the best of wishes
This month I finally got round to replacing the clunky sprite-based text rendering system I'd been using in my game engine with a more modern SDF solution. If you're not familiar with Signed Distance Fields, this basically means I can render text without worrying about blurry or jagged glyphs.
This month's piece is just an excuse for me to put the new system through its paces. It's a procedural game rules generator, with each rule animated onto the screen in sequence. The rules are just a Tracery grammar in the poem.json file if you want to take a look or edit them.
Download the best of wishes
Controls: escape: quit; any key: another round
The Rules:
- The file at this link will be deleted 1 month from now (7/10/23).
- 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
The unexpectedly moving multi-year storyline of wrestler Roman Reigns.
cohost has audio support now, leading to some cool interactive experiments and demonstrations of videogame music implementation.
A report from an unknown place.
The Murder of Two Men by a Young Kid Wearing Lemon-colored Gloves
The history and influence of early-2000's indie game Seiklus.
A really nice ambient piece using the Moog Subharmonicon.
An interview with Steve Albini on how his views have changed over time. It's deeply frustrating that Albini is so notable just for being willing to listen to others and change. That should be the rule, not the exception.
The thing about billionaires: "What is the point of your life? Why do you live like this? HOW can you live like this? I may struggle for brief moments of happiness but I have them, how can you have less happiness than I do when you have more of everything else?"
AI demand is already shrinking
Okay, it's a long one, but this deep dive into Root the RPG, The Stanley Parable, ABA, and the philosophy of agency in games is excellent.
Via thecatamites: an absolutely wild wiki focused on the difficulty levels associated with a particular Roblox game!?
"Now I am growling at a stranger, I am biting at their knees"
So I've been working on a music video game on the side for over a year now (you can see a snippet here), but I've realised it's never going to get finished at this rate, so I'm going to be spending less time on here and then gone for the next few months. Rather than the usual Windows executable, the next few here and then gones will probably be tiny postcard games, something I can throw together fairly quickly. Anyway, hope you're keeping well. I'll check back in again next month.