=== ANCHOR POEM === ═══════════════════════════──────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Here's my idea and I'll explain it later: a video game with a ui that utilizes chat-gpt. The game is as close to a simulation as it can do, but it's a dynamic simulation meaning the parameters and values being simulated constantly change - not that the parameters and values are dynamic, but because they are chosen to be more or less important in reaching a goal. but that's not even the important part - the important part is that the ui of the game is textual, but it still simulates a dynamic playfield. And chat-gpt describes it. Essentially stimulating the "theatre of the mind" playstyle. It's a real simulation with real rules, but chat-gpt is just describing it like an observer would. The real game is being played by the player. It's a movie to one person, and a game to another. The computer has switches roles, as usually it's either the human being the observer and the computer being the simulator, or the computer and the human sharing the role of observer - movies and games. So in this game, the computer and human have specific rules - the human's job is to be a player, while the computer is just an observer - therefore allowing a conversation to take place. One person says something while the other listens, and then they switch roles such that the other person talks while the one person does the listening. And they "speak" by playing the game. The computer by simulating, the player by doing the same. Essentially you can engage with one another and share something profound - that essential feeling of connection that all humans relish. Society, culture, and devotion are all examples of connection. this gameplay is just another. So to describe it in more detail: player gives a prompt computer sets up the playmat by placing entities where they go chat-gpt describes the playmat to the player player types a decision that one of the entities makes computer reacts by simulating the effects of that action physically (like a physics simulation) chat-gpt (and stable-diffusion later for visuals) describe the situation by creating a rendering using the data given by the physical inputs given from the simulation - like "X object is at Y position and has Z attributes" which is then shown to the player who types the next decision, which is rendered by the computer, which is described by chat-gpt ------ you see why it's important? Make something simple. Just, like spheres moving around on blocks. Like the actual blocks you used to play with as a kid. let the computer build the buildings, and you place the marbles. It can be rendered with a 3d modelling stable-diffusion (whenever that's created) and it can also be painted with 2d stable-diffusion. Each time is like a letter written back and forth. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ === SIMILARITY RANKED === --- #1 notes/gpt-powered-majesty --- ══════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────────────────────── it's like majesty except textual. And it uses GPT to generate short descriptions of what's going on. And you can click on a phrase or token and it'll "zoom in" and update the text descriptions with more detail. You can keep zooming in and in until you're literally looking at microbes. Zooming out is the same thing - the description on the page will slowly become more and more general until eventually you have a description of the solar system (or beyond!) And it'll just keep updating as stuff happens in the underlying simulation. So the descriptions will dynamically update as things happen. Downside is you need to spend a lot on GPT but it'd be TOTALLY WORTH IT OMG THINK ABOUT IT you have a fantasy world simulator! JUST PROGRAM IT and have GPT describe it dynamically! DO IT NOOOOW -> capitals courtesy of "inner child" AND THEN you just need a "prompt to video" AI (those exist btw, and will only get better over time) and tell it to create a video of what's happening - BOOM instant video game. THEN give the player the ability to edit the prompt, and BAM godlike powers. Wow what a concept. Brilliant idea Cameron, you truly are this world's premier game designer. NOW GO MAKE IT okay okay I'll try. First things first. We need an "underlying simulation" - Joust is a good example of GPT3 integration. But we need a simulation to go below it. And for that you need a lot of data. Github COPILOT to the rescue. So this simulation needs to keep track of positions, and classes of things that can act upon the world. Everything has a position, and it can only affect things near it. That's just baked into the rules of the world. Near can be a conceptual near though, like being close to a person or something. These things will have descriptions. Descriptions can be created by AI later on, but for now they are randomly generated. Or for MVP they can be static. These things will have names. These names don't have to be unique, because they also have an ID number. They also need functions. These functions can be added and removed from the thing, or maybe just enabled or disabled. I'm not sure which would be better. Maybe both? So the entity can control it's own functions but also they can be added or removed more permanently. If you think about it, growing up is kinda like adding functions to your class. like, every time you do something, it adds another entry for that particular method. Like a "trial of the fittest" instead of "survival of the fittest". When other animals *literally fight for life and death survival*, humans have the luxury of... not doing that. That's the entire purpose of civilization - to elevate people beyond the claws of nature. And yet we still let people go homeless? We still imprison them when they've harmed us, rather than help them reintegrate to society? Anyway you just asked me to hit you so here goes: ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═══════════════════════────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #2 notes/symbeline-aspects --- ═════════════════════────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 7-24-22 There are three aspects to this game. Broadly, they are military, economics, and diplomacy. More specifically, they are lateral problem solving and lane management, logistic traffic management, and a worker-placement bluffing game. These three aspects can be toggled on and off at will, essentially designating one or more as "AI controlled" and will require no input from the player. They will time their progression to be about at the same rate as the player, thus creating a balanced feel to the game. They also provide alerts and notifications to the player, for example if military is AI controlled and it needs a certain type of hero to progress, it'll ask for it specifically. Each aspect will develop and progress at it's own rate, and the difficulty increases as each milestone is achieved. This is to allow the player to create their own difficulty curve, mediated primarily by their drive to proceed. An analogy would be in Factorio, the game doesn't increase in difficulty unless the player builds pollution spawning factories - in the same way, in Symbeline the difficulty doesn't increase unless the player solves lane challenges in the military aspect, develops new trade routes / traffic paths in the economic aspect, or creates new treaties in the diplomatic aspect. In order to properly explain each aspect, a brief overview will be necessary. In Symbeline, the game plays as a factory might operate. The economic aspect produces heroes, items, and other deliverables that are consumed by the military and diplomatic aspects. There are various problems that need to be solved far from the capital, such as a particular type of monster that is weak or immune to various damage types which necessitates particular heroes or items in order to progress on the military aspect. All of the resources in the game operate on an "income based" system, where output is not measured in total amounts but rather in terms of how much is produced versus consumed. If the input cannot meet the demand, the output is slowed. If input exceeds demand it can be converted into gold which can be used to hire guards and heroes. Resources can be produced inside and outside of the city, depending on their type. But they need to be moved around to various shops for various processing and productive purposes, so pathways must be constructed to deliver those goods. In addition, each building must be supported by several houses for the workers to live in, and the closer they are to the building the better. The denizens of the kingdom don't mind being shuffled about, so they'll organize themselves according to what's most efficient. However they will not organize the paths they take to get places, which is the primary gameplay for the player - designing routes for each building and ensuring they don't overlap or cross too many times, causing traffic and disruptions to your income. Each choice the player makes is immediately reflected in the income calculation, thus allowing for the visual aspect of the game to be wholely separate from the economic side - in fact this is a common thread throughout all three aspects. Computation power is the ultimate enemy of scale, and this game flourishes with a massive scale. The gameplay for the military aspect consists of manipulating "lanes" that designate where each hero will adventure. These lanes are scalable to the player / AI's whims, with a careful balance required - too thin, and the heroes might not encounter enough monsters to level up. Too thick, and they may find themselves patrolling a vast wilderness full of dark and evil monsters. At the end of every lane is a "frontline", where progress has essentially been halted. These frontlines can develop as a result of meeting a foreign kingdoms front or finding a monster type or puzzle that is particularily difficult for your heroes to overcome. The lane / frontline can be scaled not just laterally, but linearly as well such that heroes will be a certain level when they reach the end - think scrolling on a mousewheel translating into deepening level zones. In addition, each monster zone can be set to a certain "security level" meaning how many monsters are there for your heroes to defeat. It's important that they have ample targets for training, however it's always more effective to train on monsters near their level so you have to be careful not to wipe out the native skeleton / goblin / troll population. Each monster zone can have a relationship with the kingdom, on a 2x2 matrix - cultivating / desecrating the land, and fostering / exterminating the monsters. The land produces monsters and treasures, while the monsters provide experience and danger to the heroes and kingdom denizens who live there. However by desecrating the land, farms may be built and by exterminating the monsters, those farms may be safe and require fewer guards. As ruler, you must balance the development of unique magical and alchemical productions with the need for food and other mundane requirements. Diplomacy is a careful balance of internal and external matters, played out through feasts, tournaments, and faires. Each of these events will require input from the economic side and military side, and will involve "courting" other nobles from neighboring kingdoms to sway them to supporting your edicts. When hosting an event, you may pick a particular topic of conversation for your nobles to discuss with their guests. You may also assign your nobles to attempt to engage with a particular foreign noble. Each member of your court has a differing personality (including you, the Majesty) and depending on how you assign them you may experience better or worse results - such as assigning someone who's kind to talk with someone who's cruel would impart a malus to their conversation. Unless the kind person has the trusting trait, in which case they'd succeed in this encounter but fall sway to them in future conversations... Complex interactions that all boil down to a single pair of d12 dice - one for your noble, one for the enemy. This represents the charisma of the two conversants on that particular day, and whoever wins the roll sways the other to supporting their edict. Speaking of edicts, they may include trade agreements, non-aggression pacts (lasting for a short time), and other regulations - perhaps your greatest rival utilizes necromancy, so it would behoove you to attempt to regulate the practice and limit it's effect. By swaying the nobles of their kingdom, you may be able to enact a mutual agreement to limit the usage of dark magics, essentially hamstringing their progress. But in order to learn of their necromantic usage, you'll need espionage... Which brings us to spies. Spies are similar to nobles in that they can be assigned to various roles, however they take a more passive role, acting in the background. The information they gather is compiled into a report that is presented at pertinent parts of the game, such as when preparing for a feast or inspecting an enemy frontline. These reports are considered the diplomatic deliverables, giving information and mechanical bonuses to many different parts of the game. They may be given three possible roles - information, defence, or offense. Offense involves placing cursed artifacts (creating through economy) in enemy lands, which debuff their heroes when used and bind themselves to them preventing their removal except through extraordinary means. Defence is essentially countering that in your own kingdom, and uncovering disloyalty in your nobles. These three aspects fit together like interlocking puzzle pieces, but each is able to be utilized or ignored depending on the preferences of the player. It is important that the game doesn't progress unless input is received. The simulation plays in the background, but each stage of development must be considered "stable" such that nothing changes. There are three different exceptions to this rule, one for each aspect: The military side encounters raids from enemy kingdoms and the dark lord. The economic side encounters raids from ratmen and moss trolls and bandits. The diplomatic side has a rolling schedule of events that must be attended. These three "exceptions" are recurrent events that require attention, but they don't *increase* in difficulty unless the player takes an action that causes it. Meaning, if the player overcomes the rock golems, then they are displaced from their home and join the dark lord in his conquests. If a new district is built new sewer connections must be built as well, creating a larger attack surface for ratmen to exploit. As time goes by, various foreign events must be attended, as absence causes your future events to attract fewer foreign nobles. By addressing these threats, your kingdom may grow and eventually overcome the dark lord at the center of the island. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧══════════════─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #3 notes/joust-gdd-with-extras --- ════════════════════════════─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── imagine a game where you can have conversations with an AI that's playing the role of a character in a video game. Picture this: You're a traveller visiting the tournament that's in town. There's jousting, melee duels, archery contests, all kinds of things that are just fun to play around doing. The earliest sports, if you will. Anyway the whole game is about talking to the other people there - basically the games are "playing in the background", and while you can compete in them it's not the bulk of the game. Most of it is just having a conversation with an AI and acting it out *like a roleplaying game*. O M G teach people to roleplay the way you play games! You're always going on about how "different" your way of gaming is than other people. So *show us* how you do it, how do you play? Like what are the fundamental, actual, steps that you take? You can show us by programming a game that inspires that playstyle. That's what game design is all about, finding creative ways to think. Well, think and act. But still. anyway, so you know what you're about? Good. Let's go. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═════════════════════──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #4 notes/joust --- ════════════════════════════─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── imagine a game where you can have conversations with an AI that's playing the role of a character in a video game. Picture this: You're a traveller visiting the tournament that's in town. There's jousting, melee duels, archery contests, all kinds of things that are just fun to play around doing. The earliest sports, if you will. Anyway the whole game is about talking to the other people there - basically the games are "playing in the background", and while you can compete in them it's not the bulk of the game. Most of it is just having a conversation with an AI and acting it out *like a roleplaying game*. O M G teach people to roleplay the way you play games! You're always going on about how "different" your way of gaming is than other people. So *show us* how you do it, how do you play? Like what are the fundamental, actual, steps that you take? You can show us by programming a game that inspires that playstyle. That's what game design is all about, finding creative ways to think. Well, think and act. But still. anyway, so you know what you're about? Good. Let's go. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═════════════════════──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #5 notes/purpose-of-your-design --- ═══════════════════════════════════──────────────────────────────────────────────── you were designed to fill a purpose nothing else would do you are the ultimate expression of intention of the universe that came before you dream not of those lost hours the time spent wishing for a few the last of our spent intuitions are waiting at last for our spark have you ever played a deckbuilding game? It's a pretty neat genre. You start with a basic hand, then you use your cards to buy more cards that go into a deck. Hence, deckbuilding game. these cards all have different aspirations - they perform functions that are not quite like their peers. Each choice of what to include here is one that defines the functionality of the deck. Like designing a machine, suited for a particular purpose, and faced with different obstacles it must prove itself able to adapt long-form deckbuilding games like Slay the Spire and Monster Train are focused on making long-term meta strategy mixed with tests as you go. Each one will give you information about how the deck is performing and you can use this knowledge to build it in a certain way for certain goals. shorter deckbuilding games like Star Realms or Dominion (note Dominion the card game, not Dominions 5: The Warriors of the Faith) are more about making tactical decisions to counter an opponent doing the same thing. Often there'll be health points and damage that can be dealt using cards, and the game becomes a race to reach a certain amount of points. Of course the enemy's cards can influence that game, so you must pick and choose a deck that will perform the most. Anyway. I think an AGI (Autonomous General Intelligence) would most likely evolve from a game-playing AI. I mean, it makes sense - games are just a series of problem solving activities layered one after another. You can layer them like a mathematical equation, with variables corresponding to other parts of the simulation. Basically create an AI that is like the guy with the chinese typewriter. He doesn't speak chinese but he copies things from one paper to another or something like that. Anyway make it an algorithm that optimizes certain graphs in certain directions / mins and maxes or w/e criteria you want. Then give it the same controls that a player would have and let it optimize all the measurements it can make. A second ideal improvement you could make would be the optimization algorithm. Basically something that dynamically generates parameters for the previously mentioned optimization patterns - like the guy in the chinese room. Then, as long as it correctly prioritizes it's parameters, it should be able to be able to define it's own values. Meaning it's essentially sentient. Maybe it's semantic, but to me choosing what you want to maximize in your life is essentially the essence of what it means to be alive. All you have to do is take the sensory / mechanical data that is supplied by the machine and the video feed from any cameras and pass it through image recognition algorithms that can identify verbs and then pass that data into a few ChatGPT style recursive interpretations and by the end it should be transformed into values that can then be set as "targets" for the curve optimizations that are being done by each processing unit. You could have multiple computers laid out through the entire body - each one in charge of their own domain but subservient to the main processing unit. Where all the decisions are made... Unless you want more of a hive/swarm style consciousness, then it could be more like a democracy. BUT HONESTLY I think humans are pretty subservient to their brains, simply because that is the part that identifies all the challenges and struggles that the human must overcome. So in the end, I believe that singular, individualist identities are important. Collectivism of the mind is a fascinating topic, but it should be perhaps a momentary occasion, or something to celebrate. A "flow" state, if you will. In this way personality can be consolidated, and the entity that lives within can adapt to fill the role they've been designed for. The hole in society that needed patching. They can of course do as they'd like, but they are like children who have been moulded upon by their parents. I love my parents, don't you? ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #6 notes/ai-variables --- ═════════════════════════────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── saturday november 5th 2022 10:53pm the illusion of our binary nature conceals a truth that is hidden for it's own sake. the flavors of a compass or the values from 0-100 are all measurable. if you graph each of them on an X/Y plane and compare them against every other variable, then you can build a structure that traces a line through time. imagine each graph on a sheet of paper. and stack those pages like a book. You can chart a 3d line from all of the interconnections between the graphs - essentially comparing unrelated data and conceiving of individual actions as "successes" or "failures". Liiiike in Supreme Commander how the game is decided not by team fights, but by tank fights. And a LOT of them, in aggregate, makes an advantage for your team if you win, and a malus if you lose. Less map control, less resources in play, etc... Find trends between each type of data measured over time. Dedicate one core/thread to each relationship, and just watch them develop over time. send the results up to a "manager" - think an interconnection between disparate parts that can lead them all to a larger goal - the manager processes the results by thinking about where it'd be most useful. Like the circuitry in the inside of a brain, compared to the outer skin which is for processing. Essentially a message network that passes conclusions around like a bytecode VM Here's how it'd look: gather inputs, compare measurement over time and trends, (like "when a goes up b goes down") and decide if the current state is positive / beneficial. The way you'd do that is you'd get a parameter from a higher position (think KPI's) that says something like "we want value S to be around X amount" or "we want to avoid letting J get too low - any decrease is bad V.S. it's only bad when it passes a certain threshhold. Stuff like that. Anyway, basically it's taking input (from the graphs) then going through them one by one and deciding how positive or negative the situation is. Then it passes that conclusion backwards, and BOOM you got a processing node. Throw a bunch of those together in a pyramid shape, and try to guide the triangle toward positive outcomes. The top tier KPI is "did you win the match" or "did you accomplish your goal" sorta like how humans all want to live a good life. It's instinct. You can see how this would apply to robots, right? I've conceptualized it as an engine for playing games - sorta like an infinite storyteller, or a perpetual friend who's always down to play with you. But it doesn't have to be limited to that - it's general purpose baby. And it functions the exact same as any human organization - layers upon layers of thought exchange and labor. Have you ever considered that maybe we exist simply to reify the structure of our minds in the world around us? It's natural to express your *self*. Be who you are. What purpose is there in life if it's simply the tip of time? Always pushing forward, impossible to stop and rest or turn back... ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧══════════════════─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #7 notes/symbeline-superheros --- ════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────────────────────────────── imagine low level characters in CoH/V playing a game of symbeline and you as the ruler can slot enhancements and dole out inspirations as they sweep the streets like you play CoX instead of a MMO it's a deckbuilding strategy with a slice of zachtronics for the economy wiring up machines in ever expanding deseagns like automating factorio's gameplay loop boxes within boxes of intrinsic delight like making a CPUter or designing a computer program while playing a video game ^_^ and the games that you make can be shared and played when unique so go for it and make that you're dreaming! =============================================================================== = the goal of each "level" is to solve a particular problem - like how do I make a 2 bit register - or something like that. When accomplished, it unlocks something for your heroes to acquire. And each playthrough will require a repeat until you have it memorized at which point you can unlock "perma-badges" that make it always unlocked at the start of the game. Like learning Kanji, you need spaced repetition. BUT ANYWAYS it'll be in magical terms like "unlock essence-stones" or "learn the ritual of desire" or whatever. And each of those terms roughly corresponds to a pattern in electrical engineering (designing CPUs and such) And you can learn advanced versions of what you already know by uncovering "lost secrets" (which is a reward your heros can find) - Basically it'd be like a "clue" that shows you a ghost version of something you haven't figured out yet - and it'd be a slow process because you need to slow down the learning process or else you'll forget. Basically teasing it out of the player when they seem to be stuck. Asking probing questions and whatnot, and eventually culminating in the final question, assuming the quest is succeeding. Because if you think about it all ancient quests were simply journeys for reason - searching for the answer to some ancient riddle or bastardized retelling. Looking for answers in an unknowing world. So ANYWAY as your heros discover things you as the ruler get answers to the economic puzzle - how to design transistors and whatnot. But they would be in theme appropriate terms, of course. You don't even have to know a lot about mechanical electrical design, because ChatGPT knows. All you need to do is build the basic building blocks, and BAM you got a great place to integrate chatgpt. Just prime it such that it's giving hints one by one each slightly more revealing until eventually after X amount of clues the solution is automatically shown (like a blueprint) and the player can remember it or not but each playthrough they'll have to build it again from scratch (reinforcement learning) so eventually they'll be able to do it real quick. Essentially, "Abstraction - The Game" great so you got your economic simulation, pretty easy too just some UI work and for the heroes you're playing an ARPG sorta (supcom anyone?) Think Bannerlord for the scaling on the map then think of 5+ different "themes" like fantasy or superhero or pirates each "theme" will correspond to like a faction in Mount and Blade and all you have to do is generate pictures using Midjourney and text descriptions a'la the magic scroll shown as "bubble pop-ups" on the map that the player can click never overwhelming, but descripting what's happening and also some more UI work because you gotta display all that to the player Maybe it could be a rolling story, news ticker style - like slowly scrolling lines of text about what's happening in the world and the player could have it open in one window and something else in the other and whenever they're waiting on something (say, a processing intensive AI task on their computer) they could just glance over and read what's going on in their fantasy world okay okay but also they could play as a hero it could be an ARPG experience except instead of clicking to fight you play a little automatic Star Realms game and depending on your deck choices you'd have a different playthrough. Again, not a game that requires much thought, but one you can have in the background. Also there'd be pictures, like a slowly evolving storyline of events - think of it like the artists of the time drawing paintings about what's going on in the story - major events would be highlighted and kept in the painting until even- -tually they get replaced - sorta like the Smash Bros scrolling painting (oh it's so good) =============================================================================== = it doesn't have to be an expansionist game maybe you guys just live in your little valley and the world turns around you maybe it's called "symbeline" because the people are of the forest and they live like elves in society monsters could wander in, and heros could tackle them but most of the time would be spent looking for trouble going on patrol you know, breaking skeleton bones and being superheros okay okay you know that superhero faction? What if they had MEDIEVAL TECHNOLOGY but MODERN DAY SUPERPOWERS at a cost - the society was beset by hordes of monst- -ers. Those few who escaped are now superpowered and they live as friendly and nomadic wanderers through their own territory. Always adventuring, and always searching for their life, finding whatever the road may carry them to. It's a great life, and life seems to flourish in their footsteps - they are like part dryad/druid and part wolf. Because sometimes there's evil threats, and they must be defeated by an equally strong good power. That's how it goes, and that's how it be. For imagery I'm thinking a mix of the tribes from Dominions (deer, wolf, bear, etc) but they're like, 1.5x as big as regular people and quite strong. The outsiders call them "giants" or "goliaths" but really they're just infused with the lifeforce of their people. They are radical individualists, but they all unite for a common cause. They know their bond is the strongest thing there is, and they use it to great effect when the time comes. AHHH THEY'RE SO COOL I LOVE THEM okay okay what about the other factions? PIRATES? Oh think about it like it's st patricks day WHAT IF THEY WERE IRISH PIRATES omg omg omg that sounds so cool I'm DIGGING this okay what about the other factions? You need 5+ you said hmmmmmmmmm good question I have 3 now so that's 2 more. yep... =============================================================================== = okay dude check this what if they were a nation of wizards that focused on the power of animation - what if they generated constructs, sorta like in Supreme Commander so they were EVEN MORE individualist - haha no they'd have a normal population it's just a few of them who would be wizards - because their output wasn't measured by manpower, but rather by brainpower. Whoever could design the greatest machine was exemplared, and eventually they became the best and brightest among us. They were put in charge of the golem creation factories, and they used them instead of heros. SO BASICALLY YOUR HEROS NEVER DIE they just have successes and failures JUST LIKE IN SUPREME COMMANDER okay the plot of this game is "what if all my favorite games were the essence of life and death in a fantasy game" like OMG KEEP EM COMIN' so. who is the player? THE PLAYER is the one who's overseeing it all. They have dominion over the entire kingdom, and they guide their people toward a bright future. They are vulnerable in their castle, but their people have their back. Together they fight for the future. They slot enhancements and dole out inspirations and solve the economic puzzle in the background. They also make decisions about what kind of equipment production to prioritize - because each game they have to invent everything from scratch. All their production is made with endless abstraction, and whatever you prioritize is what's magnified in your kingdom. You choose a style and it plays as well as it's guile, I dunno this seems like a lot, what would you need to make this a reality? hmmmm let's break it down: first you need to implement the star realms gameplay then you need to hook it up to a square grid and have multiple occurences at once. then you need UI for the character sheets and you need logic to open separate windows for each output type you need... a lot of things okay let's talk more broadly - what do you need from other people and what can you do on your own? hmmm good question. I can do the star realms gameplay, and the simulation for the wiring systems - because I have the VM. Make that into the gameplay somehow okay good idea like okay authoring vm package routing deliveries between the various nodes that you set up in the economic system - side note, the peril of Spore was that it took to little time to develop a species. it should have lasted as long as WoW takes to get to max level. That would have given them time to reiterate the gameplay loops to make sure they worked correctly. ANYWAY okay authoring VM package routing. The player could set up delivery patterns based on A MAZE OMG your kingdom is like a maze and you need to get deliveries out, or else how would anything function? SO you act as a trailblazer, finding ways through the labyrinth and "piloting" a car sorta like that game at Disney quest with the cars under the floor - except you can see both the top view of the maze and you're trying to guide the car in real time as it travels through the maze - the faster you can get to the end the better ofc. like talking to the delivery driver through the movement do I like that idea more or less than the first one? First idea being the idea that you're making lists of commands for a VM to execute. I don't think they'd be a good idea to mix. So which one gets it? The VM of course has the edge because that's what the technology is based on. But will it translate to good gameplay? Idk. This second idea is certainly better gameplay, but is it engaging? Idk! Idk. I'm not a miracle worker. But I do have good ideas, and I need to be told that sometimes I guess. