Building a multiplayer game server and keeping (most of) your hair

Mar 24, 2017 by Madalina Botez in Announcements

Enjoy the following series of interviews with the speakers, top-notch software crafters from across Europe, joining I T.A.K.E Unconference, Bucharest, 11-12 May. Discover the lessons learned and what drives them to challenge the known path in their field.

Opher Vishnia, Creative Developer at Interlude, is a multidisciplinary creator, invested in many different and often unrelated fields at the same time: computer science, art, music, design, math, game development and more. He is going to share at #itakeunconf more about building a multiplayer game server.

#1. Please share with us 5 things you did that helped you grow & become the professional you are today

√ Invest in personal projects. Think of a project that you think is fun to make and just start hacking at it. Developing something for yourself, where you make all the decisions rather than for a company you work for, is an amazing tool for learning and growing.

√ Join in the conversation. Is there an online group or a meetup for your area of development? That’s a great way to make new personal connections and learn along the way

√ Find an open source project that you like and start contributing. A good place to start would be a tool or library that you already know and use. Your contribution doesn’t have to be code – you can open an issue, improve the documentation or write a tutorial.

√ Take initiative. Is there something in your workplace that can be done better and sounds interesting to play with? Step up and do it. Suggest researching a new topic, or introducing a new tool the workflow. It’ll provide an interesting new challenge and a break from the daily routine. Plus it’ll make you look cool.

√ Stay optimistic. Sometimes these challenges are frustrating, and there are days you won’t make any progress, but the moment you have that “a-ha” moment is worth it all.

#2. What challenges will the participants find solutions to during your session at I T.A.K.E Unconference 2017?

Participants will learn about why making synchronized multiplayer games in the browser is so hard and what solutions do we have at our disposal to tackle those.

#3. Recommend for the participants 3 sources you find inspiration from and would help them better understand you

√ Codepen.io is a wonderful tool for inspiration on the web

√ Games in general. Just get Steam and play something!

√ Multiplayer Game Programming: Architecting Networked Game by Josh Glazer & Sanjay Madhav – A very comprehensive book on all things multiplayer

Want to meet Opher, +30 international speakers and ~300 software crafters from around Europe?

Programming contest @I T.A.K.E Unconference

May 05, 2017

As for every I TAKE Unconference edition, we want to give a chance to the software crafters from the audience to showcase their skills and learn more in the process. And because we appreciate passion, we offer a prize to those who convince a jury of well-known international developers that they are the most skilled in the room.

This contest is not meant to be easy. It will require you to practice beforehand, so please read the instructions carefully.

It will also require you to register before the event.

Mechanics

IMPORTANT: Register to the contest latest one day before I TAKE Unconference by sending an email to steliana.moraru@mozaicworks.com
On the first day of the event, after lunch, you have max 15′ to do a performing kata in front of the jury.
The winner will be announced at the end of the second day

Constraints

To simplify the jury’s decision, the performing kata has to conform to the following constraints:

Only the following programming languages are accepted: Java, C, C++, C#, Python, Visual Basic .NET, PHP, Javascript, Swift or Ruby
Only solo contestants are accepted. Sorry, no pair programming this time
The kata has to showcase refactoring skills.
The kata has to last max. 15′

How we will judge

The jury will judge your refactoring skills.

The ideal kata looks like this – you will get maximum point if you:

clearly state the smells you see in the code
pick one of the smells
clearly state your plan to fix the smell
fix it in small, safe steps
run tests after each step to prove you didn’t break anything
commit after each step with a clear message explaining why you made the change
fix as many smells as possible within the time constraint

You will loose points if you:

make big or unsafe changes to the code
break the behaviour after changing the code
don’t improve the code a lot
don’t improve the design by the end of the kata (hint: we judge design using SOLID principles and the four elements of simple design)

Recommendations

To help you, we’ve thought out what we would do if we participated to such a contest. Here’s what we recommend.

1) Use one of the following codebases for the kata:

2) Practice beforehand on the structure we presented for the ideal kata. Ideally find someone to practice with.

3) Watch other people refactoring. YouTube has many videos on the topic, including using the recommended code bases.

Glossary

A programming kata is a repeatable exercise used to practice specific skills.
Performing kata means doing a kata in front of an audience.
Refactoring means changing the internal structure of the code without changing its behaviour.

Show your coding skills while competing with peers like you

May 14, 2015

Do you know how to test systems? Can you point coding issues? Are you open to learning from other people? And, best of all, can you safely clean up existing code and improve its design? These are all core developer skills nowadays, and you’ll greatly benefit from mastering them. Here’s just one more opportunity to do so during I T.A.K.E. Unconference – The Programming Contest. We think you’re going to enjoy it.

Take a set of challenges that will put your skills to the test, overcome them and get the most points to win the contest. Oh, we almost forgot: those getting the most points win gadgets like a drone or an iPad. They are still small rewards compared to the learning, but we’re sure they help :).

How the Programming Contest works?

Well, this is simple. We try to automate the process as much as possible. For the moment the instructions are as simple as:

Register for THE contest on May 28
Solve the challenges
Submit the solutions until May 29, 2 pm

Really cool: you can use ANY of the following programming languages: Java, C#, PHP, C++.

Who will review your code?

The Jury is built of Software Craftsman Fellows from Europe – names soon to be announced. They will grade each challenge you took. There will be just a few challenges, and taking all of them may lead you to the highest score. So the more you solve the closer to win.

Compete with passionate coders at I T.A.K.E. Unconference

Join the crew, compete with developers like you, gain recognition and take the drone home, offered by Mozaic Works. Or the iPad offered by Accenture.

Don’t miss the Programming Contest as well as many other hands-on sessions at I T.A.K.E. Unconference happening in Bucharest on 28-29 May 2015.

I T.A.K.E Unconference news: pre-registration open!

Nov 08, 2016

Ready, steady, go – I T.A.K.E Unconference, 5th edition will take place in the rising tech city of Bucharest, 11-12 May, 2017!

Code. Craft. Learn. Share. Repeat.

The growing community of top-notch software crafters is raising the bar in the tech industry. The speakers and participants are challenging the current practices, making experiments and trying new techniques.

The intense, dynamic program is including multiple tracks of practical, hands-on sessions, strong case studies, and personal experiences, delivered in an attractive manner.

While we are working on selecting the best proposals from 15 countries, here’s what you can do to save your seat at the best price:

Wondering what to expect from 2017 edition? This is just a preview: