two years and a baby later
Hi friends,
It’s been a while. 942 days to be precise. The AI overlords haven’t taken me out yet, but they’re certainly trying.
A lot has happened in those days. We moved into a house. I started a new job. Bubba was born. Peanut grew up. I made some little games. I played a lot of Monster Hunter. I read some books and a bunch of manga. And I started some new creative projects that I’m excited to share.
The primary project I’ve been working on is a book titled Make Games for Playdate with Lua. It’s a guide to programming video games for Panic’s cute little yellow game console.
I published it in Early Access, releasing updates as I made progress to get feedback along the way. I’m nearly done with it, just writing the last chapters. If you ever wanted to make games, Playdate is great because of its hardware constraints. You’re not concerned with color or high resolution graphics. You can focus on gameplay instead and learning how to code. The programming language you use, Lua, is great for learning how to code, as it’s quite similar to natural language without a bunch of technical syntax.
Each chapter covers making a complete game, building up complexity with each chapter. No programming experience required either. The book is a sliding scale in terms of price, starting at $6.99. Much to my joy, it’s already sold 90 copies! If you’re interested, here’s a coupon to get the book for a discounted $3.99 as a thank you for subscribing to my newsletter: https://leanpub.com/playdatebook/c/52QUXvGDEOh1
PDSnake
As part of writing the book, I released a free game for Playdate called PDSnake.
If you’ve got a Playdate console and want to check it out, you can download it for free here: https://brettchalupa.itch.io/pdsnake
SokoWorld
A bit before my Playdate work, I released a more polished Sokoban box pushing puzzle game for PC and web called SokoWorld.
SokoWorld was a lot of fun to make, and I designed some original levels, as well as included those by a well known Sokoban level designer. You can play SokoWorld here: https://brettchalupa.itch.io/sokoworld
I intend to return to SokoWorld in the future to polish it up and add more levels. It’s open source and coded in the Rust programming language.
A Secret Game
There’s one more game that I made but haven’t finished or released. It’s called Temple of the Sun God. Here’s a secret link to check it out: https://brettchalupa.itch.io/temple-of-the-sun-god?secret=Th2n41LB3bAG1dXLSlrNTvj9s
@brettchalupa/result
If you write TypeScript or JavaScript code, you might be interested in a new coding library I released called result to make error handling and control flow easier. You can install it from jsr, find the source on GitHub, and read more about it on my blog.
Operation Dumbphone
Over a month ago I swapped my iPhone for a Nokia flip phone. I had been experimenting with ways of using my phone less and there was nothing that was effective, so I took this drastic measure and it has significantly improved my mental health, creative output, and life in general. My kids would always want to see my phone, and I felt bad using it around them. It was distracting me from my life. The flip phone is horrible to use and can barely send texts. It can also make calls. But nothing else beyond that. Which is perfect. There’s been no drawbacks to switching, and I look at my phone probably 10 minutes a day now instead of hours. (YouTube was my particular weakness.)
I have a lot to say about this, but I’ll save that for some longer writing in the future.
On AI for Programming
After years of basically ignoring AI, I’ve started to explore its uses some more. The big wigs at work have been encouraging us to use it, and some of my colleagues use it in quite impressive ways for programming. So I’m six months into using AI tooling for programming and am regularly floored by it. Used right, it’s extremely impressive. Not only the speed, but the capability. I’ve successfully, repeatedly, given it unedited bug reports and had an AI agent fix bugs within minutes, which have taken me hours or longer. I’ve been building all sorts of prototypes—desktop apps, web apps, games. It’s just absolutely a new era of the craft I’ve been practicing for 20 years.
I’ve also been making use of it for proofreading my writing and talking through ideas, which have been positive applications.
But it’s not all sunshine and roses and increased productivity. Some days, it feels emotionally bad. The craft is quite simply less fun when you’re just managing AI agents and reviewing their code. Also, who benefits from all this productivity? Yes, the users to some extent. But really the business owners and capitalists, which feels bad. I have ethical and environmental concerns about the way the big companies are training AI models. And I’m in general a bit sick about hearing about AI, whether it’s about how it’s often wrong (which it is, but it’s still useful) or how it’s shoehorned into a lot of software in intrusive and annoying ways. So I feel a bit reluctant to go on and on about it.
I think that using AI for creative writing and generating visual art is just absolutely uninteresting and goes against the whole point of those pursuits which is to express oneself and ideas to other humans.
My current position on it is that it’s a tool. A powerful tool. It can be misused and can be risky. It’s particularly good at programming, and it can help someone with a gigantic mountain of tasks to do get through them quicker. AI is also good at proofreading, which to me seems like a fine application of it.
Regardless of whether or not there’s an AI bubble in the US economy (there is) and whether or not it will pop (it will), there’s no going back for programming. There are capable free and open source models you can run on your computer that will be around and improved for decades. If the hyped up, cash-infused AI companies go away, much like after the dotcom bubble, the underlying tech will live on. Sure, you’ll have people who code without it, much like there are people who do woodworking without power tools. But that’s a niche hobby or rare artisan. And the difference between coding and woodworking is that you can absolutely tell the difference between a handmade table and a mass produced table. But with software, you wouldn’t be able to tell the different between something coded by AI or by a human because the output is the same: whatever the user interface the code generates.
I don’t think AI is all bad. But it sure has a bad reputation for a variety of reasons. I’m not interested in using it for much more than coding and proofreading and talking through ideas. But even just within the craft of programming, there’s a lot of nuance and skill required to use it correctly and safely, which is something I have been writing a lot about and will have more to say soon.
What I’m Enjoying
I’ve been spending my free time reading. I loved The Poppy Wars by R.F. Kuang. It made me think deeply about humanity and past atrocities that we’ve inflicted upon one another as a species. I’ll continue with the series after a little break.
I’ve been interested in Chinese classics, so I started with Monkey King: Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en. I really like this hardcover edition by Penguin Vitae:
I’m a few chapters from the end and absolutely loved the book. It’s so hilarious. It’s a romping adventure with a lovable cast of characters. The titular Monkey is a riot. For a novel from the 16th century, it’s aged super well. Very fun read.
I’m familiar with the story from what it inspired, primarily Dragon Ball and Saiyuki. The version I read is abridged, as the full version is collected in four volumes in English. I’d very much like to read it all at some point. But the abridged version works quite well and takes what may otherwise be an overwhelming amount of tales and collects into a nice ~300 pages.
I’ve also been reading the manga Vagabond, which is understandably revered. And slowly but surely working my way through Infinite Jest, which is funny and insightful and full of lots of great writing about depression and addiction.
There have been three albums on repeat: Heavy Metal by Cameron Winter, the front-man of indie rock darlings Geese; I'm Sad as Hell and I'm Not Going to Fake It Anymore by Paper Castles, my favorite local band from when I lived in Vermont; and Spin Your Wheels by Texpack, a solid indie rock album from a band in Indonesia. I’ve also been listening to WRTI, Philly’s classical+jazz public radio station, a whole lot.
What’s Next
I’ve already started drafting my next technical book, which I’m excited about. I’ve got some other ideas for programming books too. It’d be fun to work on some small games for Playdate and PC, as well as finish those I’ve started. I’ve also got some ideas for software too. It feels like a particularly productive and inspired moment in my life. And things are starting to get a little bit easier w/r/t childcare and young kiddos.
How are you doing and what have you been working on? I’d love to hear from you!