inZania

Game Design and Blogging

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What I Learned From Prison Inmates

What I Learned From Prison Inmates

Yesterday I spent my morning volunteering an the San Quentin prison with a program called The Last Mile. As Wired recently reported, this nonprofit seeks to help inmates prepare to get a job on the outside. I was as shocked as anybody when a friend of mine called up asking me to teach advanced computer science topics to their level two class.

I took a few weeks to prepare a lecture on algorithm…

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What Make The Game of "Go" So Hard to Learn?

What Make The Game of “Go” So Hard to Learn?

This weekend, a friend of mine brought a “Go” board to a party. I’d heard a lot about this notoriously complex and ancient game. Most recently, it was in the news because a computer finally beat a master Go player.

This triumph of computer programming illustrates just how hard Go is. Computers were regularly beating chess masters decades ago, yet Go is still challenging. What makes this game so…

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Is it possible to learn how to concentrate on studies more effectively? Everybody has felt their mind wander when studying. The stigma around studying is that it’s tedious and repetitive. Thankfully, the strategies for effective studying can help you to concentrate on studies in a way that will also help you remember more... http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

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A Tragically Lost Skill of Authors and Students

There is an essential skill which many of us have lost.

This loss is a symptom of how easy it is to publish. Or tweet. Blog. Snap. Broadcast. Record.

Our filters have dropped. We say what is on our minds and hope for a “like.” Really, our ancestors were no different. They wanted the same social approval. But the medium they had to work with was different.

Writing a letter requires an entirely…

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Can Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Make You Smarter?

Can Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Make You Smarter?

Was there ever a time when you needed to learn something and your brain just felt too foggy that day? In the near future, you might be able to get an electrical shock to the brain instead of a cup of coffee to prepare your neurons for learning.

New researchfrom the Catholic University Medical School in Rome, Italy, has found that electrical stimulation in the brains of mice increases their memory…

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Using Firebase in a 2D Tile-Based Online Game (MMORPG)

Using Firebase in a 2D Tile-Based Online Game (MMORPG)

This article will teach a simple way to create a real-time game in Swift (such as a 2D MMORPG). It will build upon the previous article, which set up the data structures.

Buffering the Screen

As I explained in the previous article, one of the hard parts about a 2.5D game like ForeverMaze is the need to load data before it appears on screen (buffering it). This ensures that by the time the object…

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Creating D-Pad Controls for an iOS Game in Swift & SpriteKit

Creating D-Pad Controls for an iOS Game in Swift & SpriteKit

Learn how to control a character for your game with “D-Pad.” This tutorial will show you how to use Swift to create a simple but powerful control structure.

Download Direction.swift

What Is a D-Pad?

A “D-Pad” is short for “directional pad,” one of the most common game controller input styles.

Of course, modern mobile devices do not have physical buttons. So we need to create our own D-Pad…

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Practice Everyday Mindfulness For Healthy Blood Sugar

Practice Everyday Mindfulness For Healthy Blood Sugar

In another win for mindfulness, a new study has found a link between healthier blood glucose levels and individuals who practiced everyday mindfulness.

This new information raises more questions about what mindfulness can do for you, and provides some potential therapeutic or intervention possibilities for patients at risk for type 2 diabetes.

Photo credit: Heidi Forbes Oste, Flickr

Everyday…

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Animated Sprites for SpriteKit and Swift with TexturePacker

Animated Sprites for SpriteKit and Swift with TexturePacker

This article will show you how to create sprite sheets and load them into your SpriteKit game with Swift. It includes source code that makes the whole process painless.

In 2D games you generally will have one or more “sprites,” which are simply images that represent an object. This becomes a bit tricky when you have multiple frames of animation and multiple cardinal directions. For example, in a…

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Simple Mobile App Split Testing with Facebook Analytics

Simple Mobile App Split Testing with Facebook Analytics

Fancy A/B testing suites are great, but sometimes you need something dead-simple. Facebook analytics has all the power you need for basic split testing in your mobile app. In this article, I’ll show you how I set up 3-way split test on the difficulty of the mobile game ForeverMaze.

Download the Source Code for Analytics.swift

Facebook Analytics: Treatment Assignment

To “assign a treatment” means…

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Swift Tutorial: Real-Time Data Synchronization with Firebase

Swift Tutorial: Real-Time Data Synchronization with Firebase

In this tutorial, I’ll introduce a data class that “magically” synchronizes in real-time via Firebase. You interface with it like any normal local object, but it actually is always in-sync with the server. We’ll learn about intermediate topics in Swift like KVO and Reflection.

  For example, if I add a new variable in my subclass, dynamic var health:Int = 0 , the value is atomically initialized…

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For Long-Term Memory, Sleep On It

For Long-Term Memory, Sleep On It

Sleep is important for a lot of reasons, but one reason is its role in learning and memory. Scientists have known for some time now that memory doesn’t function as well without proper rest, but the reasons for this are just now starting to be revealed. New research sheds light on the mechanism of how our brain solidifies memories while we sleep.

Photo credit: David D, Flickr

Sleep is important…

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How-To: Code Wrap-Around Grid Coordinates for a 2.5D Game in Swift

How-To: Code Wrap-Around Grid Coordinates for a 2.5D Game in Swift

This article will show you how to create an “infinite” coordinate system for a 2.5D game.

The video goes into much more depth than the article, so look there for explanations.

Download Source: Coordinate.swift

What is 2.5D?

In a “2.5D” or “isomorphic” game, the world is rotated by 45 degrees to give a sense of depth.

Here’s a screenshot from ForeverMaze:

It can be tricky to translate between…

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A Game to Battle Depression With Friends

A Game to Battle Depression With Friends

Games are an untapped source for social good.

There are some examples of “good games.” Duolingo teaches foreign languages. Neuroracer helps prevent cognitive decline. I’ve written about many other such examples around this blog. But I’m also a game designer by training, so it was inevitable that I’d try to create a socially-inspired game eventually.

Inspiration

It’s no secret I’m a fan of Jane…

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Cut Out Sugar for a Healthy Hippocampus

Cut Out Sugar for a Healthy Hippocampus

Sugar has come under fire for a number of health reasons, but a new study shows the direct effects sugar can have on the brain – and it’s not good for mental health. The research shows that consumption of sugar can have more damaging effects than trauma has on the hippocampus early in life.

Photo Credit: Health Gauge, Flickr

Stressors and mental health

It has been shown that early childhood trauma

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Retain Information by Making Rewarding Memories

Retain Information by Making Rewarding Memories

How does our brain decide what memories are important? How does it determine the information that is worth storing accurately? New neuroscience research shows that memories associated with a higher reward are reinforced and prioritized, while other memories take a back seat.

Photo Credit: NIH, Flickr

Memories are prioritized based on rewards

 It has been known for some time that “rewards” help…

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7 Strategies for Maintaining Motivation to Study & Desire to Learn (Techniques)