Jamie Fristrom's Profile

Best Practices for Roblox Development

Once upon a time I was lucky enough to run into an investor who was willing to fund me to make games for Roblox. For me that was a little like being paid to play with Legos. I did it... Continue reading

Posted Mar 8, 2020 at GameDevBlog

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The Insufficiency of the X Card And Story Games Safety

I have, I believe, a unique perspective on story game safety because when I started playing I had no triggers--or was in denial of having triggers--but for the past few years I get triggered quite easily. So I've been on... Continue reading

Posted Nov 29, 2019 at GameDevBlog

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The Evolution of My Story Game Preamble

At the various story game meetups in the Pacific Northwest we often begin giving a talk that starts something like this: "So we're here to play a game that is somewhere between Dungeons & Dragons and improv theater. What makes... Continue reading

Posted Nov 27, 2019 at GameDevBlog

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A Little Trick For Avoiding Negativity Bias In Performance Reviews

Because of my previous post about feedback and the comments (on twitter and off) I sat down to write this blog post and then remembered I'd already written it. Thank you Google for finding it for me again. Won't be... Continue reading

Posted Sep 26, 2019 at GameDevBlog

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My Year In Positive Psychology 3: Notes on Creativity, Inc and Feedback

Continued from Part 1 & Part 2. So now I'm on to Creativity, Inc (I may be consuming these faster than I'm able to blog about them) and - back the truck up! Pixar's CTO invented the z-buffer!? Why, he... Continue reading

Posted Sep 13, 2019 at GameDevBlog

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My Year in Positive Psychology, Part 2: Notes on Essentialism

Continued from Part 1. The last book I attempted to digest was Essentialism by Greg McKeown. In a nutshell, Essentialism says to cut your life down to the bone, keeping only what is absolutely essential. Some positive psychology books are... Continue reading

Posted Sep 8, 2019 at GameDevBlog

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My Year in Positive Psychology, Part 1

Why do you think I named my company Happion Labs? My first and foremost priority with it was happiness, not money. Happiness unfortunately doesn't always come that easily to me (though a lot easier to me than some), and Happion... Continue reading

Posted Aug 28, 2019 at GameDevBlog

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Easy To Implement Wall-Running

Did you know I open-sourced Energy Hook? As you'd expect, I'm proud of parts of the codebase and mortally embarrassed by other parts, but I'm getting over my embarrassment for anyone who wants to check it out. You can download... Continue reading

Posted Aug 27, 2019 at GameDevBlog

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AB Testing vs Baseline Testing

Continuing my posts about n00b game design data science: https://www.gamedevblog.com/2019/07/a-n00b-does-game-design-data-science.html https://www.gamedevblog.com/2019/08/finally-ab-test-victories.html Talking to the tech director of a fast growing up-and-coming always-online game I asked if they were doing AB testing with their live population. They weren't, and he said... Continue reading

Posted Aug 23, 2019 at GameDevBlog

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Finally, AB Test Victories

Continuing my n00b data science. With most of the AB testing I've been doing on Dungeon Life so far the only thing I've learned is that my ideas for making it more engaging or happy-making don't seem to have any... Continue reading

Posted Aug 16, 2019 at GameDevBlog

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A N00b Does Game Design Data Science

Because I'd rather Do Several Things Poorly™ than specialize, for fun and learnings I've been playing around with machine learning and data science with my last game, Dungeon Life. I want to share what I learn both because I like... Continue reading

Posted Jul 26, 2019 at GameDevBlog

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Sorted sets in C# and performance. A mystery remains.

I've recently become a bit obsessed for no good reason with different implementations for sorted sets in C#. I was looking into different ways to squeeze more performance out of a chunk of code and discovered to my confusion that,... Continue reading

Posted Jul 23, 2019 at GameDevBlog

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My Roblox Years: Dungeon Life and New Product Science

After fourteen years I'm throwing in the towel as an indie game developer. Now that I am quitting as an indie I can make blogging more of a priority. I've been feeling that itch to write, to communicate with other... Continue reading

Posted Jul 15, 2019 at GameDevBlog

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Have I really not blogged in three years? So sad.

Have I really not blogged in three years? So sad. Continue reading

Posted Jun 19, 2019 at GameDevBlog

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It's a wrap. Energy Hook launching July 5th!

It's finally done. I've been at it so long, building hype over so many years, that I barely know what to say at this point. Swing! Wall-run! Do tricks! Build combos! Race! All the stuff I say here: Just five... Continue reading

Posted Jun 30, 2016 at GameDevBlog

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I Made A Thing

If you've been reading this blog for years you'll know that I'm way into indie tabletop RPG's - in particular the ones that some people call 'story games', RPG's that emphasize collaborative storytelling and acting in character. I've tried my... Continue reading

Posted Nov 27, 2015 at GameDevBlog

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Energy Hook Mini-Update: Steam Controller Support

Just got my hands on my Steam Controller a few days ago and after a little head banging managed to get it working to my satisfaction in game. It takes some getting used to, but I think it's the best... Continue reading

Posted Nov 11, 2015 at GameDevBlog

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New Energy Hook Update Is Here: Run!

To quote @vidgames_bible: "Holy crap this update did wonders... Framerate, performance, game looks better...The new build is awesome." Get it here! Like I've said before, the way I see it, running on walls is to Energy Hook as grinding a... Continue reading

Posted Oct 21, 2015 at GameDevBlog

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New Energy Hook Update Coming Mid-October: Run!

Working on the Steam, Playstation Vita, and Playstation 4 versions at the same time has an obvious effect: it slows me down. Looking at my handy schedule it looks like my next update will be done mid-October, and will mostly... Continue reading

Posted Sep 18, 2015 at GameDevBlog

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Energy Hook Then And Now: Coming To Steam Early Access August 13th

Sometimes it gets me down that there's so much I want to do with this game that I may never have the time to do. But it helps to look at how far the game has come. Remember this trailer... Continue reading

Posted Aug 2, 2015 at GameDevBlog

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New Energy Hook update - Alpha 4.31

Hey everybody - after a bunch of false starts I got updated builds onto Humble that I believe aren't rubbish. Alpha 4.31, codename Mukor. One of the biggest changes in the new update is the MUKOR cheat - anywhere in... Continue reading

Posted Jun 17, 2015 at GameDevBlog

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Energy Hook Update 4.2 - codename *Rewards*

Hey everybody, just got a new build of the game up on Humble, so download away. One of the biggest things in this build is Rift DK2 support. Enough said, I think. Another big thing in this build is I... Continue reading

Posted Apr 30, 2015 at GameDevBlog

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Screenshot Saturday - Level Thumbnails

Making new thumbnails for the level select screen and thought I'd post them in delicious high res on reddit's screenshot saturday. You saw 'em here first! Continue reading

Posted Apr 17, 2015 at GameDevBlog

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Podcast

I was in a round-table podcast with Tanya Short of Moon Hunters and Alix Stolzer of Legend of Dungeon. Check it out! http://game-wisdom.com/podcast/game-wisdom-developer-round-table-episode-2 Continue reading

Posted Mar 25, 2015 at GameDevBlog

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Energy Hook Update 4.1 - Codename *Delilah*

We did it. We got a meaty patch up! That new character model and gamefeel improvements I promised are finally in. I even made a trailer for the first time in over a year because I feel this one's worth... Continue reading

Posted Feb 9, 2015 at GameDevBlog

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