I'm not doing Advent this year.
Everything became a bit of a disaster.

-=-=-

What I Didn't Do

The original plan was Greenie's Typing Tutorium, and things seemed to be going well enough, until they suddenly didn't, and the entire endeavour was abandoned at the last minute.



So, instead, I thought I'd "A.I. Up" some ideas.
I came up with an interesting concept for the AI's to work with.

1. Imagine a list of the top two games from every era of videogame history, from retro 8-bit home computers, to arcade machines, to modern VR gaming, and everything in-between.
It made a nice enough list.

2. Imagine you've NEVER played a videogame in your life, but that you had to write a game on a ZX Spectrum, based only on each of those titles. What might those games play like?
I got another nice big list, with plenty of details, if I'm honest. Each game had a little gameplay description, and all seemed well enough.

3. Give these new games a title based only on the descriptions you've provided.
Again, a lovely list was returned.

This is about 2 weeks ago, and I thought "Yeah, I could do that..", and I did indeed start doing that..
I jumped on board, made game number one, then game number two, then kinda half-assed game number three, then noticed a pattern and read ahead.

... Which .. if I'm honest, I probably should've done before.

Once you got down to the nitty gritty of the concepts, pretty much everything ended up being the same bloomin' game.

Duck Hunt : Hunt for eggs in a Maze
Tomb Raider : Hunt for treasures in a Maze
Beat Saber : Search for neon swords inside a dark Maze
..
Oh dear..

...
So I gave up with that concept, too.

Ugh. The amount of time I've wasted on Advent over the past couple of months is incredible!!

Instead, then, I'm just going to throw random crap out there, and see if anything's worthwhile.
Every day I'll try my best to give you something interesting, be it a game or a tool or a tweak to a tool or... whatever it be.
I'm sorry that Advent's been a bit of a bust, this year.
I hope I can amuse you over the coming weeks.

I'm not doing Advent..

-=-=-

Day One : Orebit Frenzy

Click to Play!

Orebit Frenzy : (Initial game title. Manic Miner)
Deep inside the mines, a manic orb of ore searches for gems before exiting the mine on the right.
The player controls a tiny "orebit," a chunk of ore spinning out of control in a collapsing mine. The screen is filled with obstacles (ASCII boulders) falling from the top. Players must navigate through narrow gaps to collect glowing energy cores while avoiding getting squashed.

Controls

- Roll

You can Play Orebit Frenzy in JSE.

A.I. Corner

Lyrics by ChatGPT based on the game's description
> Reveal 🔎
: Download | Suno Link

I gotta say, if the game lived up to how exciting that theme tune sounds, it'd be one heck of a fun game!!!

Alternative version
: Download | Suno Link

I think that one includes a review for the game...?

Sung by Suno


"Derek standing in a dark underground mineshaft. A glowing orb of colourful gems lights up the mine. Derek holds a sign that reads "I'm not doing Advent", cinematic lighting, movie poster art" by Replicate/Flux

> Reveal 🔎