Pixtube is out now! A few people asked for a standalone version, so I decided to turn it into a proper release. You can draw pixel art, switch between Raw / CRT / Split views, mess around with CRT simulation and retro signal effects, and generally make pixels look weird and fun. The CRT and analog signal simulation is built on shaders I’ve been developing and refining for around two years 😳 It includes Composite and RF signal processing, 240p / 480i display simulation, and more — and I plan to keep improving it over time. It also includes pixtube-player, so you can throw your own images, GIFs, and videos into it and run them through 240p, 480i, NES, PC-88, Composite, RF, etc. I use Pixtube myself, so I’ll keep working on it and improving it as I go. komm64.itch.io/pixtube

In game development, fun often takes priority over robustness, but I can still relate to this idea. A small, concrete example from Pixtube: in NES mode, I simulate the noise associated with RF connections, but right now, it doesn't affect the audio. That's because the visual noise is handled by a postfx module, while audio is processed by a separate, independent audiofx module. Ideally, I think it would make more sense to model the RF connection itself at a higher level, with postfx and audiofx both receiving the results of that model. There's nothing inherently wrong with processing video and audio separately, but my current architecture doesn't adequately represent the common factors that affect both. Modularization has made individual features easier to manage independently, but looking at the system as a whole, the result is actually somewhat unnatural. I think Pixtube is starting to expose the limitations of modularization in this respect. That said, I don't think the answer is to design everything top-down from the start, either. Tools like modules aren't just means to an end. They can also be starting points for thought. Building a feature can lead to ideas and forms of expression I hadn't even considered before. In other words, it's not always the case that you start with what you want to do and then determine which features you need. Sometimes, what you want to do emerges from the features you've built. That's why I want to preserve the value of a bottom-up approach, where you build things up feature by feature. Maybe part of the joy of software development as a creative practice lies in moving back and forth between top-down design and hands-on exploration.

I was testing Pixtube on Linux using WSL2 and Ubuntu on Hyper-V, but I wanted to test it with actual NVIDIA drivers, so I partitioned an external USB SSD and installed Ubuntu on it. Now I can boot it as a VM in VMware from Windows for everyday testing, then boot into native Linux for pre-release checks. I no longer need Hyper-V. This is so convenient.

Lighter video playback and a CRT audio filter: Player 1.0.10 / Editor 1.0.9 - pixtube komm64.itch.io/pixtube/devlo… #indiegames via @komm64

With X’s automatic translation now exposing the stupid things Japanese far-right nationalists say online to the rest of the world, it’s more embarrassing than ever. But in Japan, there have recently been theories that government funds, including the Cabinet Secretariat’s confidential funds, are secretly being funneled into things like smartphone farms to manipulate discourse on social media. A lot of these internet right-wingers really are idiots, but there are also bad actors manipulating them. The Dappi scandal, for example, never really got to the bottom of things in court, either.

An incremental game where you make Toriel’s boobs infinitely bigger🔥 Frisk has become a Twitch streamer and discovers that every pie they bake and feed to Toriel makes her boobs grow. Seeing an opportunity to go viral, Frisk starts feeding her as much pie as possible. The more subscribers they gain, the more automatic pie-baking machines they can install, causing the amount of pie fed to Toriel to increase exponentially. Naturally, her boobs grow along with it. Eventually, they grow bigger than Earth, bigger than the Solar System, bigger than the galaxy, and finally bigger than the universe itself. The goal is to see who can make Toriel’s boobs bigger than the universe itself the fastest. HEY, YOU!🫵 DON’T YOU DARE STEAL THIS IDEA AND MAKE IT WITH AI!💥