 23 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/thoughts/what-no-one-tells-you-about-riding-a-motorbike/<figure><img src="https://datagreed.pro/img/thoughts/what-no-one-tells-you-about-riding-a-motorbike/1_xQLdB2D7Gz0tbCb0KRThUA.jpg" alt="Motorbike on the road"></figure> <p>I know no person who hasn’t dreamed about riding a motorbike at least once. Not everyone starts moving towards the path of learning how to ride and getting a license, but those who commit to it, start discovering some new things about themselves.</p>Another Nighthttps://datagreed.pro/projects/anothernight/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/projects/anothernight/Another Night is a very short survival game where you have to help your friends and family survive the night in the desert. Find wood, feed the bonfire, fight mummies or try to sneak past them and don’t get lost (tip: use your footprints to keep track of where you’re going). This game is a Ludum Dare Game Jam #46 Entry. The theme for the game jam was “Keep it alive”.Avalanche Run!https://datagreed.pro/projects/avalancherun/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/projects/avalancherun/Avalanche Run is an endless runner game. You take control of James, the world’s best downhill skier who tries to outrun an avalanche. This is my first ever mobile game, my first experience with Unity and procedural level generation. The gameplay was inspired by classic SkiFree for Windows 3.1. Background James art was inspired by Archer from the series of the same name. Background menu art and icon art was commissioned.Drunk Shotgunhttps://datagreed.pro/projects/drunkshotgun/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/projects/drunkshotgun/Drunk Shotgun is my love letter to hardcore old-school games. The perspective and art style are a homage to Crimsonland and other top-down shooters of that era, and the simple control scheme that lets you play with only one finger is a nod to Canabalt and Leap Day. Jack, the game’s protagonist leaves the bar at night and tries to go home, but quickly realises that he’s in no condition to do so – he’s so drunk that he cannot stop spinning in circles.Grouping Toolhttps://datagreed.pro/projects/unitygroupingtool/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/projects/unitygroupingtool/Grouping Tool is an Editor Asset for Unity that can easily group GameObjects together right in the Unity Hierarchy Panel from the context menu or with a keyboard shortcut (Cmd+G on Mac or Ctrl+G on Windows). By default objects are grouped into an empty GameObject. Custom Prefab templates can be used to group objects together. Background While working on Holes Online I was building a city level from lots of multi-storey buildings.Holes Onlinehttps://datagreed.pro/projects/holesonline/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/projects/holesonline/Holes Online is a mobile game that lets you take control of a cartoony-looking hole and absorb various city objects like cars, vans, trees and buildings. The hole grows when consuming objects. You have become bigger than opponent holes to absorb them and win the match. Features actual 4-player online multiplayer mode. This game was my first (and quite successful) attempt at creating a multiplayer game with a low-level net code.Listenablehttps://datagreed.pro/projects/listenable/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/projects/listenable/Listenable is an audio-based learning platform that helps you learn new things while doing something else — commuting, running, doing housework, etc. With Listenable, you can build your learning playlist and listen to 5-minute audio lessons anytime, anywhere. My Role I’ve joined Listenable as a Chief Technical Officer right after the initial UI design mockups were completed. I was responsible for everything related to the technical side of the startup: gathering business requirements, leading the development team, designing project architecture, devops, etc.OnlyThreadshttps://datagreed.pro/projects/onlythreads/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/projects/onlythreads/OnlyThreads is a productivity extension for Slack that lets you transform some of your channels to knowledge base and never lose important decisions and answers. It also searches for answers automatically whenever someone asks about something that has already been answered or decided upon. My Role We’ve come up with an idea for OnlyThreads while working on Listenable. We realized that Slack is great for instant communication but quickly becomes a mess if you want to use it for logging decisions and store knowledge that can be accessed later.Polyend Tracker MIDI Exporthttps://datagreed.pro/projects/polyendtrackermidiexport/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/projects/polyendtrackermidiexport/This tool lets you convert Polyend Tracker projects and pattern files to MIDI, so you can compose music on the Tracker and then easily port it over to your favourite DAW to continue working on it. Background While working on my musical projects I found myself using Polyend Tracker as a sequencer for external synthesizers a lot. Most of the time I’ve recorded the audio to 1010 Music’s BlueBox to bring it later into Ableton for final arrangement and mixing.Purehttps://datagreed.pro/projects/pure/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/projects/pure/Pure is a controversial mobile hookup app that seriously challenges the status quo when it comes to using your phone to instantly and anonymously find casual sex partners. It’s crafted for individuals to find and experience instant sexy adventures and has one simple premise: provide “Dates On-Demand”. iOS App Screenshots of iOS version of the Pure App, version of 2018. Android App Screenshots of Android version of the Pure App featuring radically different design from iOS App (2017).Soulhttps://datagreed.pro/projects/soul/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/projects/soul/Soul is a cloud platform which helps to create full-featured dating apps without writing a single line of server-side code. Developers get to focus on the most important – the product while Soul takes care of the complex infrastructure. Soul provides SDK for every popular platform: iOS, Android, Javascript; and provides HTTP REST API. Media Screenshot of Soul Platform WebsiteTill Breath Do Us Parthttps://datagreed.pro/projects/breathapart/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://datagreed.pro/projects/breathapart/A top-down shooter where you’re constantly running low on oxygen and can trade it for upgrades to have more chances defeating deadly enemies. Submitted as an entry to Ludum Dare #44. This is a compo project, meaning that it was created solo in 48 hours without using any previously created work. Everything was done from scratch. Source code is available on GitHub. Background Ludum Dare Compo is a kind of challenge I always wanted to try.