: It’s kind of jarring to be listening to a song, and hear some sampled audio from something that just …

: Mission accomplished for now: next steps are recognizing when a certain threshold has been met and …

: I saw this on my walk tonight. I’ve decided that it’s the Godot guy, and he wants me to stop …

: huh, ross dot karchner dot com is no longer a top result for the search “Ross Karchner”. (and I …

: Harsh

: The "aha" key Currently listening: The Friendly Orange Glow The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of …

: Finished Listening: Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin …

: From today’s trip to NASA Goddard Space Center’s open house

: Finished reading: Wicked + The Divine Volume 4: Rising Action by Kieron Gillen 📚 (also volume 3. 5-9 …

: My current work-in-progress is leaving me a bit uninspired, so I’ve been tinkering with something a …

: Finished reading: The Wicked + the Divine, Volume 2 by Kieron Gillen 📚

: Why are the Artemis II photos on Flickr? I jettisoned my Flickr account in either the Yahoo or …

: Finished reading: The Wicked + the Divine The Faust act by Kieron Gillen 📚 Decided to re-read the …

: Finished Listening: Crusaders by Dan Jones 📚

: The “Passive Income” trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs: an enormous machine converting human …

: Lately March was not a productive month for me, gamedev-wise. I spent more time playing Civ VII, reading, …

: Finished reading: The Absinthe Forger by Evan Rail 📚 Not quite a “whodunit”– the forger in question …

: Currently reading: The Absinthe Forger by Evan Rail 📚

: welcome home dctechevents dot com Someone reached out a few days ago, trying to sell me “dctechevents.com”– which once upon a time was …

: Finished Listening: Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark …

: My day is always improved by Lice.

: The Mystery of Rennes-le-Château, Part 1: The Priest’s Treasure I’m a sucker for “Holy Blood, Holy …

: My first run at Becoming Saint did not go well…

: Finished Listening: Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company by Patrick McGee 📚

: Repairing our microwave by replacing the fuse? Failure. Replacing the CMOS battery on my laptop …

: quarterly AI post I have a theory about creation with AI. (wait! please come back) My gut says this can’t be original, …

: From the Smithsonian American History museum

: Finished reading: Criminal: The Deluxe Edition, Vol. 3 by Ed Brubaker 📚

: Some SpinDoc progress So, instead of putting the SpinDoc level editor aside, I dug in and now the thing generally works. I …

: Finished reading: Criminal Deluxe Edition Volume 2 by Ed Brubaker 📚

: Finished Listening: Box Office Poison by Tim Robey 📚

: Moderately satisfying: fixing a home appliance Supremely unsatisfying: attempting to fix a home …

: Finished reading: Criminal Deluxe Edition Volume 1 by Ed Brubaker 📚

: I’ve been working through Complete Blender Creator 3: Learn 3D Modelling for Beginners , and the …

: Bird Bonkers ranked 234 out of 699 (that received ratings) in the GitHub Game-off. That puts it just …

: Which games? According to itch.io analytics, on most days, at least one person visits Brakes Escape. I suspect …

: DC Tech Events is now on Bluesky and Mastodon. Thanks to the internet archive, I’ve brought back the …

: Finished reading: Fishflies by Jeff Lemire 📚

: Finished reading: ERASED by Loo Hui Phang 📚

: Thinking about SpinDoc since I mentioned it yesterday. I’ve been poking at it this evening and after …

: 2026: The year of... Exactly a year ago, I declared that 2025 would be the year of 3D. Not so much– it became a year of …

: Finished Listening: Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick 📚

: Gifts recently on DC Tech Events: I’ve added a new page for virtual events improved the layout on mobile …

: awww

: Bird Bonkers is live on itch.io. It’s not going to win any awards, but I think it’s fun and …

: Still needs… all of the polish, but Bird Bonker basically works. Flapping uses “fish power”, bonk …

: Not a bird

: Cool that Zork is now open source, but it’s kind of wild that Zork is now a Microsoft property.

: this gog.com survey is pretty weird

: Still making birds

: Currently listening: Apple in China by Patrick McGee 📚

: I don’t know why I was thinking about this just now, but almost exactly 15 years ago there was a …

: New on DC Tech Events: Per-week pages, like this week.

