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Electron Dance

@electrondance.com

540 followers 350 following 1.6K posts

Words on videogames. Video essays on videogames. Ex-Thinky Games streamer-in-residence. A place - www.electrondance.com

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Reposted by Electron Dance

Metanet Software Inc. @metanetsoftware.com · 1d

The TEN++ celebrations continue with ten (natch) new Featured Levels, hand-picked by the intrepid community curation team from over a hundred thousand (!!!) userlevels made over the last decade.

Hear about these amazing levels here: metanetsoftware.tumblr.com/post/7975845...
And then go play them!

It's here, the 10th Anniversary of N++! To celebrate, we've updated the game (on Steam, consoles coming soon) with new super secret super hard Solo levels and some very hard multiplayer levels as...

metanetsoftware.tumblr.com

Reposted by Electron Dance

Alice Bottino @bottino.games · 2d

We are very excited to announce:
HYPERBEAT releases October 22nd!

Reposted by Electron Dance

vfig @vfig.bsky.social · 3d

so, the core of the dark object system is that every "game object" is made up of a bunch of properties and links. properties are just tables of data keyed by object id, more or less like all ecs systems have now.

but links are the really cool bit.

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 3d

I did not know this!

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 3d

So, yeah, I ducked the technical one because I hoped I could live with it. But the game design one... that kind of issue is like being pressed to death, the weight on your chest just gets heavier and heavier until it becomes unbearable.

And thus a subsystem rewrite was born.
4/4

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 3d

Design: Originally conceived as a tiny Twine, I thought the player would just remember stuff. Now it's >20,000 words - it's a ridiculous ploy especially as some info appears once, never to be seen again.

Allowing players to review information they've seen meant a complete overhaul.

3/4

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 3d

Technical: I learnt that every variable is saved in the game history, not just changes.

I learnt this after my brilliant decision to move the talk text from if-statements into a datamap - so the entire game text was replicated every turn!

Moving this text into passages fits Twine a lot better.
2/4

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 3d

A painful day for my secret game because I decided to rewrite the dialogue management. Why?

There were two reasons. The technical one which I had originally turned a blind eye to, hoping it would be fine, and the design one i could no longer ignore.
1/4

Reposted by Electron Dance

Happy 👖 Mister 👖 Bigpants @misterbigpants.bsky.social · 4d

"Not To Scale" (2011) is an absolutely magical puzzle game you can play for free in your browser RIGHT NOW. As fresh today as when I first played 14 years ago. Every level has a glorious A-HA moment (you'll see). I'm at Happy Happy Hippos. www.kongregate.com/games/random... @electrondance.com

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 4d

debugging is awesome, i've been staring at the same bug for 40 minutes

i've realised my error: i need to stare even longer

A green web page covered with pink Twine tags such as <tw-hook name="monolith">. Prominently, near the bottom is the yellow text "Knock the door again?"

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 5d

sadly i only have red string, and a lot of it

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 5d

But the title feels like it's feeding into "LLMs are sentient" twattery and click bait phrasing

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 5d

does ai get bored

let me stop you right there tim

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 5d

What's going on Joel? What be happening with you?

Well aside from the usual, I have been spending every freaking moment working on my Twine.

What was a small "one week" project is now 20,000 words and boy did you know making a game takes a lot of time. fuck no one warned me about this, friends

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 8d

Okay, I need to stop doing this because this is more entertaining than finishing the game.

A map of "The Capital Anchors" which looks like a subway map, published by the Glory Transport Board.

At the bottom are the "four rules of respectable projection"

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 9d

Don't ask me to prepare a metro map as well, my friend because

(1) It is unnecessary
(2) I'm likely to do it

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 9d

Been looking at this today and realised I have to redo all the years because it breaks chronology. Ah, the tradeoffs realising different parts of the story have different needs and, well, those needs don't line up. Someone is gonna have to give.

that'll be me giving my all then

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 9d

Twine update: I just spent three hours making this. It's not even that important.

A game designer's work is never finished, especially if they are not even making the game.

"Legal Projection Routes" published by the Glory Transport Board. It looks like a metro map of some kind with non-connecting "lines" labelled Lane, Street, Motorway, Subterranea, River, Liminal, Crescent and Sightsee.

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 9d

Twine update: I just spent three hours making this. It's not even that important.

A game designer's work is never finished, especially if they are not even making the game.

"Legal Projection Routes" published by the Glory Transport Board. It looks like a metro map of some kind with non-connecting "lines" labelled Lane, Street, Motorway, Subterranea, River, Liminal, Crescent and Sightsee.

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 9d

I've listened to various B5 podcasts but never one which opened with the difference between a hook and a cliffhanger then ending up with a 20 minute discussion on the changing structure of television over decades... Oh yeah, after that they talk about the episode!

The Peter Jurasik Love Hour - Babylon 5 S1E18 A Voice in the Wilderness Pt 1 Podcast - Babble On

🎬 What's the difference between a hook and a cliffhanger? The ending of "A Voice in the Wilderness Part 1" sends our screenwriters, Jenn and Ali, into a fascinating deep dive on the art of television writing. We break down how TV structure has evolved from the 90s—with its commercial-break-driven 5

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 10d

Looking forward to Kemi saying, to conference applause, we have too many black faces here

Reposted by Electron Dance

Laura Michet @lmichet.bsky.social · 10d

Learned that I am being laid off from Heart Machine, and will be leaving the studio later this month.

Do you need a contractor? I've got a track record of leading scope-friendly script revisions late in dev. I have also done a lot of consulting on new IPs and pitches/demos. Feel free to DM me!

Reposted by Electron Dance

Dr Dean Burnett @garwboy.bsky.social · 10d

Earl of Sandwich: "I put something in my mouth one time and now that's all I'm known for!"

Duke of Fellatio: "OH MY HEART BLEEDS!"

Reposted by Electron Dance

Dov Waxman @dovwaxman.bsky.social · 11d

On the second anniversary of the outbreak of the Gaza war that Hamas initiated with its horrific surprise attack in southern Israel, it’s worth taking stock of the war’s devastating toll. Here's a long thread, which is not exhaustive, of the toll:

Reposted by Electron Dance

The Society of Authors @societyofauthors.bsky.social · 15d

A searchable works list has been released to identify the authors’ works that were stolen by US Corporation Anthropic, to train its AI models. It includes UK authors whose works were copied without their permission or payment.

Electron Dance @electrondance.com · 15d

I think we need to insert advert breaks into this banging post every seven words