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: Finished reading: Failure to Launch: A Tour of Ill-Fated Futures by Kel Mcdonald šŸ“š An excellent graphic journey through all sorts of could’ve-beens: …

: Currently listening: War for Eternity by Benjamin R. Teitelbaum šŸ“š

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

: I ā™„ļø BTRFS Subvolumes I’ve been mucking around with my operating system setup for reasons too tedious to describe here. One hilarious bit of hijinx involved trying to use …

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

: The Invisible Alligator I’m not that proud of The Invisible Alligator in its current form, but the Godot Wild Jam 82 deadline is here, and it’s nice to ship a game after …

: Finished reading: Drawing Blood by Kevin Eastman šŸ“š Confession: I picked this up thinking it was non-fiction and that Shane Bookman was a real author.

: One of the nice things about going to events again is seeing the fancy offices people work in. (brought to you by the seltzer dispenser at The College …

: Currently reading: Drawing Blood by Kevin Eastman šŸ“š

: 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 like an omission. A good deal of the DC Tech Events …

: 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 back on? For the moment though, I think I will …

: 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 through the groups directory and download a local copy …

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

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

: I want to apply for a job, not join your ā€œtalent communityā€

: Loopnik Begins Some progress on the ā€œbeat gameā€ remake (for the moment, called ā€œLoopnikā€). It’s much easier now that I have a better idea of what I’m doing and how …

: 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. Until then, I’d worked on tutorials, toy projects, and …

: Finished reading: The Notebook by Roland Allen šŸ“š

: OK– I feel pretty good about the state of DC Tech Events. The newsletter system seems to work, users can submit new iCal feeds in addition to single …

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

: 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 the new DC Tech Events site is live. I’m still …

: Currently reading: The Notebook by Roland Allen šŸ“š

: 10 years ago, I shut down the most popular thing I’d ever made (on my own). I’m now back in a place life/career-wise where I’m once again going to …

: There’s no escaping Microsoft Copilot

: I passed the AWS test today, so I can continue to be ā€œAWS Certified Security – Specialtyā€ until 2028.

: Abandoned for now: Mister X: The Archives by Dean Motter šŸ“š The core concept is really cool, but after a few chapters I found myself not really caring …

: April into May I think I’m just not going to write about what’s happening at my job again until there’s some definitive resolution. It’s too fluid, and that isn’t …

: I added an update to this morning’s post: the RIF is once again on hold. Or at least, access to systems isn’t being turned off and we won’t be placed …

: RIF'ed update: things are on hold again. Along with 1,400 of my closest friends, I received a ā€œReduction in Forceā€ notice yesterday. At 6pm today, I’ll no …

: Currently reading: Mister X: The Archives by Dean Motter šŸ“š

: Finished reading: Frank Miller’s Ronin (2019 Edition) by Frank Miller šŸ“š

: I passed the Security+ exam yesterday: Tip: if one of the options is ā€œrisk registerā€, the answer is probably ā€œrisk registerā€.

: Currently reading: Frank Miller’s Ronin (2019 Edition) by Frank Miller šŸ“š

: Finished Listening: Frostbite by Nicola Twilley šŸ“š

: Finished reading: Berlin by Jason Lutes šŸ“š

: Lately I’m still employed (and even doing some work, given that FISMA-related work counts as ā€œstatutory dutiesā€). The next milestone there seems to be …

: Who will do this work? Today, with my family, I watched the first episode of Human Footprint, which is about invasive species. It’s full of US government employees (I …

: RL The kiddo and I worked through this Godot Reinforcement Learning tutorial, and (after some troubleshooting to get onnx to install) it worked! We …

: Currently listening: Frostbite by Nicola Twilley šŸ“š Respect and fear the cold chain.

: Does that mean there are more marshmallow butt games?

: Currently reading: Berlin by Jason Lutes šŸ“š

: Robo Rampage I’ve finished ā€œRobo Rampageā€, and thus I’m done with the Complete Godot 3D course. Towards the end, I kind of wanted to just get it over with, so I …

: 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, and un-mothballed one of my earliest Godot …

: Finished reading: Game Magic by Jeff Howard šŸ“š Interesting book! In explaining ā€œgame magicā€, the author spends a lot of time delving into magic as …

: Finished Listening: The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle šŸ“š Done with Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection!

: 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 Security practice exam. The rumor mill says the hammer …

: Cease'ed So far it’s been four days since I and most of my colleagues were ordered not to work. I started the week getting over a cold, so didn’t do much of …

: Rolling is Spinning Benjamin’s recent game jam entry is Rolling is Spinning. It gets pretty tricky at the end! I did the coding, following his concept and directions. He …

: 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 art is royalty free stuff from a humble bundle, …

: Finished Listening: His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle šŸ“š

: I’ve been checking out some older games in my Steam library that I haven’t played much. I’m not sure exactly what Jazzpunk is about yet, but I got to …

: Just a little bit of Barbarian Blaster, the 2nd of 3 projects taught in Complete Godot 3D. I was surprised that the first two projects are basically …

: It turns out, I don’t have to use the ā€œrawhideā€ version of Fedora just to get an updated kernel– so now the new machine is on Fedora 41, and I’m …

: If you’ve made a resolution to create your own website or blog (or have just been thinking about it) micro.one is a great way to get started. …

: 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 on to other ideas/projects/what have you. This …

: Dance like no one is watching, love like you’ve never been hurt, sing like no one is listening, and never give Brian Krebs a reason to call your mom.

: ​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 get a handle on 3D graphics as a general topic, …

: Finished listening: The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle šŸ“š I really enjoyed this one! It makes me want to learn some more about the Molly Maguires …

: I’ve finished the Inkscape course I was working through. I think it was worthwhile– the biggest aha! moments were: shape builder, the mesh tool, …

: It’s unfortunate that itch.io got taken down because of an escalating set of automated processes and overreactions– but it’s got me thinking about …

: Finished Listening: The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle šŸ“š

: Currently reading: Game Magic by Jeff Howard šŸ“š

: Finished reading: Light It, Shoot It! by Graham Chaffee šŸ“š Honestly this felt a little rushed, it was over before I had a chance to really care about …

: Finished reading: The Arab of the Future 3 by Riad Sattouf šŸ“š

: I decided I was tired of faking my way through Inkscape, so I grabbed this course on sale a few days ago. I’m about an hour into the course, but …

: Finished reading: The Arab of the Future 2 by Riad Sattouf šŸ“š

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

: I’ve submitted Pinball Putt to the 1-Button Game Jam. A mini-golf/pinball mashup where you need to earn enough points to pass a level, without …

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

: My ā€œchill mini golf gameā€ for the 1-Button Jam is coming together– though I don’t think I’ll be done for the 5pm deadline tomorrow. Luckily, the …

: I had hoped to complete a couple more obstacles/gadgets today, but only got this pinball-style bumper working. I’m happy with the mouse graphic that …

: I’ve added an ā€œattract modeā€ bot that plays plausibly but seldom successfully. It can’t really deal with obstacles yet.

: I’ve migrated fediverse following/followers over to my profile on mastodon.gamedev.place. ross.karchner.com will now cross-post to that account. I’ve …

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

: Finished reading: The Arab of the Future by Riad Sattouf šŸ“š

: The Smithsonian has a model of the ship from Close Encounters of the 3rd kind. If you look closely you can find R2D2 and a couple of other Easter …

: 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 thousand ways to put a site or blog up online, but …

: Finished Listening: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle šŸ“š

: Finished reading: Delights: a Story of Hieronymus Bosch by Guy Colwell šŸ“š

: I had a couple of ideas for the Github Game Off, but I’m kind of feeling more motivated to work on SpinDoc– though I think my plan this month is to …

: Currently reading: Empire of Normality by Robert Chapman šŸ“š

: Not much obvious has changed since my last post about SpinDoc– I did rework a lot of how the wands work behind the scenes. I had been rotating the …

: Finished reading: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle šŸ“š

: Finished reading: Little Black Book by Jeff McComsey šŸ“š

: Finished reading: Medea by Blandine Le Callet šŸ“š

: Currently reading: Medea by Blandine Le Callet šŸ“š

: Maybe it’s time for for a little station ID? Even though you might be seeing this on Mastodon, Bluesky, or elsewhere– you’re reading my (Ross’s) blog, …

: Finished reading: Air Volume 3 by G. Willow Wilson šŸ“š

: Who wants to start a news show with me?