: Wife: Whatcha doing? Me: Making a bird Wife: For a game? Me: Yeah Wife: What’s the bird going do? …

: Finished Listening: Altamont by Joel Selvin 📚

: like a room without a roof I was playing Glypha the other day, and wondered if an “endless Joust” game would be fun– instead of …

: Finished Listening: Vibe Coding: Building Production-Grade Software With GenAI, Chat, Agents, and …

: This is apparently a legit organization– but something seems off about this letter. I found the tone …

: Currently listening: Altamont by Joel Selvin 📚

: back on my bullshit: I know I change my mind about this every 9 months or so, but I once again have …

: Six years ago, I was in Vegas for Splunk .Conf, and took the opportunity to see a Willie Nelson show

: Overrated

: Picked this up at a library sale. Getting the enhanced CD stuff working on Linux, in 2025, feels …

: I’m happy with lighting system and movement, and exploring the map actually… feels fun? It’s still …

: Crossing the streams At work, I’ve been diving into AI/LLM stuff, and I’m still pretty much always using coding …

: Watched: Gimme Shelter 🍿 (this was over the weekend– I’m mostly just trying out the new Movies …

: Finished reading: Beyond Vibe Coding by Addy Osmani 📚

: Dune: Part II should have included a five-minute “Previously on Dune!” recap.

: Finished Listening: Empire of AI by Karen Hao 📚 Fascinating and eye-opening. Parts of it also work …

: New on dctech.events: new pages showing just the events for Maryland, Virginia, or the District, as …

: Finished reading: THE UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL VOL. 8: MY BEST FRIEND’S SQUIRREL by Ryan North 📚 …

: Finished reading: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Vol. 5 by Ryan North 📚 (also volume 4)

: I decided after the last post that I’m not going to sweat the deadline. I’m not going to submit the …

: Finished reading: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Vol. 3 by Ryan North 📚

: progress The deadline is fast approaching, and I haven’t made a ton of progress– but now there are mobs that …

: It’s not a game yet, but I can move a blue dude through a procedurally generated map. The brown …

: I started working on some ideas yesterday for Roguetemple’s Fortnight game jam. I’m not sure if my …

: Volume 11 I’ve got my 11th bullet journal set up for September. Even when I fall out of using it as a sort of …

: Currently listening: Empire of AI by Karen Hao 📚

: Finished reading: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Vol. 2 by Ryan North 📚

: makes sense

: I don’t love it yet, but I added a simple search widget to DC Tech Events. There’s no backend, it …

: Finished reading: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Vol. 1 by Ryan North 📚

: soaking in it I know, a few weeks ago I wrote “the internet doesn’t need more words about AI”. Since then, I …

: Finished reading: Powers Book Two by Brian Michael Bendis 📚

: Finished reading: Powers Volume 1 by Brian Michael Bendis 📚

: It’s hard to read stuff like this and not think, maybe the internet was a bad idea after all.

: All of the Marvels 📚 I’ve finished listening to All of the Marvels by Douglas Wolk. From the premise, “man reads 27,000 …

: Activate yr Windows, Dave & Busters

: It’s nice top see that Sound Blocks shipped! I spent a few minutes playing with it this morning, and …

: Currently listening: All of the Marvels by Douglas Wolk 📚

: Ad Hoc Today is my first day as an Ad Hoc employee. I’ve watched from the sidelines over the years as …

: Finished Listening: War for Eternity by Benjamin R. Teitelbaum 📚

: Endings Hello from Camp T. Brady Saunders. It’s the last day of summer camp. The kiddo mostly had a good …

: Finished reading: Hidden Systems by Dan Nott 📚

: Finished reading: Failure to Launch: A Tour of Ill-Fated Futures by Kel Mcdonald 📚 An excellent …

: Currently listening: War for Eternity by Benjamin R. Teitelbaum 📚

: Currently reading: Failure to Launch: A Tour of Ill-Fated Futures by Kel Mcdonald 📚

: I ♥️ BTRFS Subvolumes I’ve been mucking around with my operating system setup for reasons too tedious to describe here. …

: Like I said, I don’t love my latest game, but it feels good to add something to the /games page …

: The Invisible Alligator I’m not that proud of The Invisible Alligator in its current form, but the Godot Wild Jam 82 …

: Finished reading: Drawing Blood by Kevin Eastman 📚 Confession: I picked this up thinking it was …

: One of the nice things about going to events again is seeing the fancy offices people work in. …

: Currently reading: Drawing Blood by Kevin Eastman 📚

: Musings of an LLM Using Man I know, the internet doesn’t need more words about AI, but not addressing my own usage here feels …

: It turns out that echolocation has definitely been done before.

