I did something weird. I rewrote and updated my old game from 2012, Spwords. Play it here! By the way, it’s open source too.

It was a couple of years ago that I started this rewrite in the Elm programming language. When I made it originally it was without using any of the fancy Javascript frameworks people use these days. My web programming (or really, all of it) was still pretty unsophisticated. I had a collection of utilities back then that tried to imitate the classic OOP style from Actionscript 3 that I was used to with my Flash experience, even. Nowadays I’d much rather have referential transparency than inheritance.

I always liked the little silly game, and knowing the many ways it could be improved, I wanted to try remaking it in a language I actually enjoy writing, as an exercise. I learned a lot in the process!

I remember that back-then fellow tigger Lou Acresti wanted to help me make it playable online (BTW, his Flog game that he submitted to the same compo is amazing), and we tried for a bit, but it was a bit too difficult for me at that time, praise him for his patience. Now, this new version has no online features, in fact it’s barely any better than the old patched together version. It does have difficulty levels, though! Also more commentary variation. And a different color scheme, and better typography. I wanted to at least add sound, and Spanish support (another aborted addition I at some point worked on, for the old version), but didn’t get around to it in the end. So I’m just releasing it now in this slightly underwhelming state, because otherwise I’ll just keep procrastinating on it for who knows how many more years, and it looks sort of cute as a portfolio piece.

On the subject of Elm, I’ve also been using it for an update to this dated WordPress blog that won’t even look right on a smartphone. Part of why I haven’t been writing at all is that it’s not very motivating to add content in its current state. I don’t even feel like showing it. So, I’m using elm-pages to make a static version of it (WIP code’s online). I ran into some limitations in elm-pages v2, obstructing my goal of reproducing most functionality of the current blog, so I’m chipping away at the design while waiting for v3 to have an official release. No promises on when I’ll release it, though.

Although I released it in 2012, over seven years ago now, Flower pattern is actually still one of my favorite digital things I’ve made. It’s simple, feels good to play around with for a bit, and it’s impactful to show to people. It’s not the deepest, it just looks cool.  So the fact that because of evolving technologies it’s sort of aging poorly is not something I’m happy with. For one, back then I didn’t own a smartphone, so it was poorly tested on them, and actually looks really cramped. Higher pixel density displays also became the norm since then, and my toy looks blurry on them. Then some DOM API changes means that on touch devices there’s issues with touch events…

Change all of that to the past tense now, cause I just fixed it! It’s looking much better now, in time for my upcoming portfolio update. Check it out at the same address as before: http://agj.cl/ip/fp

As I set out to do this, I was afraid that the code would be an undecipherable mess, but it was all actually fairly well structured. I long abandoned the actionscript 3-informed OOP style that I used in it, but all in all it was fairly painless to work with. So given that, I decided to throw the code up on Github with an open source license. It’s a really dated coding style, with mock-class hierarchy and using old javascript libraries and all, but I guess parts of it can be useful to someone, like the drawing code. Anyway, no harm with it being open for people to check out and maybe copy.

The wonderfully enthusiastic Steve Cook put together a compilation of over a hundred free games, and made me a part of it by including my game Runnerby. It’s called the Pirate Bay Bundle.

I recognize only a handful of the included titles. But knowing the kinds of games that he reviews, I’m sure they’re all good stuff. I’m currently in the process of downloading the torrent, so I’ll be sampling them later.

What happens when you combine sports and words? That’s right, the unholy portmanteau of this post’s title. Conceived as a last minute entry into the TIGSource Sports competition, Spwords is a player-versus-computer match that puts your (English) vocabulary, spelling, and typing speed to the test.

Play Spwords (web)

Maybe you didn’t understand the commentator’s quick explanation of the rules. That’s fine, that’s what this paragraph is for. You and computer take turns typing words during rounds, and each round has an assigned letter. Each word played must start with the round’s letter. Also, a word must contain the last played word’s last letter for it to count. In addition to all this, you have a time limit, and words may never be repeated. Win three rounds to win the match. Have a go!

This game was possible thanks to Keith Vertanen’s word lists.

Here’s an HTML5 drawing toy I’ve been working on for a few weeks. It’s been designed to work on touch devices in addition to the plebian mouse, although I only really have my iPad to try it on, so I’m not sure how it will work everywhere else. You can add it to the home screen on any iOS apparatus, and it’ll work more or less like a regular app, offline and all.

Play Flower pattern (web, touch devices)

For your phone or tablet, and for your convenience, I also set up a shorter URL: http://agj.cl/ip/fp . Caveat: based on one report, it doesn’t seem to work properly on older versions of iOS. […]

Prompted by mcc, I’ve compiled a list of whatever weak narrative impetus my games have. I used games as listed in my aggregate, and removed those that are comprised of only surface, i.e. toys, or that are non-interactive. […]

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That there is the little sign that was put next to a computer with two of my games, Intervalo lúcido del individuo inconsciente, and Heart, at an exhibition called Game On! in Buenos Aires. Also, here’s a picture of an anonymous person using a personal computer. Both photos thanks to my official Buenos Aires correspondent and fellow game maker, Tembac.

I’m pretty happy that this happened, since it’s the first time my games have been featured in a non-virtual space, although putting them next to other frankly much more exciting and spectacular games, like Tembac’s Consecuencias and Daniel Benmergui’s Storyteller, makes me a bit self-conscious of the fact. Especially since I’m no longer very fond of Heart. Also, I’m sad that the Twitter-sourced bio I submitted wasn’t included there, because it’s awesome: […]

This was long overdue: a browser for all of my released games, including the terrible ones, and covering all the range up to the mediocre. I used a binary system for highlighting the ones I consider to be less unremarkable; they use up double the space of the others. There’s also a handy tag there called gamey that marks the games that are more traditional in scope, so you don’t have to bitch to me about how my games are not really games.

A crass and uncouth thing I made for the KOTM. A procedural dating eroge, powered by the Internet.

Play han’you tokimeki (web)

This would not have been possible if not for the Gelbooru API. Blame them.

January, the month named after the Roman god Janus. A god of thresholds between past and future, here and there, he is depicted as having a head bearing two faces staring simultaneously forward and back.

Play January in your browser

In my first collaboration with GregWS, we made a small text game about parallels. We each independently created a literary space by way of the description of places and situations, and then combined the two into a criss-crossing meandering. Fun for the whole family.