Emily Codes

A Journal Of Code. NFTs are immoral and ecologically destructive.

[enistoja]

DEF CON 31 - An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet's Ensh*ttification - Cory Doctorow

The enshittification of the internet follows a predictable trajectory: first, platforms are good to their users; then they abuse their users

A good watch!

[emilycodesgames]

RPGMaker 2003 - Making a breaking tile, and fun shenanigans

So

This was a fun one

My partner wants to make a puzzle where you step on breakable tiles. When you step off, the tile breaks immediately. When you stand on the tile for 2 seconds, the tile breaks under your feet, and you are sent back to the start of the puzzle.

An idea I could have coded in a few minutes in gamemaker because i am familiar with the engine, something pretty simple to do in Unity3D.

But we're dealing with RPGMaker 2003 and we are dealing with some Severe limitations.

The way the system ends up working is as follows:

On-Screen-Load event that runs once that sets two variables for each tile to record their X and Y position, and two switches for each tile (one for when the player steps on the tile and activates it and one for when the tile is breaking under the player's feet and triggers the reload event).

The tiles have their own code:

check if player is in the same X and Y position. If they are, activate the tile, and start a 2 second timer.

if the player is NOT in the same X and Y position, if the tile is active, the tile is deleted

if the player IS on the same X and Y position, AND the timer reaches 0, the tile breaks under the player's feet, and triggers a text box that reads "oh no!" and reloads the room.

the problem is that, upon reloading, we were having some trouble. The reloading did not reset all variables, as they are considered global, so we needed to re-run the on-screen-load event.

However, running it BEFORE moving the player made the code revert to the state where the player had just stepped on them; and trying to run it AFTER reloading the screen was impossible, as the code that was being ran was broken out of.

So, we were left with a mess of broken code that resulted in either infinite loops or on tiles that behaved like the player had stepped on them even though they were all the way at the start of the room.

I bug tested by creating some text boxes, one before resetting the room, and one after.

The one before resetting the room didn't trigger because the on-screen-load code was trying to run immediately. Removing it and going straight to the reload made the tiles act up.

What ended up fixing it?

The text box after the call to reload the room.

For some reason, the text box after the room reload triggered for a fraction of a second, just long enough that the variables reset but not long enough that the reload got messed up.

I hate that this is working, and I am pretty dang sure that it will not work on computers that work at different speeds.

But for now I need to go make dinner and to look away from the screens.

Rah!

I will add the code later for any RPGMaker2003 geniuses to look at

[emilycodesgames]

About communication

Ferdinand de Saussure argued in his Course in General Linguistics (1916) that when communicating we have a signifier, the subject being discussed, and the signified, the encoded representation of what we are talking about. The signified can be anything, from specific vocalizations, written shapes, and even music, so long as both the sender and receiver are sharing the same code, or language, to communicate.

This is easy to understand when it comes to simple, physical objects. If I write apple here, then you dear reader will picture an apple. It may not be the same apple that I am picturing, but it is an apple all the same, and unless we were discussing the specific flavour profile of a specific kind of apple, then it is good enough for the purposes of communication.

If I wanted to be more precise, however, I could add further details to my description to better communicate the signifier I am picturing to my audience. I could specify an ambrosia apple, picked from a tree at peak ripeness three months ago and frozen from that moment, thus cool to the touch. The more detail I express, the closer the image my audience is going to have in their mind to the one that is in mine. And for the most part, that is all that is needed.

Things get tricky when it comes to defining less physical aspects and enter more the subjects of logic and philosophy. Unless we all agree on the definitions of subjects beforehand, every person may have a slightly different definition of a concept which, over time, is certain to result in miscommunication.

For instance, when it comes to gender identity and sexual preference, the Queer community has developed a plethora of definitions for discrete and continuous identities for many different ways to be. Often the community finds itself struggling to accept that when one person defines themselves as something, they may not necessarily mean the exact same thing that another person might when using the same word.

To seek clarity, and to seek messages to be received accurately, requires thorough explanation of the code being used to transfer the message. But, at the same time, extensive detail can lead to purple prose at best, and legal documents that extend beyond what anyone could reasonably read through in a timely manner. Communication getting lost in the weeds of technical language discussing the specific definition of words using only words that have been previously defined.

Thus, defining the encoding of the message being shared becomes an encoded message unto itself.

However, this does not mean there is no hope of being understood, or of being able to share a message with a wide audience. What this calls for, like with many things in the human experience, is patience. Setting expectations and base definitions in ways that the current audience might understand, so more complex ideas can be expressed while sharing common ground that minimizes error, without spending too much time rethreading old ground. As a Mexican saying goes, no need to reinvent black thread. Or in English, to reinvent the wheel.

In the game The World Ends With You (2007), a character states the title, explaining that our personal worlds are limited by how far we can reach, and that only through connecting with other people, even if those connections are imperfect, can we learn more beyond our limits, and more about ourselves. Through communication and teamwork, we can accomplish far more than we could ever hope to achieve on our own.

In the process of sharing ideas, we not only learn more about these ideas as we explore them by explaining them, but we also learn more about the audience we have, for we see where they may have different approaches and definitions, which in turn may aid the exploration of our own concepts. Through this sharing, re-defining, exploring and mutual exchange of information, we learn more about the world, our concepts and each other.

Communication is difficult, but it will always be worth it to try and reach out and share, and by doing so trying to make the world a friendlier place.

The only way to a better future is together.

[emilycodesgames]

For our project, we decided on evoking the feeling of soul-crushing monotony experienced by many during the covid-19 pandemic. The track has three different prongs. The cheerful sound strikes the high notes signify the high spirits we tried to maintain during the lockdown. It appears at moments to form distinctive harmonies but ends slightly off-kilter as the reality of lethargic apathy looms over us. The mid notes juxtapose with the high notes with their more consistent variation of pitch. They are meant to undermine the pretense of optimism that the high notes try to establish. The hard reverb of the low notes is meant to evoke the reminder of a morose sense of routine as it blares with a periodic monotony throughout the track. They serve as a reminder of the dull reality we had found ourselves in.

The notes are generated on three separate timers in Max, with each of the "tracks" being a range of notes to ensure they remain distinct. In VCV they go through the quantizer to give the whole composition harmonic cohesion so they don't sound too dissonant.

[emilycodesgames]

Beat Blossom

Artists

Cindy Ye

Chaeyeun Lee

Jason Chen

Emily Torres Javier

Artist Statements

Beat Blossom works in tandem with audio soundscapes to create an enthralling visual spectacle that reflects the beauty of sound. Our project, Beat Blossom, has the combined attributes of both generative and interactive artworks. Left alone, Beat Blossom will continuously generate moving images at random that are affected by the rhythmic structure of the music that is associated with it. However, Beat Blossom also has interactive capabilities with audience members. Participants can choose to use either their voice or utilize other microphone inputs to have Beat Blossom generate new 3D images on the screen based on the participant’s interactions. Furthermore, Beat Blossom possesses other controls that make it possible to change the shape and size to influence the output image. Our goal is to study the dynamics between audio and form, as the form of the blossom pulsates in conjunction with the music.

Video