I set up a new community-based game randomizer that anyone can contribute to! So once everyone gets sick of whatever bullshit I'm playing, they can force close it and open a new, totally random Game Boy game selected from the entire GB Library. (See the counter in the upper right)
@AutomaticTiger and I will be going live ~4 PM Central time today!!
(also an incredible coincidence that both the Super GB Webcam and the game were both pac-man related, since both are randomized from huge collections)
this randomizer came together in about 2 hours, and it took almost every single computer skill i've developed over the past 5 or so years to make it happen that fast:
- Pretty good understanding of OBS for the randomized Game Girl Color frame
- Using StreamFX to do a dynamic mask to make the text rainbow, and for the shaders that makes it wavy/posterized
- Editing SVG images using Affinity Designer to get it to say "Game Girl" instead of "Game Boy"
- Editing PNG images using paint.net because I forgot to export it in multiple colors so had to re-color them post-facto
- Which GB libraries are good (nointro is the best for this kind of thing) and where to find them (archive.org)
- Using 7Zip to extract thousands of .7z files at once
- Using .bat files to generate a txt file that lists every file in a folder (HMU in the comments if you want this OR a .bat file that takes everything out of subfolders and puts it into the root folder (i've used this a lot for the audio clips since a lot of places put them into numerous subfolders and i just want a garbage dump of .wav files))
- A bunch of Firebot/scripting stuff, like custom variables, random text strings, delays, escaping special characters, etc.
- A bit of JSON to understand how to split text and then return only the bit I wanted
- Audio editing - I have a ten second countdown to the randomization that I got from Freesound, but I bitcrushed it using Bespoke and also added a pitch shifted echo to make it even goofier
This isn't me bragging (much), but it's more of a reminder that every single one of these things used to be hard and I only got to this point through literal years of doing extremely random things. I could not have done this a few years ago.
For instance, I only know how to edit vector images because I used CorelDraw to make a map for a Neopets website when I was like, 13. And I only know as much as I do now about SVGs because a few years ago I made POG designs using Affinity Designer (it rules you should buy it).
And the cool audio effects (which are basically second nature to me now) would have been literally impossible for me before I learned how to use Bespoke. I wouldn't have even known how to Google it because I didn't know what bitcrushing was.
It all adds up!! I am the kind of person who hates doing things that are hard, but I've learned in my 35 years on this earth that hard things are actually big piles of tiny, probably pretty easy things. Learning all of those things is like...the work of life? I dunno how else to put it.
But all I wanna do is be a collection of the most random skills and knowledge that I still somehow apply in the service of Being Me.
Also!! If any of the above is interesting to you please let me know!! I am more than happy to write up a quick guide to literally anything I know about.
