lily's recent activity
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Comment on The vast majority ~90% of us only consume, never post and never comment. So come on in, leave a tildes-worthy comment, and join the 10% my dear lurker in ~talk
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Comment on How did you ruin a game for yourself? in ~games
lily Link ParentSame spoilers as the above post. To be fair, the notion of what counts as "completing" a game is, to some level, not strictly defined. If you define it as "reaching the credits", then perhaps it...Same spoilers as the above post.
To be fair, the notion of what counts as "completing" a game is, to some level, not strictly defined. If you define it as "reaching the credits", then perhaps it stops meaning much of anything in this case. But if you define it as "completing the content in the game", then, honestly, nothing really changes here. You could just say the "end point" is when you receive the code!
Games are a lot more than just reaching an ending - they're about all the things in between. I wouldn't say it counts as "completing Myst" in any meaningful way if the player hasn't actually completed any of the game's content. For example, on speedrun.com, while there is an Any% category that indeed can be completed in under a minute, many of the runs instead are for the "All Pages" category, which in my view is a much more impressive accomplishment.
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2025 in ~games
lily Link ParentI'll go with 🐣 - let's call her Daisy. Seeing as she's just a duckling, surely she would appreciate a selection of games to help jumpstart her collection 😉I'll go with 🐣 - let's call her Daisy. Seeing as she's just a duckling, surely she would appreciate a selection of games to help jumpstart her collection 😉
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Comment on Explain Linux controversies to me in ~tech
lily Link ParentI've switched almost entirely to Wayland since at this point major desktop environments handle it well and it does feel smoother on my machine, but it is unfortunate it's the new API that stuck...I've switched almost entirely to Wayland since at this point major desktop environments handle it well and it does feel smoother on my machine, but it is unfortunate it's the new API that stuck and has had all the effort put into supporting it. As a game developer I very much dislike how it handles DPI (though this is an issue on other platforms as well; many of them seem averse to just giving me a window with 1:1 pixel density, and insist on just lying to me about the resolution of the screen/window, when I want to scale my app myself).
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Comment on DELTARUNE, a "parallel story to UNDERTALE", is out! in ~games
lily (edited )Link ParentGood luck, it's a tricky encounter! A few tips for that fight if you want them: Tips/suggestions You want to equip Susie with the mantle. Only she can make meaningful progress in the fight. Don't...Good luck, it's a tricky encounter! A few tips for that fight if you want them:
Tips/suggestions
- You want to equip Susie with the mantle. Only she can make meaningful progress in the fight.
- Don't let Kris or Ralsei die. Make sure you have plenty of ReviveMints on hand. You want to defend with them each turn.
- Use Rude Buster every turn you can. That's where the vast majority of your damage output should come from. If you're on a file you've been attacking on throughout, the PuppetScarf does allow Ralsei to do just enough damage not to be negligible, but I think it's still faster to have him defend for more TP to spend on Rude Busters.
- The previous tip is made easier if you equip Kris and Ralsei with TP-increasing armor. LodeStones from the Green Room vending machine work well for this. They're not good for defense and so make keeping Kris/Ralsei alive a bit harder, but they can reduce the total amount of turns you need to survive for - I was able to use Rude Buster pretty much every turn on my final attempt. I guess you could decide for yourself whether you think that's worth it.
I think I'm a little more positive on Chapter 3 overall than you, but I agree with most of what you've said here. Chapter 4 was the standout of this week's release for me, without a doubt. The backstage games in Chapter 3 were a nice addition that did help to alleviate the chapter's lack of plot elsewhere, but I will admit the Weird Route references were a bit odd to see on my pacifist file, and made me worry if I was doing something wrong. Bit of a weird choice on Toby's part, I think.
EDIT: Well, will you look at that! The bug you experienced has just been fixed in a patch; the item in question will now spawn in a chest in the Green Room if your inventory is full.
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Comment on DELTARUNE, a "parallel story to UNDERTALE", is out! in ~games
lily (edited )Link ParentCurious, what item was it you weren't able to pick up? Depending on what item it was it could either not affect anything or lock you out of something quite major. Generally Deltarune is pretty...Curious, what item was it you weren't able to pick up? Depending on what item it was it could either not affect anything or lock you out of something quite major. Generally Deltarune is pretty good with not locking you out of getting items if your inventory is full, so I'm surprised you had to reload. Never heard of saves "merging" before... not sure how that would be possible, but...