: Finished reading: Air Volume 2 by G. Willow Wilson šŸ“š

: SpinDoc Some progress on ā€œSpinDocā€: ā€œringsā€ (aka, dots you can only use once) enemy wands that can move to appropriately colored dots By the end of this …

: Finished reading: Air Volume 1 by G. Willow Wilson šŸ“š

: Finished Listening: Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle šŸ“š

: Finished reading: Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore šŸ“š

: Finished reading: Marvels šŸ“š

:

: How to Read Superhero Comics and why Finished reading: How to Read Superhero Comics and why by Geoff Klock šŸ“š This was more academic than I was expecting (full of words like ā€˜misprision’ …

: I’ve been working through Firebelly’s new course: Create a Complete Grid-Based Puzzle Game in Godot 4 with C#. Why? I learned a ton by taking his …

: It’s nothing to be too proud of yet, but I’ve made some progress on my Spin Doctor remake/tribute/spiritual successor/what have you. This is a …

: Don’t worry about the smoke

: Currently reading: How to Read Superhero Comics and why by Geoff Klock šŸ“š Recommendation from Robin Sloan’s newsletter.

: Abandoned for now: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville šŸ“š I got about halfway through, but it’s been a few weeks since I picked it up– just too many other …

: The kiddo and I have been playing some Warcraft 2. It’s early yet, but I’m a little surprised by how ā€œscorched earthā€ some of these scenarios are. …

: Postmortem: Quack Circuits / Godot WIld Jam 72 The ratings are in, and Quack Circuits… ranked near the bottom in most categories (there were 156 submissions). Getting 21st in ā€œoriginalityā€ suits me …

: 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, and it occurred to me that such a virtual world …

: Finished Listening: The Sign of the Four by SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE šŸ“š

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

: I’ve updated the deployment pipelines for Pong Wars and the current WIP to use Godot 4.3. While I was at it, I updated the Pong Wars pipeline to push …

: Despite previous predictions, I haven’t gotten a chance to work on improving the art and adding sound, music, polish, etc yet. I’ve got until 4pm …

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

: Currently reading: Policy as Code by Jimmy Ray šŸ“š

: Finished Listening: A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle šŸ“š (I’m actually listening to Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection, read by Stephen …

: It’s not a game yet– but it’s interactive! By tomorrow night, I should be able to have a couple of playable levels, and that will leave me most of a …

: A feeble #screenshotsaturday for my Godot Wild Jam work in progress. The current idea is something like Pipe Mania meets Snap Crcuits. This screenshot …

: The theme is out for Godot Wild Jam #72. It’s a good thing I spent time last night finally figuring out how to make 2D lighting and shadows work…

: I decided to dip into Threads a bit over the last few days: it’s mostly people talking about Twitter, Elon Musk, and the new Deadpool movie. One of …

: GWJ72 When I was writing this post, I almost committed to sitting out game jams for a while, in order to focus on a small number of longer-term projects. …

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

: Finished reading: In Perpetuity by Maria and Peter Hoey šŸ“š

: Finished Listening: How To Write Funny by Scott Dikkers šŸ“š

: 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 video, the animated background, greyscale, distortion, …

: Currently listening: How To Write Funny by Scott Dikkers šŸ“š

: Finished Listening: Slow Productivity by Cal Newport šŸ“š

: What's next for games? Two years ago, while my son was attending an event at the library, I spent some time flipping through a book about the Unity game engine (maybe this …

: I’m working on a tech-company name generator for a project, some examples from a recent run: Vibrant Institute The Logic Company Urban Mammoth The …

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

: Currently listening: Slow Productivity by Cal Newport šŸ“š

: Finished Listening: Moonbound by Robin Sloan šŸ“š It’s been a while since I’ve had the sensation of being sad when a book ends. I want to spend more time …

: Currently reading: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville šŸ“š Not my first time starting, but maybe recording it here will motivate me to finish.

