Dragon Drop

It's TIME for the weekly...

🐲 TODEPOND TIMES 🐲

What's new this week?

Dragon Drop

The next video I make will be all about a ✨ Drag & Drop user-interface for making your own cellular automata elements. This week, I've been working hard to make the behind-the-scenes bits for how that will work. I've placeholder-named it Dragon because I think "Drag & Drop" sounds sort of like "Dragon Drop"...(?)

It works like this: You make colours. You drag those colours into diagrams. You register those diagrams as 'before and after' rules. Those rules are used to run the world.

I got really stuck on some things, like making sure everything would reflect properly (when you want to make a symmetrical rule).

I also got really stuck on making 'redundant' rules. Let me explain...

- TECHNICAL STUFF INCOMING -

Let's say you want to make a rule that makes a Sand cell fall downwards... You would make a rule that does something like this: "If there is an Empty cell below me, swap with it."

However! We could also write an equivalent rule from the point of view of the Empty cell: "If there is a Sand cell above me, swap with it."

I want Dragon to automatically work out all of these 'equivalent' or 'redundant' rules. This helps cells to (a) run faster, and (b) move in a less jerky/biased way!

I finally got it to work but it took over a day... Phew...

- TECHNICAL STUFF FINISHED -

TodePond Time

I always set deadlines for my videos and projects. This helps me to stay focused, which helps me finish stuff more quickly! Without these deadlines, I find it quite easy to get distracted by 'perfecting' things that don't need to be perfected. So I think they are very useful.

However, I am starting to predictably fail to meet my self-imposed deadlines! I will try hard to get back on track! (though I may get a bit behind first)

Just to let you know, I'm currently working full-time on all of my projects! I won't be able to do this forever, but I'm trying to make the most of it while I can!

SandRoost Saga

It looks like the next-next video might be ✨ New Cellular Automata! I've been planning out how that video could work.

I want the video to address the themes of 'originality', 'new-ness', and 'is it ok/worthwhile to do the same as someone else'. (Spoiler alert: It is!)

Currently, I'm thinking that one of the gimmicks of the video would be that it isn't actually a 'SandPond Saga' video (hosted by a toad). Instead, it could be the 'SandRoost Saga' (hosted by a bird). In other words, a COPY of the SandPond Saga.

The bird will try and try and try to make something new... each time, posting it up somewhere online. But every single time... people on the internet comment and tell the bird that their work is a rip-off or copy of something else... Poor bird! 

Discord

Our discord server is growing! I hid a link to the discord server in the SandPond source code, and some clever people found it! I'm pleasantly surprised (and impressed)! Activity on the server has really increased! People are sharing lots of cool+interesting things, which is great!

I know that most discord servers have different channels to discuss different things, but we just have a few. If our main #everything channel gets too busy, I might make some other channels. But for now, I'd like to keep the little community together in one place. I always prefer things to be as simple as possible (but no simpler)!

I have decided to try out a #music channel though... where you can show/post music that you think is tode-worthy. The intention of this isn't to take some of the posts away from #everything. You are still very welcome to post music in #everything if you'd like. But if you want it to be more visible, you can post it in #music.

I hope that we can continue to build a welcoming + inclusive + supportive pond!

Welcome to my new patrons! Thank you everyone for continuing to support me and my projects. See you next week! 🐸🐉