jonah

Staff being kind, approachable, and uncompromisingly transparent with users is just another example of how far ahead of the game cohost was.

Execs, please try harder to pass the “I only use AI for things the plebs do regularly” test. Or even the “I only use AI for problems easily solved on the internet ten years ago” test.

Also baseball: it is simply my lot in life to root for these losers.

Re-learning about Michigan's excellent inter-library loan program is such a game changer for learnin' stuff.

Without question, lawn care. Mowing the lawn, taking pride in the precision of the lines (or boasting about it to other lawn-havers), filling gas in a five fallen red jug, changing oil, greasing the wheels. A needless excuse to spend time in the garage in the summer. Feels manly all the way down.

We are in dire need of a games formalism movement.

I think using these verbs as indices for game feel would be a productive way of identifying the kind of game experience a player is looking for. Example: Give me a radar chart showing me how much Jumping v. Shooting is in this platformer; or how high the Observing index is in this horror game.

Shoot then applies to proactive expressions applied to other entities or the game space itself. Any kind of attack or projectile fits under this category. Move and Select are basically the same concept of altering either entities in the game space or abstractions in the game space.

Of these, Jump and Shoot do a lot of heavy lifting, but I think of it like this: A verb that equates to a Jump is a reactive expression of a controlled entity in a game space. This would cover jumps, dodges, parries, quick time events, and so on.

Digital games can be distilled to only having five verbs, they are: Move, Jump, Shoot, Select, and Observe.

Innovative mechanics in games are simply combinations and sequences of those verbs in patterns you've never considered.

This post elicited a hell yeah -> let's go -> dudes rock before I even read the text.

DOZE by jonah-srg A puzzle game for catching some zzzs.

And play DOZE, a not so good but definitely relaxing blockish puzzler: jonah-srg.itch.io/doze

Gonna play a bunch of falling block jam games tonight. Send ‘em my way! #fallingblockjam

DOZE by jonah-srg A puzzle game for catching some zzzs.

My #fallingblockjam game is complete: DOZE.

A lazy puzzle game for catching some zzzs.

jonah-srg.itch.io/doze

Things are coming together! It's not fun though. Worry not, I will make it more complicated than it needs to be and not fuss with the make-it-fun bit. #fallingblockjam

Tomorrow Penguin Colony will drop. Some of you are gonna be pretty excited when you see who we are working with

Falling Block Jam... I can't even explain what this is yet. There are sheeps and zzzs and I don't even know where else this is going.

I have become a victim of the ThriftBooks industrial complex. Send help.

#I_SAW_A_FLYING_SAUCER

"a CHAR"? are they manufacturing them now or something?

I got off github a while ago now and can endorse Codeberg as a great alternative; and it's a non-profit to boot.

docs.codeberg.org/getting-star...

Rabbit Run, by IDLES 1 track album

New IDLES, what a nice surprise. idlesband.bandcamp.com/album/rabbit...

I could go into much more depth on procedural v. OOP, the oddities of TIC-80's sprite mapping, the insane sfx sampler, and multiple features I didn't even have time to use. But for now, this is all I've got on sproqet. Let me know what you think. Also, send me your GMTK games!

It also gives me a bit more perspective on using an engine as well. GameMaker is really, really great at what it does! I hadn't realized how much I took for granted clock timing, alarms, animation speed... It will likely continue to be the main tool I use when prototyping or shipping out games.

The results of taking on such a challenge are, as I'm sure you can tell, mixed. The considerations and limitations of a fantasy console are super inspiring, and I can now approach the amazing games in the pico8/TIC-80 scenes with so much more perspective.

If that weren't enough, this is also the first game I've ever written in python. TIC-80 supports lua as it's default or recommended language, but after having worked with the Playdate SDK earlier this year I wanted to challenge myself to add a new language into my game portfolio as it were.

But I do feel ever so slightly proud of it anyways; as a first for me, I have picked up a new game making framework entirely in the course of one jam for this one. This is my first game with the utterly charming fantasy console, the TIC-80!

The self-consciousness comes from my own standards, but primarily weighing sproqet against my previous entries to GMTK or similar length jams. I would go as far to say it's not any good.

It's a rigid little snake-like game in which you follow a color series, rinse and repeat. Nothing special.

sproqet by jonah-srg looping color collector

After a long jam hiatus, I am back and have submitted what is perhaps my most primitive game for this year's GMTK jam: sproqet
jonah-srg.itch.io/sproqet

I am simultaneously self-conscious and quite proud about this little thing, and I'll tell you why in a thread here.

#gamejam #gmtk #gmtkjam