358. Maximum Permitted Whims

Lords:

• Kory

• https://kbones.fun/

• Jeremy

• https://gamemaking.social/@SpindleyQ

Topics:

• Forgetting that the old internet also kind of sucked, or, the Tar Pit From Hell Theory

• Starting over in C after a hiatus from non-pico8 game development

• Burning the Candle at Both Ends, by Andy Wallace

• https://taper.badquar.to/15/burning_the_candle.html

• Speedrunning figuring out how to romhack The Legend of Zelda because of a toot

• https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhKtbablIXrfIJf-icFkrXv94KCgEser8

• https://youtube.com/watch?v=ACuk2TXoNhc

Microtopics:

• Coming in hot.

• Switching to paperbacks.

• Cascading interpretations of a kernel of an idea.

• The yips for reading sci-fi.

• Dealing with a succession of bureaucrats as you try to get the most interesting version of your book published.

• Kids: they've gotten too rowdy in Korean high schools.

• Sending in Jason Bourne to discipline rowdy high school kids.

• The Fringe Game History podcast.

• Meowio.

• Forums: they were also terrible.

• Placing your web site on a big slab of plexiglass that floats around on the tar pit from hell.

• Naturally occurring toxic engagement vs. actively farming the stuff.

• The switch that flipped that suddenly made everyone stop caring what No Mutants Allowed thought.

• The naked animosity between the PalmOS community and the Pocket PC community.

• The Gamers Quarter.

• Making stuff and talking about the stuff you're making.

• Interesting things spawning out of stews.

• Cockamamie theories that survive mostly because their names are fun to say.

• Meeting friends on the Internet and having the ability to meet them in person.

• Every game eventually becomes a Zelda-like if you're not careful.

• Instantiating the particle system.

• Inventing the easing function.

• Inventing a thing that already exists.

• Applying a bunch of easing functions to make it look like you're climbing a tower.

• Whim-based game development.

• Walking around a maze and picking up pages that have spells on them.

• Whim-Based Development Problems.

• The most whims you can fit on a Pico-8 cartridge.

• Getting a guy moving on the screen and then making the rest of the video game.

• Downloading Turbo C and being like "I'm gonna program the EGA!"

• Running out of engine programming tasks and being forced to start on game design.

• Neu][ower.

• All the game projects that improved your life even though they never shipped.

• Making the game that's easy for you to make.

• Starting a project that requires a bunch of writing even though you get anxiety about writing.

• That 30% cut is coming right out of the microtopics.

• Inaction: it carries its own risk.

• CP-437 block and line drawing characters.

• Things to do if you value shipping a game.

• Emoji moving around with a CRT filter over it.

• Valuing the wrong paths you take for the lessons you learned from them.

• Jump-scaring yourself the first time you type "malloc."

• There's no segfaulting…