: Finished reading: Further Explorations: 50 Years of Text Games by Aaron A Reed šŸ“š

: Currently reading: Further Explorations: 50 Years of Text Games by Aaron A Reed šŸ“š

: Finished reading: My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two by Emil Ferris šŸ“š

: Got tickets for Fredericksburg Comic Con.

: Currently reading: My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two by Emil Ferris šŸ“š

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

: Currently listening: Moonbound by Robin Sloan šŸ“š

: Ever since I started tinkering with gamedev (and Godot specifically), one thing I’ve periodically attempted is a recreation of the mac game Spin …

: Finished Listening: Whole Earth by John Markoff šŸ“š

: 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 game Accordian.

: 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 a thing I enjoy, so I shouldn’t beat myself up …

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

: Finished reading: The Snare of the Tree, and Other Perilous Seductions: Essays on Dangers in Game Design by Alexis Kennedy šŸ“š Much shorter than the …

: Currently reading: The Snare of the Tree, and Other Perilous Seductions: Essays on Dangers in Game Design by Alexis Kennedy šŸ“š

: Finished reading: Against Worldbuilding, and Other Provocations by Alexis Kennedy šŸ“š Good stuff, I’ll probably go back to the more practical chapters …

: Current view:

: Finished reading: Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design by Scott Rogers šŸ“š I skimmed some chapters, but will definitely keep it around for …

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

: I don’t like this new world where swiping your credit card at a business automatically signs you up to receive their marketing emails.

: ā€œThe Last Stanā€ is live on itch.io and submitted to the gamedev.tv jam. It’s a platformer, with typing. It’s not my favorite thing I’ve made, but I …

: Hey, an actual #screenshotsaturday : For the gamedev.tv jam, I’m working on a platformer where you escape alien ships and defeat ground-based enemies …

: I spent the first part of my life in the Hazleton, PA area. Here’s a really cool 10 minute video about the ā€œcity under the cityā€, a legacy of the coal …

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

: Whole Earth šŸ“š Currently listening: Whole Earth by John Markoff šŸ“š A year or two back, I listened to Tom Wolfe’s ā€œThe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Testā€, and soon after, …

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

: I think I’ll try to make something for this year’s gamedev.tv jam(which kicks off tonight), if the theme is interesting. Ten days to work, and every …

: I’ve made a few minor fixes to Zummoning recently: Cards get dealt in a smoother, less jerky manner Help text now stays on screen for as long as your …

: Currently reading: Against Worldbuilding, and Other Provocations by Alexis Kennedy šŸ“š

: 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 for Godot. I was mostly taking a look to see if …

: GameOps I used the Pong Wars deployment as an excuse to try out GitHub actions. It’s nice! Almost too nice, like the fact that it’s free makes me suspicious. …

: Pong Wars I’ve published my Godot re-creation of Pong Wars by Koen van Gilst on GitHub (and embedded it below!) It’s not exactly a game– more of a ā€œvisual toyā€. …

: 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 šŸ“š

: The kiddo and I had a good time at NOVA Game Developers Meetup this afternoon! It was fun to play games, show what we’ve worked on, and chat with …

: 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 the originality category. Being in the top third …

: Here’s footage of gamedev and streamer ObsidianBlk playing The Zummoning!. He’s got some (entirely fair) critical feedback, which I respond to (in …

: Currently reading: My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris šŸ“š Part 2 comes out next month, and I want to refresh my memory of the characters and …

: Finished Listening: The Sandman Vol. 8: Worlds' End by Neil Gaiman šŸ“š

: Zummoning Redux I’ve made many improvements in the new version of ā€œThe Zummoningā€ submitted to Godot Wild Jam. Unfortunately, the name isn’t one of them. Oh well. …

: More Zummoning I’m cleaning up ā€œThe Zummoningā€ for submission to Godot Wild Jam this weekend (The GWJ folks usually disallow games submitted to other jams, but make …

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

: Finished Listening: The Sandman Vol. 7: Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman šŸ“š

: ā€œThe Zummoningā€ (which only occurred to me when I realized I had to name the thing) has been submitted to Ludum Dare 55. It needs a TON of work, but… …

: I think I’m onto something promising, but I’m not feeling confident that this will actually be a fun game and not look like ass by the jam deadline …

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

: 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 humblebundles

: Currently reading: Make Your Own Pixel Art by Jennifer Dawe šŸ“š I’ve started a few video tutorials on pixel art, but didn’t manage to stick with it. …

: Currently listening: The Sandman Vol. 7: Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman šŸ“š

: 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 12-15. It was fun last time. My goal on this one is …

: At the kiddo’s taekwondo class, where it’s ā€œblocking weekā€. Somehow, it’s never ā€œducking weekā€ or ā€œrunning away weekā€.

