Author Archives : Herman Tulleken

About Herman Tulleken

Herman Tulleken is a freelance game developer, toolmaker, and co-founder of Gamelogic. He thinks computers are a necessary evil to make games, and sees frying a CPU or two in the process as a worthy sacrifice.

In November 2013, two colleagues* and I made 30 games. Although I have done some game prototyping before, working on so many games in such a short period gave me some insights I did not have before. As I said to a friend, it’s like watching a television series in […]

Rapid Game Prototyping: Tips for Programmers

8 Jan, 2014 in Development / Programming tagged rapid prototyping / Herman by Herman Tulleken

There is surprising little information available on hex-coordinates, despite how many games use hex grids. In this article I will explain some of the math so that you can do basic geometry in a hex grid, and design more elegant algorithms for your hex-grid games.

Geometry with Hex Coordinates

31 Aug, 2013 in Mathematics tagged hex coordinate / hex grid / vector math / Herman by Herman Tulleken

This article gives a set of algorithms for choosing colours procedurally.

How to Choose Colours Procedurally (Algorithms)

29 Jul, 2012 in Development / Programming tagged algorithm / colour / palette / procedural content / Herman by Herman Tulleken

unityLogo — This article gives a list of best practices for working with unity: it covers the process, working with art and prefabs, class design, project structure, and many others.

50 Tips for Working with Unity (Best Practices)

12 Jul, 2012 in Development tagged best practices / unity / Herman by Herman Tulleken

This article looks at common errors that can be made when implementing Perlin noise, and give systematic tests to verify for the various steps in the algorithm.

Implementing and Debugging the Perlin Noise Algorithm

25 Jun, 2011 in Programming tagged algorithm / debugging / implementation / perlin noise / Herman by Herman Tulleken

bezier — This tutorial provides some algorithms useful for working with Bézier curves: determining the length of a piece of curve; interpolating a set of points with a Bézier path; and reducing a large point set to a smooth Bézier curve.

Bézier Path Algorithms

23 Jun, 2011 in Mathematics / Programming tagged algorithm / bezier curve / bezier path / curve length / interpolation / sampling / Herman by Herman Tulleken

stats — A distillation of the five puzzle game design interviews, taking together advice from Rob Jagnow, Guy Lima, Ted Lauterbach, Teddy Lee, Dave Hall and Teddy Lee.

How Are Puzzle Games Designed? (Conclusion)

4 Jun, 2011 in Development / Game Design / Puzzle Game Design tagged difficulty / level design / playtesting / progression / puzzle game design / Herman by Herman Tulleken

Dev.Mag talks to Guy Lima, one of the founders of Ragtime Games, on how he and his team designed the puzzles for Continuity, the sliding-tile platform puzzler.

How are puzzle games designed? Guy Lima

2 May, 2011 in Development / Game Design / Interviews / Puzzle Game Design tagged continuity / guy lima / puzzle game design / ragtime games / Herman by Herman Tulleken

history — This article gives some background information on puzzle games, and sets the stage for a set of interviews on puzzle game design.

How are puzzle games designed? (Introduction)

16 Apr, 2011 in Development / Game Design / Puzzle Game Design tagged level design / puzzle game design / puzzle game hisotry / Herman by Herman Tulleken

bezier_path — A Bézier curve is a type of curve that is easy to use, and can describe many shapes. This guide gives instructions for implementing algorithms for using Bézier curves in your games.

Bézier Curves for your Games: A Tutorial

5 Apr, 2011 in Development / Mathematics / Programming tagged algorithm / bezier curve / bezier path / path / racing line / vector mathematics / Herman by Herman Tulleken

In this second part of analyzing Desktop Dungeons, we look at how choices are given meaning not only through their complexity, but also through the role they play in structuring an experience.

Desktop Dungeons: Design Analysis (Part 2)

23 Mar, 2011 in Development / Game Design / Role Playing Game Design tagged desktop dungeons / game design / management / narrative / qcf design / Herman by Herman Tulleken

This is the first part of an in-depth look at the design of Desktop Dungeons, the South African game that won the Excellence for Design Award at the IGF. In this part, we look at the player actions, choices, and tension.

Desktop Dungeons: Design Analysis (Part 1)

3 Mar, 2011 in Development / Game Design / Role Playing Game Design tagged desktop dungeons / game design / qcf design / Herman by Herman Tulleken

quadtree3 — Quadtrees are 2D data structures, useful for efficient representation of 2D data (such as images), and lookup in a 2D space. This is a simple implementation tutorial.

Quadtrees: Implementation

23 Feb, 2011 in Development / Programming tagged 2d compression / image compression / issue26 / quadtree / spatial data structure / Herman by Herman Tulleken

Hmmm... a rogue garbage collection? — This article shows how to implement a simple graphical logging system to find errors in physics, AI and animation faster.

Using graphs to debug physics, AI, and animation effectively

9 Feb, 2011 in Development / Programming tagged graphical debugging / javascript / log / logging / regression testing / tools / Herman by Herman Tulleken

log_banner1 — Text files can be messy when logging events from games. In this article, Herman Tulleken shows you how to use HTML, CSS and JavaScript to build visually informative logs that make debugging easier.

Make your logs interactive and squash bugs faster

25 Jan, 2011 in Development / Programming tagged css / debugging / html / javascript / log / logging / performance / testing / tools / Herman by Herman Tulleken