with this little VVVVVV jam.

Music Power Family Rescue

Way over-ambitious tiny game that I’m working on. Work together as a family to deliver survival packages to stranded astronauts from your spaceship that uses dancing as its user interface.

Did some work on JUNIBIBI & KUNIBIBI today; added picnic signs (which are automatically added to the level in valid picnic spots) and a picnic thought bubble, in case a player tries to picnic on an invalid spot. Added a little charge animation for the seed, too; still not sure how I feel about it.

Much needed color overhaul; really not sure how I convinced myself that the other colors were ok. Thanks to randomnine over at the unnamed forum.

yes, yes, I need to finish JUNI & KUNI and HUNGRY FOREST and BENTLEY BEAR… and all the rest of them, but I’m feeling good after finishing the PUNCH trilogy (which I still need to post), so there you go.

YOU DO IT; YOU PUNCH THE BUTTS.

on tuesday. BECAUSE NO RULES PIRATE KART DUDE.

after i finish this one, i will have made three games about punching. i started making a game about a chicken that shoots “so crazy”. THANKS PIRATE KART.

- best fish who died: Dr. McCoy
- best topical television episodes: Parenthood
- best corresponding topical thing: STFU Parents
- best topical medication: Bayer Advantage
- best topic at TIGSOURCE: mockups
- best topic of conversation: children’s book illustration
- best living tropical fish: any
- best tropical video game: a tie (Startropics and Wonder Boy)
- best anticipated thing: Macaulay, #sworcery
- best unanticipated thing: 0space
- best food: pretzels and mustard

GOOD JOB THIS YEAR GOOD LUCK MOVE FORWARD.

making JUNI & KUNI has given me a lot of opportunity to think about fail states in games, since it has such modest stakes, and since the environment isn’t nearly as threatening as in together fight, or planet snack; really, anything else i’ve done. typically, the plots and frames of my games are sparse and oppositional and failure is obvious, but JUNI & KUNI is a bit more subtle. sure, you can jump on spikes, or fall in lava, or run out of time, but nothing is actively trying to kill you. i tried to make it a game that is only about one thing, and that is preparing a picnic in a decaying world that can only temporarily be made alive. in this world, failure is really closer to giving up, since the goal is almost achieved just by playing the game.

i suppose it remains to be seen whether that is how it feels to a player, or whether the existing failure states still feel too game-y. here is the proposed failure screen: an empty world, left to itself.