make sure you’re back for dinner

I like walking simulators, but the term ‘walking simulator’ is a pretty poor description of the games in that genre. Which is understandable, given that it was originally coined as a derogatory term by people who have clearly never gone walking in their lives.

This month I thought I’d have a go at making a game that takes the term at face value, and simulates a specific element of real world walking: the game of deciding when to turn back in order to catch the last bus home.

Because if you think about it, there is a huge amount of stuff you could do if you wanted to create an actual walking simulator; planning your route; figuring out public transport or parking; finding a good spot for lunch; the etiquette of when to greet fellow walkers (always tricky if your walk traverses urban and rural areas)… Not to mention the walking itself; dealing with blisters, leaky boots and the question of whether it’s worth detouring around the bog in front of you or just living with wet feet for the next few miles…

Download make sure you’re back for dinner

Controls: escape: quit; space: start/stop walking; 1, 2: pick a direction when the path branches

The Rules:

• The file at this link will be deleted 1 month from now (1/10/22).
• All downloads are zipfiles containing a Windows executable.
• All source code and assets are included, licensed under the Anti-Capitalist Software License.
• As long as you abide by the license, you can do whatever you want with the download.

Further Reading

Kathleen Jamie with a heartbreaking personal account of the bird flu that is decimating the sea birds around Scotland.

Heather Havrilesky about writer’s block and truth. I liked this passage:

“I don’t mind falling. Every mistake is just a thoughtful decision in disguise. Taking bold steps into the future with purpose and intention is the same thing as watching both of your sleeves being pulled into the threshing machine.”

Katie Farris: Why Write Love Poetry in a Burning World

Sorry, I had hardly any links to share this month. I’m still slowly working my way through Dom Domanski’s Selected Poems (checking the Corbel Stone Press site it looks like it’s already out of print 😮), so I’ll sign off with another of his poems:

The Passageway

the mind is emptiness or almost so
no more than the small space between
the horse’s shoe and dry soil
no less than the gallop of a horse
across clefts of nothingness
under birches that lead to the river

the salmon in the river are almost so
still you hardly notice them holding open doors
decorated with venerable black gills
doors that breathe
that lead down into the earth

the passageway has no room for the mind
or the body with its needlepoints of sorrow
these must be left behind like clothes on a riverbank
along with the horse who knows the way so well

what’s left of you must travel
like the child asleep in its mother’s arms
but you’re not sleeping
and you’re no longer a child
you’re a lamp through which fire passes
but you see no light     feel no heat
which means you’re coming close
upon something that’s motioning to you
down there in the darkness

it could be a swell of teeth
it could be a stranger or an enormous storm
or the deepest word that knows nothing of pity
or your struggles with loss and desire

whatever it is you’ve been carrying it all your life
and must finally meet its gaze
eyelids that opened the moment you were born
when you rose up into the world

eyes that are creatures in themselves
that are slayer and slain
scream and whisper
all the shadows lying down.