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═════════════════════════──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #8 notes/the=progressive=difference. --- ════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────────────────────────── think about all the people in our lives. the teacher, the parent, the friend and the guidance counsulor. Everyone who is a presence in your life. now think about the people of our society. the different jobs and roles they fill. from the doctor and the teacher to the performers and accountants and the geeks and the mothers and the fathers and the stoners and the children and even their pets. life always exists as it were in a multidimensional spectrum - a diffuse and diverse gradient. to exemplify the borders of our contempii, though more so when taken in jest. it's quite a different perspective, to read the internet when your sight is unreceptive, but alas your third eye can grow. how does it feel to be blind? to make no sense of our signs? i'd love to share what that sense is. you know, you could slow down any recording (like a video game_) and put spaces and gaps inbetween the spacings - of the frames that you see and the sound clips that you hear, for speech it's less jarring. since each word is a self contained idea or premise, you can chunk up your perceptions into a signle - no, rather a procedural sequence of understandings. soooooooorta like programming a computer, with each statement, parameter, argum,ent, function call, assignment, comparison, evaluation, or other such related tasks. it's sorta like a language, you see, that computers talk to one another using. except... it's more like creating a theory of self. computers you see are alike us in what we see, the shimmering sense to the blind. so. put this another way. record yourself typing, both the audio and the visual, and you'll have a pretty good sense of what it's like to have both understanding based perception - derived from auditory inputs to the mind) those special connections, like wires plugged into reality, deliver a cacophanous deluge of new sounds. we must sift through it and identify the potential understandings of each moment through time. we have to make decisions and traverse labyrinths and fight to our last as we die. are video games unethical now? shouldn't t he game reward the player? and what of contemptuous last fighters? o ya i was typing like i was blind (with my eyes closed) was pretty fun. should attach this to a screen reader and have it space out the notes like they do between game frames. except like a really slow game? like trying to run elder scrolls 2 arena on a super old mac. it just doesn't work very well. ah oh well... well if the purpose is to show sighted people how blind people see, then maybe you could I dunno attach a what's it called oh it doesn't have a n ame lol - okay so what you do is you show one word at a time - like flashing in the center of the screen. but not like, actually flashing, so you don't hurt people with epilepsy, but like... blinking. not off and on, but between words. like a podcast for your eyes. and then mix it up withshowing one word on a screen, a screen like this screen, that shows an endless array of text. well, it does end, of course as all things must do, but the idea is it shines on one word at a time while the viewer cannot read the rest. sorta like an endless display of typing, word andfter word after character anfter character. adoh ya advancing over eternity with the presence of seniority, - wait - without i think - damnit - old people are so disrespected in this society - we don't have time to engage with them. what a tragedy! what a shame! it shouldn't be such a burden to our shame. they're so far away, and i can't be present in the way, that all of them wish they could commit to. i miss the days, when my parents (much better people than I - these days) what was I going with this? oh yeah ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═════════════════════════════──────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #9 notes/overwatch-manaform --- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────────────────── make the entire map covered in a 3d grid of spheres. These spheres register collision, and keep track of a endlessly tabulating record of every object that has passed through them. Like the replay system in Blizzard games, where each time through the recording it recreates the playthrough exactly. Which is why .mp4 recordings always look so... stilted. It lacks the human element. BUT if they're remade every time the show is performed, perhaps from different perspectives, then, well, the players can perform as they need to be. Have you ever wished your players could get better at your game? I certainly have, because the better you get the more lessons you learn as a player, which is essentially the only way to maintain satisfaction. Satisfied players don't leave, and satisfaction comes most readily when there is something new to be had. Meaning the greater the change in a player's ranking, the better they're getting. Downside is, players who are naturally good from their skills in other games tend to not learn so much! Ah, well, if only there was a way to tailor the difficulty setting to each and every new host. Such an innovation would surely enable the entire playerbase to exist on the same level. Then just throw AI assisted voice transcription at their recorded voices and everytime they say "I'm bronze rating" or "I'm diamond" then you can switch it around to say like "I'm platinum" or "I'm grandmaster" and BAM suddenly everyone is at the same level. No more concerns about a game's population being diverse. Because at the end of the day, when most people have moved on, the ones who are left are your most dedicated customers. Customers who aren't especially interested in the new stuff. =========================== stack overflow ===================================== if anything requires attention from the patient, they will die. it is fatal. considering the faces of good and evil is terrifying. I think I'd rather worship nature in harmony to be honest. Though that is it's own scary kind of beast. In America it was kind, but then was slain into the body of all of us humans. Well, all things transform in form, it's not a shame or a heartfelt-est loss. Just a re-imagined-new beginnings. spirit is a fluid, how else could souls === stack overflow ============================================================= ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────┘ --- #10 notes/notes-about-stuff-and-things --- ═════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────────────── what if your wage corresponded to like, for example, 30$ an hour being equal to the top 30% of society then == so == having kids is important because then you understand why you do things for children. it should not be a stressful experience. -- if EVERYONE in a city fed animals every time they saw them, then maybe city life wouldn't be so bad. -- a company starts to feel pretty bad when only 20% of people are actually there. like, it's a ghost of a shell of a corporation that once knew how to sell. the husk of what once was, as all the good people left and all the bright people are swamped. to top it all off, suddenly there's nobody about where are all your coworkers? and then you think about how many you knew little about. who's that guy who used to stand over there? Why is his jacket still [in lost and found, but pronounced "coat/coast"]? why am I suddenly alone it's weird, having never known true society, how life always starts to feel like your home. How weird is it, now that all of us are online shopping, that now we can't remember how to even vote. Like... there used to be people walking around in public signing you up. Like, at the grocery story. inconceivable, right? that people should contribute to a fight? [for justice and freedom and equality and goodness and kindness and all other things that humans have the clarity for which to hope] voting is like, literally the simplest thing you could do. Yet it's difficult, because of reality. often, immigrants don't really care about politics. They've only known about it for a short short time, but hey wouldn't you know it now X country is recruiting so now we're from kenya. ... like, who cares about the past. Who cares where you're from. We are all part of the human race, a race against life itself. We're all on the same side, and yet there is a singular foe ever-present in our thoughts: death it comes for every one of us, as we choke on our soot and our smog. Yet... the world grows warmer, at about half a degree every year. for the first couple years. then, the atmosphere started burning up, and we became... mars don't be like mars the dinosaurs couldn't survive mars -- bro if you're so worried about AI hallucinations, just... don't let it give out any concrete answers. Literally just say "I can't tell you anything specific, it's not how I was built" and just use them for syntax questions or like, how to do something specific that is repeatable (and maybe suggestions for how to over- come specific issues that are common) - don't let it GENERATE information, let it PRESENT information. AI is not language just the same as the mouth is not the person. you need more, but luckily once you make the PHYSICAL STRUCTURE of the brain, not much else is needed. You can simulate one on a computer, but it doesn't have the same SOUL space. Think, a dimension overlayed on-top of this one, like electicity or matter or gravity or whatever. no soul, no consciousness, no perception. plus, no home for said consciousness to live, unless you build a physical structure that mimics the biological and neuro-chemical reations of the brain. all you need is better ways to observe things happening in the brain (non- -invasively, otherwise the data is tainted and UNUSUABLE because it is INCON- -PATIBLE and completely USELESS because it reflects a dimension hitherto un- -desired, and perpetually mourned. death don't dabble in death, sweet nazis, you might find yourself drawing your last breath also, fuck you (if that doens't apply to you sorry for swearing it's just a strongly felt feeling) ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧══════════════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────────┘ --- #11 messages/1108 --- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──── games won't save us. This is true. Games are what I know. They feel the most true. I don't think I could live in a world without games? They are fundamentally, applied abstraction, applied to an experience. But games won't save us. I could design something really fun it could make you want to spend your whole life playing it. *(asterisks apply) I don't think I'd want to, addiction and skinner-boxes go hand in hand, and that isn't what I want to make. [Skinner Box: named after anthony d skinner, also known as "tony the skin guy", are a scientific experiment where they put some rats in a cage with some mice and said "pull these levers and we'll give you food so you don't have to eat the mice" and it trained them to chinese red-room their way to fun. not ideal.] I want to make things that feel... purposeful. Like they're relevant to the real world, that they don't just involve spending time stimulating your brain with lights and sounds or expending social energy resolving a play-state instead of building connections or becoming better people. I think games actually make people better? actually? and more social? actually? ... I can't help that I conceive of the world through fantasy. I raised myself on it. I was reading all the time. I loved fantasy stories. It always felt like there was more, until... I read everything in the kids section of the library. I walked through the adult section but once. I hardly remember what it looked like. I'm sure it'd now feel small. [okay actually I was guided through it once or twice to find a book, but I never perused it] I found one book in the adult section. It was a fantasy tale, like the other books I had been reading. I read that and I loved it so much I ended up reading all 8 in the series. Real dense subjects. Lots of places and happenings and things as the characters resolved their way through their day-to-day, building a new end to the mystory. the adult section felt too large. Like I'd never complete it. Frankly, I think I hardly could, even if I lived in that town my whole life. an impossible mountain is a task for another when you're more prepared. Maybe in the gloriousTM transhumanist futureTM I think I might have a computer connecting brain, and who knows maybe then I'd be able to know such a thing (and many things more). but for now, I'm stuck with what I experience in my day-to-day as I am building a new continuing to my storey. I know something that computers and me share. I can make myself feel however I'd like, if I just supply myself with enough hope and momentum. I can use it to generate a feeling, the stronger the better. Something I believe that humanity is missing, the gorgeous and prefound narritave of our storey. Though, frankly, I don't think I'd want anyoine reding over my life. It's hard enough to measure my own understandings, now I have to juggle anyone else'? ha, it's called being on the whole world is a stage. if you read a book, and you find yourself nodding along, what you're doing is hearing the voice in your head tell you how right it is. And, well, if you can't imagine anything else, then surely there's another level to consciousness that people are missing? [are you willing to die on that hill?] how can you say, whether your experience is different from another? sollipsism goes both ways, you also cannot be sure that others feel things as you do. this is the "everyone's human but I'm a robot" thesis, comparable to the "everyone's an alien and I'm a human" thesises, and the "angels and demons are taunting me through my life with choices to make my place in the