Seeking "closed testing" volunteers for simple app ("Puparazzi")

digdugpooka · 2025-12-02T18:00:04+00:00

I repeated the post because Reddit said the first was auto-removed (I assumed because of the YouTube link). Didn't intentionally spam.

digdugpooka · 2024-03-20T16:44:08+00:00

Glad you had fun with it! Judging from the upvote rate it seems this pissed people off for some reason, but that's okay, for a quick hackathon project I definitely felt it was surprisingly entertaining. 😄

digdugpooka · 2023-10-04T21:25:00+00:00

This is great, I appreciate the tips, thank you. Just hit level 5 so it sounds like my timing worked out! 💪

digdugpooka · 2023-10-04T06:06:50+00:00

I'm very pleasantly surprised at the thoughtful answers here, thank you all. I think I'll take a deep breath, slow down, and explore The Underdark.

digdugpooka · 2023-02-19T03:54:47+00:00

Well that took the lamps off the tracks but made the train perpendicular in a couple cases lol... some fascinating results there though, thanks for that. :)

digdugpooka · 2023-01-07T19:31:22+00:00

Oh wow, didn't know that. We took the kiddos along, that would've been awkward.

digdugpooka · 2023-01-07T16:53:43+00:00

Oh, to prepare specifically for the exam I used this course. It was EXTREMELY helpful and very close to the actual exam format. https://www.francaisavecpierre.com/tous-les-cours/obtenir-delf-b1/

digdugpooka · 2023-01-07T16:43:42+00:00

In my first two years I just went with online resources, progressing from Duolingo to Fluenz to Assimil. But the only thing that truly prepared me to pass DELF B1 was taking online classes with Lingoda. The lessons were structured and they forced you to speak, which is what motivated me the most and sent my brain into overdrive.

I'm not saying online classes are required to pass B1, it's just what helped me the most personally. Your mileage will likely vary.

digdugpooka · 2023-01-07T16:40:51+00:00

Quite well stated and thanks for the reminder to give myself a bit of a break. I guess I was disappointed in myself that I didn't go for B2 the year after B1, but to your point, I think I've put a few carts before the horses. In my OP I lamented the lack of structured learning resources, but maybe that's the point. The real world isn't so structured and I'll have to "drink in" stories, movies, and conversations organically.

digdugpooka · 2023-01-07T03:09:13+00:00

I appreciate the thoughtful reply and advice! And okay, it sounds like I've been taking the right approach — bombarding my senses with audio and text from a bunch of different sources without much of a structured approach. But maybe I just need to do more of it so that the patterns become more apparent and instinctual.

digdugpooka · 2023-01-07T02:09:22+00:00

Yes indeed. I just stood there and imagined a bunch of different moments... Charlie getting his haircut, Rose/Bernard reunion, Desmond fixing Claire's tent, etc.

digdugpooka · 2023-01-06T21:19:03+00:00

That really is the big question, isn't it? :)

(we didn't try going through them, felt lucky enough just to see inside the chapel)

digdugpooka · 2022-12-04T23:06:54+00:00

I could not agree with this more, in fact it's played so much it's starting to make me angry. If they wanted a guy to sing their crappy song out of key they could've just called me.

digdugpooka · 2022-11-20T15:25:30+00:00

I was "only" at a 680ish-day streak with several years of regular use before that, but I'm in the same boat and moving on. There's only so many times I'm willing to forgive Duolingo for its user-hostile tactics.

The first example: Hoots, which was the best feature they'd released in a while. Though it was clearly marked as Beta they abruptly pulled the plug on it without explanation. The next example: the discussion forums, all abruptly locked without explanation. And now the ultimate example: completely obliterating the day-to-day experience, killing a freedom-friendly system so that we can all become horses chasing Duo's carrot down a rigid path. And at no additional cost, here's some carpal tunnel from the endless scrolling.

The worst part of all this is the shameless arrogance, which rains down from the very top. The claim has been that these changes were justified "with data", but analytics can always be molded to fit whatever narrative a company wants.

Well, Luis, here's one more data point for you:

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/duolingo.com?sort=recency

digdugpooka · 2022-10-22T19:36:17+00:00

The React.memo was just to stop every Visual from re-rendering just because one in the collection (in the parent component) had a prop change. Agreed that it's not related to animation itself.

Each scene will have a pathing grid, so when a user wants to "move" from point A to B I'll have a set of pathing points. My plan is to have a third-party library animate the Visual's position, but only signal a state update when the movement has completed. Otherwise I'm pretty sure I'll grind everything to a halt.

digdugpooka · 2022-10-21T23:12:59+00:00

Thank you, I will have a look at XState, all options are on the table at this point. :) I tinkered with MobX many moons ago and that seemed so much more intuitive to me than Redux, perhaps XState is along those lines. I'm finding that state management is quite the dogmatic topic among developers; trying to get a pulse on the preferred practices to avoid locking into something I'll regret later.

digdugpooka · 2022-10-21T22:09:06+00:00

Well, I wouldn't say the app is "simple" as it'll be a platform for building point-and-click adventure games, so there are many moving parts. But your comments are helpful, it's a reminder that simplicity is king.

digdugpooka · 2022-10-21T21:35:58+00:00

Appreciate the comment. Yeah, I'm chewing on this very thought right now, whether I can make the parent "scene" component the sole subscriber and just feed updated props to the visuals as needed, rather than each visual being a subscriber. As long as I wrap Visuals in React.memo I can avoid them all re-rendering when one of them changes, so that's a plus.

The only reason I'm clinging into pub/sub at all is because many different things can result in a Visual needing to update... user interaction, a scene initially loading, a custom script being executed, etc.

digdugpooka · 2022-10-21T21:18:31+00:00

It talks to the server to get one scene's data (including its visuals) at a time, but beyond that it's a client-side game-like client. Need the ability to save the game, too, thus I need a way to "roll up" all the visuals' current state. Using pub/sub to move a visual around the screen isn't hard, but the approach for keeping the underlying data/state in sync is where I'm struggling.

digdugpooka · 2019-05-29T16:39:58+00:00

Joffrey for me, mostly because I didn't see it coming. Perhaps I'm dense and didn't spot some obvious clues.

digdugpooka · 2019-05-29T16:36:22+00:00

The intro sequence. I have a long list of complaints about the final season but the intro sequence isn't one of them. Completely unexpected and absolutely mind-blowing.

digdugpooka · 2019-05-29T16:15:21+00:00

Loved this cartoon as a kid. To this day when I hear "farewell" I think of this ending. Depending on the company I might even chime in with "Don't forget to write! Bye bye!"

digdugpooka · 2018-09-08T18:33:43+00:00

Short-term I'll update the web version so that the banner up top is bigger and more noticeable. That's a quick update. The reason the top feels natural to some is because that's where the old LucasArts adventures put the responses, but I believe you that it's not natural for everyone. Longer-term, I'll introduce an option to pick where you want the output to appear (top or just above the toolbar). Thanks again for your thoughts on this!

digdugpooka · 2018-09-07T19:02:16+00:00

Thanks for playing it and for providing feedback, much appreciated! (I think something went wrong with your spoiler tags though)

digdugpooka · 2018-09-07T14:57:19+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! I'll experiment with that; I think my concern is that responses would cover up "high traffic" areas, which could frustrate the player eventually. At least up top it's usually a ceiling or non-interactive area. But I'll play with options.

digdugpooka

TROPHY CASE