About

uminomaguro@gmail.com

discord: Maguro#2619

battlenet: Maguro#21786

ABOUT

I play StarCraft II and various other games. I enjoy sci-fi and fantasy books (list), learning new things, some coding, photography, running, orienteering and rock-climbing. I have a good knowledge of StarCraft II editor and some videogame QA experience. This blog is focused on games and their design.

Currently reading:

• Thinking Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman, 2011)

Favorite scientists:

• Sean M. Carroll
• Leonard Susskind
• Robert Sapolsky

What I write about:

1. StarCraft II Co-op Debugging

I have made a series of posts that went over ~100 bigger bugs in Co-op over the past year (~10 bugs per post). The goal was to explain them in an interesting way to public audience, while also diving into the editor, finding underlying causes and testing ways how to fix them.

Thanks to these posts the vast majority of these bugs were fixed. Several of them have been in-game for a long time already. I got some mentions in the game code after pointing out where exactly the problem was.

A function parameter named after me

Eventually a Zerg brood was named after me in the recent Mengsk release. One hundred bugs is apparently enough for a brood.

My own Zerg brood

2. Modding

(custom maps, twitch integration, chatbot, replay interface, survival mode)

> Custom maps

I have my version of all Co-op maps on StarCraft II arcade. They contain many additional features, UI/UX enhancements, debugging commands and statistics.

After game statistics – ready to be shared

I have designed and implemented my own 16 mutators (on top of Blizzard's 61 mutators). Mutators are special game modifiers that change the game and challenge players. Also, Blizzard's Heroes from the Storm mutator was eventually changed to be more like my variant.

~ ~ ~

> Twitch Integration

Recently, I added twitch integration to my maps that works together with a chatbot I wrote in Python. This lets viewers join as units or send messages directly in-game – making the viewing experience more engaging. If the streamer allows it, viewers can even spawn units, enable mutators or modify player resources.

https://www.maguro.one/2020/01/fluffy-chatbot.html
https://github.com/FluffyMaguro/FluffyChatBot

This bot has also an image recognition ability – it identifies mutators on-screen, post them the chat with their descriptions, and calculates mutation statistics.

Twitch integration  – viewers joining the game as units

~ ~ ~

> Custom replay interface

I wrote a custom replay interface that lets you view many additional statistics in co-op replays. Also, keybinds were added that let players hide various UI elements.

https://www.maguro.one/2019/10/replay-interface.html
https://github.com/FluffyMaguro/ReplayUI

Custom replay interface

> Survival mode

I have created a prototype of a survival mode for Co-op, which is something that has been unfortunately missing in this mode. It's currently playable on Temple of the Past map.

https://www.maguro.one/2020/01/survival-mode.html

Survival mode

3. Various analyses

• Mutator compendium – aggregates information about mutators from players and game code
  
• Replay analysis with Python  – various statistics (pickrates, winrates, mastery choices,..)
• Analysis of Brutal+ mode (and follow up) – explanation, statistics and suggestions
  
• StarCraft II performance analysis – look at graphic presets, resolution scaling, various types of bottlenecks, effects of game speed, and look at the engine
  
• DRAM performance analysis in StarCraft II – this time focus of DRAM scaling and various situations (rendering vs simulation bottlenecks)
  

StarCraft II is complicated – separation of various frametimes

4. game design posts

• Popularity of mirror matchups
• Pushing forward and rewards
• Progression and strategies (First Order Optimal Strategies vs True Optimal Strategies)
• Feedback loops in StarCraft
• Skill curves and flow
• Achievements
• Wheel of Misfortune
• Upgrades in Co-op
• ...others