I do think I agree about Chapter 3, though. Tenna did not differentiate himself quite enough from Spamton, in my opinion, and the Zelda-style gameplay was used a little too much. When it was good, it was really good, but I think it needed some edits for pacing.
Also, yeah, you have to be careful when editing saves. Completion data is a little different than a normal file - the correct location for a completed Chapter 2 save (which is all you need here) is, I believe, "Kris's House [Chapter 2 END]", which of course is not a real in-game save point.
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Comment on DELTARUNE, a "parallel story to UNDERTALE", is out! in ~games
lily Link ParentThere is a solid save editor for chapters 1+2 online (https://saveeditor.spamton.com/), which would make it pretty easy to get working saves if you don't want to replay those chapters. You could...There is a solid save editor for chapters 1+2 online (https://saveeditor.spamton.com/), which would make it pretty easy to get working saves if you don't want to replay those chapters. You could also download completed saves online and change the name, probably.
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Comment on Text Formatting in Notepad begin rolling out to Windows Insiders in ~tech
lily LinkI've not liked a lot of the changes they've been making to Notepad, but honestly I don't mind this. I'm actually not aware of another non-Electron program that does this kind of inline Markdown...I've not liked a lot of the changes they've been making to Notepad, but honestly I don't mind this. I'm actually not aware of another non-Electron program that does this kind of inline Markdown formatting. I could see myself using this for writing (though the Copilot integration still makes me feel icky - I wonder if you can strip that out).
I do still keep the original
notepad.exearound, though. Nothing else is as barebones and quick-to-open. Often, that's what I want. Sublime Text also opens quickly, but it has a lot more UI, and since it's persistent my current programming project is usually open there. It adds extra friction to have to create a new tab. Plus, since last year or so the command palette has started to take multiple seconds to open after a cold boot - not sure why that happens, but it's the case on multiple of my machines. -
Comment on What is a Witness-like? in ~games
lily Link ParentI got so lucky on the Challenge. Somehow the secret behind the triangle maze didn't click for me, but despite that I just so happened to be able to get past it in only a few attempts, just by...I got so lucky on the Challenge. Somehow the secret behind the triangle maze didn't click for me, but despite that I just so happened to be able to get past it in only a few attempts, just by running around it randomly. I then somehow managed to complete both pillar puzzles on my first try. I expected it to take me far longer than it did.
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Comment on What is a Witness-like? in ~games
lily Link ParentI've played The Looker before. I enjoyed it, a lot of the jokes were quite well-written. Puzzle-wise, though, I wasn't the hugest fan of it. Watching a friend of mine play it recently solidified...I've played The Looker before. I enjoyed it, a lot of the jokes were quite well-written. Puzzle-wise, though, I wasn't the hugest fan of it. Watching a friend of mine play it recently solidified that for me. The game does not do nearly as good a job teaching you the mechanics as the original does, and so there are a few points where players often get stuck (notably, the door to the shooter segment and the last puzzle before the ending) which for a comedy game like this grinds the pace to a halt.
The puzzle in the hedge maze specifically I really don't like - it doesn't parody the original game in any interesting way, and at least for me and the friend I watched the mechanic simply didn't click the first time through the book. Going back to check again later takes a long time because of the hedge maze. It's a frustrating puzzle, and I don't think it added anything to the game.
Sometimes the game also doesn't really feel to me like it knows what it's trying to be. Some of the jokes just didn't click with me or my friend (namely, a couple of the audio logs). I think the good jokes make up for the few duds, but it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny the whole time, and combined with the occasionally iffy puzzles I think the game really could have used some tightening up.
It is a shame that Jonathan Blow doesn't want to play The Looker. The developer has said he's a fan of the original game, and really it doesn't even make fun of The Witness all too much - in fact, I think the parts of it that work best are more the parts that feel like a loving tribute, rather than the few jokes that do make fun of the original (like the audio logs). It's clearly made by someone who understood what the original game was going for. It doesn't feel mean-spirited to me.