: It wasn’t that difficult to adapt my little loop programming system to 3D. Maybe the year of 3D is …

: TIL I have an IMDB page, from supporting Adult Rappers on kickstarter 10 years ago.

: How DC Tech Events works The main DC Tech Events site is generated by a custom static generator, in three phases: Loop …

: I’m at the AWS DC summit today and tomorrow. Seems like people are really excited about this AI …

: Rest in peace Bill Atkinson. Hypercard was the thing that really hooked me on computers as a …

: I want to apply for a job, not join your “talent community”

: Loopnik Begins Some progress on the “beat game” remake (for the moment, called “Loopnik”). It’s much easier now …

: From so bad it's good to so good it's good My first game jam entry was beat game, submitted to the So Bad It’s Good Game Jam in July 2023. …

: Finished reading: The Notebook by Roland Allen 📚

: OK– I feel pretty good about the state of DC Tech Events. The newsletter system seems to work, users …

: My Dr’s office has a small claim to fame. I think there’s a display about the Lorton Meteorite at …

: DC Tech Events is Live Because you, as a person who reads blogs, are dear to me– you get to be among the first to know that …

: Currently reading: The Notebook by Roland Allen 📚

: 10 years ago, I shut down the most popular thing I’d ever made (on my own). I’m now back in a place …

: There’s no escaping Microsoft Copilot

: I passed the AWS test today, so I can continue to be “AWS Certified Security – Specialty” until …

: Abandoned for now: Mister X: The Archives by Dean Motter 📚 The core concept is really cool, but …

: April into May I think I’m just not going to write about what’s happening at my job again until there’s some …

: I added an update to this morning’s post: the RIF is once again on hold. Or at least, access to …

: RIF'ed update: things are on hold again. Along with 1,400 of my closest friends, I received a “Reduction in …

: Currently reading: Mister X: The Archives by Dean Motter 📚

: Finished reading: Frank Miller’s Ronin (2019 Edition) by Frank Miller 📚

: I passed the Security+ exam yesterday: Tip: if one of the options is “risk register”, the answer is …

: Currently reading: Frank Miller’s Ronin (2019 Edition) by Frank Miller 📚

: Finished Listening: Frostbite by Nicola Twilley 📚

: Finished reading: Berlin by Jason Lutes 📚

: Lately I’m still employed (and even doing some work, given that FISMA-related work counts as “statutory …

: Who will do this work? Today, with my family, I watched the first episode of Human Footprint, which is about invasive …

: RL The kiddo and I worked through this Godot Reinforcement Learning tutorial, and (after some …

: Currently listening: Frostbite by Nicola Twilley 📚 Respect and fear the cold chain.

: Does that mean there are more marshmallow butt games?

: Currently reading: Berlin by Jason Lutes 📚

: Robo Rampage I’ve finished “Robo Rampage”, and thus I’m done with the Complete Godot 3D course. Towards the end, …

: My day today…

: dot plan This week, work is still in a holding pattern. I applied to a good number of jobs, talked to people, …

: Finished reading: Game Magic by Jeff Howard 📚 Interesting book! In explaining “game magic”, the …

: Finished Listening: The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle 📚 Done with Sherlock …

: Benjamin and I have started a game jam: Crazzzy 4X Jam!

: Become a Solution Architect looks promising: free training over 8 weeks, starts this weekend.

: Yesterday, I spent a little time polishing my resume and applying to jobs, and took another AWS …

: Cease'ed So far it’s been four days since I and most of my colleagues were ordered not to work. I started the …

: Rolling is Spinning Benjamin’s recent game jam entry is Rolling is Spinning. It gets pretty tricky at the end! I did the …

: Game dev-ing lately I’ve been helping my son on an entry for the Boss Rush Jam 2025– the concepts are his, most of the …

: Finished Listening: His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle 📚

: I’ve been checking out some older games in my Steam library that I haven’t played much. I’m not sure …

: Just a little bit of Barbarian Blaster, the 2nd of 3 projects taught in Complete Godot 3D. I was …

: It turns out, I don’t have to use the “rawhide” version of Fedora just to get an updated kernel– so …

: If you’ve made a resolution to create your own website or blog (or have just been thinking about it) …

: new year, new rig Every three or four years I get the urge to build a PC. Most of the time, the urge passes and I move …

: Dance like no one is watching, love like you’ve never been hurt, sing like no one is listening, and …

