Meh.
Definitively, the network architecture is not that exciting. Well, the technically interesting thing is how to get determinism in practice, obviously, as computers are insanely nondeterministic.
But I’m actually playing Bloons Tower Defense again, and two things come to mind:
This game is still super fun even with a client-authoritative architecture. And it has been that way for more than a decade now. So what am I actually contributing here?
I don’t like the direction that NK has taken; I do think that BTDB1 is a truly unique product. But also, I’m not that interested in putting a lot of effort into extending the (unintentional) vision. I played a bunch today, and I didn’t feel the same spark. Getting old, I suppose.
As an aside, I also tried vibe coding some danmaku patterns, but AI is genuinely so uncreative. Apparently GPT4 hooked up to danmakufu was able to create some pretty creative patterns, but I was unable to replicate the same results.
Again, lots of subtle theory here from shmupheads, and danmaku design (especially spellcard design, as it’s more static than a whole level, a la CAVE) feels so constrained as to be a solved problem. But I’m no longer having fun trying to explain to AI the domain, as it’s not understanding it at all. “Just give it more context!” - no thanks, I value my sanity.
Would be great if someone could make some kind of automated generator for danmaku that was actually good. Again, spellcard design feels like a very constrained and doable design problem, but apparently it’s not.