Blog | jtsmills

Lock before Key

2020 September 30th

In game design, the usage of locks and keys has been a prevailing choice for guiding the player and defining pacing. Lock before Key summarizes an important game design principle that makes these rewarding. 🗝️

Composing Backpack

2020 September 15th

Inspired by my work with Flash, I created a typescript HTML5 game framework following the Entity Component System Architecture. I named it Backpack. 🎒

Failure in Game Design

2020 August 31st

Games can be hard. Games can be punishing. How do you make sure that players have fun while they struggle? How do you design meaningful failures?

Laudable Languages

2020 August 15th

Programming languages inform how we conceive ideas and shape our solutions. Learning languages encourages new ways to think. This post talks about what I loved learning from Typescript and Elixir.

Shepherded Behaviours

2020 July 31st

Shepherded Behaviours are interactions that guide the user with an intentional design but without explicit barriers or restrictions. I explore this useful design tool with some case studies and examples.

Turtles and Grammar

2020 July 15th

One of my first programming projects was to draw a tree. This article explores the usage of a Context Free Grammar to draw a tree to an HTML5 canvas.

Toys, Games, and Play

2020 June 30th

I begin talking about Game Design by identifying and exploring ideas related to some of the primitives of play. Let's talk about toys and games. 🎮

Duals

2020 June 14th

Duality is a meaningful and pervasive theme across mathematics and life in general. This post explores some examples of duals and formalizes cross-discipline ideas for use in a broader context.

A Good Test

2020 May 31st

I have always been opinionated about tests. For me, testing is often the weak point of many codebases. Let's explore how we can build confidence about our software - and what makes a good test.

Inflection Points

2020 May 19th

Inflection Points are points of emphasis and significant change. For my first blog post, I explore this term and use it to reason about personal growth. Features some graphs. 🚀