: ​2025: the year of 3D Somewhere along the line, I told myself a story: Before making 3D games, I needed to learn 3D, as in …

: Finished listening: The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle 📚 I really enjoyed this one! It makes …

: I’ve finished the Inkscape course I was working through. I think it was worthwhile– the biggest aha! …

: It’s unfortunate that itch.io got taken down because of an escalating set of automated processes and …

: Finished Listening: The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle 📚

: Currently reading: Game Magic by Jeff Howard 📚

: Finished reading: Light It, Shoot It! by Graham Chaffee 📚 Honestly this felt a little rushed, it was …

: Finished reading: The Arab of the Future 3 by Riad Sattouf 📚

: I decided I was tired of faking my way through Inkscape, so I grabbed this course on sale a few days …

: Finished reading: The Arab of the Future 2 by Riad Sattouf 📚

: Nora Reed says you should have a website If you don’t want to learn to use technology, other people …

: I’ve submitted Pinball Putt to the 1-Button Game Jam. A mini-golf/pinball mashup where you need to …

: OK, I’m pretty happy that the dethrace project exists so that I can play Carmageddon natively on …

: My “chill mini golf game” for the 1-Button Jam is coming together– though I don’t think I’ll be done …

: I had hoped to complete a couple more obstacles/gadgets today, but only got this pinball-style …

: I’ve added an “attract mode” bot that plays plausibly but seldom successfully. It can’t really deal …

: I’ve migrated fediverse following/followers over to my profile on mastodon.gamedev.place. …

: Working on a chill mini-golf game for the 1-Button Jam. [image or embed] — RossK (Nellee Hooper …

: Finished reading: The Arab of the Future by Riad Sattouf 📚

: The Smithsonian has a model of the ship from Close Encounters of the 3rd kind. If you look closely …

: Another year in your feed I was on the fence a bit, but I allowed my yearly micro.blog subscription renew today. There are a …

: Finished Listening: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle 📚

: Finished reading: Delights: a Story of Hieronymus Bosch by Guy Colwell 📚

: I had a couple of ideas for the Github Game Off, but I’m kind of feeling more motivated to work on …

: Currently reading: Empire of Normality by Robert Chapman 📚

: Not much obvious has changed since my last post about SpinDoc– I did rework a lot of how the wands …

: Finished reading: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle 📚

: Finished reading: Little Black Book by Jeff McComsey 📚

: Finished reading: Medea by Blandine Le Callet 📚

: Currently reading: Medea by Blandine Le Callet 📚

: Maybe it’s time for for a little station ID? Even though you might be seeing this on Mastodon, …

: Finished reading: Air Volume 3 by G. Willow Wilson 📚

: Who wants to start a news show with me?

: Finished reading: Air Volume 2 by G. Willow Wilson 📚

: SpinDoc Some progress on “SpinDoc”: “rings” (aka, dots you can only use once) enemy wands that can move to …

: Finished reading: Air Volume 1 by G. Willow Wilson 📚

: Finished Listening: Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle 📚

: Finished reading: Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore 📚

: Finished reading: Marvels 📚

:

: How to Read Superhero Comics and why Finished reading: How to Read Superhero Comics and why by Geoff Klock 📚 This was more academic than …

: I’ve been working through Firebelly’s new course: Create a Complete Grid-Based Puzzle Game in Godot …

: It’s nothing to be too proud of yet, but I’ve made some progress on my Spin Doctor …

: Don’t worry about the smoke

: Currently reading: How to Read Superhero Comics and why by Geoff Klock 📚 Recommendation from Robin …

: Abandoned for now: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville 📚 I got about halfway through, but it’s been a few …

: The kiddo and I have been playing some Warcraft 2. It’s early yet, but I’m a little surprised by how …

: Postmortem: Quack Circuits / Godot WIld Jam 72 The ratings are in, and Quack Circuits… ranked near the bottom in most categories (there were 156 …

: Planet of the All My Apes Gone This morning I was thinking back on some videos I’ve watched (like this) about abandoned NFT games, …

: Finished Listening: The Sign of the Four by SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE 📚

: So, I had a serviceable puzzle game. The feedback in the Karchner household was pretty much: That’s …

: I’ve updated the deployment pipelines for Pong Wars and the current WIP to use Godot 4.3. While I …

: Despite previous predictions, I haven’t gotten a chance to work on improving the art and adding …

: If Sour Patch Kids made a beer, it’d taste like ‘Volcano Sauce’. (please send more volcano sauce)

