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 attempted is a recreation of the mac game Spin Doctor (released on PC and SNES as “Clockwerx”)
I started over recently, but I’ve got the basic swing/flip/bounce movement working. #screenshotsaturday
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 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 about it. I think I’m paraphrasing Ted Lasso here.
- When on the phone or tablet, and not Snap-ing, I’ve been playing Slice and Dice
- I recently spent about an hour or two digging in to Book of Hours. I don’t love it yet, but after reading the two Alexis Kennedy books, I want to dive back in and try to pay more attention to the actual writing. Likewise, I want to revisit Cultist Simulator (which I at least got to the point with where I could seemingly live indefinitely without accomplishing much) and Sunless Sea (which I only launched once, but haven’t really played).
- I spent a little time today finally playing Dome Keeper. I’m only one run in, but I’ll be coming back. So far: good game, great atmosphere.
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 Design by Alexis Kennedy 📚
Much shorter than the other two game design books I’ve recently read (including the other book from Alexis Kennedy), but more inspiring and actionable, I think.
Currently reading: The Snare of the Tree, and Other Perilous Seductions: Essays on Dangers in Game Design by Alexis Kennedy 📚
Finished reading: Against Worldbuilding, and Other Provocations by Alexis Kennedy 📚
Good stuff, I’ll probably go back to the more practical chapters (mostly in part 2) again.
Current view:
Finished reading: Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design by Scott Rogers 📚
I skimmed some chapters, but will definitely keep it around for reference.
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 otherwise(except for “theme”).
My favorite comments call the game “weirdly relaxing” and “quite therapeutic”.
I don’t like this new world where swiping your credit card at a business automatically signs you up to receive their marketing emails.
“The Last Stan” 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 will say that it’s got some charm (a good deal of which comes from the Kenney art and background music by Seth Makes Sounds).
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 by typing. All art by Kenney.
The Last Stan June 2024
A simple platformer with typing challenges. Created in 10 days for the 2024 GameDev.tv jam, where it ranked 59th (out of over 1000) in the “mechanics” category. Play on itch.io.
I spent the first part of my life in the Hazleton, PA area. Here’s a really cool 10 minute video about the “city under the city”, a legacy of the coal industry.
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 “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test”, and soon after, for unrelated reasons, started reading some stuff about the early years of personal computing (including Markoff’s “What the Dormouse Said”).
Stewart Brand was the common thread running through all of it.
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 theme is interesting.
Ten days to work, and every entry gets a free course.
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 mouse is over card
- Fixed an issue where the drop target would turn purple, indicating a you could put your card there, even though you could not
Currently reading: Against Worldbuilding, and Other Provocations by Alexis Kennedy 📚