TODEPOND TIMES: Slow Magic

Hello! Welcome back! To another weekly edition of the...

🎃🐸 TODEPOND TIMES 🐸🎃

What's new this week?

Magic

Have you seen? I've released a tiny teaser for the next video!

The next youtube video, 🔮 Spellular Automata, will be released on the 31st October! I was trying to get it done for this week (before I go on holiday), but I didn't manage it... So I'm going to push it back for a halloween special instead!

Did you see? Tode and berd are wearing witch-hats. They're now ready to teach you how to cast some advanced-cellular-automata-spells (AKA spellular automata).

Here's the status of the video-making:
🐸 All the code is done!
🐸 All the voice-over is done!
🐸 All the audio is done!
🐸 Some of the footage is done!

I'm away on holiday for a week-and-a-bit now! But I can't wait to get back and finish it!!! It's turning out to be one of my favourites already...

Up and Down

One of the last things I coded for the new video was...

Well, first-of-all, I should say - in the original 🤖 Nothing video, I showed how to increase/decrease the colour value of a cell in CellPond. The 'reed' element decreased its green value every time it grew upwards. This helped us to stop it from growing forever! When its green value got low enough, the 'grow' rule stopped firing.

However, I got a lot of feedback about how that section of the video was quite confusing. And, I agree. The way it worked was quite hard to explain & use. I'm still finding it hard right now!

So, for the new video, I got rid of it! And replaced it with a new way of increasing/decreasing the colour values of a cell. The HEXAGON can do it!

Down and Up

However, although the hexagon simplifies some things... In some other ways, it's EVEN MORE CONFUSING! To decrease a value, fill in some of the hexagon's left side. To increase a value, fill in some of the hexagon's right side. Also, each side of the hexagon has three sections. These sections represent increasing/decreasing by 1, 2 and 3 (from bottom-to-top)...

If this all sounds confusing to you, that's because it is! Hopefully the youtube video can demonstrate it a little bit better in the end.

Honestly, I think: When you've got a wacky idea for a new user-interface... It's a great learning experience to JUST MAKE IT. So I'm really glad that I did. That being said...

By making and using this hexagon-style menu, I now think... that I finally have a much better idea for solving some of CellPond's issues! And it doesn't involve adding new shapes. It can all be done with just the original three:

🐸 Square
🐸 Triangle
🐸 Circle

But hey! That'll have to wait until another video! When 🔮 Spellular Automata releases, it'll be time for patrons to vote on what video I make! Do you think another CellPond video will win? Let's wait and see :)

Thank you so much for your continued support of my videos & projects! And welcome to all my new patrons! I can't believe there are still new people joining us every week. I really do appreciate your help. See you next week for another TODEPOND TIMES! 🎃🐸🎃