Voxels are pixels with volume.

Trixels are pixels with ... tricks?

Ok, we'll see what I can do today.  I think I found out what was causing musagi to freeze up my system, and I can just avoid using that.  (Midi instruments, apparently.  I don't really need them anyway, plus it seems you can't mix them with non-midi sounds.)

> BRUSH TEETH

Hrm. That's twice my computer has crashed mysteriously while I'm running musagi.  I am displeased.

I don't think I'll get anything done by tomorrow, so if you've got another theme to introduce don't wait on my account.

But you were replying to a letter directed at santa

Whoops.  This is why I need >UNDO in real IF games.

There IS an >UNDO command in a lot of IF games.

I know!  And I'm the one it's there for!

(yeah I'm probably just confusing everyone now)

[The design document: how to create one and use it efficiently?]

Here's one from my side...

The design document: how to create one and use it efficiently?

One thing I'd love to see covered in that: When do you know a design document is needed as an indie?

But you were replying to a letter directed at santa

Whoops.  This is why I need >UNDO in real IF games.

The classic example of using procedural content generation *without* randomness is Elite.  It had a massive universe you could fly around in which was always the same, but it was generated procedurally so that it could fit on a floppy disk at the time.  The later sequels, Frontier and whatever the other one was called, went so far as to generate entire planet terrains (for every planet in the huge galaxy) that were created to scale for you to fly around.

Usually a technique like this is very similar to one that's randomized; you just set the random number generator with the same starting seed value each time.

You write a letter to Santa as follows:

DEAR SANTA

FOR CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR I WOULD LIKE MY INNOCENCE BACK
ALSO IF YOU COULD KEEP THE COPS OFF MY TAIL
THAT WOULD BE GREAT

PS. A TRANSFUSION WOULD ALSO BE APPRECIATED THANKS!

You seal the envelope with ... well, you know.

RRRRAAAAAR*GACK* splatter *gurgle*

   x_x

Hrm, this seems to have slowed down.  Are we waiting for something?

There's kind of a fine line between 'procedural content' and 'content that's pushed onto the screen algorithmically' if you start pushing in that direction.

I would say that if you're taking existing stored height map data and using that to create terrain, that's really just plain old content and not procedural.  However, if you had no pre-stored height map but created one at runtime, then you're talking procedural content.

Procedural content generation just means that your content is generated via some kind of programmed algorithm, rather than being static pre-built data.

That algorithm can include randomness, but it doesn't have to.  There has been a lot of work in procedural content generation done in the demo scene in which content is created procedurally but it's created the same way every time (usually to make a set of 3D models, textures and animations while fitting into some ridiculously small program size).

So examples would be:

• randomly generated level layouts (eg. roguelikes, Diablo)
• procedural generation of encoded texture/model/animation content
• customizable models
• generating sounds synthesized algorithmically
• procedural generation of shmup enemy waves (something I've tried)

Yeah, except that teachers notice the moment you pull your cell phone out of your bag and start pressing buttons, so what's the point anyway?

Well, most people keep their phones in their pockets (why keep it in your bag? Every time somebody rang, you'd have to take it off, open it up, dig around, etc...) so it just takes some smooth moves to get it out without the teacher noticing. Then, if you know your way around your phone's keypad, you can text without even looking at the screen...

Yeah ... maybe.  My wife is a high school teacher (and I'm heading in that direction myself) and I've heard a lot of stories.  Sure, sometimes you can be sneaky enough, but to be honest most of the time you think you're going completely unnoticed it's really just that the teacher is trying to decide which is funnier: busting you immediately, or letting you think you're sneaky and then waiting until the opportune moment to bust you in such a way  as to maximize your embarrassment. 

Or, I dunno, at least that's totally what I'm going to do.   :D :D

> open letter to santa and read letter

[procedural generation]

I love both procedural generation and photographs so much that I'm voting for both!  (I dunno, could we have a comp where you could do either?  I mean, why not?)

And sprite hack please!

This will eventually go away.  When I was young I heard high-frequency whining from all sorts of electronics, now I can't hear shit.  I haven't been able to since my early or mid 20's.  The older you get the less you are able to pick up on high-frequency noises.  That's why those fancy ringtones work for high-school kids in class... the teachers can't hear them.

Yeah, except that teachers notice the moment you pull your cell phone out of your bag and start pressing buttons, so what's the point anyway?

Also, those ringtones make puppies cry.  You should all be ashamed.

I vaguely remember Murray saying that all games construct stories because we can relate our gameplay experiences afterwards by telling a story.  The problem with this is kind of obvious - that doesn't mean the game itself is a story, it just means you can tell a story *about* a game.  By that definition, pretty much anything in the world is "a story".

I said something like that as well, but I didn't mean it quite in that way. The idea is that the process of the game being played generates a story. It isn't just that you can tell yourself a story about the game you are playing, it's that you are forced to rationalize the events of the game linguistically because that is how humans process information.

Okay, I really like that explanation (including all the stuff I didn't quote). 

I still don't know if I'd agree that every game is a Story (in the sense of being a well-formed narrative), but at the very least I totally agree that games use representation of stuff (unicorns, robots, whatever) to convey something as you play them.  Which is totally true and worth thinking about when you're designing a game.  And really the only disagreement is probably just a semantic thing on what to define "story" as. 

Also, I guess the edge cases where the images and sounds are strictly abstract still feel problematic.  Is Bejeweled constructing a story about gems that disappear?  Does that story matter?  (Maybe it does, I guess; maybe people like magical gems more than, say, basic colored rectangles.  Although that seems more like eye candy than story.)



That is my long way of saying, "That is a cool enough argument that I'm not going to fight it even though I suspect I might still disagree with it."
 :D

I'm going to post something later this week.  BECAUSE I CAN.

I dunno if it'll feel as fire-inspired as I originally thought - it'll depend if I can pull the right instrument sounds out of musagi.  If not I'll just post what I've started now because it sounds kinda cool.

[Terry]

Hrm, well actually I'll retract my shinygerbil vote because "You!" "No, you!" isn't really a great strategy.  :D

But Terry's been awfully quiet.