I've wanted to port or remake Probability 0 for a while, but the task seemed daunting, impossible. How could any one person make so many individual elements? I have some recent experience with developing a game one tiny piece at a time:

31 unmarked games was made in 31 pieces across 31 days, a month-long 31-game jam of sorts. In that project, though, the lines of development are extremely clear, perhaps even uninspiringly so. It doesn't feel like an impossible artifact with all its layers stored inside and beneath each other -- 31 unmarked games feels like thirty-one separate things, glued together. This is by design.

When I think back to Probability 0, I think of the entire game. It has three game-modes, fifteen enemies organized into three tiers (easy, hard, and secret enemies which only appear after 1000km or something), stars, punches, hitboxes, a skill tree (pictured below), four or five boss-type enemies, a menu, and more.

PROC 0 - RANDOM WALK

I spent a few hours browsing Pinterest and gluing together a bunch of pins into something, but it never coalesced into a whole-ass form. (I won't link the board here.) Of course I added things I liked and I removed things I disliked but this is no procedure; this is a random walk. It's not going to take me anywhere at all.

PROC 1 - FIND SOMEONE ELSE'S INSPO BOARD

Based on How to Use Pinterest Effectively,

1. Think of something that inspires you. Can be an adjective, a character, a celebrity, a colour scheme, a specific piece of clothing.

2. Search for the seed term, something that appeals to you. (* Get in touch with your sense of taste. You don't need to be able to describe what appeals to you so long as you feel it and trust in the feeling.)

3. Find a board that's well-executed.

4+. Repeat, following pins to find more boards. Get a lot of boards. These are resources.

As far as I can tell this advice revolves around finding boards! That's cool.

references:

How to Use Pinterest Effectively

Wardrobe Overhaul

I need a procedure!

"Trends are super pervasive and affect a lot more than you think"

there is no wardrobe philosophy or shopping methodology that is ever going to result in an end state whereupon you are done choosing and purchasing clothes forever. -from a ffa reddit post

Haha, "There is watching pleasure algorithms to be found at work"

I suppose this is just another way of saying that it feels good to watch events occur, right? "Things change." The world goes on by. But I like the words algorithm, and system. They feel a little more bounded, more evocative. An algorithm is going somewhere. A system is something.

A process feels like something I can design, for a purpose.

P.S. since I really like to think of things in terms of overarching megatheories, of course I'd like to include all games in this category. Although 0-player games (Conway's Life) are extremely "just watch an algorithm go," a single-player platformer is also observing a process in action - the only difference is that you, the observer, are also part of the system.

This enjoyment is what drives me to write code in the first place. Programming is the art of designing algorithms and seeing them function.

I've talked before about the beauty of intelligence at work. It's caused me trouble for years.

Quote from: @droqen(2021)the nature of AI. why do we do it! i think that there is a specific feeling, an Aesthetic, a beauty, that i will describe as 'observing intelligence'. i love to peoplewatch. i love to watch crows pick and peck at things. living things with brains are great.

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Quote from: @droqen(2014)Pathfinding is easy, the problem I have is intelligence. (Or maybe I just need to fake the intelligence)

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But I think... seeing things through this lens, there's something beautiful about a situation unfolding even if the situation is plainly made up of randomness. I want to see how something works. Actual intelligence is a source of, perhaps, unlimited complexity. But the first time you run through a procedure, you don't know any of its outcomes. There's no downside to unintelligent procedures in those terms until the second time through.

(That said, I have developed a certain sort of jadedness -- I'm working through my own difficulty with seeing finite outcomes in every game. Actually playing some board games with friends again has been a joy.)

Loop Hero

Idle games are not just games about waiting and watching numbers go up... they're also games about observing an algorithm at work. They are about a beautiful process.

Hoarfrost on branches -photograph by Peter Martin