RubixsQube

This weekend I streamed a few games, which you can watch here: I played: Always Support the Danger Layer (link to portion of the video here) This Crazy Robot - Pizza Tonight (link to portion of the video here) Shootie Pizza (link to portion of the video here) Meet the Kerfluffles (link to portion of the video here) Unmasking the Brain Burglar (link to portion of the video here) (I play through the entirety of this game and SUPPLY MY OWN VOICE ACTING FREE OF CHARGE) ALL VERY FUN, AND ALL WORTH PLAYING

I released the game on itch.io, complete with all of the audio, in time for the Showcase Weekend . Think of it like an emulated version. I'm going spend a little more time making sure that all of the various utterances work on the Echo version, and hopefully submit that one soon!

So, after a weekend mostly setting up the game, I've been able to spend the last few nights writing it all in Twine. I went and brainstormed a series of interesting ideas to play with for Choose Your Own Adventure style games and for Alexa in general, and I'm (very slowly) incorporating everything into the game. Alexa doesn't have the comic timing that I wish she had (although I think that if I get a chance to do some last minute polishing I can probably program some in with carefully placed break/pause commands), but she's got a fun voice to play with. Right now, much of the game is commanded with "go left" or "go right" or "yes/no" commands, and I will need to go through and fiddle with the intentions so that I can allow for more exciting inputs. Let's hope that I can get things done on the flight out to Europe this weekend. The most exciting aspect is that since my Echo is associated with my developer account, I can just turn around and gametest with an actual Echo in my room. I put an early clip from the game up on the slack channel, if you want to listen.

@Synnah - that is the BEST NEWS that I could possibly hear. You've been really helpful with my Jam games in the past, and I definitely will let you know if I run into any problems. What I'd like to do is get everything set up so that all I have to do is fumble around with the Twine2 writing. Last night and tonight I: - Set up my Lambda function, and my core game files, and connected everything. - Tested this using the simulator - Fiddled with Amazon's example code so that I could include SSML commands in Twine2. This is VERY EXCITING since this means that I can make Alexa talk in different voices, or loudly, or in a whisper. Also, I can play their like, build in audio files, which are very goofy. - Rewrote the example code so that Alexa doesn't dictate the possible choices each time you enter a different Twine passage. I still need to fiddle with this, since I don't want to make a straight-up adventure game, and this is going to mean that I need to really understand the Intents and Utterances. The example code is built with classic utterances, and I'm still a little bit confused as to how a given Twine2 choice is picked from a given voice command. Also, I need to research Alexa trivia skills to see how to program an open-ended choice. I don't even know if that's possible in Twine. ANYWAY, it's been pretty fun and silly, it's just disappointing that there won't be any gifs to show in this thread, since my game is entirely audio!

U P D A T E: THE GAME HAS BEEN RELEASED ON ITCH.IO. I have to do some more tweaking on the amazon echo version, but for now you can play a version in your browser with the game audio. It's ALMOST like playing it with an echo! I hope someone tries it out for the Showcase Weekend! ORIGINAL POST BELOW: For my S E V E N T H Wizard Jam entry, I am going to making a game based on Important if True Episode 53 Alexa, Destroy Me. I have to go to Amsterdam for work during the second week of the Jam, but hopefully this weekend and next week I can put something together. These Wizard Jams have always been so much fun, and I wouldn't want to start 2019 on the wrong foot. Important if True is a podcast about a lot of things, but I think one of the primary threads was the weirdness of current technology. In Episode 53, Jake and Chris (and glitchy roboNick) discuss the Amazon Echo, and it's Alexa Digital Assistant, at length, focusing on the weird laughing that some users reported. Eventually, the command phrase for triggering laughter became: "Alexa, can you laugh?" Chris brought up the inherent strangeness of asking a tiny cylinder if it's able to laugh. He's correct. The fact that people have tiny plastic boxes in their house now that they talk with on the regular is one of these frogs-in-slowly-rising-temperature-water things that defines modern living. You see, silicon valley engineers seemingly are so preoccupied with whether or not they can, they never stop to think if they should. So I'm gonna build an Alexa App. And it's gonna be triggered with "Alexa Destroy Me." And it's gonna explore the weirdness of talking with a ladies voice coming out of a mediocre speaker on a black plastic tube. I know that not many people own Amazon Echoes, so I'm trying to figure out how I might build the same program in Twine so that it can be played in browser, but I'd only do that if I can rig it to have Twine speak the lines, since that's more than half the fun. Last night I started my Amazon developer accounts and whipped up a simple adventure game model in order to see whether or not this was even possible, and it looks like it is. I think that I'm mostly worried about actually submitting the Alexa App through Amazon so that it can actually be played on an Echo. SO I HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO. I wonder if anyone else has any experience with Amazon Echo development! I wonder if Amazon will approve of whatever weirdness I write! I wonder if this was A Mistake!

