To Return By Way Of Jamming

 

In an effort to somehow force myself to address it "properly," I've suppressed just about every article idea, game design screed, and personal musing that might've appeared here for a Very Long Time™.
The way I managed to burn myself out on multiple beloved things all at once by simply trying to write about them every day was... really quite remarkable, and an explanation of that will simply have to wait, because...

There Is No Time

The fourth annual PICO-8 Game Jam that's inspired by the works of Stephen King is almost upon us, and for once I intend to do something about it.
Your friendly neighborhood Xeneth is on the ropes, to be sure; he's been sitting on the sidelines and feeling, well, QUITE BAD about the state of Video Games, both as an industry that he's exiled himself from and as a medium, but...
Well, that's the thing.

There Are No Buts

Either I create something, or accept the persistent internal narrative that I was granted but a single talent, and it wasn't the gift of creativity that a young person might fancy having. And no, there's also no time to get into what that talent might've been, (not a SKILL, mind you, the choice of words is deliberate.) There is barely enough slack to bone up on the intentionally limited fantasy game console engine PICO-8!

There Might Be Lords

In classic procrastination fashion, a week ago I pictured having to desperately select some Stephen King novel to speed-read, but PiCoSteveMo is no book club, and I was... not surprised - puzzled? Amused, at the very least, to discover that the lovely Topic Lords community hosting this event doesn't really put much stock in all those fancy words Mr. King is so prolific about having pressed into dead trees and digital paper. A theme that emerged from novelty and whimsy, as opposed to fandom and reverence, perhaps?
Predictably, there is no time for historical research on the previous years of the jam either. (However, put a pin in that, a big old hat-securing one, since I quite like the idea of playing through all the past entries and doing some sort of rundown...)

While I haven't actually read any of The King's books, there's certainly a lot of cultural osmosis to draw upon given how much of his work has been adapted into or informed television, movies, comics; you name it.

So I Should Just...

What's the big idea so far? Well, I've got no confidence in my ability to learn engineering in less than a month, so whatever this winds up being is gonna have to match the scope that a step-by-step YouTube tutorial could provide. I've got a very hazy memory of some sort of special limited series or made for TV movie that I'm now officially forbidden from seeking out or re-watching; half-baked memories ONLY.

More on that Next Time!

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