So, hopefully you’re seeing this message in one or more locations – more on that later. I’ll be posting here as J. I have every intention of getting into the meat of things in short order, but I wanted to open up with an introduction post first. A statement of intent, a bit of housekeeping now that I’ve built this strange little series of tube-connected houses.
I’ve been messing with code, game design, and writing for nearly as long as I can remember. While I have a lot of thoughts about design and a few finished projects out in the aether, I’ve run into a problem: Namely, that trying to bridge the gap between tiny projects, personal hacks, and tutorials into complete, realized games and tools has proven elusive in the past, with prior efforts never quite managing to reach what I would consider the next plateau of complete. I’m inclined to think this isn’t an uncommon struggle. So, as a way of keeping myself accountable and hopefully providing some useful guidance on bridging that gap, here I am. Starting a blog in 2023.
With all of that establishing who I am and where I’m going to be posting, what can you expect to see? Ideally, my posts will be split between development updates on my path to graduating to a more well-rounded programmer and designer, and essays about aspects of game design that I want to comment on. I have Several Opinions about narrative design & worldbulding in games, mechanical & encounter balance, and some of the competitive aspects of gaming, and I’ve worked with both video games and TTRPGs in the past. Over time, the goal is to shift my focus most heavily into devlogs and updates, but we’ll see where the journey takes us.
In the event that you’re reading this elsewhere – which seems likely if you’re reading this one at all – you might be wondering about the blog thing. Essentially, I’m old enough to remember the internet before social media, and as a consequence I’ve always been a bit distant and leery of it. Given the way that seems to have largely shaken out (“five websites consisting of screenshots from the other four,” as the saying goes) that certainly feels justified. So, I want to share my thoughts and get some people excited about my projects, because I’m excited about them! But here we all are in a bunch of poorly-connected silos.
To remedy that, I’m taking a page from the POSSE (Publish Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere) playbook, most directly inspired by Cory Doctorow‘s method. The essays and updates that I post here should be republished to the wider social internet, alongside the classics of RSS and an email newsletter, so you can read and comment in the format that makes the most sense for you. Truthfully, I’m most comfortable navigating Reddit and Tumblr, but I’m interested in Mastodon and the wider ActivityPub protocol for speaking to the same needs and potential of a truly interoperable and user-controlled Internet, so I’ll be making an effort to get more immersed into the Fediverse as a part of this journey.
For now, if you’ve found this and read it to the end, thanks for sticking around through my introduction. If you’re interested in seeing more, go ahead and find the feed that most appeals to you and follow it!
Good luck out there.
Leave a Reply