<Akseli> lol did IchoTolot and Simon show you all the solutions of my pack so you don't have to play them yourself :B
<geoo> nope, I still haven't solved Glade of Disbelief, but I made an easy version anyway :P

This is geoo's secret tip on level design: Play some hard levels by other people. Even if you don't solve them, you will have tried interesting things. Make your own level about such an interesting thing.

When geoo visited me in the last two weeks, he arrived with his everybay backpack of computing equipment, and a sack of clothes.

<SimonN> or live like geoo, everything goes into one large sack
<geoo> That large bag is kinda like a stack that you never pop from. That's its purpose anyway
<SimonN> very functional, but not very pure
<geoo> or maybe /dev/null is a better description of it
<SimonN> your /dev/null almost crashed my bike

I had performance problems with the Lix D port.

* SimonN listens to Unreal's Crypt (Temple of Vandora), surely Akseli will be delighted again
<Akseli> :))))))))))))))))
<SimonN> what a level of delight!
<SimonN> I had Unreal and Half-Life 1 on my PC 10-15 years ago. HL1 stuttered occasionally, Unreal always ran amazingly smooth
<Akseli> 1998 I guess?
<SimonN> late 90's, yes
<geoo> damn if back then computers were able to run this then they sure should be able to draw 50 sprites nowadays x_x

<SimonN> smartypants Simon has done it really stupidly
<SimonN> I'm copying stuff to a self-made torbit first, and then copy the torbit to the screen.
<SimonN> I change the drawing target with a RAII struct.
[... many details ...]
<geoo> can you draw a class diagram with all the design patterns you used? :P

About game design, and Neolemmix's frenzy mode, where you cannot pause.

<geoo> Clam: no-pause already exists [in Lix] as an optional challenge mode - you don't get any rewards or anything though
<geoo> just...don't pause. it's optional to pause, thus it's also optional to restrain from pausing :P

-- Simon

It's possible to mark both the arrows and lots of the terrain as no-overwrite, then add some normal-overwrite pieces. Ignoring how terrain overlaps other terrain pieces, this gets us two layers of terrain for the OWWs, one in front and one in the back. Is that how it works, and is it feasible and fast?

In the questioned level, there are arrows that appear both in front of some pieces, and behind others. Strange and exciting!

Gadgets, including OWWs, are drawn individually every physics update anew. I fear it's expensive to do lots of terrain rendering each physics update, that's why I'm asking.

By rendering terrain, I mean making the entire level-spanning terrain bitmap and air/solidness mask out of the individual pieces, done once at level start.

-- Simon

Leekdiana Jones found the following ancient source file:

leek_and_sucuc.h

• 500 g of couscous
  
• 500 g of sucuc (Turkish sausage with garlic)
  
• 250 g of corn
  
• 1 large leek, or 2 smaller ones
  
• 1 large eggplant fruit
  
• 2 bell peppers
  
• 1 small onion
  
• 1 clove of garlic -- optional, because sucuk is already garlic-flavored
  
• some margarine or oil, to fry things
  
• some salt and herbes de provence
  
• some powdered spices: cumin (kyoo-min, like moomin) and maybe nutmeg
  

try {

• Cut everything into small pieces, unless it's already small pieces.
  
• Get a large pan, add oil or margerine. Fry onion, garlic and sucuc for a while.
  
• Add leek and eggplant. Fry for a shorter while, until the eggplant got brown. Stir frequently.
  
• Add all the spices -- salt, herbes, cumin, nutmeg.
  
• Add bell peppers and corn. Fry for a shorter while, stir frequently. While doing this, begin in parallel the next point.
  
• Take a pot, fill in 1 L of water, add salt, and heat it. When it starts to bubble, take the pot from the firepit, and pour in the couscous. The couscous will soak up all of the water. To speed it up, stir.
  

} // We had an argument about the brace style here.
  // I've learned C++ first and like Stroustrup's brace style.
catch (Explosion e) {

• Clean the kitchen ancient temple.
  

}
finally {

• Put pot and pan next to each other on the table.
  

