Hey there,
I’m currently writing this in the evening of Father’s day in the UK. I had a lovely day with my family, playing video games with my son, and seeing my wife’s parents for dinner.
I hope you had a great weekend too!
The last couple of weeks have been spent working on a whole new project. It started off as a small editor for Key Kwest, the game I have been making for beepmini.com. I just wanted to make a way to draw the levels and export them to the game, but it is now turning into a full-fledged game editor (albeit in very early stages).
A game editor is something I have wanted to make for a long time and thinking about how it will all come together is really exciting. I am going to start by just making enough for me to finish Key Kwest, but eventually I want to make it acomplete editor for making retro, tile-based adventure games. And this will be published for free for anyone to use. #exciting!
Anyway, enough about me, let’s get on with the newsletter!
Photo Edit Tools
I’m cheating a bit this week since PhotoEditTools.com is my own website. I had the idea last year to make a website that allows you to bulk edit photos and this is what I came up with. There’s a whole series of tools for editing and creating images en masse.
Whether you’re a designer, developer, teacher, or just someone with too many screenshots, these tools are made to save you time.
You can resize or crop photos, compress them to shrink file sizes, or rename entire batches in one go. There are tools to add watermarks, overlay logos, or even place QR codes on every image. You can also blur parts of a photo to hide sensitive info, extract colour palettes, or convert HEIC files from your iPhone into JPG or PNG.
Everything runs in your browser using JavaScript, so your images never leave your device. Nothing gets uploaded to a server, making it totally private. And best of all? It’s totally free to use.
This started off as a fun side project for my own use, but I’ve been receiving great feedback and have been slowly adding new features to make it more useful for everyone. If you have any suggestions or ideas for new tools, please let me know!
Sparked Discoveries
Here’s a handful of links I found intriguing recently:
Cardboard Templates
This is a site that gives you templates for making models out of cardboard boxes. I enjoy making things out of paper, and this is the next step up. There’s a bunch of plans to download on here, both free and paid. I quite like the idea of making something practical as a gift for someone. It’s both a case of recycling, and I find the rawness of the materials quite appealing. If you like this sort of thing, there is also someone who makes amazing storage boxes and furniture out of cardboard. I don’t know if it’s a person or a company but you can find them on Instagram.
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ChatGPT lost a game of chess to an Atari 2600
A photo of an Atari 2600 - not the one used in the article
This is a fun article about how ChatGPT lost a game of chess to an Atari 2600. The Atari 2600 is a classic gaming console from the late 70s/ early 80s, and it had a chess game that was surprisingly good for its time. People talk about how AI and ChatGPT are going to take over the world, but this is a nice reminder that it has very specific use cases and is not actually able to reason like a human (or AI designed for a specific task). Realistically it’ll be a long time before we have to worry about AI taking over anything, let alone the world.
Offline Kids
We all need this don’t we? My son is 9 and uses electronic devices too much. To be fair I am 45 and also use electronic devices too much. But growing up in the 80s and 90s distractions were very different and this website is a nice reminder that there’s all sorts of activities you can do with your kids that don’t involve a screen. I hope they keep updating it and don’t just leave it as a one-off project. I would love to see more ideas and activities added over time.
My Physics Lab
This is a great resource for anyone interested in physics and maths. It features a variety of simulations and interactive tools that make learning about physics concepts fun and engaging. Each mechanical system has a browser-based simulation that you can play with. You can modify the parameters and see how they affect the system in real-time.
Mario Kart World Cow Meme
Lots of Cows in a multiplayer Mario Kart World Race
I didn’t buy the new Switch 2 but I have enjoyed seeing people play Mario Kart World Tour. In particular the fact that everyone wants to be the cow. I feel like this might spin off into a whole new game. Who knew spherical cows were more popular than Mario, Luigi, and friends. When I do eventually get the game I’ll probably be the cow as well!
Have you found anything interesting lately? I’d love to hear about it, just reply to this email!
Until next time,
Ben