proofread articles up to Dec 10; made project page consistent; improved presskit page and added PDF download version

2020-11-29 21:35:55 -06:00
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 november 26, 2020<br>
 #sideproject<br>
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-Getting started with blessfrey's AI was overwhelming, so I took a break and worked on a new game. I didn't get very far, but it's very very cute to me. It's not even on my hard drive anymore. <br>
+Getting started with blessfrey's AI was overwhelming, so I took a break and worked on a new game. I didn't get very far. It's not even on my hard drive anymore. It's cute, though. <br>
 <br>
-Unlike blessfrey, where coding takes up 90% of the effort, pretendOS is mostly reasonably polished assets and sounds with barely any functionality. It's a UI game, after all. Since it's a game requiring a completely opposite skill-set, I was able to make progress on <i>something</i> while reading up on game AI. (Programming Game AI by Example by Mat Buckland was a good resource to me, by the way.) I also got to work on things I never get around to with blessfrey, like particle effects. <br>
+Unlike blessfrey, where coding takes up 90% of the effort, pretendOS is mostly graphical assets + sounds with barely any functionality. It's a UI game, after all. Since it's a game requiring a completely opposite skill-set, I was able to make progress on <i>something</i> while reading up on game AI. I also got to work on new things like particle effects. <br>
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 <h2>Inspiration </h2>
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 <h3>Windows XP</h3>
-The game takes strong aesthetic inspiration from Windows XP. It almost fits the 90s vaporwave trend at the moment, but I'm too young to really remember Windows 95. I obviously have nostalgia for it as my first operating system (as far as I remember - I was a toddler then), but I mostly knew it as the Lego Island machine propped up in the dining room. As my family upgraded computers over the years, Windows never really impacted me as anything more than something that can run some videogames and whatever popular web browser of the time. That is, until Windows XP. <br>
+The game takes strong aesthetic inspiration from Windows XP. It almost fits the 90s vaporwave trend, but I'm too young to really remember Windows 95. I obviously have nostalgia for it as my first operating system (as far as I remember - I was a toddler then), but I mostly knew it as the Lego Island machine propped up in the dining room. As my family upgraded computers over the years, Windows never really impacted me as anything more than something that can run some videogames and whatever popular web browser of the time. That is, until Windows XP. <br>
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-XP really hooked me. It was the first operating system I spent as much time exploring as I spent using software. XP's edition of Paint was my favorite yet, I loved fiddling with the themes and accessibility options, especially Microsoft Sam, Rover, and Clippy. I started watching Youtube videos on how to use the Command Prompt. XP was just fun to use. I've found better desktop environments and operating systems since, but I never got over that aesthetic: smooth, blended graphics with hard pixel edges in 32-bit color with an alpha channel, right at the cusp between pixel art and vector graphics. My vaporwave would be XP in Luna olive green, or the "Fisher-Price interface" as Ars Technica users called it. <br>
+XP really hooked me. It was the first operating system I spent as much time exploring as I spent using software. XP's edition of Paint was my favorite yet, I loved fiddling with the themes and accessibility options, especially Microsoft Sam, Rover, and Clippy. I started watching Youtube videos on how to use the Command Prompt. XP was just fun to use. I've found better desktop environments and operating systems since, but I never got over that aesthetic: smooth, blended graphics with hard pixel edges in 32-bit color with an alpha channel, right at the cusp between pixel art and vector graphics. Vaporwave for me is Luna olive green, or the "Fisher-Price interface" as Ars Technica users called it. <br>
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 <img src="/static/img/ent/wikipedia_luna.png" alt="(image: Wikipedia excerpt: Critics who did not like the theme characterized it as a 'Fisher-Price interface'.)"><br>
 (screenshot from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP_visual_styles">Wikipedia</a> - referencing articles from <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20091008081626/http://www.pcworld.com/article/117427/full_disclosure_your_take_on_windows_worst_irritations.html">PCWorld</a> and <a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/memory-lane-before-everyone-loved-windows-xp-they-hated-it/">Ars Technica</a>)<br>
@@ -22,10 +22,10 @@ XP really hooked me. It was the first operating system I spent as much time expl
 There were a few other experiences behind the game, too. <br>
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 <h3>Mother's Day E-Card</h3>
-I finally got my husband to try Godot Engine, and he used it to make a digital Mother's Day card for his mom. Opening the card displayed a 3D heart (a "cardioid") that bounced to the beat of a song while 2D cardioid particles rained down. It was all programmatically generated using geometry instead of 3D + 2D assets, so the application was very small. He made the graphics side of things look really interesting, and I wanted to play around with particles, too. Just...not as fancy;; <br>
+I finally got my husband to try Godot Engine, and he used it to make a digital Mother's Day card for his mom. (Cute.) Opening the card displayed a 3D heart (a "cardioid") that bounced to the beat of a song while 2D cardioid particles rained down. It was all programmatically generated using geometry instead of 3D + 2D assets, so the application was very small. He made the graphics side of things look really interesting, and I wanted to play around with particles, too. Just...not as fancy;; <br>
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 <h3>Secret Little Haven</h3>
-I also just played a cute pretend OS game on itch called <a href="https://ristar.itch.io/secret-little-haven">Secret Little Haven</a> It's quite short, very story-driven, and kind of buggy, telling Alex's struggle with gender identity through IMs. Honestly, pretend OS games and coming-of-age chat sims are nothing special, but Secret Little Haven's believability makes it really stand out. Instead of defending against cheesy + inaccurate deep web hacking attempts, you use an in-game terminal to get around child locks set by Alex's dad. Those terminal puzzles are the most realistic and relatable hacking I've seen in these games. SLH isn't super sophisticated or in-depth, but it shows how cute and believable a pretend OS game can be. I'd love to make a little environment like that, that's as fun to fiddle around with as XP was for me. <br>
+I also just played a cute pretend OS game on itch called <a href="https://ristar.itch.io/secret-little-haven">Secret Little Haven</a> It's quite short, very story-driven, and kind of buggy, telling Alex's struggle with gender identity through IMs. Honestly, pretend OS games and coming-of-age chat sims are nothing special, but Secret Little Haven's believability makes it really stand out. Instead of defending against cheesy + inaccurate deep web hacking attempts, you use an in-game terminal to get around child locks set by Alex's dad. Those terminal puzzles are the most realistic and relatable hacking I've seen in these games. SLH isn't super sophisticated or in-depth, but it shows how cute and believable a pretend OS game can be. I'd love to make a little environment like that, that's as fun to fiddle around with as XP. <br>
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 <h2>pretendOS </h2>
@@ -45,5 +45,5 @@ The rest is cute, though. The icon winks when you click it, the cursor's kinda 2
 <br>
 <h2>the future</h2>
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-It's cute. I'd like it to be finished in some way. I went ahead and cloned my old repo. Maybe I'll fill it out with some more applications for a game jam or something or at least finally get that cool Secret Little Haven curved screen shader working. <br>
+It's cute. I'd like it to be finished in some way. I went ahead and cloned my old repo. Maybe I'll fill it out with more applications during a game jam or something or at least finally get that cool Secret Little Haven curved screen shader working. <br>
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