Kintsugi Party Edition
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PC 4k Intro
Evoke 2023
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Kintsugi is the japanese tradition to fix broken pottery with golden lacquer,
treating damage and repair of an item as part of its history. Something breaking
doesn't have to be the end of it, it can be repaired and eventually be stronger
and more beatiful than before. The intro aimed to reframe that mentality outside
of pottery to suggest that it can apply to other things too. If it can apply to
arbitrary inanimate objects, who knows maybe it'll apply other things too...
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I don't think I did this justice, but since finals are rarely happening I
figured I'd at least give a bit more insight into this via this nfo.
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A shitty 4 hours of sleep the night before the party, 37 hours awake grinding
away on the release, 2 hours until the compo, 500 bytes over the limit, still
missing the last third of the intros cameras / scenes. I think to myself "did I
hustle this much, just for me to miss the deadline? Will this all have been for
nothing?". My brain is dead but my will is not, so I get myself yet another
coffee, in hopes that the caffeine jitters I already have translate into some
swift and decisive keystrokes, akin to the axe strokes of a seasoned butcher.
Fast forward, 30 minutes till the compo block starts, 70 bytes over still,
nothing left to axe, real size coders know: the last 10-20 bytes are the hardest
and I'm still far from those, even after all the sacrifices I made.
Gargaj, who's been enabling me but also adding to the drama by keeping me up to
date in real-time via chat asks how it's looking, I say "few bytes over",
gopher and I look at each other, acknowledging this understatement of the year,
and that the chances of still making it are... slim to say the least.
I chug one last cup of coffee, put the neurofunk on blast on my headphones,
ready to do whatever it takes. Compo block starts, 256 byte intro is first, 4k
follows. I'm still crunching bytes... I don't know how many entires the 256 byte
compo has, but every entry that runs could be the last one, rendering all my
efforts in vain, 5 minutes before the last 256 byte intro I breach the 4k limit.
I test view my entry right after the 256 byte compo closed. Two maybe three less
entries in the 256 byte compo and I wouldn't be writing this text.
Gargaj you're insane <3 so am I. Gopher thanks for the tremendous support in all
imaginable fields, pOWL thanks for your musical input.
Respect to all size coders.
Greetings to all sceners.
Love to all friends.
LJ