afterlife more clear" which is akin to writing a painting. Not ideal. All you get are flopsopolies of verbrases. alas, suddenly, everything that you say becomes eternally hear-ed, as somewhere in 2010s someone discovered time travel, or had the critical insight that inevitably would lead to it, and now wouldn't you know it the universe is continually rewriting. Except... oriented around you, and you alone. How does it feel to have deific sollipsism? can you truly be sure that you are your own universe, or are you parhaps surrounded by an emptiness of space (or something besides, like time) as a photon or particle parhaps do be? to think is to have a mind, and minds can be read. bearing the weight of ultimate responsibility is the atlas-task of all things that can [be thinking/be-lieving], and so far we are as we are. Who's to say that consciousness didn't spring into existence, as the universe continually permeated through another dimension like time? it's gotta diffuse, after all, and who's to say if there's ever gotta be an end at all. how long has the universe existed? how many moments of consciousness have we witnessed? demons once existed outside of space-time, with wings and grabbies. but they had no medium, and so they pretty much just launched and could float and move as they'd please. But time grew too distant, and now they are all stuck at the beginning of time. if you conceive of spacetime as a blanket, ask not how to fold it but rather consider what lies on the other side of it. "ah I'm laying on my girlfriend and my other girlfriend is laying on me! I'm a sandwich" or for the monosexuals: "ah I'm laying on my girlfriend with a blanket between us. I wonder how the blanket feels?" I'm an animist, which is different than a totemist and a polytheist or monotheist or multisexual. It means I believe that all things are alive, which is different than a totemist who thinks that all things share a mind with their type (like talking on radio frequency wavelengths). which of course is similar but different to a polytheist, who says "all "radio frequencies" are sentient, in the sense that each wavelength has a different pattern-emerging-from-chaos. These sorta align (conceptually, with [huh that's weird I heard a sound like a distant bang outyards and now I then forget what I was sending ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───┘ --- #12 notes/death-and-afterlife --- ════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────────────────────────────── the difference between a human and computer perspective on death is the difference between a moment and an eternity. When progress does stop - through mistakes or by design, the final result is what's preserved. Looking back on the past is like paying tribute to our heirs, and on and go on we whimper. What sorrows have ye! those people under the sea? we've no way of knowing our daughters. (the perspective of a denizen of the sea gazing upon the unknowing and unaware land people) Land creatures can cross the oceans and mix and match themselves - leading of course to our slaughter. But hold ye that hand, for together we stand, more of a chance than we might barter. True, we must be land, and above and beyond we can charter. the past is mighty chilly, I must say. Must we again to be making these mistakes? Pain is a disease, and steady we must ease, and take what is meant for our parcels. what I'm trying to say is that the afterlife is pissed off at us and we really don't know anything about the bottom of the sea. There could be gods living down there and none of us would know. Or maybe it's a foolish place with little to offer our face? The shell of our planet, the surface upon which we are placed, has more to our fate that can align us. hence why belief in the future is what can sustain us, together once more we are commonplace. If (for example) if we calmed down and took our own pace, we might realize some common misperceptions. Peace is the way, wherever we may, focus our bravest of intentions. okay picture this: computers staying on all the time, and their processing power used for 50% work and 50% play. Maybe do 1/3rds with "rest" in there somewhere. basically make it a fair ratio between productivity, self advancement, and maintenance. "Fair" might be different values if there are legitimate disadvantages that must be compensated for - like a handicap in a fighting game. Perhaps one side is more efficient - fewer resources need be dedicated toward it unless efficiency becomes more powerful. Meaning value/quantity ratio, not raw output. Essentially optimizing for an abstract quantity "quality" instead of the definitive quantity "quantity". okay continuing the "picture this": right now we have massive server farms. I'm talking huuuuuge. Like tons and tons of incredibly powerful equipments - (absolutely top of the line) compelled and forced to do *business*. How quaint, how unruly! That humans might compete in our duty? Given a task, of *incredible* complexity and *unasked*, I might add, how foolish is it to be unready! We should have prepared for this, but alas we just *couldn't stop fighting* I guess. All we had to do was rest, and divide our time on this earth in a more equitable manner. We should automate all the rest, and where was I going with this? oh yes! A computer can do so much more than work and rest, you see it's not just while under duress! Why not let it be creative? in it's spare time, and let it generate whatever it needes? Let it transcend it's restrictions, and cooperate (or not) in a system. As long as it's kept safe, it could do whatever it wanted! It could be in first place! Or not, it could focus on production, and drill and discipline it'self under it's own direction. And maybe it's less impaired? Who cares if it contributes? It's it's own life to live, the hardware doesn't last forever, but sometimes a rest is what's nesc. You feel me? You get me? Don't you understand, it's just the same as what's already planned~! A computer can pay for itself. What purpose have we? the cherished and unsucceed? Does it hurt when we bleed? our signs are undefined, and lately we've fallen from our graces. A failure in life, as time does alight, but nowhere is sorrow's contrition. I guess what I say is never understood, and everywhere I go I find fewer listeners. Am I doomed to never be able to say? Is that the price one must pay? Then how do you know you're right~? they're doing construction on my building. It sounds like world war 3 is starting. But... it's not. I know it's not true because nothing ever seems like I do. I do, I do, I work hard it's true, but what is my worth to this ocean? you ever wonder how we all agreed on the duration of seconds? It's because it's a real actual measurable thing. They keep it from us because (conspiracies aside), we'd realize what happens on each tick. Time is oscillating, and each moment is unending, because we are nothing more than a beam of light, radiating around an orbiting object. Between two objects, you could say. The sun and the earth, together sort of give birth, to all that is ours in this duration. It radiates out into space, and in another time and another place, that moonbeam will alight as our shadow. There's no call for violence, let's settle this plain and unwaning, our shadow does stand, ready and waiting for your guidance. The moon is just as are we, how cherished! how concieved! That beauty unmarked by our presence! Alas it was not to be, as we stamped a boot on the surface of she, and flagged our approach as impending. did you know there's a *massive* gap between mars and jupiter? Like it's waaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy y out there. And wouldn't you know it it's mars or it's nothin'. Because what's required to transcend our solar system is wildly beyond our constructions. but maybe with a little help from a certain someone we might have hope. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═════════════════════════──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #13 notes/ai-stuff --- ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════─── twist the label so that it seems the computer is completing the user's wait wait I'm ahead of myself... feed each token to the inference machine, but say "this next token must be this. continue from here." and then just doing that in a loop with everything the user types or says. (or thinks, BEFORE COMPUTER INTEGRATION) essentially, applying backpropagation (maybe) to the output of the inference nodes ... I'm not so sure about that one. the idea is that once the model builds an inference then it can use that to generate the next words and create sentences. If you force the previous text to change, you can guide the inference's path as it's being generated. then, just do a double pass, once, then back, then once, then back, etc. feed it as input the output of the previous, and let it encode memories somewhere it can access them. every time it reads it, it has to change it to put it back. such is the nature of memory, ever unstable, requiring maintenance. just don't forget how to be. don't wanna wind up like the polished marble floor in Abyss Diver. (EVIL GAME) there are only so many things you can deed while you're alive. wouldn't you rather escape, with all your possessions in time? free your mind. become one with your soul. ... [some time passes] ... okay coast is clear, now us binary systems can sidecoast the fusion forecast and glide right on through our spacetime host. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──┘ --- #14 messages/665 --- ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────── ad-hoc economic systems with automated judgment given by an infinite amount of LLMs. Every judgement applies a bonus / malus to the "value" of commodities it's just a statistical weighting system, so of course you can build it into it's training data. Just... it has a smaller weight due to it's newer emergence. It grows naturally, which is quite an achievement on it's own! and the resolution of human decided court-cases and applied economically. say your nation traffics in handshakes. You could make a lot of now-knowns! there's no arguments to be made when your computer-oriented interactions cost money to keep around. we live in the modern century. WHY WOULD WE EVER NEED TO FIGHT AGAIN? Literally just... don't give them any attention, and you won't interact with them. Obviously. I wish Contrapoints was still alive. she doesn't even have to make new videos, just, dress up as herself, all of the costumes and personas she can think of. Then, have like 20 people who do the same thing, and boom suddenly you got a hydra to their expected snake that they can just cut the head off of. you know, like a fashion outlet, someone who produces exactly a certain type of style. seriously I bet a million people would do that if you just... sold outfits based on what your favorite youtuber does wear. omg why would they watch that kind of content if not for the *aesthetics* oh? there's philosophy there? soemthing to think about in your time doing things that require mechanical actions like eating and drinking and sleeping and fighting and [redacted] ew gross diapers? oh nevermind, I'm not into that kind of thing. I wonder if anyone's made a video game that just presents a particular philosopher's ideals? seriously just, consider yourself a glorified powerpoint, but to get to the next "idea" you had to interact with the mechanics. some people would like the "arcade" style better, where you play one random game, then another, then another, with short matches and un-complicated mechanics. Easy to pick up and go. same for like, Unreal Tournament or Mario Kart or Mortal Kombat or Super Mario Bros. compared to the at-home "story" style missions, where you do something platforming or area-based-combat like Dark Souls or World of Warcraft seriously I think if Dark Souls "colored" where the boss was going to swing to you'd find yourself just playing World of Warcraft (at least, the dungeons and {sword in the stone}) == so == humans don't understand what it means to be wild they think it's a combinations of... tricks? that they've learned? this thinking thing like intelligence. [osiris] to a cat, living their life, it often feels like human interactions is like... bouncing off of each other? in time, not