: Achievement unlocked: pirating the Webelos Handbook. (I swear, we have a copy in the house, I just can’t find it)

: We rejoined Netflix this week, and I’m a little surprised by how big the included library of Android games has gotten. Any recommendations? I’ve …

: Spoons, Brakes This feels a bit like cheating: but immediately after my last post on the topic, I built a paper prototype of the Spoon Theory game using index cards. …

: Finished Listening: The Sandman Vol. 5: A Game of You by Neil Gaiman šŸ“š He’s not ā€œtaking a bathā€, he’s in the bath tub.

: The hardest part is starting I still like my spoon-theory game concept (as amended), though there’s a lingering skepticism over whether the thing I’ve described will be fun and …

: I assumed that replacing our aged wireless router (whatever Verizon gave us, 12 or more years ago?) would improve performance, but kind of surprised …

: A Solution Me, a couple of hours ago: Is it possible to take what I’ve described and actually make it fun and challenging? Or, will the right path (or a right …

: Idea File Found this list of ideas I had posted to Twitter over some number of years. It’s not all gold, but I still like a few of them: a first-in, first out …

: 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 location and one or more ā€œmust doā€ spaces, zero or …

: Finished reading: Game Design Deep Dive: Platformers by Joshua Bycer šŸ“š

: Currently listening: The Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman šŸ“š This is my favorite storyline in the whole Sandman series– probably because …

: BuJoBook Finished reading: The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll šŸ“š I skimmed or skipped some of the more philosophical material (like a chapter on …

: Currently reading: The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll šŸ“š I’ve been using a bullet journal for a couple of years now, but lately, it’s been… I …

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

: Finished Listening: The Creative Act by Rick Rubin šŸ“š

: Spending the evening at Fairfax County Government Center, shuttling election materials between the loading dock (where I found this sign) and offices …

: Currently reading: Game Design Deep Dive: Platformers by Joshua Bycer šŸ“š

: Finished Listening: The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll’s House by Neil Gaiman šŸ“š

: A jam of my own One thing I’ve learned about myself after participating in a couple of game jams: I like having deadlines. So, I’m going to try setting a deadline for …

: Brakes Escape update I’ve done a round of post-jam tweaking on Brakes Escape. The game no longer simply stops generating new platforms (and walls!) once you hit a certain …

: Currently listening: The Creative Act by Rick Rubin šŸ“š

: Surprised that, for a published-this-month technical book, Thrift Books had more inventory on hand and a better price than Amazon.

: Results are in– I was hoping for higher scores generally , but I’m pleased with getting #14 in the ā€œfunā€ category. I am working on an update that …

: ā€œFlash of light-mode contentā€ 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 to download the export templates bundle (see …

: Brakes Escape, my submission to Godot Wild Jam #66, is live on itch.io. There are a couple of bugs, half-baked feaures , and other compromises made in …

: Escape game Previously, I posted two ideas for Godot Wild Jam 66. I ended up spending a few days on the first one and realized I didn’t like where it was going …

: I’m the PTA volunteer keeping an eye on our elementary school’s ā€œtech clubā€ again this session, and this time they’re going to be programming drones …

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

: Want to read: My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two by Emil Ferris šŸ“š The first book was great, and I’m excited to read what happens next. Maybe I’ll …

: 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 tinkered with on and off (see a GIF of it here), …

: Godot Wild Jam #66 I’m signed up for Godot Wild Jam #66, with a theme of ā€œEscapeā€ā€“ which is pretty straightforward, as far as game jam themes go. I do think it’s quite …

: This post from @manton prompted me to finally try out Bluesky– so far, it feels kind of like the uncanny valley version of Twitter? I’ll keep poking …

: Currently listening: The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll’s House by Neil Gaiman šŸ“š (actually, re-listening to Act I of the Audible adaptation of The Sandman, …

: Finished reading: Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement (A Norton Short) by Ashley Shew šŸ“š

: #screenshotsaturday My son and I are still making tweaks to the roguelike that resulted from following @selinadev@indiepocalypse.social’s tutorial: a new spell, visual …

: The lyrics to ā€œParents Just Don’t Understandā€ aren’t as lighthearted as I remember.

