A feeble #screenshotsaturday for my Godot Wild Jam work in progress. The current idea is something like Pipe Mania meets Snap Crcuits. This screenshot does not convey any of that, but I did get to the point where the game can detect whether a complete circuit has been made and react accordingly.

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 those things is interesting to me, but I can wait until it’s on Disney Plus.

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. Honestly, I could use some momentum right now, and I feel the most momentum after finishing a game jam.

So, I’m signed up for Godot Wild Jam 72.

This time around, I’m going to try to make a really simple game, and focus on the visuals and providing a quality, polished experience. In other words, I won’t try to design a whole-ass magic system.

(though thanks to a recent humble bundle, I’m looking forward to diving in to Game Magic: A Designer’s Guide to Magic Systems in Theory and Practice.)

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 video, the animated background, greyscale, distortion, dissolve, masking (the spiky block) and re-colored trophies are all achieved with shaders.

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 through a book about the Unity game engine (maybe this one?). It wasn’t intimidating, and looked fun. I came away thinking: “huh, I could make games”.

Then I got home and couldn’t make Unity run on my laptop. There’s a happy ending, though: I found Godot, which ran just fine.

I followed a few tutorials to make a flappy bird clone, a breakout clone, a simple platformer, and made progress on a much larger platformer, but after a few months I kind of drifted to other pursuits.

One year ago, I decided to dive back in an embrace game development as a serious hobby. I finished the platformer tutorial, and started entering game jams. Between July 2023 and June 2024, I made six games. There were no unqualified successes, but I usually did OK in one or more categories, like “innovation”, “mechanics”, or “fun”. What I’ve proved to myself is that I’m pretty good at coming up with ideas for interesting game mechanics, and have enough Godot-fu to turn those ideas into actual software that someone can play, and even have fun playing.

Honestly, this makes me feel a little like a wizard.

BUT a good game is more than just a collection of playable mechanics, and a successful game takes way more than just interesting ideas. It takes quality, style, a well-designed progression/difficulty curve, marketing (and a market!), and good timing.

I think my next step is to take a couple of the ideas I’ve worked on (either as jam entries, or other projects) and try to make good, complete, games out of them. I’m not sure about trying to market anything, but I’d at least like to have one or more games that are, in theory at least, marketable.

I think three of the six game jam entries represent concepts that could be developed further (Beat Game, Zummoning, and Brakes Escape), but I should probably narrow it down to one or two.

I’d also like to keep working on a Spin Doctor-inspired puzzle game, and a cybersecurity-themed game I’m still fleshing out (working title: “CISO Clicker”). I’ll try to use #screenshotsaturday and local meetups as my drumbeat: in a successful week or month, I’ll have some progress to share.

And I guess, I’ll plan to post a new retrospective/update in July 2025!

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 Cortex Company
  • Keen Lamp Corp
  • Gear & Path
  • Urban Pod
  • Widget & Scholar
  • Acoustic Sprocket
  • Vibrant Scholar
  • Central Sunrise
  • Elegant Root

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 📚

Finished Listening: Moonbound by Robin Sloan 📚

It’s been a while since I’ve had the sensation of being sad when a book ends. I want to spend more time with these characters and places.

Currently reading: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville 📚

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 📚

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