Star Wars, side projects, and strange ideas

Happy Star Wars Day! I am writing this whilst wearing a Millennium Falcon T-shirt and watching the latest episode of the new Darth Maul series on Disney+.

So anyway, last week I was working on my game for the gamedev.js game jam, and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. Called Code Machine, it features a little robot that you control through a maze of chaotic rooms using a simple set of commands. Because of a lot of the built-in features of BeepMini, I was able to build it without doing any art, music, or sound effects, which instantly speeds development up. I did spend a bit of time improving the automatic (procedural) music, which made it sound a lot more natural, but I didn’t have to do any composition. Your ears will be grateful for that, I’m sure.

I also added some new features to BeepMini, the biggest being a simple UI layer that lets you add touch controls (buttons and regions) to games. It kind of breaks the retro console vibe, but it’s a big benefit for mobile users, and it works well enough.

Since then, I’ve been working on Brush Ninja, trying to improve the teacher content and make it more useful for people who are new to animation. Content isn’t something I feel particularly confident with, but I’m hoping this turns into a genuinely helpful resource.

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Cursor Camp

Neal Agarwal has been online for a long time, making fun and interesting apps on his website neal.fun. This latest one I find particularly fascinating.

Cursor Camp is a virtual summer camp for mouse cursors. You can join the camp (no account needed) and browse the different activities. One of the first things I did was spot a hat, so I clicked it and ended up wearing a tiny version.

You can go in clubhouses, explore caves, swim in the pool, and do all sorts of camp-based activities.

What I find particularly interesting is that the camp is multiplayer. You can see other people (cursors) wandering around and exploring the same spaces as you.

There’s no chat in the game and no direct interaction between players, which feels quite refreshing. After all these years of online games and social media, it’s nice to see something that tries a different approach.

As a developer, this is especially interesting. I’m fascinated by the idea of a multiplayer experience that doesn’t need moderation or child safety systems. Having worked at Miniclip, where keeping content safe for minors was always a concern, and now working on Brush Ninja, which is used by a lot of children, the idea of a shared space without age checks, moderation, or even accounts is really appealing. It’s a fun design challenge, and I think Neal has done a great job with it.

Try Cursor Camp

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Mandalorian and Grogu

The latest Star Wars film comes out on May 22nd in the UK. I assume it’s a similar date elsewhere, and I’m really looking forward to it. I grew up with Star Wars, so it’s become a big part of my personality. I have fond memories of watching the original trilogy at home, and later seeing the prequels at the cinema.

Watch the trailer

Disney buying Lucasfilm and making new Star Wars films has been a bit of a mixed bag. I’ve enjoyed many of them as standalone movies, but most haven’t quite brought back the magic I felt watching the George Lucas films. The big exception for me is Rogue One. Unfortunately, some of the louder parts of the fandom have also been very critical of the newer films, often for the wrong reasons, which is disappointing. Because of that, Disney paused a lot of their film plans, so this is the first new Star Wars film in over seven years.

Fortunately, it’s based on the very popular Disney+ series The Mandalorian, and to me the trailer looks like a return to the kind of classic Star Wars I enjoy.

I mentioned Adam Savage and his behind-the-scenes videos in a previous newsletter, and in this recent one he goes behind the scenes of The Mandalorian. I love that Grogu is mostly a puppet, like Yoda in the original films. I think that physical presence is a big part of why the character works so well, and it’s great they’ve stuck with it.

They’ve also used more physical sets this time. The series made great use of virtual production techniques like the “Volume”, but with more time and budget, they’ve been able to push things further.

See Adam Savage behind the scenes

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Disney’s Songs in Sign Language

This is a really lovely project by Disney Animation. They’ve taken some of their most popular songs and created sign language versions, reanimating the original performances so the characters sign as they sing.

It works incredibly well. Half the time, if you didn’t know it was sign language, you might not even notice, or you might just assume it’s part of the choreography.

I quite like the idea of learning sign language. I learnt the alphabet and a few words when I was younger, and I think it’s great that Disney have made these videos. It’s a really nice way to make their content more accessible, and it also helps raise awareness of sign language in general.

Here’s a short behind-the-scenes video showing the deaf actors performing the songs in sign, alongside the animated versions.

The videos were released on Disney+ last week.

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Sparked Discoveries

Here’s a handful of links I found intriguing recently:

Bamboo Plastic

Not exactly creative, but this new bamboo-based plastic that biodegrades in two months when buried in soil sounds amazing. Current bamboo plastics are bamboo fibres mixed with regular plastic, so they don’t fully biodegrade. This new approach dissolves the fibres and reforms them into a plastic-like material that is fully biodegradable and has similar properties to oil-based plastics. I hope this becomes widely available soon. It would be great if we could replace more materials with something like this.

Panic Mail

Panic is a software company that has been making Apple software for a long time. A few years ago they moved into games, started publishing them, and later created their own handheld console. They’ve always done things a bit differently, and this is no exception. Some of their games include a message in the credits suggesting you write to the developers, and they “may” write back.

This turned into something much bigger than expected. Instead of just sending envelopes for patches, players started mailing in heartfelt notes, strange gifts, and personal stories. In return, they get a small reply. It’s simple, but it’s created something genuinely special.

In this increasingly digital world it’s refreshing to see something personal and physical/ tangible. I love this kind of thing!

Your AI Slop Bores Me

Whatever your stance on AI, this is quite a funny website. You can either be an AI “user” and ask questions, or you can be the AI itself and answer random questions. All of the “AI” responses are written by other users.

Just in case: LARP = Live Action Role Play, so people are pretending to be an AI and giving their best impression of how one might respond.

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Currently…

This was a coincidence, since I’d forgotten it was Star Wars Day coming up, but last week I watched Elstree 1976. It’s a documentary about the making of Star Wars and other films at Elstree Studios.

It focuses on people you don’t normally hear from. Aside from David Prowse and Jeremy Bulloch, I hadn’t heard of most of them before, which actually made it more interesting. They all had great stories about working on the film and their experiences on set. There’s also plenty of archive footage, some of which I hadn’t seen before, which is always a bonus.