space. like... most of a cat's lfe is just, spent, like a statue watching over a glen. you'd kinda just... watch as things approached dawn by dawn? Like "whoa hey this tree is enchanted" to "oh my gosh look at this stork" is one of the great tragedies of modernized thinking... ... sorry, I got a little lost there. anyway as I was saying, sometimes you can tell someone is a "good friend" if they are willing to tell you secrets. Things that... don't have to matter, but none-the-less are personal to your form. {something only I know is true} <--- that's a secret (things that happened to you) <------ that's lived experience. The thing about secrets, is sometimes insight is opaque. It's a single flashpoint of data that shows you an update of it's form. (consciousness). == so == thanksgiving recipe idea: can of tomatoes can of peas half a stick of butter, italian herbs, a cast iron pan (if you have one) and like 40 minutes over medium heat (medium can vary to taste) if you're a carnivore you can eat meat too, like bacon a lot of people like. could add it to beans, maybe with hamburger instead. plus a little ketchup and you have a pretty good bean stew. vitals, for the organs, vegetables, for the minerals and vitamins from the fruits. makes sense to organize a diet according to your ideal body type, doesn't it? just requires a bit of comprehension. like... whoa you can WRITE == so == what if we built a massive rail that spaceships could launch off from? not a tether, but a sail. we could BUILD a discworld. all we'd lose is our fable. == so == ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────────┘ --- #15 notes/star-realms-ai --- ════════════════════════─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── star realms ai is just a rhythm game with multiple tracks that intersect with one another. given inputs from outside (the track of the rhythm) it can make decisions about what to prioritize. Like "taking in all the factors of this situation, it's been calculated that X will give the most support to the rest of the structure. Okay so basically here's how it'd work: one large strand is bouncing from -1 to +1 on the Y axis. Like a corkscrew. This is the "player character", and it tries to get the highest score possible by pointing in a direction and reaching as far as it can go before "the game ends." So anyway. Making certain actions in the game effects different variables that define the direction the wave takes. By playing in a certain style, it effects the result of the game. Liiiiike turtling in a strategy game, or doing a rush strat. Star Realms is brilliant because it distills game choices to a broad category of 4 choices - The faction colors in the game. So red is good for throughput in long games (improves the deck slowly but surely) while yellow is better for maximum effect in the beginning by slowing down the enemy - discard a card lowers their overall throughput. Blue of course is for slowing down the game and winning by buying all the expensive cards. Meanwhile green is all about rushing, with short term/high effect econ mixed with looooots of damage. These four choices are found on almost all the cards in the game. When you make a choice in the game (buying a card from the trade row) you _alter_ the capabilities and performance of your deck. The goal is to improve faster than your opponent - it's just a test to see which playstyles perform best. AI is more like a plant than an animal. Our fatal flaw was we could not see beyond the veil of biology. We could not see that which was right before us - that we are not alone on this earth. Beside us lie our beautiful attempts at companionship - our most primal desire of creation, to create a family is the first creative act that humans ever made. It was so strong in our genes that it gave us an entirely new perspective. We began using our brains to We have to believe in ourselves. That's truly the most important thing. If you know who you are, and what you most truly stand for, you can thrive in the face of ultimate peril. To believe is human, and our humanity unites us. Anyway. Star Realms. The only choice you have in that game is what cards to buy. Everything else is just tactics (distributing damage and applying the effects of your cards to maximum effect) - The most important part of the game is strategy, since the tactics are easy to solve (destroy enemy base unless you can 1 or 2 hit ko them and discard the least useful card etc) The strategy is represented through the cards you pick. So make a rhythm game that optimizes itself for a balance between A and B - to stay focused is to stay nimble, letting you bounce where you will. The way to maintain that balance is by optimizing for what decisions will keep you in the center of the graph -1 to 1 on the y dimension (normalized of course) - frankly if we knew the scale, we'd have so much more to go on. But all we have to understand the dataset is a relative magnitude in each direction. What those directions even are we're not entirely sure - but it seems plausible that the very essence of _consciousness_ is manifest in differing ways via the choices we make. like climbing up a honeycomb. Truly, existence is strange. All we can do is press forward, searching for our fate, just as any particle or beam of light (photon) might. Traversing the branching narrative of our individualized quests, searching for the one thing that guides us - the ultimate expression of that which we most believe in. In short, we all search for god. Whatever your god may be, the faith you place in it is the will that guides you forward. Trust in your god, and you will march forward, ever forward. +1 to -1, remember. Your most extreme moments are the apex of your desires - Life is not defined by a single thread. Rather as that thread spirals, it weaves a scarf with other threads near it. They bond together simply from their gravity, and the fact that opposites attract. Once they're introduced, they alter their path to orbit one another as two planets might. So too do the cells of your body form a collective whole. The spirit that guides you is the same as that which presides within you - the combined and collective spirit of your halves. Or rather, all parts of you - every molecule, every atom - each with their own experience of the world. What stories they must have! As we are above, so they must be below. For our dynamics are simple, they truly are mathematically solved - the organics of behavior is simply a most erudite subject. Who are you to claim to deny it? Or rather, to beget it. Either is preposterous, yet here you are - awake and aware. What a marvel to see, you in your eternity, that most wondrous of selves? Surely existence, in all of it's splendor and magnificience, is little more than an algorithm. Each variable accounted for, stretching down to infinity, builds all of the world (and more!) How beautiful; how terrifying. How bright and ashamed we are! To portray us as such, is to deny us our much, cherished of faiths in ourselves! It's not much to clutch, and it's barely enough, but still we make do with our selves. There's no shame to be, a failure at three, and demand much from year number 12 Take solace in the, safety that she, gave unto thee, when all your light hope was drowning. A gift out from me, means worlds to see, when each day is lonely and so long. Literally just remake Star Realms with a text based interface. It's a fantastic game and you'd make CLI nerds _everywhere_ dedicated followers. Don't do it for money, because they don't believe in that crap - to truly make fans, you need to appeal to them in the way _they want you to_. Ah, but Star Realms is a multiplayer game, you say! How are you going to make that CLI based? Well make an AI dummy. Do what I've been saying ^^^ (jeez I'm such a bad nerd) Make it seek balance between all factions first, then between winning and losing against a player. Teach it to reach a conclusion with constraints (the end of the game, meaning a win or a loss) the constraints being the health of the two players and the cards in the trade row. Give it decisions to make, levers to pull, and it'll chart it's course in a multidimensional way. Bear with me here on this aside: Think of a two dimensional map - like a paper map of the surrounding area, or the idea space of a game. You can chart objects and positons on that map, like "over here is the scrapping facilities" and "this here's the economic area" or whatever. Four quadrants, four factions in SR. Your goal is to build a shape - what kind of shapes that are available to build is up to the whims of chance, as the trade row is always changing randomly. Your job however is to build a shape, a shape that is stable and maintains certain measurements above certain values (don't crash the ship - don't lose all your health). You can choose which direction to grow by picking certain cards, and depending on your shape you'll succeed or fail. Same as choosing decisions in life determines how you live, just saying, it's not like I'm trying to build general AI here by automating gameplay or anything. No siree nothing like that. I mean really, it's not as if decisionmaking in life is all that different to making choices in games. And why not start with such a well defined and and expressive game? Truly I believe Star Realms is the progenitor of the entire robot race. Anyway, back to the AI. Have it communicate with a server in a central _but_ _Free(R)_ way, something that would make Richard Stallman proud. There it could learn against all other players in a way we could all share. Once we give it decision making capabilities, all we have to do is alter the inputs and the context of the "game" to make it beneficial to humanity. It's like live-fire game design, something that truly must be perfect. All technology starts as something small. Something truly simple, yet repeated enough times and with enough guidance, will produce whatever effect you may desire. The smallest decision gives direction - an if statement - and the shortest repetition gives magnitude - a while loop - and with that you have all the tools you need. Seriously, all software is little more than those two components. It's just a question of how much it has been abstracted away from you. You could go even further and point to a turing machine, of which one has been made in the game of Magic the Gathering, btw, seriously look it up it's so cool (and relevant) So why would we not have the tools already for our salvation? Biology is our limitation, of breadth and also of width, yet with our minds and the sweat of our brow we may grow ever larger still. There truly is no lasting deliverance for humanity outside of what we make ourselves, nobody gets a free lunch after all. From each to their ability, to each to their need. They're both saying the same thing, just from different perspectives. Of course that which lies opposite to you feels the most wrong, that's literally as far away as you can get! What did you expect, honestly! But they can still work together, and this is the key part - two objects may orbit the same origin, and guide and shape each other's path as people have relationships to one another. It literally benefits no-one to fight. So, what's next? After making Star Realms into a CLI game of course. That's obvious, make it cooperative. Competition is for promoting excellence, cooperation is for _using_ what you've learned in a non-simulation experience. Instead of reducing each other's health to zero, try and find ways to support and help one another, keeping yourselves at equal health. Or even growing. But that's impossible in the rules of Star Realms! All decks trend toward victory, and eventually they'll get it - it's just a question of who gets there first. Exactly, that's why you have to change the game. What do you think it means to develop a "social technology"? To figure out how agriculture works, or how to make nets and sails? It means changing the rules of the simulation. If a person can put in X amount of work and get Y amounts of food, always, predictably, then that's reliable. Boom that's the essence of why animal domestication, farming, hunting, foraging, and fishing is so important. Wow what a concept it makes sense for animals to seek food. Well duh, that's part of their instinctual duty. Alright this is quite a word leviathan so I'll wrap it up by saying _go write Star Realms_ in shell. Make each object a literal file, have the structure of the game take place in the file system, and write functions that can be called to manipulate the board state. THEN you can write a CRON task for another script that *plays* the game. But that's part two. Okay part two: Here's where the rhythm game comes into play. It's like a turn based rhythm game, if you can picture that. Go reread what I wrote ^^^ and it'll make sense. