Very happy about this feedback for GIANT ROBOT GAME playtest. I mean, my game is mostly 2D, which helps, but in the age of "let's just build it in ", it's heartening to see.
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Filip Hracek
@filiph@mastodon.social
mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06I’m a programming buff with formal training in journalism. I worked in Silicon Valley, now I’m based in Prague.
I build games, teach programming, explain things, and create silly software experiments.
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Joined August 27, 2018
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Giant Robot Game:
New GIANT ROBOT GAME update:
- Add intercept behavior to AI (enemies will try to anticipate your move instead of simply dragging behind you; this eliminates a degenerative strategy of "just keep running away")
- Add ballistics to projectiles (shots now realistically fly with a ballistic curve, hit terrain in front of the target, etc.). They also spawn particles when hitting the ground.
- Fix chassis counting bug at the end of a run
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3041590/view/692016318956701261
New quick blogpost about something that grinds my gears in Chrome:
https://filiph.net/text/choppy-progress-in-chrome.html
Just realized that you, @paul@status.kinlan.me, could have some insight on this?
I use kagi.com for search these days but today, I got a report from Google Search Console about my filiph.net website, so I decided to search for filiph.net on Google, and it's just bizarre: searching for "filiph.net" returns _anything but_ filiph.net.
These are called navigational queries (when you're searching for the url instead of putting it into the browser URL bar) and they're super common (often top queries).
I checked and filiph.net has no problems in the Google Search Console. WTF?
As always, great information from Our World in Data:
https://ourworldindata.org/how-much-energy-do-data-centers-and-artificial-intelligence-use
My opinion:
- using LLMs for simple queries that you could just find yourself in a few seconds is way too inefficient
- using LLMs for "fun" (through things like AI dungeon) is hopefully a short-lived gimmick and will die soon - because it gobbles energy like crazy
- using LLMs to do actual useful work is not that bad, imho. If you build a useful thing and it costs as much as watching TV for a day, then that's fine?
This wouldn't be Mastodon if people didn't immediately mention Linux. And I think there's a point to it. Apple is on a roll. Meanwhile, Microsoft is shooting its feet seemingly every other month with "AI button this" and "everyone must subscribe that".
For a lot of folks, the answer to the Mac vs Win conundrum will be Linux. There's more polish on Linux now than ever before, it's ARM-ready, there's gaming, and the business model stays away from lock-in and force-feeding of features like AI.
New blogpost! Also, an invitation to a talk I will be giving next month (only in Czech and offline but still).
https://filiph.net/text/philosophical-underpinnings-of-my-giant-mecha-game.html
Jestli to dobře chápu, tak Škoda Elroq je nejprodávanější auto v Dánsku za březen (a druhé nejprodávanější za Q1). To se mi líbí!
Zdroj: https://x.com/Arpe_DK/status/2039226343016091678 (náhodný fanoušek Tesly na Twitteru) via Michal Illich tamtéž
A player named voxkiddo made this banger of a vid. It puts in-game hints next to their usage in practice. I couldn't be happier — it's probably better at communicating the game's depth than any of the trailers I've put out myself.
Good news, everyone! I've put my trusted old `are_we_there_yet.sh` script on the web. Some Flutter folks might find it useful:
RE: @ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
Great use of LLMs!
RE: @hanse_mina@mastodon.social
I wrote a bit about this: https://filiph.net/text/why-usa-supports-orban.html
Ah, this is eye-opening:
> John Cage never stopped foraging for rare mushrooms and truffles - what was once his primary skill for sustenance during the Great Depression had transformed into his main source of income well into the peak of his musical career. [...] Michelin Star restaurants in Manhattan paid top dollar for Cage’s [truffles], enough to make sure he could spend the majority of his time composing and writing.
https://klangmag.co/lifers-dayjobbers-and-the-independently-wealthy-a-letter-to-a-former-student/
RE: @year_progress@techhub.social
No pressure but the year 2026 is already 1% done
Replying to
Fun article about the wild west days of Windows 3.1 and Win95 installers.
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20260324-00/?p=112159
Here's a bit about countering casual science denialism. Nothing world-shattering, just wanted to have this written down and published.
https://filiph.net/text/toxic-plus-explosive-equals-salt.html
Replying to
@tomucha That article is really interesting, btw. Turns out 94% of fatalities involved dogs (the dog appeared threatening to the cow (it's a predator), the cow attacked, the owner tried to protect the dog, the cow killed them).
I'm looking for ways to quickly mess with number constants inside the IDE (like in Bret Victor's famous talk). Any ideas?
Discussion: https://forum.itsallwidgets.com/t/interactive-slider-in-ide/4612
New GIANT ROBOT GAME playtest version on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3041590/view/516350567072663981
It's close to the one I'm playing below. The one with radioactivity.
I thought some of you might enjoy my tirade over on Twitter about their surprise plan to monetize hobby bots (like my @year_progress).
https://twitter.com/year_progress/status/1621525592616361984
I enjoyed the hell out of writing this.
Replying to
@ZachWeinersmith Yeah! I've never noticed it but it checks out:
- knights - not necessarily landed aristocrats with pledge to the crown