Officially hitting 1.0


The State Of Development

Not going to bury the lede: with the start of 2023, I'm officially moving Crescent Loom to 1.0. Outside of funded projects (i.e. grant-funded work), I'm not planning on adding new major features to the game.

It's bittersweet to say this — it feels like the closing of a chapter, but at the same time CL is being used more widely than ever before & there's still so much to do. Is this a victory, dropping out of a race? I honestly don't know. Maybe both.

It is a success. We held the second educator-focused Loomapalooza this summer and it's being used in at least a dozen colleges and universities as a tool for visualizing functional motor circuits, are we are continuing to adapt it for various educational programs. People are playing it and, if all is working as designed, seeing neuroscience in action in a way that simply doesn't exist anywhere else in the world.

However, the language CL is written in has not aged well. It was originally written in Monkey X, whose support was pulled and has been surviving as the open-source Cerberus X. It was the right tool seven years ago with its seamless browser exports, but it being extremely niche meant having to build most of the engine myself. I don't feel good about throwing more work into building on this foundation when better-supported engines like Godot can now export to HTML5 just as well.

I'll update the game itself to reflect this whenever I next deploy an update for bugfixes.

Conferences!

We took CL to three conferences this summer:

  • ISAGA (where it won "best game", which I find a very funny award to have. I guess I can retire, best game achieved),
  • the Neuroscience Teaching Conference (cozy, lots of teachers, in North Carolina),
  • and the International Congress Neuroethology in Lisbon (an angry man in a suit spent so much time trying to get attendees to not sit on the grass for lunch, it was quality entertainment).


I'd forgotten in the covid era how much conferences rule in spreading word-of-mouth info. I've gotten a steady trickle of emails from educators following the conferences, and there were a few people who I'd never met who'd found it in the wild and were already using it.

We've also picked up some new leads for getting grants (it's SUCH A PROCESS, by god) so there's some new fuel for that long-burning flame.

What's the future work?

I have said "Crescent Loom is going to follow me into the grave" many, many times, and that continues to hold true. Working on getting a grant for more development continues to simmer. Expect more Loomapaloozas and conference visits.

As far as development, I'm currently focusing on learning Godot with an eye on someday making something like a Crescent Loom 2 in it — ideally with the backing of a publisher or development team larger than just myself. CL has already proven to be a success, so I think that eventual pitch has a lot of solid material to work with. As they say, "if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together." I learned my first language by making an explodey spaceship game to prep for Crescent Loom — and to learn Godot, I've been making an explodey robot game. Expect a new kickstarter Q1 2023. ;)

xoxo

Olive

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Comments

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Thank you for all the wonderful work, care, love, and more put into this creaturerrific project 💖💝💞💗💕🌺💕💗💕🌺💝💖🎉🎉🎉

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Noice! You put in the time and effort in a space where there is often no guarantee of victory, but CL is a success on many many levels! 💪🤘


Sometimes the hardest thing to do is let go... (sometimes I also wish I would take my own advice too! :P)

You have moved the bar in this space very high. I **don't** slight you not for walking away.  **(edit! :P)**

I may be bias because I want to see some explodey robot game too... and I enjoyed the explodey spaceship game too... but my wants aside this is an important step. 

v1. and may I be crass and say that friggin' super congrats are in order... And truly if it ever needs you to come back... you'll know where to find CL! Let it evolve on its own for a bit. Just know that it is there and its done what it's done, achievements and minds unlocked. Which is quite a bit! Definitely an achievement!


You got this. Go tackle the next problem!

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I am so so excited about the explodey robot game!! It's nice to be picking up a project that is more reasonably-scoped than "invent an entirely new tool for visualizing nervous systems that is fun to play and requires no background in science". Your kind words over the many years mean a lot to me. <3

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Good point! Hopefully that recharges your soul and gives you even more lift! I am certainly looking forward to having the time to check it out and follow along. I think you have a brilliant mind for solving tough problems! And a tenacity and dedication I applaud! You'll get this next chapter handled too! But your right... one should do more of that soul filling joy recharging too. :D (again... I wish I would take my own advice! lol)

I'll do my best to be around to give some feedback. I enjoyed the explodey robot demo. I been looking forward to a revisit... I was NOT satisfied with my last two scenario two performances. But Dwarf Fortress just dropped and I am rearranging my life to get 20-60 minutes a day to play this game :D It will be a dwarfy fortress implody distraction while I wait to see what you got cooking! (at least my forts implode) 

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WOW! You are cool!

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Ditto! You've done an enormous amount of brilliantly creative work. The awards are well-earned! And, everybody needs a break sometimes. Especially when tech ages :)

Thank you <3