Stephen Calender Programming Blog


Building Lego Universe


Jul 05

Posted: under Opinion.

LEGO Universe Teaser

In May 2009, I joined NetDevil so I could work on LEGO Universe. After working there for over a year, and as our ship date nears, I thought I would share what the experience has been like. more…

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Attitudes Towards Video Games


Jun 01

Posted: under Opinion.

I stumbled across this paper that I wrote in 2007 while earning my Master’s at Carnegie Mellon University. The dichotomy of society’s perception of video games affect on civilization seems to have become even more polarized. In addition, it has unintentionally gotten funnier over time – this was written just a few months after Rob Blagojevich’s ‘Safe Games Illinois Act’ denouncing amoral games was ruled unconstitutional (I’m so glad we had an ethical guy like Rod in office). Enjoy. more…

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Flash Particle System


May 01

Posted: under ActionScript 3.0, Optimization.




A particle system is the quintessential video game effect used for clouds, fog, mist, smoke, rain, snow, fire, explosions, dust, debris, sparks, magic, spray, splatter, and other phenomenon. They have been around since the early 1980s, William T. Reeves is the inventor, but its most notable debut to the public was when the group that eventually became Pixar (employed by Lucasfilm Ltd. at the time) used a particle system in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982) for the ‘genesis effect’. It is mystifying that such a classic creative tool is missing from Flash.

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Better Random Number Generation: Mersenne Twister 19937


Mar 28

Posted: under ActionScript 3.0.

Math.random() is the bane of many Flash game developers, and in this article I am going to help you work around it (free code).
more…

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Flash Render Profiling


Feb 23

Posted: under ActionScript 3.0.

Flash Render Profiling Demo

Use this tool and purge your projects of lethargic art assets!

more…

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A Programmer’s Postmortem: Lincoln Era White House


Feb 17

Posted: under ActionScript 3.0, Opinion.

White House Project

Featured in:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pop City Blog
PittsBlog
Tech Burgher Blog
and on AM 1360 WMNY The American Entrepreneur 2/28/09 “Ron Morris talks with Todd Waits”

more…

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3D Rendering and Flash Games


Feb 08

Posted: under Opinion.

There has been a lot of recent development in 3D ActionScript engines, the most popular of which is Papervision3D. What does this advance in technology mean for Flash games? more…

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Obstacles for Flash Game Development


Feb 03

Posted: under Opinion.

Flash is far from perfect. In fact, there is an entire micro economy providing support for things Adobe left out. more…

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Why Flash will be King of Web Development for the Foreseeable Future


Jan 29

Posted: under Opinion.

The answer is simple: market share. more…

Comments (1)

Top Ten ActionScript Performance Tips


Jan 28

Posted: under ActionScript 3.0.

These are tips I have personally used and have indisputable results. Of all the things you can do to improve performance these are the most effective and efficient changes that you can make. more…

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