}

Leekdiana Jones donned his hat, grabbed his trusty whip, and got adventuring supplies from the supermarket.



The path to the temple lead Mr. Jones and his companion to the north for more than 20 minutes. The temple belonged to the ancient Mexican god of Ichot'olot.

Ichotolot did not grant access to the sacred firepit immediately. He put the adventurers to a challenge first: Beat all the contest levels, using an unknown game engine. The Mexican god was astonished: How can people play that noble game for 5 seconds, but already rage about controls?

The party has elected a certain level as their favorite, but does not want to name it, in risk of rule violation.

It was time for the exquisite meal.



Some ideas about speedrunning L2 Cavelem and Sports:

Deadly Exit: geoo beat it on first try, I took 15 to 20 tries, and Ichotolot took 30 tries. We all went to the top-left exit, but that's execution-heavy. The top-right exit might be safer to get to. There are two bogeymans in front of it, disable them both with a single platformer.

geoo and I begun Cavelem 10, Ah'm No Done Yet, at the same time. I had played this level 3 weeks ago, and remembered where to put the platformer -- my solution uses it at the same place as the linked image's solution. This solution is execution-heavy, with pixel-perfect shimmier assignment. geoo didn't try to platform here, and took half an hour to carve out a solution to spare the platformer, so he could close the gap at the exit with it.

Thus, I've won the Cavelem race, and was bold enough to continue with Sports, trying to win two tribes before the others won the first. The others aren't bad players at all though, and I was at Sports 6, Double Trouble, when geoo finished Cavelem. Ichotolot finished 3rd, but found the most beautiful solution to Cavelem 10 by going over the skeleton with the worker, without relying on execution.

Sun Sign Selection: The easiest possible backroute is to jump on the block holding the trampoline, not the trampoline itself. To jump off this block again, don't assign jumper, because the jumper will interact with the trampoline. Assign shimmier! The shimmier upwards motion is very similar to the jumper, but will not activate the trampoline.

Take Up Archery: You have 3 arrows for each gap at the bottom. Use them all, don't plan to use 2 per gap. Avoid assigning roller. Jump the runner at every opportunity, and delay the crowd with spearers.



geoo won the beach tribe afterwards! The beach tribe uses the coastal suction function in many places, it's a fun trap. No clam has ever eaten a single lemming in all three playthroughs.

-- Simon

We have tried NaOH's tofu scramble!



Since NaOH is not vegan, but vegetarian, we allowed ourselves to add eggs to the recipe. Here's our version:

• We quadrupled the amount of spices and garlic: 4 cloves cut into little pieces.
  
• We doubled the amount of onion to 1 whole onion, and of bell peppers, to 2.
  
• We left the amount of tofu as-is, and added 6 eggs, which weigh in about the same as the tofu.
  

The eggs and tofu blended nicely. Eggs carry some flavor, but the overall meal relies mainly on spices/onion/garlic, as ccx has described. It was an enjoyable derivation from our usual ideas.



The piranha plant is hidden at the bottom! Arrrha!

Tomorrow, we'll spend another evening at Ichotolot's apartment. Stay tuned and visit IRC -- there has been lots of IRC action these days.

The cool kid in the first image is Kid Chameleon, the legendary kid in town who's too tough to beat at video games. He is the titular hero of a 1992 Sega Genesis platformer. It's a favorite game of geoo, who has hacked in a level selector. Kid Chameleon plays like Super Mario with a berserker helmet instead of a raccoon suit.

-- Simon

Hi,

there will be a Lix session tonight! Saturday, August 8th, 2015, at 22:00 UTC. This is Sunday in New Zealand.

I will release a new Lix version tonight, at 21:30 UTC. This will bring some new physics: Basher, digger, possibly miner too, will remove the dirt all in one frame. Mid-stroke cancelling and basher staircases should not be possible anymore.

Instant bombers in singleplayer are in, but it won't affect the multiplayer session.

-- Simon

Hmm, so no one has troubles with the twister on level 9 ("SPINNY THANG....")?

