Still pretty weird.

From: https://portal.constraint.systems

Pretty weird.

More boxes.

More portal work.

The idea

Get a storefront, split it into a front half and a back half. Put six computers in each half. The front half is free for anyone to come and use. The catch is that the free-to-use computers only run the software made in the lab by the in-residence developers that work in the back half.

Things to consider

Boxes.

I think I need to turn recursion off for this project. To be returned to later.

Portal.

More inception experiments.

I take a lot of inspiration from video games but I want to make creative tools. What's the difference between a game and a creative tool?

One big difference seems to be the end goal: with a creative tool you make something you want to share outside of the tool. You export something, often an image or a text document. In a game, you're normally working within the game world. Often you're completing quests. For more creation-oriented games like Minecraft, you're building something and you may even share your creation in the form of screenshots or recordings, but still there's a sense that what you made belongs in the game world and is best experienced there.

Another big difference is primitives. In drawing and painting applications, you're often working at a pretty low-level, defining shapes and colors and paths. In games, you're often acting within a world using an avatar. It's more like making scenes with dolls and action figures (or in Minecraft's case, legos) than it is painting or drawing. The distinction seems to carry over pretty cleanly from the physical world. 3D graphics programs or game development tools like Unity possibly make things a little fuzzier, but even there I think the distinction between playing and creating can mostly be classified according to what level you're intervening at.

Clone.

I meant to write about this quote last time but got sidetracked:

okay, to start, an analogy: long ago, a single person could build the best video game that existed. Adventure didn't require 200 developers and 18 months to get out the door. as technology improved, so did expectations. Adventure was my goal. Today's kids' goal is fortnite. —@steveklabnik

Multiplying.

okay, to start, an analogy: long ago, a sing le person could build the best video game that existed. Adventure didn't require 200 developers and 18 months to get out the door. as technology improved, so did expectations. Adventure was my goal. Today's kids' goal is fortnite. —@steveklabnik

One of the things I keep coming back to is the value of visible seams. The idea that you can look at something and develop a mental model of how it works or how it is made.

The mmm.page editing controls (both mouse and touch) are nicely done. They pack a good set of options in while still feeling lightweight.

From: https://build.mmm.page/

Experimenting with gif frames in space.

Exploring some of the inception possibilities of three.js.

Texture warp with movable control panes.

Modify triangle drawn shape or texture source shape.

Warp network.