Hi! I'm Josh. I'm a student, doing Maths and Computer Science at the University of Warwick.
I love programming. In addition to my degree, I've done lots of side projects. In particular, I've spent thousands of hours on multiple multipurpose discord bots which have been used in thousands of servers. I've done web development, a school timetabling system, code jams and various other things which you can find out about below.
I also love playing games. And analysing them. And making them. I lead weekly Unity teaching sessions for Warwick Game Design. I'm also on the Exec for Warwick Magic.
3 years
2500+ hours
Solo Project
My biggest project ever. Comprised of four separate bots with hundreds of commands, describing this as only one project greatly understates the diversity of it.
This project has not only stretched my programming ability but tested and developed my skills in games design, marketing, working closely with users and driving a project forward in innovative and exciting ways.
Kernel is a multipurpose bot with a wide range of useful features, from moderating your discord server to other genuinely useful features.
Spectral contains a wide variety of fun features, from flappy bird to UNO!, from dog pictures to in-game stats, from hangman to blackjack, from Donald Trump quotes to random cocktails.
A fully-fledged text-based RPG where you can collect resources, build things and make more resources
A custom Pokémon game designed for Discord that borrows much of what made the original games good but innovates in some key areas to be more suitable for the platform.
This project was how I learnt to code, but I've learnt so much more. This is why I thought I'd dedicate a little section here containing a bit of what I've learnt along the way.
| Mobile Apologies! | Sorry, this isn't great on mobile. Hopefully I will get around to improving this soon. |
|---|---|
| Games Design | I've been the sole designer for two distinct games, including using a massive spreadsheet to balance things (it's not easy...) |
| Marketing | I'm responsible for marketing the bots, including making a website and purchasing ad spots. |
| Moderating a Discord Server | Maintaining the server, engaging members and using punishments sparingly and effectively. |
| Fun vs Cool | It doesn't matter how many cool features your game has, if it just isn't that fun then people won't play it. |
| Writing Maintainable Code | The importance of and ability to write maintainable code is something that only comes with experience programming. |
| Quality Over Quantity | It sounds obvious, but I've learnt that improving existing features is almost always more beneficial than adding new ones. |
| Listening to Customer Feedback | I've always listened to feedback, but sometimes too much. Often, having a strong vision and sticking to it is just as important. |
| Ease-of-use Matters | I knew things being easy-to-use was important but I didn't realise quite how much this mattered. People often have very little patience. |
| Consistency in UX Design | Even if it's worse, keep it consistent. People expect similar features to behave in similar ways. |
| Simplicity vs Ease-of-use | Just because something is simple and elegant doesn't mean it's intuitive. A simple design can be a confusing design. |
| Customisability | Not everything has to be customisable. Most people just don't care. If most people won't customise it, don't bother. |
| Give it a go! | You never know what you can achieve until you try. I have been amazed at how many brand new ideas I have managed to bring to Discord through this bot, don't be afraid to try something new. If it doesn't work, who cares? |
Read the blog post (coming soon) for more information
Python (discord.py)
JavaScript, CSS, HTML
JavaScript (node.js), Python (Django)
120,000+ lines of code
9 months
250+ hours
Solo Project
(Sorry, there is no dark theme)
A fully automated school timetabling system where teachers can choose how long they want for each lesson in advance. This cuts down on wasted time in lessons and prevents teachers from having to rush.
This is implemented through a genetic algorithm which simulates natural selection to generate a feasible timetable within a short time frame.
This was my A-Level Computer Science Coursework. This means it involved producing a lengthy write-up explaining the development process. While often tedious, this did make me pay extra attention to the quality of code I was writing and think more about why I was doing everything. You are welcome to read this by clicking the link below (but it's 250 pages long!)
In the end, the product did not manage full capacity at a school but still produced adequate timetables and could be taken further (it was already far beyond the scope of an A-Level Computer Science project...)
Python (Django)
JavaScript, CSS, HTML
25,000+ lines of code
Here's some short code jams that I've worked on in a team.
| Theme | "It's a bug, not a feature" |
|---|---|
| Using | WebSockets |
| Event | Python Discord Summer Code Jam 2022 |
A totally generic, average platformer with nothing out of the ordinary... obviously...
This is best explained through a short video, which was used as part of the judging process.
A Quick Video
11 days
Team of 5
Python (pygame)
Top 10
| Theme | "Retro" |
|---|---|
| Event | Great Warwick Game Jam 2023 |
A puzzle/educational game where you have to type in an equation to complete the track, all while the train is moving and about to derail!
This game aims to capture the joy of simply plotting graphs, while also providing interesting challenges - graph plotting leads to some very interesting puzzles! The concept also has many applications in the classroom to teach function transformations, trigonometric curves or anything graphical.
2 weeks
Team of 3
Unity (C#)
#2 Best Design
Here are some others:
| Mobile Apologies! | Sorry, this isn't great on mobile. Hopefully I will get around to improving this soon. | |
|---|---|---|
| Notorious Narwhals | Python Discord Summer Code Jam 2021 | A physics-based game where resizing the terminal window would change the level. This could bounce balls off it or change the dimensions of objects to solve a puzzle. |
Some other projects you may find interesting/useful.