: Currently reading: Policy as Code by Jimmy Ray 📚

: Finished Listening: A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle 📚 (I’m actually listening to Sherlock …

: It’s not a game yet– but it’s interactive! By tomorrow night, I should be able to have a couple of …

: A feeble #screenshotsaturday for my Godot Wild Jam work in progress. The current idea is something …

: The theme is out for Godot Wild Jam #72. It’s a good thing I spent time last night finally figuring …

: I decided to dip into Threads a bit over the last few days: it’s mostly people talking about …

: GWJ72 When I was writing this post, I almost committed to sitting out game jams for a while, in order to …

: The previously seen water shader, applied to a sphere (by request):

: Finished reading: In Perpetuity by Maria and Peter Hoey 📚

: Finished Listening: How To Write Funny by Scott Dikkers 📚

: Switched the blog theme to Sumo by Matt Langford.

: Finishing up Godot 4 Shaders: Craft Stunning Visuals, here are some 3D shaders:

: I’m enjoying Kaan Alpar’s Godot Shaders course, and finished the 2D section last night. In this …

: Currently listening: How To Write Funny by Scott Dikkers 📚

: Finished Listening: Slow Productivity by Cal Newport 📚

: What's next for games? Two years ago, while my son was attending an event at the library, I spent some time flipping …

: I’m working on a tech-company name generator for a project, some examples from a recent run: …

: In the NYT top 100 books of the 21st century, I’ve only read the two graphic novels and a book about …

: Currently listening: Slow Productivity by Cal Newport 📚

: Finished Listening: Moonbound by Robin Sloan 📚 It’s been a while since I’ve had the sensation of …

: Currently reading: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville 📚 Not my first time starting, but maybe recording it …

: Finished reading: Further Explorations: 50 Years of Text Games by Aaron A Reed 📚

: Currently reading: Further Explorations: 50 Years of Text Games by Aaron A Reed 📚

: Finished reading: My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two by Emil Ferris 📚

: Got tickets for Fredericksburg Comic Con.

: Currently reading: My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two by Emil Ferris 📚

: Finished reading: 50 Years of Text Games: From Oregon Trail to AI Dungeon by Aaron A Reed 📚

: Currently listening: Moonbound by Robin Sloan 📚

: Ever since I started tinkering with gamedev (and Godot specifically), one thing I’ve periodically …

: Finished Listening: Whole Earth by John Markoff 📚

: I’ve been waiting my whole life for this email.

: My excellent son Benjamin(10) has created BenKardian, his two-player take on the classic solitaire …

: Sometimes I play games I still haven’t entirely kicked the Marvel Snap habit, but I feel like I’ve made peace with it. It’s …

: Currently reading: 50 Years of Text Games: From Oregon Trail to AI Dungeon by Aaron A Reed 📚

: Finished reading: The Snare of the Tree, and Other Perilous Seductions: Essays on Dangers in Game …

: Currently reading: The Snare of the Tree, and Other Perilous Seductions: Essays on Dangers in Game …

: Finished reading: Against Worldbuilding, and Other Provocations by Alexis Kennedy 📚 Good stuff, I’ll …

: Current view:

: Finished reading: Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design by Scott Rogers 📚 I skimmed some …

: GameDev.tv jam results for The Last Stan: I’m happy to have gotten #59 (out of over 1000) in the …

: I don’t like this new world where swiping your credit card at a business automatically signs you up …

: “The Last Stan” is live on itch.io and submitted to the gamedev.tv jam. It’s a platformer, with …

: Hey, an actual #screenshotsaturday : For the gamedev.tv jam, I’m working on a platformer where you …

: I spent the first part of my life in the Hazleton, PA area. Here’s a really cool 10 minute video …

: I never thought I’d say this, but… I get too many emails from Run the Jewels.

: Whole Earth 📚 Currently listening: Whole Earth by John Markoff 📚 A year or two back, I listened to Tom Wolfe’s …

: Finished Listening: The Ultimate History of Video Games, Volume 2 by Steven L. Kent 📚

: I think I’ll try to make something for this year’s gamedev.tv jam(which kicks off tonight), if the …

: I’ve made a few minor fixes to Zummoning recently: Cards get dealt in a smoother, less jerky manner …

: Currently reading: Against Worldbuilding, and Other Provocations by Alexis Kennedy 📚

: Star Trek: Deep Space 9, or The Continuing Adventures of Miles O’Brien.

