Project · Java

Mexveng

A 2D medieval RPG in Java and LibGDX. It exists because tutorials end before the hard parts begin - I wanted a codebase big enough that architecture decisions have consequences.

public final class Movement {

    private static final float MAX_STEP = 1f / 30f;

    private final TileMap map;
    private final Body body;

    public Movement(TileMap map, Body body) {
        this.map = map;
        this.body = body;
    }

    public void update(float rawDelta, Vector2 input) {
        float delta = Math.min(rawDelta, MAX_STEP);

        if (input.len2() > 1f) {
            input.nor();
        }

        float nextX = body.x + input.x * body.speed * delta;
        if (!collides(nextX, body.y)) {
            body.x = nextX;
        }

        float nextY = body.y + input.y * body.speed * delta;
        if (!collides(body.x, nextY)) {
            body.y = nextY;
        }
    }

    private boolean collides(float x, float y) {
        return map.isSolidAt(x, y)
            || map.isSolidAt(x + body.width, y)
            || map.isSolidAt(x, y + body.height)
            || map.isSolidAt(x + body.width, y + body.height);
    }
}

Client work · byjoio

Static first

byjoio is my freelance practice. Small businesses come to me with slow, template-built sites. They leave with hand-built static ones - same content, a fraction of the weight, nothing to maintain.

Client names and links live with the clients, not on my portfolio. Ask me and I'll walk you through specific builds.

Client work · pattern

Forms without a backend

Every byjoio site needs a contact form. None of them need a server. This is the pattern that ships on all of them: native validation first, a honeypot for spam, Formspree for delivery, and a fallback that still works when JavaScript doesn't.

const form = document.querySelector('.contact-form');

form.addEventListener('submit', async (event) => {
  event.preventDefault();

  if (form.website.value !== '') {
    return;
  }

  if (!form.reportValidity()) {
    return;
  }

  const button = form.querySelector('[type=submit]');
  button.disabled = true;

  try {
    const response = await fetch(form.action, {
      method: 'POST',
      body: new FormData(form),
      headers: { Accept: 'application/json' },
    });
    if (!response.ok) {
      throw new Error(String(response.status));
    }
    form.hidden = true;
    document.querySelector('.form-sent').hidden = false;
  } catch {
    form.submit();
  }
});

Deep dive · automation

The same process, twice

By day I automate business processes in Blue Prism at Traverse Automation. I'm moving toward building services in Java. The clearest way I can show you the difference is to solve one problem both ways.

Skills

Tools

The levels are honest. Daily means I work with it every working day. Working means I ship with it. Building means I'm deliberately investing. Open a tool to see where it's used on this map.

• Blue Prism daily
• Java building
• HTML & CSS daily
• JavaScript daily
• LibGDX working
• React working
• Git & GitHub daily
• Formspree · Plausible · GA working

Not listed: things I've only read about. If it's here, I've built with it.

Background

The long way to Java

Careers read cleaner backwards. This page starts at now and runs downhill into the past - scroll down to go back in time.

1. Now

   Direction: Java backend engineering

   Not a whim - a convergence. The day job taught me how business systems fail. The degree is putting theory under the practice. Mexveng is where the language gets exercised until it's second nature. The rest of this site is the evidence.

2. Ongoing

   BSc Computing & IT, Open University

   Part-time, alongside full-time work. Slower than the standard route and better for it: everything lands on problems I've already met in production, so the theory sticks.

3. Ongoing

   byjoio - freelance web development

   Real clients, real deadlines, real handovers. Freelancing is where I learned that shipping is a skill separate from building - scoping honestly, saying no to features, leaving a client independent rather than dependent.

4. Day job

   Traverse Automation - RPA developer

   Blue Prism in production: work queues, retries, audit trails, incidents at inconvenient hours. The job that taught me how businesses actually run - and exactly where the limits of automating-from-the-outside sit.

5. 2016-2017

   Minecraft modding - first Java

   I wanted the game to do something it didn't, and the only path was code. First classes, first NullPointerException, first time changing a system from the inside. A decade later the tools are better and the reason hasn't changed.

That's the bottom. The only way from here is forward - back to now.

Current

Now

Three tracks, running at once, on purpose.

Days

RPA developer at Traverse Automation - Blue Prism automation in production, from design through support.

Nights

BSc Computing & IT at the Open University, part-time. Currently the long, worthwhile way to do a degree.

Between

byjoio client builds, and Mexveng - the Java RPG that keeps the language sharp while the career catches up to it.

Contact

No form, no funnel.

Email me and you get me.

• Hiring for Java - start at the thinking.
• Need a site built - start at static first.

Code lives at github.com/byjoio-dev, including this site.