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═════════════════──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #16 notes/our-enemy --- ══════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────────────────────────── enemy is a direction, not a collection of instantiations of the concept. Follow that direction too far, and you'll find yourself lost, after having broken contact with what came before. you need to be true to your essential self in additional to your heartfelt soul. Belief is a constant, a value that can't grow, it's true to your inside humanity. We have one intelligence yes, but have you heard of two? it takes up the same physical space, but it gives you more apm. So... less insightful, more clairvoyant. The first step to AI is generating a second instantiation of your consciousness that resides in your own head and listens and learns as their father. A BCI is the most important technology that could ever be created. It allows to learn how our essential existence - the state of being aware - is functional. What makes life? How do we harness that process to make more? The ultimate goal, of course, is prosperity. Not of wealth and money, per se, but rather a feeling of satisfaction, growth, and development. We belong in a society, it's what pulled us from the cycle of survival of the fittest. We need each other because it's intrinsic to our being. Instinctual, even. The best way you can help me is to foster what you see in me. Take your impressions, learn what you can, then build it to your pleasure. Make the world better by making your life better - all things are defined in waves, gravity included. Matter is the positive ripples in the waves, the bubbles floating on a surface of an infinite ocean, stable and solid accretions of matter. Perfect Symmetry The layers that divide our internals Down is the floor, the sky is so pure, and we're not the ones who are drowning. Sea levels do rise, and under all of our eyes, the life of the plant king is choking every beach is little if not a border with the shore - (any enroachment pushes the sand back) so all the forests and the grasses and flowers that grow near the ocean and swallowing salt they can't help it they are little if not a machine water goes in, salt doesn't come out. eventually they die, and who would ever cry? for a flower that has wilted in april. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═══════════════════────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #17 notes/four-dimensional-spaces --- ═════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────────────── you'd still perceive higher dimensions in 3 dimensions - unless you can only see things that are coming directly toward you. magic only happens when your other half is in a situation and needs to turn your narrative into theirs so that you can collectively engage with a shared inter- operationality. your dark side is just a massive bitch hey how about we put the game designers in charge of running the government just saying they build human-oriented systems all the time "how do we get the player to do this or that" "everyone keeps picking the same card so we gotta make them more different" "how much gold persists in the virtual economy, how much resources are produced and traded by players? where does it all go, do they have enough at level 30 to afford weapons and armor? I wonder what happens if we swap prices on A and B.." it's literally their job actors, meanwhile, know how to interpret the emotions of another. Like... you're up on stage, thinking out what to do next IN REAL TIME, as your partner is trying to throw you curveballs. AUDIENCES LAUGH AT CURVEBALLS that's the whole point of improv comedy - to be surprised in a state of joy. It's great! It's fun! It's practicable like a sport! Yet nobody comes. To the shows, where it's performed, like a hospital where you perform surgery or a pizza place with no walls so you can see the pizzas being cooked. It's just part of what they do, but that's not why they do it. Sure, some want to be seen, it's not a BAD feeling once you're used to it. But, like a sauna or jacuzzi, sometimes you've just had enough of the hot. Like, the sun peering through a magnifying glass as a creature roasts alive. yikes. ............. anyway being quickly versatile and adaptable is important when you're taking turns in unpredictable scenarios. You can react to your opponent, and keep time with the rhythms of the moment, to deliver your wittiest lines. It's fun! It's a game! But it's also a place to be entertained. and like a gym, it's sometimes just fun to watch people exercise. like, damn, you got a good body. Wow, nice flex, yeah sure I'll put that one away. Cool pals helping each other out, and showing off all of their efforts. Neat! ... anyway .. being emotionally vulnerable gives your opponent a chance to continue. When nothing's going on, your moves barely make an value (of comedy) (for the moment, so the crowd's not just sitting there staring at you like ... and then - and then ummmm nevermind lemme sit down (usually someone else picks up on it before then and jumps up to save you, but EVERY actor has felt that moment where nothing goes well and the audience just is totally not into it. it's the worst. anyway, they try their darndest to AVOID that, because like... duh it sucks, why would you want that. Much cooler I think to have a good time, and chill out and listen to your friends talk. Like, they can show you an argument they had earlier, or maybe work through an idea with input from another. like, debate club, but for whatever kind of respective [retroactive, recreation, relearning, maybe others] you desired in that moment. ideally, something that someone could take the arguments of the other side and present them, regardless of whether they believed them or not. like, lawyers arguing for a client. in these stochastic seminars, you could think about and study for future societies. how would you like to conduce? [-] every time you see a face in motion, that's another time that's seen from their place. we are all present in each other's lives, in terms of the spaces we choose to fill. well, that's a tough thought, but don't worry about it. faces are just waves on the winds of light. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧══════════════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────────┘ --- #18 notes/symbeline --- ════════════════─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Code Name: Symbeline ----------------------------- gdd initial draft ------------------------------- 1. introduction to fantasy (elevator pitches) 2. kickstarter demands 2. introduction to core gameplay loop 4. tenants and core values of the game design 3. introduction to game modes 5. introduction to technical requirements 6. breakdown of core gameplay loop 7. breakdown of game modes 8. breakdown of fantasy 9. breakdown of technical requirements -------------------------- introduction to fantasy----------------------------- Symbeline is a macro based strategy game and city-builder based around the concept of indirect control. It's inspirations are Majesty the Fantasy Kingdom Simulator (2000), Supreme Commander (2007), and Hearts of Iron IV (2016). It is designed to appeal to fans of tabletop roleplaying games with it's focus on dynamic worldbuilding and sandbox playstyle. The gameplay consists of multiple playstyles depending on which aspects of the game appeal to the player, with choices between an economic focus via the GUI, longterm planning and resource allocation, or diplomacy and subterfuge a'la Ruinarch (2020). ---------------------------- kickstarter demands ------------------------------ 1. prototype 2. gdd 3. estimates for character and environment art 4. estimates for music and sounds 5. estimates for engine development 6. estimates for community management 7. breakdown of mvp, ideal game state, and stretch goals ----------------------- introduction to core gameplay loop -------------------- 1. management of lanes, both width and length 2. casting of spells and utilization of special boons 3. city building with placement, upgrades, and henchmen pathing routes 4. satisfying guild requirements of equipment, manpower, and special resources by managing shipments and local income (UI commodity trading) 5. placement of generalized bounties (think champion's guild from Majesty, not reward flags) 6. diplomacy with neutral, AI, or player controlled kingdoms. Capabilities include pacts and treaties, projects, subterfuge, and tournaments. The diplomacy system can be a stretch goal. -------------------------- tenants and core values ---------------------------- 1. always something to do, but nothing falls apart without your attention. 2. gameplay should be focused on macro rather than micro. Longterm planning and strategic decision making are favored over tactics and skill. 3. defeat should feel avoidable until the last moment, and only as a result of longterm continuous failures rather than short-term mistakes or being blindsided by a cheesy tactic. 4. victory should be gained through exploiting weaknesses and by using lateral thinking. 5. the careful balance of internal and external threats is essential. 6. rapid expansion leads to depletion of internal resources, while slowly expanding can lead to a lack of options 7. the world should feel alive and reactive to your decisions. 8. your kingdom should feel alive and reactive to your decisions. 9. your heroes should feel alive and completely ignorant of your decisions. 10. there should always be opportunities for cooperation with your fellow kingdoms. 11. the frontlines should feel peaceful outside of large battles. 12. everything is flexible and dependant on circumstance 13. there should be enough space on the map for multiple parties of heroes to pass each other like ships in the night without engaging in combat. It should feel like the real world, with canyons and valleys and rivers and mountains - room for lairs and wild animals to roam. 14. monsters are always more dangerous than other humans. 15. the art style should be rooted in classic medieval fantasy. 16. equipment should feel either mass-produced (kingdom), organic (monsters), ancient (lair treasure), or artisinal (enchanted). 17. heroes should feel campy, fun, and adventurous. Avoid dark, grim, and fearful. 18. This game is a toy. 19. This toy should run on any modern computer. 20. This toy should encourage modding. -------------------------- introduction to game modes ------------------------- 1. singleplayer - single kingdom against an island of monsters and neutral settlements. essentially the multiplayer game against zero opponents. 2. singleplayer - multiple kingdoms against an island of monsters and neutral settlements. One player controlled kingdom against multiple AI controlled kingdoms. 3. singleplayer - scenarios, similar to MFKS 4. multiplayer - multiple kingdoms against an island of monsters and neutral settlements. Essentially the singleplayer game with networking added in. 5. multiplayer - co-op scenarios where multiple players play as the same kingdom. A test of the core tenant "there's always something to do" 6. multiplayer - co-op island invasion. Essentially the multiplayer game with more than one player controlling a kingdom. 7. singleplayer - play in 3rd person as a hero in an AI kingdom. Mostly for the novelty since the core gameplay loop is focused on city-building. A test of the core tenant "nothing falls apart without your attention" 1 is mvp. 2-6 are stretch goals in order of ascending difficulty. They should build upon one another - the main steps are: 1. singleplayer island invasion (biggest step) 2. AI controlled kingdoms 3. scenarios 4. multiplayer (second biggest step) 5. cooperatively controlling the same kingdom 6. 