DI MONTHLY #12: Let's Talk About Cannibalism

I'm slowly losing it and need professional help.

3 days ago, I went to the supermarket. I noticed that there was a 50% discount on certain brands of chocolate. So, I did what any reasonable adult would and bought a bunch of Crispy M&M's. You know, the best kind.

But then I noticed something. Something so fucked up that it has fundamentally changed the way I perceive the world.

There is an anthropomorphized M&M on this bag. He has eyes. He has limbs. He has, one must assume, hopes, dreams, and ambitions. Just like you and me. And he is eating...Crispy M&M's. You know, one of his own kind. Sure, a smaller one. One who cannot protest. One who cannot scream. One that's still undeniably a fellow M&M…

We, as a society, have historically taken a pretty firm stance against the practice that we call “cannibalism”. Yet here it is, printed on a bag, on a supermarket shelf, under fluorescent lights, on a Tuesday no less! And the M&M has this smug little smile on his face too. He is not wracked with guilt. He has not dissociated. He is simply eating, with the easy conscience of someone who has never once been asked to examine his own fucked up actions.

But why?! Why is he performing such a cruel act?! Does he actually know? Does he actually understand that he himself is made of the same stuff as the one he consumes? That the boundary he perceives between himself and his meal is, at best, a convenient fiction? That there is no meaningful ontological distinction between the eater and the eaten, only power, and the temporary illusion of being on the right side of it? This post is not sponsored by Mars Incorporated.

Anyways, yeah, things are happening with Distant Illusions, I suppose! I'm working on the same stuff as usual, while Cato is busy with his own sidequests. Apparently he has joined some kind of experimental rock band for the hell of it, so I suppose at least one of us is actually doing something useful with our time.

But that means there's, admittedly, not a lot new to talk about this time around.

Porting Porting Porting

I think it was 2 months ago when I mentioned porting Radium (and therefore our next big game) to the Switch. Since then I've been working hard on rewriting our entire build system and improving our platform support. This doesn't mean much to a lot of you guys, but for me it involved a shitton of work, and really streamlined things for us in the long run. I just hope I'll never have to write CMake scripts ever again.

I guess one of the benefits of all this work was that the engine finally supports Linux now! Yes, we had it running on a whole ass game console, but not Linux. Drivers are weird, let's just put it that way.

Story Story Story

You wouldn't think a game we're describing as a “Precision 3D Platformer” would have much in terms of story, and that's where you'd be wrong! There is one, and the last month is when I looked over our notes and documents from preproduction once again and nailed all the details down. I mean, okay, maybe not ALL the details, but the core of the story and the characters are pretty much set in stone, and that's pretty exciting!

To be clear, we aren't making a story-driven narrative masterpiece here; gameplay still comes first. But we still really wanted to have a bit of a story here, and there's a good reason for that. I believe that what makes a game actually memorable usually isn't just the mechanics. It's the premise and the story! And if we want to make a game that really sticks with the players, we need to have a real story, with actual plot points, a memorable cast of characters, and a clear message.

Like, think about Portal 2. Great game, one of my favorites. Incredibly clever mechanics with really well designed puzzles. Do you think it'd be talked about as one of the greatest games ever made if it didn't have the story and the characters it had? I don't think so. I'm sure it'd still be a well regarded game, but it absolutely wouldn't be in the same conversation as Half-Life 2. I'm not saying our narrative is going to match Portal 2's, but it is a good example of how a good story can make a game truly memorable.

Plus, video games are a very powerful medium for getting messages across, and we're deeply opinionated people who genuinely want to share those opinions with the world. Having our games reflect our worldview and tell a part of our story as creative people is, really, a great opportunity to make them truly feel like “ours”.

If you guys are wondering on when we will properly announce the game, well, just you wait! We will be finally working towards that this month. I'm saying it here just so I can hold myself accountable.

Blocks Blocks Blocks

The progress on our puzzle game is going well too! I've finally finished all the core mechanics, most of the in-game graphics, and the themes, so what's left is just UI work, some polishing, all the music, and some extra stuff. Oh yeah, and the name.

I think I talked about this here before but I really want to change the name from “Cascadence” to something else. There are multiple reasons for this, but the main one is that if you're not a native English speaker, the name ends up being kind of...hard to parse. I wanna come up with a name that's got a bit more universal appeal, but that's way easier said than done.

As for when this game will get a proper reveal, I'm not sure yet. It kinda depends on how long it will take us to come up with a name. Yes, coming up with a name really is the hardest part of game development.

Anyways, I will leave you guys with one of the backgrounds from the game. Enjoy!

The End The End The End

Well, I guess there are more stuff I can talk about, but I think I will hold off on that for now to only focus on Distant Illusions related matters. If you're really curious on all the other projects I might be up to, you can always follow me on Bluesky!

Oh yeah, I also have to remind you guys that I'll be attending BitSummit, between May 22nd and 24th in Kyoto, Japan. I'll actually be in Tokyo a week before the event too, so if you're gonna be around, feel free to reach out! I haven't really made any plans, so I'm going to YOLO it up and see what happens.

That's it for this month! See you guys next time, and make sure not to engage in cannibalism. It's just not a good look. Like, think of what people on Bluesky would say about you.

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