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Comment on What is a Witness-like? in ~games
lily Link ParentThanks, I've put my comment inside a <details> tag. Forgot about those.Thanks, I've put my comment inside a
<details>tag. Forgot about those. -
Comment on What is a Witness-like? in ~games
lily (edited )LinkDiscussion regarding a major part of The Witness. Spoilers for a hidden game mechanic, and multiple puzzles. I've always found it interesting how The Witness is sometimes discussed. A lot of...Discussion regarding a major part of The Witness. Spoilers for a hidden game mechanic, and multiple puzzles.
I've always found it interesting how The Witness is sometimes discussed. A lot of people talk about how the panels are only the surface layer of the game, and how the "real game" is the environmental puzzles... but, I'm not sure I agree with that? The environmental puzzles are neat, no doubt, but I always kind of thought of them as just a bit of a side thing. I discovered them pretty much as early as possible (the large one along the dock as you leave the entry area), so never thought of them as all that much of a "secret". Plus, a lot of them aren't really much of a "puzzle" by some definitions, as a majority of work is just noticing them.
During my playthrough, I completed all the panels in the game, but only a fraction of the environmental puzzles, because I just didn't find seeking them out especially fun. The clues on the monoliths I was never able to make use of for some reason. I didn't consider it a good use of my time to just wander around and hope I'd run into them, so I ended up mostly just treating them as a fun surprise I'd occasionally spot. I think I found maybe a third or so of them in total, which I don't think is all too bad considering I wasn't really trying.
(Also, I'll be a little mean here, I think the ones you have to be on the boat for aren't fun in the slightest. Especially the big shipwreck one. Those puzzles actually do have an execution element, and the time to reset is irritatingly long. Finding them also takes a very long time. The boat is quite slow, even at its highest speed. I gave up trying to find any more of those.)
But, yeah, really I still feel the panels provided the majority of the game's gameplay value to me. While the environmental puzzles are interesting, I don't agree with those who say they're the "real point of the game", because I just don't think they work well enough as a gameplay element (at least to me) to justify that. For me, the game really was just a bunch of nice puzzles on a pretty island!
Interested to know what others think about this.
(Note: I haven't watched the video yet, as it's long and I'm lacking in time. Perhaps it discusses some of this. I'll edit this with anything relevant after I'm able to watch it.)
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Comment on A programming language made for me in ~comp
lily (edited )LinkI haven't yet gotten around to trying Odin, but I have written some stuff in Jai, which has (potentially even had first?) most of the features mentioned in this post, along with quite similar...I haven't yet gotten around to trying Odin, but I have written some stuff in Jai, which has (potentially even had first?) most of the features mentioned in this post, along with quite similar syntax. The context and allocator features work pretty much the same. It even used to have a similar SOA feature, though it now is a module included with the compiler instead of an in-built language feature, since the metaprogramming is powerful enough to implement it as such.
Odin does have the advantage of... well, actually being publicly available, though. Jai's closed beta comprises about 800 people now (going off the member count in the Discord server), and I don't think it's all that hard to get in anymore if you have at least somewhat significant programming experience, but that's still far from a large user base. That means there's not much tooling (though there's more than I would've expected from a language in closed beta - there's a mostly working LSP, even, and a nice text editor written in Jai itself!), and not a ton of support outside of the Discord, as well as occasional breaking changes. With Odin, there are more places to turn to if you need help. At least GitHub finally started recognizing and highlighting Jai code recently!
Odin also has some different ideals than Jai, such as deliberately not including compile-time execution. That's a fair choice - Jai's extensive metaprogramming can certainly be very useful at times, but also has the capability of being used to make code opaque and difficult to work with.
Jai's creator (Jonathan Blow) is also somewhat controversial for, well, I'd say fair reasons. I find I often agree with his takes on programming (though not always), and The Witness is one of my all-time favorite games, but in more recent years he's formed a habit of sharing... less than savory opinions on Twitter. I do find it disappointing to see him fall down that rabbit hole.
Either way, I should try more of these C-alternative languages at some point. Odin and Zig both look interesting to me. The reason I tried Jai first was just because I happened to be accepted into the beta, so thought I may as well take the opportunity to learn the language. I'm glad there are several options in this space now, though. For a while it seemed the only alternative people were talking about was Rust, and while certainly a well-architected language, it does not mesh well with my brain for some reason.
