AWS GameLift is a cool product allowing game developers (hobbyist or professional) to develop multiplayer projects. You provide the game server executable and GameLift will take care of hosting the server processes, to your specifications. They even have a collection of features called “GameLift Anywhere” that supports a local development. Say you want to test some netcode you’ve written for your game, you’re using Unity, and you’ve already installed the GameLift unity plugin. Great! You can start your game server in your locally running Unity Editor and GameLift can know about the server there.
Good writing mostly follows the adage “show don’t tell” to help writers prioritize how they are conveying information. Perhaps video games should follow a “touch, don’t show” guiding light to help game developers convey experiences meaningful to the interactive medium.
Large language models have hit the scene and they represent a large disruption to how work is traditionally done. Programming is no exception.
I’ve been using LLMs like chatGPT and copilot for almost a year now. I saw potential of using the tool for my own creator activities. I have some thoughts on how AI may change the profession of programming.
As a quick aside I summarize my LLM usage in two broad categories: strategic versus tactical. Strategic questions represent research and design; chatGPT is excellent at serving this role. Tactical questions represent how to create or manipulate software to do what I want to do; both chatGPT and copilot fulfill this. I believe I am the entity that wants and the LLM tooling dutifully helps me get what I want.
I’ve thought about what sort of information I’d want to see if I were watching an educational course on the topic of “automated testing for video games.” Here are my thoughts.
I would assume a course would start out with the basics. Basics like here is a test, here is how to come up with a assertion of software behavior, and here is how to prioritize what automated tests to write. I would also presume the basics would simply new up ethereal game engine game objects and attach relevant game engine components to them (such as Unity’s MonoBehaviour components).
This very website faces a prolonged period of inactivity. I must admit that there appeared an error that I wasn’t able to resolve. Allow me to describe my previous setup so that you can understand the transformation.
I once had a desire to create a website for myself. I wanted to create a space on the internet to call my own. Previously I had created WordPress websites for others; surely I could create one for myself.
After a long hiatus I am finally back. There is a story I can’t wait to tell. For now, lets talk about large language models (LLMs)
I have given some thought to LLMs specifically on the source of data LLMs consume. For some context I heavily use chatGPT and GitHub copilot during my hobbyist development. I am impressed. I’ve thought about how these LLMs are trained. They are given access to content created largely through text, such as open source program source code available to anyone. I wondered what sort of impact LLMs tooling may have on the type of writing people do.
learn AWS by playing a video game
I can hardly type this because I am shaking with excitement. AWS has released this video game to teach AWS skills. This is days after I wrote my Defining VGIs article. I am still processing this information and so far I love what I see.
Most everyone today interact with graphical user interfaces (a.k.a GUIs) when using a computer (phone or otherwise). This makes sense as people are visual creatures and it helps them use computers effectively.
Technical people like programmers or computer power users may choose to use command line interfac (CLIs). You can accomplish so much when you get used to using CLIs.
Testing is a core tenant I believe helps me produce high quality software. In order to have faith in a test suite that is assembled is to constantly verify every code change that is introduced to the system.
Github Actions (docs) is a wonderful workflow based system that can easily integrate with a Github project. Since Github is my version control repository of choice, it is natural for me to adopt it.
I mean to capture my current early 2022 thoughts on writing tests intended to be run by automated processes created for Unity based video games. I want to capture my thoughts so I can share this and receive feedback. I know I haven’t found a holistic philosophy around testing. I know I can be better. If you can help, please do!
I love researching topics, buying books, and seeing what content “influencers” say on topics. When I investigate this topic I find very little content. Are content creators disinterested in this topic? The ones that do create content seem to be stuck showing testing setup and trivial examples, such as testing a function that adds two numbers. I’m sure there is a deep dive out there but I can’t seem to find it.
