Play and combine cards to summon creatures that march towards the enemy. Created in nine days for Godot Wild Jam #68. An earlier version was also submitted to Ludum Dare 55. Made with Godot 4. Play on itch.io.

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. I’m going to count that as hitting my goal to have a prototype by the end of the month.

For April and May, I want to return to Brakes Escape– adding polish, more variability in scenery and obstacles, and perhaps some power ups. By the end of June, I want to have it in the Google Play Store.

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 actually a challenge to solve– but that’s what testing and iteration are for.

I’ve slept on it for a week. I now have 7 more days until my arbitrary, self-imposed deadline to build the prototype. Let’s go. Start. Now.

(Is blogging this itself procrastination? Maybe.)

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 path) always be obvious at a glance?

Now that I’ve thought about it some more, I think part of the answer here is: the player shouldn’t be the only entity moving across the board. There should be NPC’s representing social interactions that the player may want to encounter (that add spoons) and others that the player will want to avoid (that take away spoons). They should move in predictable patterns, and the player’s challenge becomes:

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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 laundry hamper
• Shazam for the noises a malfunctioning appliance or car might make.
• URL shortner that implies value judgement. Think like.ly, hate.ly, whatev.er
• a site for stolen recipes, called TastyLeaks

I vaguely recall trying to build this:

• site that lets you take any book, and turn it into a chapter-a-week lesson plan. discussion and vote-based rev. q’s and homework

This is basically haveibeenpwned.com:

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Here’s my initial concept for the spoon theory game:

Each level/puzzle is a grid, with a starting location and one or more “must do” spaces, zero or more bonus spaces, and other spaces that either add or remove “spoons” (which can be thought of as stamina or energy). The player’s challenge is to design a route that connects the starting location to (at least) each “must do” location in order to complete the level, without running out of spoons or turns.

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One of my previous complaints about the game was that the water was kind of… blah. I added this shader and now I like it!...

Finished reading: The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll 📚

I skimmed or skipped some of the more philosophical material (like a chapter on “radiance”), but I have some good ideas about how to reinvigorate my bujo practice:

• get back to the habit of reviewing the month-so-far every morning, or at least weekdays.
• be more liberal about creating “collections” outside of the daily log flow, for particular projects, topics, or goals
• just write more! let the journal be more of a log of ideas, thoughts, frustrations, and victories, and not just a todo list

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 a personal project that I’ve been meaning to make progress on: a game about spoon theory. I want to have something playable (not necessarily done) by the end of March.

My aim here is:

• a fun game
• that leaves the player with increased empathy for/ understanding of folks who need to consciously manage their energy/stamina

… with a bonus goal of the game being somewhat relaxing and not too taxing. The game should be a good stim. It should restore spoons, rather than take them away.

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 level, sound effects have been added, and some bugs have been fixed. To make things a little more difficult, I’ve introduced “solid” platforms that you can’t jump through, and made the rising water gradually increase in speed.

There are still some things I’m unsatisfied with:

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