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Comment on OatmealDome: "The Wii homebrew community was all built on top of a pile of lies and copyright infringement" in ~games
lily LinkI don't fully know how I feel about this situation (I'm generally more on the pro-piracy/modding side of things), but it seems inadvisable to me to publicly admit you've knowingly been using...I don't fully know how I feel about this situation (I'm generally more on the pro-piracy/modding side of things), but it seems inadvisable to me to publicly admit you've knowingly been using copyrighted Nintendo code without permission for years.
Either way, I understand the frustration here, but I don't love how this is being done. It reads to me like there may be some personal tensions that led to this suddenly being publicly aired. It feels a bit too drama-inciting to me.
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Comment on Nintendo President on the new Switch 2, tariffs and what's next for the company in ~games
lily LinkMy issue with the Switch 2 right now is mostly that the value proposition at launch just isn't especially appealing to me. Mario Kart is fine, I guess, but I only really play it occasionally with...My issue with the Switch 2 right now is mostly that the value proposition at launch just isn't especially appealing to me. Mario Kart is fine, I guess, but I only really play it occasionally with friends or family. It's not enough to make me want to buy a whole new console, especially at these prices. The other first-party games announced at the Direct aren't even launch titles, and didn't stand out to me too much. I feel it might have been a good idea to hold back some of the last couple rounds of Switch titles to be launch titles for the Switch 2, especially considering many of those hardly ran at all on the original Switch anyway...
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Comment on The future is Niri in ~comp
lily Link ParentYeah, Arch + KDE Plasma is fantastic. KDE is also a good choice for those coming from Windows, since the UI is familiar. Many things could still use some polish, certainly, but I'd advise those...Yeah, Arch + KDE Plasma is fantastic. KDE is also a good choice for those coming from Windows, since the UI is familiar. Many things could still use some polish, certainly, but I'd advise those who have had trouble with Linux in the past to try again, since things are rapidly improving.
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Comment on The future is Niri in ~comp
lily Link ParentHaving used Wayland for over a year now, since I initially switched to Linux (on KDE, if that matters), I've never had any problems with it. Maybe it's down to having never really used X11 for any...Having used Wayland for over a year now, since I initially switched to Linux (on KDE, if that matters), I've never had any problems with it. Maybe it's down to having never really used X11 for any considerable amount of time, but honestly my Linux setup is more stable than Windows most of the time now. This is on Nvidia and from someone who plays a lot of games, too.
(Maybe it makes a difference that I'm on a rolling distro?)
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Comment on Have you made a video game? Can I play it? in ~games
lily LinkI've got all my work on https://python-b5.com/. Most of it is game jam games, but a few of those have been updated since to be more polished. I usually try in game jams to make a small, complete...I've got all my work on https://python-b5.com/. Most of it is game jam games, but a few of those have been updated since to be more polished. I usually try in game jams to make a small, complete game, rather than a prototype, since usually I am not interested in continuing work on these games after the deadline. The first few of them I made when I was very young, and am not particularly proud of - from about 2022 on I think I improved.
This is probably far less interesting to the general crowd here, but I also work on an Undertale fangame as a programmer. If you heard of Undertale Yellow's release last year, it's kind of like that.
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Comment on R.E.P.O. | Teaser trailer in ~games
lily Link ParentHey, thanks for letting me know! I'll see about trying it when I have time.Hey, thanks for letting me know! I'll see about trying it when I have time.
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Comment on R.E.P.O. | Teaser trailer in ~games
lily (edited )LinkThe thumbnail used for this game is really unappealing to me. The emoji visual doesn't seem to be present in the game, at least from the trailer, so why use it for promotional materials? Looking...The thumbnail used for this game is really unappealing to me. The emoji visual doesn't seem to be present in the game, at least from the trailer, so why use it for promotional materials? Looking at that image doesn't make me want to play the game, even though I'm sure it's perfectly fine.
(Though, to be fair, I don't find the game to look terribly interesting anyway. There have been a few of these obviously Lethal Company-inspired games since that game hit it big, and they all look fine enough, but I'm not sure why I'd want to play any of them instead of just... playing Lethal Company.)
I find a good majority of the time I simply can't think of anything productive or interesting to say, and I figure it's better not to say anything at all than add noise. By the time I see any thread, even one that interests me, it's often at least a day old or so, and so the conversation has already been had - anything I tried to contribute I would have to force. It would feel like inserting myself into a conversation that already happened, just for the point of "having responded"!