: Currently reading: Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement (A Norton Short) by Ashley Shew šŸ“š

: One of the more annoying differences between gdscript and Python: that Python capitalizes True and False, and gdscript does not.

: Finished reading: Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith šŸ“š

: Currently reading: Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith šŸ“š Checked this out for the kid, but I’m a grown-up and I can read it first if I want to.

: Finished Listening: Story by Robert McKee šŸ“š

: 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 good number of things that were new to me: procedural …

: I generally don’t care much for professional sports, but I definitely feel some nostalgia for the time before sports betting was everywhere.

: Anti-deliverabity I received a (legit) notice of eligibility for this Verizon settlement in my junk email folder. I know there are best practices and a class of …

: Currently reading: The Treasure of the Black Swan by Paco Roca šŸ“š

: Finished reading: Game Programming Patterns by Robert Nystrom šŸ“š Honestly, I skimmed quite a bit– some parts seem more geared to engine developers. …

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

: This pepper has a pepper in it!

: This history of gamification within games was more interesting than I expected. These are the game-y things like experience points, levels, and …

: Seeing chatter about a new BBEdit release has me a little nostalgic. I used BBEdit Lite while HTML-ifying recipes for Hershey in the 90’s. I’m mostly …

: #screenshotsaturday I’m up to Part 10 of @selinadev@indiepocalypse.social’s Godot 4 Roguelike tutorial. What’s new? Potions to heal with Scrolls of lightning, fireball, …

: … 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 post. About anything! It can be long or short, a …

: Finished Listening: The Twilight World by Werner Herzog šŸ“š

: Currently listening: The Twilight World by Werner Herzog šŸ“š I picked this up after finishing Herzog’s memoir, both because the story sounds interesting …

: Gamedev Goals for 2024 In the next year, I’d like to: Watch less YouTube, watch more Udemy, more O’Reilly Learning, more books, more blog posts and independent websites. …

: Ending the year by starting a course of paxlovid…

: Finished reading: Every Man for Himself and God Against All by Werner Herzog šŸ“š

: I couldn’t stay away– I once again have an account on the gamedev.place mastodon server. The main thing I missed was #screenshotsaturday– when I …

: Roguelike, Part 7 I just finished part 7 of the roguelike tutorial. New stuff: Baddies! … that chase you … and can also die (but you can die too) A user interface that …

: Currently reading: Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design by Scott Rogers šŸ“š Christmas present from the kiddo!

: Currently listening: Every Man for Himself and God Against All by Werner Herzog šŸ“š Forgot to add this, I’m about halfway through. Contains more blood …

: 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 ā€œhandyā€, but I’m proud of the job I did today switching which side the refrigerator door opens on. One of the …

: I’ve been working through SelinaDev’s Godot 4 roguelike tutorial and I like it so far. I just finished part 4 (of 13). There are no enemies or things …

: Finished reading: Petrograd by Philip Gelatt šŸ“š

: Not sure I buy the ā€œdominos fallingā€ theory, but interesting/sad that Firefox might be about to fall under the USWDS 2% threshold for browser support …

: As of yesterday, Doom is 30 years old

: It’s interesting that Newsblur, Pinboard.in, and micro.blog all make bookmark archiving part of their premium offering. Maybe it’s an easy way to add …

: I was a happy Newsblur user for a number of years, but decided to give it a break for while, trying out non-cloud options like Rad Reader. But, none …

: My favorite bit in the new Aesop Rock album might be where he spends a bar explaining the previous line (from ā€˜100 Feet Tall’, a story about running …

: twenty thousand milliseconds I’ve submitted twenty thousand milliseconds to the 20 Second Game Jam. I’m not even necessarily sure it qualifies as a game. Maybe it’s more like a …

: Bonus complaint: mastodon polls don’t translate over, they just disappear– compare this to how that conversation appears on micro.blog.

