Creative Coding

[Skykid]

I previously abused the PICO-8 thread for this, but I think it deserves it's own topic..

 

Creative Coding - something entertaining/attractive made with code.

 

I was fascinated by the ST/Amiga demoscene - smart folks competing to create the most impressive effects from limited resources.

This became less interesting for me when non-fixed hardware took over, though there are now some absolutely stunning PC-based demos, battling on creativity or extremely tiny file size.

 

Last month I picked up the Tiny Code Christmas challenge. 12 days of short tutorials for making classic-style demo effects with an emphasis on sizecoding, i.e. squeezing the effect into code that is 256 or 128 bytes long.

Despite that (optional) challenge, it's very accessible to anyone with a little coding experience up to advanced level, and the two platforms they showcase, PICO-8 and TIC-80 both have free versions to play with. Really good fun! I'd highly recommend, and they say TCC will stay online for a while.

 

I also promised myself I'd finally put some time into Sonic Pi, a live-coding music environment that's equally suited to teaching code to kids and doing live performances. I'm very impressed so far with it, though I think there's a lot of work involved to get competent enough to perform.

 

The following are good starting points:

• PICO-8 - A 'virtual' console, small screen, slightly similar capability to a Gameboy Color but with a bit more oomph.
• TIC-80 - Another virtual console. Between NES and SNES. Maybe PC-Engine plus a bit.
• Picotron - From the maker of PICO-8. More like a pretend OS, loosely based around PICO-8. Preview just released to public.
• Shadertoy - GL-based graphical effects
• Sonic Pi - Live music coding
• Dittytoy - Newly released. Web-based generative music.
• Arduino gadgets, Pi/Pi Pico-W (e.g. Galactic Unicorn)

(Any more I should add...?)

 

Anyone else interested in learning / making / seeing showcases?

Just me? Then I'll let this die 😄

[fragglerock]

Pico people also make

 

Voxatron - a fantasy console and collection of games made entirely out of voxels

[Skykid]

Oh yeah. Good shout.

 

There's no free version of Voxatron to mess about with, but it's bundled with the paid version of PICO-8 for $20.

I haven't seen much done with it, but there was one Tiny Code Christmas entry (Mastodon Link) that looked neat.

[PK]

5 hours ago, Skykid said:

Last month I picked up the Tiny Code Christmas challenge. 12 days of short tutorials for making classic-style demo effects with an emphasis on sizecoding, i.e. squeezing the effect into code that is 256 or 128 bytes long.

Despite that (optional) challenge, it's very accessible to anyone with a little coding experience up to advanced level, and the two platforms they showcase, PICO-8 and TIC-80 both have free versions to play with. Really good fun! I'd highly recommend, and they say TCC will stay online for a while.

 

 

Thanks very much for linking this, I've always wanted to look into creating demos and this looks like a great place to start. I have absolutely zero coding experience apart from some QBASIC when I was 9 or 10 so I imagine it's going to take me a while 😅

[Vespa Alex]

Fantasy consoles is such a bizarre idea, but the more I think about it, the more I’m impressed with the creativity. 

[Skykid]

13 hours ago, PK said:

Thanks very much for linking this, I've always wanted to look into creating demos and this looks like a great place to start. I have absolutely zero coding experience apart from some QBASIC when I was 9 or 10 so I imagine it's going to take me a while 😅

 

Great. Hop on in! I think it's a great way to get started. The Lovebyte people are very supportive, and I'm happy to help too if you get stuck.

 

I'd recommend TIC-80 to start. I think it's a bit easier - all you need to do is remember to have a TIC() function.

Also better to download it than use the online version, so you can save your work.

 

Don't get spooked by the cryptic code people have produced for their entries. The sizecoding / code-golfing means you have to compress code in very unnatural, unreadable ways... which isn't great if you want to learn from them, and makes it all feel a bit excluding. I recommend you just go at your own pace and don't worry about the size challenges too much. Their 12 videos should make stuff approachable!

 

13 hours ago, Vespa Alex said:

Fantasy consoles is such a bizarre idea, but the more I think about it, the more I’m impressed with the creativity. 

 

I thought the same, but now reckon there genius in there...
Everyone gets a standard platform to work to.

They're able to simplify some technical stuff into an approachable language (for PICO-8 and TIC-80, that means Lua) while allowing experienced folks to hack some tricks by allowing direct peek and poke of 'memory' / 'VRAM' etc.

The limited capability puts focus on ingenuity or gameplay (famously, Celeste was prototyped on Pico-8).

Plus it taps nostalgia factor for some 😄

[Skykid]

LoveByte, who ran Tiny Code Christmas invited folks to submit for their New Talent competition (max 256 bytes), and showcased on Saturday night.
Some real crackers in there. Each gets 30 seconds show time - worth a skim through if it interests you!
 

 

[Skykid]

Lovebyte are putting on an event for tiny creative code things next weekend, Friday to Sunday.

The competition is likely to be high level, so there should be some pretty stuff in there. I'm putting a couple of my noob things in.

 

There'll some educational sessions for folks who want to code.
Spectators should look out for the compos, showcases, Bytejam, Byte Battles and DJ Sets - the 256 compo on Sunday is likely to be the hottest one.

 

General event info and shortcut to the schedule.

EDIT: I think it's only me interested in this stuff, so I'll leave this thread to sink unless anyone else gets involved