: Orchestrator I spent some time last night and this morning learning about Orchestrator, a visual scripting plugin …

: GameOps I used the Pong Wars deployment as an excuse to try out GitHub actions. It’s nice! Almost too nice, …

: Pong Wars I’ve published my Godot re-creation of Pong Wars by Koen van Gilst on GitHub (and embedded it …

: People who think the web is dead or dying haven’t used the Domino’s Pizza Tracker.

: I recently updated my /games page so that each game has video.

: Finished reading: My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris 📚

: The kiddo and I had a good time at NOVA Game Developers Meetup this afternoon! It was fun to play …

: Today is Free Comic Day, for those who observe

: It’s like they really see me.

: GWJ 68 Results Honestly, I had convinced myself that I was going to rank higher in Godot Wild Jam #68, at least in …

: Here’s footage of gamedev and streamer ObsidianBlk playing The Zummoning!. He’s got some (entirely …

: Currently reading: My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris 📚 Part 2 comes out next month, and I …

: Finished Listening: The Sandman Vol. 8: Worlds' End by Neil Gaiman 📚

: Zummoning Redux I’ve made many improvements in the new version of “The Zummoning” submitted to Godot Wild Jam. …

: More Zummoning I’m cleaning up “The Zummoning” for submission to Godot Wild Jam this weekend (The GWJ folks usually …

: If this works, then this blog post was published with Godot!

: Finished Listening: The Sandman Vol. 7: Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman 📚

: “The Zummoning” (which only occurred to me when I realized I had to name the thing) has been …

: I think I’m onto something promising, but I’m not feeling confident that this will actually be a fun …

: 19 or so hours into this 72-hour game jam, and I’m only just starting to code. So far, I’ve spent …

: What privacy laws only apply to ages 13-15?

: Working on a Godot recreation of Pong Wars. I might write this up as a tutorial?

: I struggle to resist: Monte Cristo on a restaurant menu bread pudding on a restaurant menu audio …

: Currently reading: Make Your Own Pixel Art by Jennifer Dawe 📚 I’ve started a few video tutorials on …

: Currently listening: The Sandman Vol. 7: Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman 📚

: I love that electoral-vote.com basically looks the same as it did in 2000.

: It seems like my schedule is clear enough that I’ll be able to participate in Ludum Dare 55, April …

: At the kiddo’s taekwondo class, where it’s “blocking week”. Somehow, it’s never “ducking week” or …

: Achievement unlocked: pirating the Webelos Handbook. (I swear, we have a copy in the house, I just …

: We rejoined Netflix this week, and I’m a little surprised by how big the included library of Android …

: Spoons, Brakes This feels a bit like cheating: but immediately after my last post on the topic, I built a paper …

: Finished Listening: The Sandman Vol. 5: A Game of You by Neil Gaiman 📚 He’s not “taking a bath”, …

: The hardest part is starting I still like my spoon-theory game concept (as amended), though there’s a lingering skepticism over …

: I assumed that replacing our aged wireless router (whatever Verizon gave us, 12 or more years ago?) …

: A Solution Me, a couple of hours ago: Is it possible to take what I’ve described and actually make it fun and …

: Idea File Found this list of ideas I had posted to Twitter over some number of years. It’s not all gold, but I …

: Spoon theory game: initial concept and prior art Here’s my initial concept for the spoon theory game: Each level/puzzle is a grid, with a starting …

: Water Shader One of my previous complaints about the game was that the water was kind of… blah. I added this …

: Finished reading: Game Design Deep Dive: Platformers by Joshua Bycer 📚

: Currently listening: The Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman 📚 This is my favorite …

: BuJoBook Finished reading: The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll 📚 I skimmed or skipped some of the more …

: Currently reading: The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll 📚 I’ve been using a bullet journal for …

: I was thinking about watching Midsommer, but reading the Wikipedia article was just enough horror …

: Finished Listening: The Creative Act by Rick Rubin 📚

: Spending the evening at Fairfax County Government Center, shuttling election materials between the …

: Currently reading: Game Design Deep Dive: Platformers by Joshua Bycer 📚

: Finished Listening: The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll’s House by Neil Gaiman 📚

: A jam of my own One thing I’ve learned about myself after participating in a couple of game jams: I like having …

: Brakes Escape update I’ve done a round of post-jam tweaking on Brakes Escape. The game no longer simply stops generating …

: Currently listening: The Creative Act by Rick Rubin 📚

: Surprised that, for a published-this-month technical book, Thrift Books had more inventory on hand …

: Results are in– I was hoping for higher scores generally , but I’m pleased with getting #14 in the …

: “Flash of light-mode content” is the new flash of unstyled content.

