It's here: https://matzieq.itch.io/choo-choo-toy
Yeah, so it's a train going forwards. Stop it with Z, and start it again with X. Nothing else to it. Yes, really. So why did I make it? Umm... my three year old son loves trains, and he also loves Pico-8 games. It was a happy accident, really, one day when I was working on Weird Shape Matching he ran into the room (he only uses two methods of locomotion: running like a madman and jumping around like a madman) and saw pretty pictures on the screen, so naturally he wanted to watch. So I showed him a couple of games, and now him watching me play Pico-8 games is pretty much a staple in our home.
And therefore, because despite all my gloomy bitsy ruminations I love him very much, I wanted to make something specially for him. So I made this choo choo train, popping down the track, and making silly noises. Predictably, he was hooked, and we sat down and co-designed several objects. By which I mean him shouting "Daddy, another house!", followed by daddy drawing yet another house in the sprite editor.
The cars are all his favorites: the passenger car ("PASSENGERS GET ON!"), the coal car ("COAL COAL COAL!"), the oil car ("FUEL FUEL FUEL!") and the banana transport car, which is a thing in his universe. Also, the reason daddy goes to work every morning is so that we can buy bananas. Just so you know.
And there you have it. Not much to it, just plain old fun and experimentation. So what I learned is that sometimes it's worth just to fool around, and make something playful and fun without any particular reason or goal. Oh yeah, and I made a particle generator for the smoke, which is the first time I've ever dabbled in particles. And I still love Pico-8, it's just so fast and fun to develop for, and it has this wonderful property that whenever I sit down and launch it, finished games come out.
Next week I'm going to attempt to make a small tactical combat moment to get a feel for the combat system I intend to put into my next Pico-RPG.
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