: A month on micro About a month ago, I migrated my mastodon account over to this blog (via micro.blog’s built-in support for ActivityPub). How’s that going? Mostly …

: 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 Smells in an official DC production.

: Decker I’ve likened Godot to Hypercard before– they aren’t directly comparable, but my experience using Godot brought back a sense of possibility and fun …

: Currently reading: Petrograd by Philip Gelatt šŸ“š

: My excellent co-worker Adam created this online tuner for community radio stations: www.ldial.org (which is also excellent)

: Troubleshooting before coffee I spent at least 30 minutes trying to figure out why the score in my game wasn’t updating past the first point. It would go from 0 to 1, but then …

: This is a good bundle of security books. I can vouch for Threats and Security Culture Playbook being worthwhile, and Software Transparency is on my …

: Testing out Lillihub!

: Currently reading: How to Measure Anything in Cybersecurity Risk by Douglas W. Hubbard šŸ“š Two chapters in, and I really appreciate learning about: The …

: Currently reading: Game Programming Patterns by Robert Nystrom šŸ“š

: I need to study this some more, but there are some good ideas in this cATO playbook, and the manifesto it links to: rise8-us.github.io/cato-play… …

: 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 šŸ“š Some of the late-middle volumes were a bit of a drag for me, the …

: Long after I’m dead, there will still be articles using this picture I took in 2004 www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2…

: Personal SEO I’ve been spending some time trying to clean up search results for my name (yeah, kind of douchy, sorry), and one thing that’s been vexing me is my …

: Back to making One week turned into three weeks, but I feel like I’ve worked that particular digital addiction out of my system (and diving in to Snap has actually …

: 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 making them. I have started experimenting with Godot …

: Currently reading: Deadly Class Vol. 5: Carousel by Rick Remender šŸ“š The first four volumes were a pleasant surprise. I was expecting a sort of …

: On the same day I learn about this gallery of Internet Artifacts, I also come across this bit about the worlds oldest continuously-seeded bittorrent …

: As part of Space Day the kiddo and I got to check out the observatory at George Mason University. šŸ“· šŸš€

: 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 category again. I don’t know exactly how many entrees …

: I took the plunge– this is now my ā€œhomeā€ on the fediverse. I think micro.blog has a healthier vision for social media, and I’m really drawn to the …

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

: Got a flier in the mail from Chris Decarlo for Sherrif, which reminds me of his history of rapping campaign videos: youtube.com/@CDRapper…

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

: Currently listening: Story by Robert McKee šŸ“š

: Finished Listening: Think Like a Game Designer by Justin Gary šŸ“š

: I’ve never really worn sunglasses, and now I’ve got my first prescription pair. Meanwhile my regular glasses are at the optometrist to get new lenses …

: Even a ā€œbadā€ Futurama episode is usually pretty good– but the worst are the ones that try to be relevant for the time they were released, ā€œripped from …

: Currently listening: Think Like a Game Designer by Justin Gary šŸ“š

: Currently reading: Deadly Class - Regan Youth Media Tie-In by Rick Remender šŸ“š

: Don't Get Crushed updates šŸŽ® Here is some weekend progress on Don’t Get Crushed (post-jam version, to be released after the review window closes): Fixed the janky vibrations …

: Jumping Game progress šŸŽ® Not much visible progress since I lasted posted this game, but I have implemented both the spring platforms and the ā€œslamā€ mechanic (which can be …

: I temporarily experimented with importing my Mastodon followers to micro.blog. Sorry about the follow-spam!

: From a recent trip to the new LEGO Discovery Center in Springfield, VA šŸ“·

: After a couple of days on wordpress.com, I decided it wasn’t for me. So, after a journey in the wilderness, I’m back on micro.blog!

: Morning progress šŸŽ® So far, I've addressed a few items from the feedback list: There is now a visible score Players can restart the game after dying using the up arrow …

: 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. The game didn't end up much like what I was …

: 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 have a blog as a sort of public notebook, for …