Hey, sol is a star 🤷‍♀️

puzzles

A few points of order w/r/t Slime Resgoo Deluxe:

• I've decided what the actual name of the game is going to be, when it's done enough for me to put it on itch.io. I'm keeping it under my hat for now; Slime Resgoo Deluxe or SRD will still be the code name til then.

• I've made an important decision: I removed death as a mechanic. I had removed the red "x" mechanic because it was complicating things with no real benefit, so I was halfway there already, but I realized that for the kind of puzzles I'm designing now, it no longer makes sense to be able to die.

  • I kept running into situations where Slime and Goo were getting separated, and I wanted to make re-uniting them part of the puzzle, but I realized that all the player would have to do is take a dive into water or lava to teleport back to the starting point. I didn't want to create perverse ludic suicide incentives (and really, who does?) and I didn't want to have to make elaborate traps to prevent players from doing this, so from here on out, any action that would've resulted in player death simply doesn't happen. You just can't walk into water or lava unless you're the form of the character that can survive it. Chalk this up to video game blinders; I was following the guidelines for a towlr and I just didn't think about it until now. There's really no point in having a death mechanic in a fully turn-based game with an undo button. Literally its only function was a puzzle loophole. This will vastly expand my ability to design interesting puzzles.

• On that note, there are now two more devious puzzles for you to challenge: 🕹 Play SRD 0.12. If you've been following my progress and want to skip straight to level 11, click "hack", scroll down in the source code until you see level 11, then ctrl-click it.

• They're not so devious, unless you try to go for the coin. Coins don't do anything and you don't "get" anything for collecting them (other than the satisfaction of hearing the bling), it's just an extra bonus challenge for people who want it. You can skip the coins entirely and go for the cake, or you can get the coin first. Or you can get the cake on your first play, and try for the coins on your second play. Think of it as a built-in optional hard mode.

computer

A couple years ago, I was thinking out loud on the fediverse about having difficulty finding a laptop that meets all my requirements at an affordable price. A very kind fedizen messaged me and said they had two older laptops that were sitting around, unused, and offered to send me one. I was blown away by their generosity, but I had money to buy a laptop, I just hadn't decided which one I wanted, and neither of their extras were quite what I was looking for, so I politely declined, saying I'd rather they go to someone who was truly in need.

Well, I'm now truly in need, so I messaged them and asked if either of the laptops was still available. They said unfortunately not, but they were planning toprograde/replace their current laptop shortly, and offered to send me the old one when their new one arrives. It took a few weeks for it to get there (due to supply chain stuff, I assume), but the other day they messaged and said it was finally there, and asked for my shipping info. I don't know if they'd want me to identify them here, but I can't express how grateful I am for them.

I've been using a chromebook that Izzy's mom has graciously let me borrow in the meantime, and it's helped ensure I can keep updating this blog,¹ but I'll be very happy to have a real computer again and I'm sure she'll be very happy to have her chromebook back. Izzy is currently using the same computer she's been using for years, which recently stopped working on account of Microsoft deciding her computer was too old, and releasing a Windows update that broke it. I put Linux on it, which kept it running, but she doesn't like using it (and I don't blame her.) So once the new old computer arrives, she'll be able to use Windows again, I'll be able to use a computer again, and her mom will be able to use the chromebook again, and everyone will be happy.

phone

Oh yeah, I said I'd post an update on July 1st if any of my carrier's dire warnings about switching from 4G mode to LTE turned out to be anything. You could probably guess nothing happened, because I completely forgot about it. No difference whatsoever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

international nonbinary day

Happy international nonbinary day! I'm nonbinary. Agender, specifically. I wish I was also international; the nation I live in will probably make it illegal for me to exist in a few years 🤷🏼

tying the knot

But hey, let's end on a happy note: Izzy and I have decided we'd better get while the getting's good, so yesterday I took the day off work and we went to get a marriage license. It's not official yet, we still have to find a judge to officiate (and figure out what we're going to do with regards to the name change, since we both want to change between 2 and 3 of our names, and that makes things complicated.) But sometime in the next 60 days, it'll be official. We're still going to have a small ceremony, when we can afford to do so and when it's safe, but we wanted to be prepared so we can make decisions for each other in case anything happens to one of us.

We've both known this is what we wanted since she proposed to me on our second anniversary this past february, we just weren't quite sure if we should make it official now or wait til we can have the ceremony.

In light of the changing political climate in the US, it's easy to imagine whatever judge is in place a couple years from now looking at us and deciding he doesn't think we look like people who can get married, so we're being cautious. I'm dizzyingly happy with her, and although I know our love is beautiful with or without the piece of paper from the state, I'm happy we're taking this step and I know it's right for us.

I knew she was the one the day that she noticed that my gender on facebook was listed as nonbinary, and I had my pronouns set to "they/them". I had never talked about it much to anyone in dirtspace, and wasn't hurt when people used the pronouns of my assigned gender, but she noticed. She cared. She asked me about it. She listened. Even though I insisted it wasn't a big deal, she's unerringly called me "they" ever since, and gently corrects her family members whenever they use something different. No one's ever seen me like she does. No one's ever cared that much. She saw in me a legitimacy I didn't even see in myself. She inspires me to be my best authentic self. She's made me a better person. I'm so lucky that this will be forever 🦝❤🐼

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1. And make puzzle games! I've been sad that I haven't been able to work on anything, but I've had a fully browser-based SDK right there this whole time. 'Tis the curse of the novelty-seeker to not see what's right in front of me.↩