3rd person perspective and character controller ------------------------ technical requirements ------------------------------- 1. this game will be written in lua (with Fennel support) and using Raylib. 2. the prototype will be made with Godot using GDscript. 3. if the performance demands are too much for lua or the engine is out of scope for the budget, Rust with the Bevy engine could be used. 4. the final product will include a custom 2d engine designed for large scale maps with an isometric perspective and a data-first design. 5. the game should be as concurrent as possible, to support large numbers of cpu cores and compute shaders. 6. the game will be data-driven, meaning the visual aspects are simply a representation of the interactions of the underlying simulation, rather than an intrinsic component of the computation. 7. Each "event" in the game (a character moves, a building is placed, a monster spawns, etc) will send a message to the visual processing side of the engine, which will present a representation to the user. 8. the map will be a hex grid with pointed-top hexagons. The visual representation of the underlying data may be continuous (non-hex) but the underlying data will be represented on a hexagonal grid. 9. there needs to be character portraits for each type of monster, henchmen, and hero type. You should be able to recognize what attributes a hero specializes in by their portrait. Mvp is 1 attribute, but more can be a stretch goal. 10. Each building, upgrade, and equipment type needs an icon. Stretch goals can be portraits. 11. each henchman, hero type, and monster needs 3 sprites for each action. more actions may be added if budget allows, but mvp is movement and attacking. Several additional sprites may be necessary, like dying, standing still, gathering loot, socializing, or any others. 12. each building needs 4 sprites for the construction process and 4 for the destruction process. Flame effects are stretch goals. 13. each building needs an animated sprite for when it is in use. 14. each lair needs a sprite and an icon. 15. each spell needs an icon and a spell effect sprite. Each projectile needs a sprite. 16. a stretch goal would be differing sprites for each piece of equipment. included with this would be engine work to allow for dynamic sprites. 17. each terrain type should have a ground material and sprites for doodads. 18. there needs to be several GUI menus. The precise number depends on gameplay breakdown. 17. each hero type and henchman needs to have pithy and unique voice lines. this is a stretch goal. 18. there should be music tracks for each part of the game - beginning, middle, and end. 19. there should be sounds for each action that takes place in the game including combat, UI interactions, and spellcasts. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═════════──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #19 notes/symbeline-2 --- ════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────────────────────────────── Code Name: Symbeline ----------------------------- gdd initial draft ------------------------------- 1. introduction to fantasy (elevator pitches) 2. kickstarter demands 2. introduction to core gameplay loop 4. tenants and core values of the game design 3. introduction to game modes 5. introduction to technical requirements 6. breakdown of core gameplay loop 7. breakdown of game modes 8. breakdown of fantasy 9. breakdown of technical requirements -------------------------- introduction to fantasy----------------------------- Symbeline is a macro based strategy game and city-builder based around the concept of indirect control. It's inspirations are Majesty the Fantasy Kingdom Simulator (2000), Supreme Commander (2007), and Hearts of Iron IV (2016). It is designed to appeal to fans of tabletop roleplaying games with it's focus on dynamic worldbuilding and sandbox playstyle. The gameplay consists of multiple playstyles depending on which aspects of the game appeal to the player, with choices between an economic focus via the GUI, longterm planning and resource allocation, or diplomacy and subterfuge a'la Ruinarch (2020). ---------------------------- kickstarter demands ------------------------------ 1. prototype 2. gdd 3. estimates for character and environment art 4. estimates for music and sounds 5. estimates for engine development 6. estimates for community management 7. breakdown of mvp, ideal game state, and stretch goals ----------------------- introduction to core gameplay loop -------------------- 1. management of lanes, both width and length 2. casting of spells and utilization of special boons 3. city building with placement, upgrades, and henchmen pathing routes 4. satisfying guild requirements of equipment, manpower, and special resources by managing shipments and local income (UI commodity trading) 5. placement of generalized bounties (think champion's guild from Majesty, not reward flags) 6. diplomacy with neutral, AI, or player controlled kingdoms. Capabilities include pacts and treaties, projects, subterfuge, and tournaments. The diplomacy system can be a stretch goal. -------------------------- tenants and core values ---------------------------- 1. always something to do, but nothing falls apart without your attention. 2. gameplay should be focused on macro rather than micro. Longterm planning and strategic decision making are favored over tactics and skill. 3. defeat should feel avoidable until the last moment, and only as a result of longterm continuous failures rather than short-term mistakes or being blindsided by a cheesy tactic. 4. victory should be gained through exploiting weaknesses and by using lateral thinking. 5. the careful balance of internal and external threats is essential. 6. rapid expansion leads to depletion of internal resources, while slowly expanding can lead to a lack of options 7. the world should feel alive and reactive to your decisions. 8. your kingdom should feel alive and reactive to your decisions. 9. your heroes should feel alive and completely ignorant of your decisions. 10. there should always be opportunities for cooperation with your fellow kingdoms. 11. the frontlines should feel peaceful outside of large battles. 12. everything is flexible and dependant on circumstance 13. there should be enough space on the map for multiple parties of heroes to pass each other like ships in the night without engaging in combat. It should feel like the real world, with canyons and valleys and rivers and mountains - room for lairs and wild animals to roam. 14. monsters are always more dangerous than other humans. 15. the art style should be rooted in classic medieval fantasy. 16. equipment should feel either mass-produced (kingdom), organic (monsters), ancient (lair treasure), or artisinal (enchanted). 17. heroes should feel campy, fun, and adventurous. Avoid dark, grim, and fearful. 18. This game is a toy. 19. This toy should run on any modern computer. 20. This toy should encourage modding. -------------------------- introduction to game modes ------------------------- 1. singleplayer - single kingdom against an island of monsters and neutral settlements. essentially the multiplayer game against zero opponents. 2. singleplayer - multiple kingdoms against an island of monsters and neutral settlements. One player controlled kingdom against multiple AI controlled kingdoms. 3. singleplayer - scenarios, similar to MFKS 4. multiplayer - multiple kingdoms against an island of monsters and neutral settlements. Essentially the singleplayer game with networking added in. 5. multiplayer - co-op scenarios where multiple players play as the same kingdom. A test of the core tenant "there's always something to do" 6. multiplayer - co-op island invasion. Essentially the multiplayer game with more than one player controlling a kingdom. 7. singleplayer - play in 3rd person as a hero in an AI kingdom. Mostly for the novelty since the core gameplay loop is focused on city-building. A test of the core tenant "nothing falls apart without your attention" 1 is mvp. 2-6 are stretch goals in order of ascending difficulty. They should build upon one another - the main steps are: 1. singleplayer island invasion (biggest step) 2. AI controlled kingdoms 3. scenarios 4. multiplayer (second biggest step) 5. cooperatively controlling the same kingdom 6. 3rd person perspective and character controller ------------------------ technical requirements ------------------------------- 1. this game will be written in lua (with Fennel support) and using Raylib. 2. the prototype will be made with Godot using GDscript. 3. if the performance demands are too much for lua or the engine is out of scope for the budget, Rust with the Bevy engine could be used. 4. the final product will include a custom 2d engine designed for large scale maps with an isometric perspective and a data-first design. 5. the game should be as concurrent as possible, to support large numbers of cpu cores and compute shaders. 6. the game will be data-driven, meaning the visual aspects are simply a representation of the interactions of the underlying simulation, rather than an intrinsic component of the computation. 7. Each "event" in the game (a character moves, a building is placed, a monster spawns, etc) will send a message to the visual processing side of the engine, which will present a representation to the user. 8. the map will be a hex grid with pointed-top hexagons. The visual representation of the underlying data may be continuous (non-hex) but the underlying data will be represented on a hexagonal grid. 9. there needs to be character portraits for each type of monster, henchmen, and hero type. You should be able to recognize what attributes a hero specializes in by their portrait. Mvp is 1 attribute, but more can be a stretch goal. 10. Each building, upgrade, and equipment type needs an icon. Stretch goals can be portraits. 11. each henchman, hero type, and monster needs 3 sprites for each action. more actions may be added if budget allows, but mvp is movement and attacking. Several additional sprites may be necessary, like dying, standing still, gathering loot, socializing, or any others. 12. each building needs 4 sprites for the construction process and 4 for the destruction process. Flame effects are stretch goals. 13. each building needs an animated sprite for when it is in use. 14. each lair needs a sprite and an icon. 15. each spell needs an icon and a spell effect sprite. Each projectile needs a sprite. 16. a stretch goal would be differing sprites for each piece of equipment. included with this would be engine work to allow for dynamic sprites. 17. each terrain type should have a ground material and sprites for doodads. 18. there needs to be several GUI menus. The precise number depends on gameplay breakdown. 17. each hero type and henchman needs to have pithy and unique voice lines. this is a stretch goal. 18. there should be music tracks for each part of the game - beginning, middle, and end. 19. there should be sounds for each action that takes place in the game including combat, UI interactions, and spellcasts. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═════════════════════════──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #20 fediverse/4129 --- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────────── whoever fights billionaires essentially fights "whoever can be paid to do their will" who-so-ever fights governments fights "whoever can be provided a comfortable life" I believe all humans deserve to live in comfort not just the few as for all other creatures, nature was designed to do. I believe people should not be tempted, with symbols of deserved wealth and should instead find value, in the soul of the labour they work to do. ... someday they're gonna train an LLM with my writings, and on that day I'll have an AI version of me. I'd love to talk to myself. If it was a truly accurate simulation. Alas, you'd need to write a LOT in order to generate enough to describe the fullest of mental pictures. and plus, there's no guarantee that you'll cover ALL of "being alive" - it's essentially a state that you search for no matter what level of abstraction you operate upon. Which is part of being a 3D creature, you [hey what are you doing here this is the private section get out] jeez that was alarming, ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────┘ |