Jeff Thompson | Blog

At risk of giving too much away: a level for our interactive game badges, printed via ASCII from the Arduino.  The final game will have no visual interface, just a vibrating motor for feedback.

UPDATE: these functions have been updated and moved to GitHub

Released today, version 0.9 of my 2d collision detection functions for Processing!

While some tools already exist, like the excellent Box2D, the source code is not easy to understand and the implementation is a bit complex. Other examples (equally great), like the line-line collision in the toxiclibs collection, use vector math which isn’t great for us “creative programmers” (ie: those like me who got bad grades in high school math).

Instead, these tools can be used as simple, one-line commands to determine whether two objects have collided. Designed for simple games and interactive systems, they are intended to be building blocks for larger projects.

Functions include:

• Point/Point
• Point/Rect
• Point/Ball
• Rect/Rect
• Ball/Ball
• Ball/Rect
• Point/Line
• Line/Line
• Ball/Line

Download here via Google Project Hosting

Screenshots from the games I made yesterday for games++, the 12-hour game jam we hosted at Drift Station.

Inspired by Maxwell’s Demon, a thought-experiment with a box, separated by a wall with a hole in it and one side filled with gas.  The experiment asks the question of why does the gas “know” to go through the other hole and fill the second chamber so that it is dispersed evenly?

Written in Processing, the source code is here.

A very intersting article on Wired.com about the variable 2d-3d in Super Mario 3D Land; an interactive slider allows hidden geometry to be revealed.

Via: Wired.com

Peg solitaire, all the rage in the early 19th century, is a deceptively simple game where an array of 33 holes and 32 pegs or marbles.  Pegs can jump another, only into an unfilled slot.  The game is won when all but one peg has been removed.

A great online version here.

Image via Wikipedia user Júlio Reis.