That’s a hashtag that I vetted

With these weeknotes I track and archive whatever it is I spend my time on. They’re public so you can keep me in check.

Busy week! So busy, in fact, I didn’t get around to the previous round of weeknotes until Thursday.

For one, I got a lot of work done on Home Rule (working title), the kids’ game for war museums that I do with Hubbub, as we’re going above and beyond the intended 3-week sprint. I finished my copy, but it’s a first version and I’m sure there will be many tweaks, big and small, down the road.

I also wrote copy for the upcoming Toki Tori 2+ for PlayStation 4. You read that right, it seems like the textless game is getting some text; blasphemy or long overdue depending on who you’re talking to. Either way, I feel that what we’re doing will be fun and fit well with the game’s structure and mood. Additionally, Two Tribes launched a new trailer for RIVE with the hashtag #shmupstravaganza (yes, that’s a hashtag that I vetted). On Friday, sunny Friday, I had lunch with the guys in the historical center of Amersfoort, and then, under plain view of Long John, a bird shat on my back.

On Monday I chatted with technology editor Eva de Valk at NRC; we discussed a couple of stories I could write. I also rewrote my hybrid writer piece for nrc.next, that I’d been working on the previous week, but it’s still not done. As I postponed some other newspaper stuff, it’s fair to say I still haven’t gotten my groove back, so to speak.

I did finish a hybrid writer’s post for the blog of literary festival Nieuwe Types: De toekomst van het boek volgens Niels ’t Hooft. As the title suggests, it presents some of my ideas on the future of the book. It’s also a bit of an ode to the 129 grams of glass, aluminium and supercomputer in my pocket. I will elaborate further at the event in Arnhem on Saturday June 27th, in the afternoon, together with Will Self and others. Attendance is free (reservation required), so drop by if it’s up your alley.

On Wednesday I met up with the gentlemen at SonicPicnic to talk about the audio for Geometry Girl, which gave me a lot of inspiration to work on the project’s research plan, including a story outline and a design rundown. I’ve been putting it off, but I really need to finish it to get things moving.

Finally, in the ‘random’ category, I…

• Got Dijkstra Maps to work in my #hobbydev prototype, which made me proud. As the screenshot shows (click to enlarge), the screen is divided into a grid. All cells initially get a value of 50, except for the goals (the two Links), which get a value of 0. And the rocks. Which are impenetrable. The cells then adjust, one by one, to the lowest adjacent value (if an adjacent cell is two or more lower, it attains that value, adding one), which repeats until no changes are made. The result is a grid of values showing the quickest route to either of the goals. I’m told that this is pretty much how navigation software works, as invented by Dutch programming pioneer Edsger Dijkstra.
• Behaved like a good citizen by visiting an information session about Utrecht Wisselspoor, which is a new neighborhood being developed right next door. It was interesting to see the hopeful jargon of the developers on the one hand, and the much more practical grumbling of the neighbors on the other. I must say that, personally, I mostly got excited by the project.
• Closed off the week with an easygoing weekend including a show by Herman van Veen at the city theatre (he’s 70 and still dancing around the stage like a young man), an epic game of Carcassonne, a trip to the swimming pool, a sunny birthday of a friend, and more.

Average step count per day: 8.199
Average staircase count per day: 11
Average sleep per night: 6:27
Average weight: 90,8 kg