: Godot Wild Jam 66 postmortem Some lessons learned from my recent game jam experience: Don’t wait until the very end of the jam …

: Brakes Escape, my submission to Godot Wild Jam #66, is live on itch.io. There are a couple of bugs, …

: Escape game Previously, I posted two ideas for Godot Wild Jam 66. I ended up spending a few days on the first …

: I’m the PTA volunteer keeping an eye on our elementary school’s “tech club” again this session, and …

: I’ve been pretty lazy about static typing in GDScript - but it’s pretty cool to see that there are …

: Want to read: My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two by Emil Ferris 📚 The first book was great, and …

: Nah I’m good Samsung

: GWJ ideas Current thinking for the jam, either: starting over from scratch on the NS-Tower-inspired game I’ve …

: Godot Wild Jam #66 I’m signed up for Godot Wild Jam #66, with a theme of “Escape”– which is pretty straightforward, as …

: This post from @manton prompted me to finally try out Bluesky– so far, it feels kind of like the …

: Currently listening: The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll’s House by Neil Gaiman 📚 (actually, re-listening …

: Finished reading: Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement (A Norton Short) by Ashley …

: #screenshotsaturday My son and I are still making tweaks to the roguelike that resulted from following …

: The lyrics to “Parents Just Don’t Understand” aren’t as lighthearted as I remember.

: Currently reading: Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement (A Norton Short) by …

: One of the more annoying differences between gdscript and Python: that Python capitalizes True and …

: Finished reading: Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith 📚

: Currently reading: Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith 📚 Checked this out for the kid, but I’m a grown-up …

: Finished Listening: Story by Robert McKee 📚

: Screen shake makes pretty much anything better.

: Donelike I did the thing! I finished all 13 parts of Selinadev’s Godot 4 Roguelike tutorial. There were a …

: I generally don’t care much for professional sports, but I definitely feel some nostalgia for the …

: Anti-deliverabity I received a (legit) notice of eligibility for this Verizon settlement in my junk email folder. I …

: Currently reading: The Treasure of the Black Swan by Paco Roca 📚

: Finished reading: Game Programming Patterns by Robert Nystrom 📚 Honestly, I skimmed quite a bit– …

: #screenshotsaturday I’ve finished part 11 of roguelike tutorial. Now, you can delve deeper into the dungeon, and the …

: This pepper has a pepper in it!

: This history of gamification within games was more interesting than I expected. These are the game-y …

: Seeing chatter about a new BBEdit release has me a little nostalgic. I used BBEdit Lite while …

: #screenshotsaturday I’m up to Part 10 of @selinadev@indiepocalypse.social’s Godot 4 Roguelike tutorial. What’s new? …

: … and that is the most words I’ve written for public consumption, in quite a long time.

: Blogging retrospective Via CRASH THE ARCADE, I learned of Matt Mullenweg’s birthday wish: I want you to blog. Publish a …

: Finished Listening: The Twilight World by Werner Herzog 📚

: Currently listening: The Twilight World by Werner Herzog 📚 I picked this up after finishing Herzog’s …

: Gamedev Goals for 2024 In the next year, I’d like to: Watch less YouTube, watch more Udemy, more O’Reilly Learning, more …

: Ending the year by starting a course of paxlovid…

: Finished reading: Every Man for Himself and God Against All by Werner Herzog 📚

: I couldn’t stay away– I once again have an account on the gamedev.place mastodon server. The main …

: Roguelike, Part 7 I just finished part 7 of the roguelike tutorial. New stuff: Baddies! … that chase you … and can …

: Currently reading: Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design by Scott Rogers 📚 Christmas …

: Currently listening: Every Man for Himself and God Against All by Werner Herzog 📚 Forgot to add …

: CBS is missing an opportunity to point out that that they have Drew Carey followed by Mariah Carey

: fixed it I usually don’t consider myself very “handy”, but I’m proud of the job I did today switching which …

: I’ve been working through SelinaDev’s Godot 4 roguelike tutorial and I like it so far. I just …

: Finished reading: Petrograd by Philip Gelatt 📚

: Not sure I buy the “dominos falling” theory, but interesting/sad that Firefox might be about to fall …

: As of yesterday, Doom is 30 years old

: It’s interesting that Newsblur, Pinboard.in, and micro.blog all make bookmark archiving part of …

: I was a happy Newsblur user for a number of years, but decided to give it a break for while, trying …

: My favorite bit in the new Aesop Rock album might be where he spends a bar explaining the previous …

: twenty thousand milliseconds I’ve submitted twenty thousand milliseconds to the 20 Second Game Jam. I’m not even necessarily sure …

: Bonus complaint: mastodon polls don’t translate over, they just disappear– compare this to how that …

: A month on micro About a month ago, I migrated my mastodon account over to this blog (via micro.blog’s built-in …

: What are your favorite websites that aren’t around anymore?

