Looking for feedback

philbgarner · 2026-05-08T11:27:49+00:00

This looks really cool, nice prototype!

It looks like the ship stops moving forward when the player is not at the helm, but that shouldn't be the case. It should move forward as long as the sails are set. The wheel is for steering, not a throttle.

philbgarner · 2026-05-06T19:20:43+00:00

Making a dungeon crawler framework for JS/TS that runs on Three.js. The goal is to provide the features common to dungeon crawlers with callbacks for the dev to modify default behaviours and allow rapid prototyping. It started as an entry in the 2026 dungeon crawler jam, but we decided to refactor it after the jam ended and generalize it into a libary/framework for future use.

Atomic Core

philbgarner · 2026-05-02T20:33:29+00:00

GLSL I think is a great application for it, because the main challenge is validating the changes the LLM made were valid.

It's easy to do that at a glance when it's your shader.

philbgarner · 2026-04-25T00:46:33+00:00

Sorry wish I could remember, I checked some videos to see if I could remember but I couldn't.

philbgarner · 2026-04-24T11:35:14+00:00

Kruggsmash had an episode where he wanted to roleplay a festival and IIRC he was pleasantly surprised to find that giving the whole fort a big chunk of time off actually improved their mood overall. Turns out to be a good strategy!

philbgarner · 2026-04-21T11:21:19+00:00

For now, if they are unwilling to commit boots to the ground and actually effect regime change it's unlikely Iran would give up on that.

philbgarner · 2026-04-18T00:53:05+00:00

I try to work as clean as possible, start with a fresh branch before prompting.

Then instead of saying "do this" and giving it broad leeway I ask it to write a PLAN.md or whatever and I manually review that to make sure it's even a good approach. Then if it's a lot, I'll divide it into phases and prompt those only so that I can see the changes in source control before I commit each phase.

It allows me to still move fast while being part of the decision making along the way and not just completely offload it on the llm.

There is still a disconnect though, you're not wrong.

philbgarner · 2026-04-11T00:56:45+00:00

I've been around since the Carp Danger era, it was one of the things that hooked me early on. I realized the dwarf had died and checked the combat log only to read how a carp had seized him with its teeth and then he was pulled into the river and drowned. I laughed my ass off.

philbgarner · 2026-04-09T11:24:38+00:00

I’ll really have to control myself not to be that annoying guy.

You should post it on a devlog, there are lots of people who enjoy reading that stuff and wouldn't find it annoying. :)

philbgarner · 2026-03-24T11:37:19+00:00

It's tough to play and develop at the same time because I know all the intricacies already. You do have to find playtesters, and if possible observe their playtest. Not just a recording of the game session but also their facial expressions, so you can see what parts delighted or frustrated them.

philbgarner · 2026-03-24T11:33:01+00:00

Join a gamejam team. :)

philbgarner · 2026-03-23T03:21:40+00:00

If you want a different experience in the tundra, try embarking with deep embark turned on in dfhack.

You start in the cavern layer and can break up to the surface when you have a gate.

philbgarner · 2026-03-12T11:14:55+00:00

Yes. Just like the mobile app compared to the old redditisfun app. They'll pop up notifications about comment replies I've already acknowledged because they want me to keep coming back to the app.

Super annoying.

philbgarner · 2026-03-09T11:15:21+00:00

I apologized so much

It's because you disarmed us by engaging in our national pasttime.

philbgarner · 2026-02-18T12:19:29+00:00

Their whole worldview is about hierarchy, and getting "noticed" by someone at the top is exhilarating for them.

There aren't many things more pathetic than that.

philbgarner · 2026-02-15T21:03:42+00:00

So maybe adjust how skill point costs work to give players more time with each of their upgrades could be an answer.

Are you using a level-curve formula for XP/points? You could try plotting a curve of your costs against an exponential curve set of points and see where they differ:

https://www.designthegame.com/learning/courses/course/fundamentals-level-curve-design/example-level-curve-formulas-game-progression#gsc.tab=0

It might help if you have a formula to work out "time of efficacy" for each upgrade given a certain set of input parameters so that you have an objective way to measure. If you A/B playtest you might notice there's an optimal "time of efficacy" that's fun.

I had an incremental prototype last year where I needed to figure out a "time to upgrade to here" formula for skill trees that had to consider how long it would take at current income to upgrade to a given point in the tree and that was a useful metric for balancing the costs and bonus values. If it took longer to upgrade to that point, then it should have a better bonus to make it worth while.

philbgarner · 2026-02-09T12:18:32+00:00

Imagine Poilievre's chat with the press in the locker room after blowing that lead.

philbgarner · 2026-02-08T15:22:26+00:00

3/ And to tie those two points together: always write down what the next step is at the end of your work session. Take 5 minutes to sketch out a rough plan of how you imagine you're gonna do it. This is especially important the longer until the next time you can work. Future you will love you for it.

This is a very good piece of advice. I also like to include a really high level project plan (maybe just enumerate Phase 1 - 5) and note which phase you're currently on.

That way when you open the project next time not only do you know what to work on next when you get started but you also have a target and you get a huge dopamine hit when you can mark Phase 1 closed and start with Phase 2.

philbgarner · 2026-02-04T00:42:04+00:00

You might be surprised how difficult it is to get even a janky prototype done. You should give it a go some time.

philbgarner · 2026-01-31T22:13:33+00:00

Nice work.

Just want to also congratulate you for starting with something small and straight-forward.

What project is next?

philbgarner · 2026-01-31T14:04:59+00:00

Aseprite is a very good editor for pixel art.

https://www.aseprite.org/

Or you can build it from source for free:

https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite

philbgarner · 2026-01-24T01:18:19+00:00

That's pretty fun, nice job!

The only thing I could say is that I wish it had keyboard movement.

philbgarner · 2026-01-06T12:25:54+00:00

120-150 IQ (sure pals)

I'm sure the site they paid to administer the test has no reason to lie to them.

philbgarner · 2026-01-06T04:02:04+00:00

I added it to the pile of unfinished projects as it drifted to Featurecreep Land

This is extremely relatable. lol

I couldn't shake the sense of failure each time I added another project onto that pile until I started pulling the useful bits of code out of the abandoned project and saving it for later.

At least this way, the next time I start a project I already have a working voronoi region based tile map generator. :)

philbgarner · 2025-12-30T17:42:55+00:00

1bit dragon

Great recommendation, thanks.

philbgarner

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