7 Steps to Becoming Better at Making Games
- Make a game.
- Make another game.
- Make yet another game.
- Make more games.
- Make games when you don't feel like it.
- Make games when you do feel like it.
- Keep making games.
Hiking Redwood Regional Park
Summary
Great redwoods, varieties of trails.
Numbers
Time: 2016.04.30, 3.8 hours
Distance: 10.0km (6.2 miles)
Route
See this Google Map for more details.
Photos
∞ The Must-See Documentaries for Designers & Artists
Shut up and take my time.
∞ I fly 747s for a living. Here are the amazing things I see every day.
I decided to write Skyfaring, a book about flying, in order to set down for myself some of the remarkable details of the job I'd dreamed of since childhood. I guess I hoped, too, that these details would be of interest to readers who travel so often that flight has become an uninteresting experience for them. Here are six of the more amazing things I've learned, or relearned, in the 15 years that I've been flying.
Fancinating.
∞ Bots won't replace apps. Better apps will replace apps.
Another great piece by Dan Grover:
As I’ll explain, messenger apps’ apparent success in fulfilling such a surprising array of tasks does not owe to the triumph of “conversational UI.” What they’ve achieved can be much more instructively framed as an adept exploitation of Silicon Valley phone OS makers’ growing failure to fully serve users’ needs, particularly in other parts of the world. Chat apps have responded by evolving into “meta-platforms.” Many of the platform-like aspects they’ve taken on to plaster over gaps in the OS actually have little to do with the core chat functionality. Not only is “conversational UI” a red herring, but as we look more closely, we’ll even see places where conversational UI has breached its limits and broken down.
The reason why bots is a thing now is, the companies, who don't own a platform, want it to be. And they missed the point.
∞ Writing Great App Store Release Notes
Not as many people read these since Apple made automatic updates a thing, but some people still do, is my answer. The thing is, it doesn’t matter whether four, 40 or 40,000 people read your release notes. The people that do are the people that judge you on your attention to detail, after all, they’re interested in the fine details of your point update.
I'm one of the people who read release notes. I do not have automatic update on. Instead, I will take a look at every app's release notes before manually tap the Update All button.
However, I do not quite agree with @helloimfreddie about the good and average release notes.
I was a fan of the Medium's style. They are fun and delightful to read. Then after many experiences of reading the release notes from the Updates tab, just like reading my twitter's timeline, I actually only remembered the apps that actually listed what the update is about with simple and precise bullet points. This style also saves me a lot of time, so I'm also more likely to read them carefully next time.
Hiking Angel Island
Summary
Great view of the city on the opposite side of the ferry.
Numbers
Time: 2016.03.26, 1.87 hours
Distance: 7.0km (4.4 miles)
Route
See this Google Map for more details.
Photos
Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve
Summary
Fantastic tree moss, two ponds.
Numbers
Time: 2016.01.30, 1.9 hours
Distance: 5.5km (3.4 miles)
Route
See this Google Map for more details.
Photos
A wave of 5-star VRPlanetDefense reviews
I wasn't paying attention to VRPlanetDefense during the holidays as I was on vacation. One day I was just curious about how it was doing during Christmas, and I saw a great boost:
VR Planet Defense Daily Units Sold
What I am more happy with are all the following 5-star reviews.
From Spamalicious2014:
Wow. The most fun you can have with your pants on! 💟
From Schickmeister:
Intuitive game play prefect for the medium, cute graphics and music. This could be a VR classic.
From TexanReviewrr:
Best. Probably the best VR game out there It has amazing Graffics and awesome gameplay even my grandpa plays this game!
From Corndogl337:
Great little game. And works awesome for cardboard. This is a must download for people just getting into VR and Google cardboard. It's simple, fun, intuitive. Most other 3rd party VR apps are not as put together.
Rancho San Antonio County Park
Summary
Great during winter season. Lots of trail options. Wildcat loop trail is my favorite.
Numbers
Time: 2015.12.06, 2 hours
Distance: 7km (4.4 miles)
Route
Counter clockwise, the darker red portion was manually added as I forgot to log. See this Google Map for more details.
Photos