Also featuring game jams, Sekiro, Minions, and more
Hello there!
I am back after a bit of a break. To make up for it, here’s a longer than usual issue of my newsletter where I share updates about me, this site, and other miscellaneous things.
Here’s what’s new since the last issue:
Recent updates
Grant Sanderson of 3Blue1Brown is back this year with another Summer of Maths Exposition (SoME #2). The goal of this contest is to encourage people to create some awesome maths explainers. You can read my article on SoME #2 for more details about the contest. There’s only one month left to submit your explainers, so this is a good time to get started!
The GMTK Game Jam 2022 is live! The GMTK game jam started in 2017 and has been taking place every year in July since then. The theme of this year’s jam is “Roll of the Dice”. You must create and share a playable game based on the theme in less than 50 hours. It is not easy to create a game that works and is also fun to play in this short period of time, and yet each year, we see some amazing games come out of these game jams. Read more about the GMTK game jam 2022 →
Only 24 of the 50 hours of the jam are left at the time of writing this post, so it would be difficult for you to submit a game for this game jam if you didn’t know about it before. You can, however, play the games submitted in the jam and vote for the ones you like. You can also start preparing for next year’s GMTK game jam. GMTK’s YouTube channel is great place to learn about concepts in game design. Pick a game engine such as Godot or Bevy and start making your own game!
The GMTK game jam is only one of the very many game jams that happen. You can find more jams on itch.io. The schedule is jam-packed with game jams. There is always some jam in progress and some upcoming jams that you can look forward to participate in.
Speaking of games, I started playing Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
It’s another masterpiece by From Software. In this game, you are a Shinobi warrior in Japan trying to fight Dragonrot.
It is a fun and exciting game that rewards persistence, determination, and exploration. The game seems terrifyingly difficult, and at times, even impossible. However, you must remember that the developers of this game are on your side. They want you to succeed. Keep trying! You will learn something with each death, you will get better at this game. When you finally defeat that difficult boss that you were stuck on for so long, it’s the best feeling in the world.
I am down to my last of health and I have used up all health potions and pellets after defeating a difficult boss. I realise to my horror that the boss has a second phase.
Sekiro differs from the Dark Souls games in many aspects. Unlike Dark Souls, this game has only one weapon, the sword. It does not punish you for teleporting to the last checkpoint. The game let’s you die once and resurrect without having to start from the last checkpoint. There is no stamina meter, you can keep sprinting without tiring. There is even a jump button in this game!
And yet, it is a From Software game at heart. The combat is fun, you will die again and again and again, dying will hurt as you will lose your precious skill points and coints, and of course, there is no difficulty setting. I have played it for about 15 hours and am stuck on some difficult bosses, but I am confident I will be able to defeat them all.
I watched Minions: The Rise of Gru last week. It was a delight to hear Steve Carell’s voice as Young Gru. I also loved that we got to meet the younger versions of many characters from the Despicable Me movies.
This is a great time to be watching TV shows.
The first episode of Better Call Saul after the mid-season break premiered last Monday. The episode was one hour long, but it was so packed with action that it only felt like five minutes. I was holding my breath and was on the edge of my seat the whole time. The story is approaching the start of Breaking Bad when we first see Saul in that show. There are only five episodes left and the show will be over in five weeks. I will be sad when this show ends :(
Volume 2 of Stranger Things 4 came out on July 1. Unfortunately for me, some details of the ending were spoiled for me, but I enjoyed watching the show nonetheless.
Season 2 of Only Murders in the Building is going on. It is as intriguing as the first season. Steve Martin and Martin Short are an amazing duo.
The first two episodes of season 4 of What We Do in the Shadows premiered this Tuesday. Nadja, Nandor, Lazlo, and Gizmo are all reunited once again!
I wrote a photopoem titled rain train. Here’s the photoand here’s the poem →
Some fun stuff for you
JWST images
The first photographs taken by James Webb Space Telescope were released this week. They look beautiful. This one’s my favourite:The Carina NebulaCheck out the full resolutions images on NASA’s website →
YouTube videos
Here are some YouTube videos that I watched and enjoyed recently:
I used to love playing the Harry Potter games on PC. Which is why I was delighted when I found this interview with Christo Vuchetich, a game designer who worked on the Harry Potter PC games. It is incredible how the game was made in a year with very little access to how the Harry Potter movies would look like. An interview on the Chamber of Secrets game is coming soon. I cannot wait to watch it.
Regular tic-tac-toe becomes boring after a while. If both players play optimally, then the game will end in a tie. I would like to introduce you to a bidding version of the same game. In regular tic-tac-toe, both players take turns alternatingly to place their respective symbol on the grid. In the bidding version, both players start with a limited fund of say 100 points. At the start of each turn, they both bid some points. The player with the higher bid gets to place their symbol on the grid but must pay their bid amount to the other player.
The players must not only decide where to place their symbol in their turn in case they win the bid, but they must also decide how much to bid. Should they go all in in the start and occupy a good starting square? Or should they save their points for the endgame to play several turns at one and deliver a deathblow? You can try it yourself and play with a friend on this website: Bidding TTT
You might have played the game Wordle where you try to guess a word in 5 tries. You may like Quordle more. In this game, you are required to guess four words within nine guesses. In case this was not enough, you can try Duotrigordle. In this game, you must guess 32 words and you have 37 guesses to do so. It was surprised to find that Duotrigordle was easier than Quordle. Let me know which variant of Wordle is your favourite.
Two songs
Here are two songs from Eurovision that you may enjoy:
