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 on a 286; the bits just fall out the back.
  
• Zelda cave merchants appearing in a puff of smoke.
  
• Wild speculation about 6502 assembly.
  
• Using FCEUX to develop a ROM hack for The Legend of Zelda.
  
• Nerdsniping.
  
• Killing the enemy in object slot #1.
  
• Why edit RAM when you could edit the ROM?
  
• Doing very untoward things to The Legend of Zelda.