Right. I did it on first try, with 2 twisters. geoo took more twisters, and was too trigger-happy with the laser blasters, destroyed necessary terrain, and had to fix that with glue.

We met at Ichotolot's place yesterday. Ichotolot has a nice gaming mouse, but he's set it to have acceleration. He likes this in every other game, but it makes smooth L2 twister control impossible.

The meal of the day was Gargantua Blargg's lava pot, a spicey stew.

This list of ingredients works for about 5 people.

• 1 bottle of white wine
  
• 400 g of goulash, we chose lean beef goulash
  
• 800 g of carrots
  
• 500 g of mushrooms
  
• 1 liter of puréed tomatoes
  
• 100 ml of olive oil
  
• 4 onions
  
• 1 Gargantua Blargg
  
• 1 bulb of garlic
  
• 1 bundle of spring onions
  
• 2 bundles of parsley
  
• some leaves of laurel
  
• some allspice, some pepper, some salt, some herbes de provence, some oregano or marjoram
  
• 3 baguettes, or any preferred type of bread
  

Cut carrots, onions, and spring onions into little pieces. Cut mushrooms into slices. The goulash should already come in handy cubes that don't need further cutting.

<IchoTolot> we are cooking right now and geoo put way too much garlic (the whole tuber) in our meal
<NaOH> there's no such thing as too much garlic
<IchoTolot> oh yes, i smell it in the next room
<IchoTolot> it's waaaaaay too much
<NaOH> that's like saying Akseli doesn't have enough towels
<IchoTolot> bite in pure garlic, that's what it is right now :P
<NaOH> well, tell geoo I applaud his audacity

Why all this rage? In general, you have two choices with garlic. Take all the cloves from the bulb and crush them into a few pieces, or take a few cloves only and grate them finely. Expert chefs claim there's a difference in flavor, at the same strength. The lava pot recipe calls for many cloves, crushed. You should never take all the cloves and grate them, that would have been way to strong. (geoo declines to comment on this last statement.)

Take the largest pot you can find. Pour the oil in. Put crushed garlic and cut onions in. Fry the onions until they are transparent.

Put everything else into the pot, except for the bread. Mix thoroughly. When you think you've added enough parsley, add again twice that amount.

Cook for at least 3 hours with medium heat. The carrots take very long to get soft. Stir the stew every once in a while, but overall maintainance is very low. Enjoy your video games. The wine prevents the stew from sticking against the pot. The blargg will enjoy the hot stew and rise out of the pot, see picture below.

Serve with bread.



-- Simon

Here's a recipe that works every time.

• 500 g broccoli, i.e., one head of broccoli
  
• 400 g crème fraîche (Quote geoo: Frặîçħè! Put 5 accents on every word! Simon: No, NaOH will be angry.)
  
• 400 g noodles
  
• 250 g cubed ham
  
• some butter or margerine

Spawn 2 side threads. Cook noodles and brokkoli in one thread each. In the parent thread, put butter/margerine in your pot/pan/wok, and fry the ham. Put the cream in. Wait for the brokkoli thread and merge that in. This is the sauce.

Wait for the noodle thread and put the noodles in the sauce. Our result looks like those clean humps of rice served in noble restaurants!



We have played 4 hours of Lix last night. It was an exciting mixture of 7- and 8-pepole free-for-alls, 2v2v2 team games, and strategic 4v4 attack-and-defense maps. Thanks to everyone who joined!

Here's a scene during a 3v3 game on Stepping Stones. The game was extremely close, with both sides exploiting opportunities.



This is Marble Run, where you have to race a lone lix to the finish, ahead of everyone else. It was a blast with 8 players at the same time. New and exciting: The running jumper rolls into a cute ball, like Sonic the Jazz Jackrabbit, our beloved DOS hero!



This morning, geoo and I have played Tetris attack, the hot-headed action puzzle game, via SNES emulator. When you attack with a huge block, maybe you win the game, otherwise your opponent will send back an even bigger one! Steve would have loved being with us. We're sure he would have annihilated either of us in Tetris Attack 1v1.



-- Simon