I've also been into LttP randomizer runs (and that dope Super Metroid / LttP randomizer run from GDQx a few months ago), but I kind of wish that I knew LttP better in order to try it out. I've beaten the game a handful of times, but I've never sought out 100% of the items, and my knowledge of any of the dungeons (or those giant rooms full of treasure chests) is a little lacking. I'd love to see the logic that goes into the randomization - you mentioned there was an Easy mode where no major glitches are required. Is there a place where this is all set out? Edit: Oh, I guess I should just go and look this up myself! There are some resources online here.

Ummm, I think that to be honest, they're cheaper brown dress shoes from H&M? I can double check when I get home, but I don't think they're the fanciest. EDIT: Confirmed, H&M brown dress shoes.

I got married a few weeks ago. Here are two images that I thought were pretty neat. The mountain behind us features the MMT, which you can see as a little white dot on the left side of Lara here (upside down, because it's artistic) Also these are my groomsfolks all looking like an ad for indochino. I am 100% sure that I used the code Thumbs at checkout to get my wedding suit.

I beat Hollow Knight this weekend, but only the Lame Ending, where I got something like 88% completion, and I AM HAPPY WITH THAT It's a good game with a stupidly slow opening that almost made me abandon it out of tedium. Once it opens up and like, you get a little bit more movement options, it's great, but man, that initial hump of like, boredom mixed with one very tough boss fight was not the best.

If anyone wants to hear me ramble about my job working on a space telescope, or about science communication and gender representation in astronomy, I was a guest on the Talk Nerdy podcast this week. I said that Hubble was "almost 20 years old" when I actually should have said "almost 30 years old," because time has a way of continuing to pass and you think that the early nineties is much closer than it actually is. Death is around the corner everyone, so have a good tuesday

I know that this is not going to be a super popular opinion, but another great answer for entertaining people in a goofy, approachable way for a while is the oft decried 1-2-Switch. I have pulled that out at a bunch of gatherings with friends and families and it's been really fantastically fun. Here's a photo my Dad and my wife getting ready for a showdown (on my parent's homemade back patio tiki bar): we had more than a few hours of goofy laughter and fun. Overcooked and Jackbox are fine, but Jackbox requires a group of people who are all at around the same level of humor understanding, and Overcooked requires a bunch of people who want to work together and can communicate well. 1-2-Switch mostly just requires two people to play a simple game together, with people watching.

This may be my favorite game from this year's jam! (here's a hyperlink directly to the part where I play the game) As I mentioned at length in the slack channel, this is super reminiscent of what I do at my work sometimes, so it was fun to see it codified into a pretty winning game. Thank you!

I played a few levels and then got hopelessly stuck last night: (here's a link directly to me playing your game) I must have been overlooking something completely obvious. I am also profoundly bad at reading instructions, so maybe I missed a key bit of explaining. It's such a gorgeous game, and I'm sad that I couldn't progress any farther!

I think you saw this last night, but here's my run through of (part of) your charming game: (here's the link directly to the part if the player doesn't do what it's supposed to) I really wish I had thought to right click on the rock to be mined, I'm such a dummy. This was very relaxing, as you probably were hoping, and the voice acting was great!

I played your game last night! (link to exact time if this player doesn't do it right) I really enjoyed it, even in its weird rough unfinished state. Up until I realized that I didn't know if I had discovered all of the content there was in the game.