: I’m not sure we’ll watch Merry Little Batman, but it brings me some joy to see Jingle Bells, Batman …

: Decker I’ve likened Godot to Hypercard before– they aren’t directly comparable, but my experience using …

: Currently reading: Petrograd by Philip Gelatt 📚

: My excellent co-worker Adam created this online tuner for community radio stations: www.ldial.org …

: Troubleshooting before coffee I spent at least 30 minutes trying to figure out why the score in my game wasn’t updating past the …

: This is a good bundle of security books. I can vouch for Threats and Security Culture Playbook being …

: Testing out Lillihub!

: Currently reading: How to Measure Anything in Cybersecurity Risk by Douglas W. Hubbard 📚 Two …

: Currently reading: Game Programming Patterns by Robert Nystrom 📚

: I need to study this some more, but there are some good ideas in this cATO playbook, and the …

: Considering learning C#. I don’t even know who I am anymore.

: Deadly Class Finished reading: Deadly Class Vol 12: A Fond Farewell, Part Two by Rick Remender 📚 Some of the …

: Long after I’m dead, there will still be articles using this picture I took in 2004 …

: Personal SEO I’ve been spending some time trying to clean up search results for my name (yeah, kind of douchy, …

: Back to making One week turned into three weeks, but I feel like I’ve worked that particular digital addiction out …

: Bowling with bumpers is underrated. It’s a little more like billiards.

: DragonRuby, which usually costs $48, is free right now, as part of the 20 Second Game Jam

: 13 years ago we were at the Rally to Restore Sanity. Have we restored the sanity yet?

: I let myself get sucked into Marvel Snap this week, so spent more free time playing games instead …

: Currently reading: Deadly Class Vol. 5: Carousel by Rick Remender 📚 The first four volumes were a …

: On the same day I learn about this gallery of Internet Artifacts, I also come across this bit about …

: As part of Space Day the kiddo and I got to check out the observatory at George Mason University. 📷 …

: Probably my last post about Ludum Dare 54 maybe The results are in, and… it’s nothing to brag about. I do like that innovation is my strongest …

: I took the plunge– this is now my “home” on the fediverse. I think micro.blog has a healthier vision …

: The post-jam, cleaned up version of Don’t Get Crushed is now on itch.io …

: Got a flier in the mail from Chris Decarlo for Sherrif, which reminds me of his history of rapping …

: I’m not lazy, I’m just protecting the ecosystem www.nytimes.com/2023/10/1…

: Currently listening: Story by Robert McKee 📚

: Finished Listening: Think Like a Game Designer by Justin Gary 📚

: I’ve never really worn sunglasses, and now I’ve got my first prescription pair. Meanwhile my regular …

: Even a “bad” Futurama episode is usually pretty good– but the worst are the ones that try to be …

: Currently listening: Think Like a Game Designer by Justin Gary 📚

: Currently reading: Deadly Class - Regan Youth Media Tie-In by Rick Remender 📚

: Don't Get Crushed updates 🎮 Here is some weekend progress on Don’t Get Crushed (post-jam version, to be released after the …

: Jumping Game progress 🎮 Not much visible progress since I lasted posted this game, but I have implemented both the spring …

: I temporarily experimented with importing my Mastodon followers to micro.blog. Sorry about the …

: From a recent trip to the new LEGO Discovery Center in Springfield, VA 📷

: After a couple of days on wordpress.com, I decided it wasn’t for me. So, after a journey in the …

: Morning progress 🎮 So far, I've addressed a few items from the feedback list: There is now a visible score Players can …

: Ludum Dare 54: Don't Get Crushed Don't Get Crushed was my submission to Ludum Dare 54, my second-ever attempt to enter a game jam. …

: Oh no, not again It's 2023 and I'm starting a blog. Again. Why? I'll write more later, but in the past I've enjoyed …