tef

i didn't inherit much from my parents, and i guess a big part of that was not being able to travel during covid.

i'll probably never forget coming home to an empty house and a skip full of memories outside. don't get me wrong, my brother did a shit ton of work cleaning up, and i was no help at all—i just know i would have nabbed more things if i'd been able to be there.

one of the few things that fell into my hands is an old deck chair, and a foot stool. i have countless memories of curling up by the fireplace as a child, or sitting with my dad as he chain smoked his way through an anecdote in later life. it's one of the few things that's been in my life as long as i can remember, and now it's in my home.

anyway.

i live with three cats, and all of them have made their home in the deck chair. seeing them curl up and get comfortable in the chair is hard to put into words.

it makes me happy, and it also makes me wistful. i see the cats getting comfy and i think about all the times i've been comfy, sitting in front of a warm fireplace. it also reminds me that home, well, the home i grew up in, isn't there any more.

it also makes it feel like home, too

during agdq this year, they were lucky enough to get an art director on the couch, commentating on a game they worked on

and i quote: "you're skipping so much, you aren't seeing any of our work!"

this isn't the first time i've seen this sentiment. tim schaefer yelled out something similar during a speedrun of psychonauts, albeit after several beers.

"next time i'll make the dialogue unskippable. that'll show you"

now, i know these comments are a little tongue in cheek, but i do feel it's worth pointing out one tiny point.

my dude, you wrote a video game.

yes, people do not play games exhaustively, there's always going to be things that get skipped or missed, but that's not the issue at hand here. you wrote a video game: your art, your music, your plot, your writing, everything beyond the tutorial is usually hidden behind skill checks.

you hid the content, you buried the art, you locked up the writing, and demanded players learn a skill. you don't get to be mad that people learned skills you never intended. if you really wanted the players to do a thing, you would have put more invisible walls in.

aside: if anything, things like speedrunning are one of the moments in video games where players genuinely have agency: they decide on the categories, they decide on the rules, they decide which parts of the game get included.

don't get me wrong, i know the art director just wanted to point to cool shit in the game, and if they genuinely disliked speedrunning, they wouldn't be on AGDQ. it's just that video games really need to get over "this is how things are played".

maybe then we'll have a chance to collectively get over the "insert coin to continue" school of fun.

if i have one piece of life advice it's this:

if you are cutting chillis, cover your hands in vegetable oil, then soap, then rinse them with water

It's a speedrun of super mario 64. It's played on a midi drum kit.

Yes, he does a backwards long jump.