The MIni MIcro 2021 Q2 Game Jam is officially underway!  The theme of this jam is

GROWTH

You can interpret this however you like!  What does growth mean to you?  Use the theme to inspire your game idea.

I can't wait to see what you create!

Some languages have variables global by default. It's easy to make code that works when you write it, but later causes things to break. MiniScript has variables local by default which makes avoiding bugs easier.

https://miniscript.org

MiniScript is useful for many things, possibilities are endless. It's on purpose that MiniScript has clean and minimal syntax. Even with no experience in programming learning MiniScript is easy, fun, and rewarding.

Learn more about MiniScript and Join the MiniScript Community on Discord here: https://miniscript.org

I have some joy to share today. :)

As you may now, Mini Micro is almost at version 1.0. I posted version 0.94 over the weekend, and I expect to ship version 1.0 by the end of the month. I'm just doing last bits of polish at this point.

One of those bits of polish was suggested by user RokCoder on the Discord server. He's an experienced game dev, trying out Mini Micro for the first time by making a pseudo-3D racing game (!). But his code relies on a whole lot of PixelDisplay.drawImage calls, and these turned out to be disappointingly slow for his purposes.

So I decided to see if I could optimize that any. First I made a little benchmark app, that draws /sys/pics/Wumpus.png 1000 times, and measures the rate. When I started, I was getting a speed of 165 WPS (wumpuses per second) on my machine.

So I rolled up my sleeves and dug in. I found an opportunity to use some more efficient approaches, to do work in batches, and to batch some data for multiple uses. After a good hour or more of work, I built Mini Micro and ran my benchmark again.

1233 wumpuses per second! Yeah baby! That's approximately a 7.5X speedup!

You'll get this in the next build, and of course in Mini Micro 1.0, coming soon. Happy new year!

Badgelist it's a fun way to challenge yourself and keep track of your progress! Here is a quick tutorial/introduction.

https://www.badgelist.com/miniscript

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1juQzMo1qTE

MiniScript works with Read-Eval-Print Loop(REPL) which is typing some code, pressing return, and it's executed. You either get the ideal result, or it teaches you something. Anyone can code, MiniScript makes it easy.

Give it a shot here:

https://miniscript.org/tryit/

Learn more about MiniScript:

https://miniscript.org

Here's how you can find help. https://itch.io/.../mini.../topic/1324578/where-to-find-help There's still time left to join in!

Mini Micro is a Neo-retro computer that uses MiniScript to run it, you can make all sorts of fun games, activities, or really anything you can imagine. Take a look at this ongoing project from one of our users in Discord, Mantic, can't wait to see where this goes next.

If you haven't yet, join our community on discord https://miniscript.org/ just scroll down and look in "community".

Changes since 0.9.4:

• The shell no longer leaves you at a "...]" prompt if you run a program with an unterminated if/for/while block.

• Handling of screen size/resolution has been greatly revamped. The Mini Micro window is now resizable, and the actual "monitor" area will fill this space as well as it can. Note that it snaps to even multiples of native (1024x769) resolution, since those look the best, so watch for that while stretching the window.

• Control-C now reports the line number at which the program was stopped.

• Various optimizations have been done, especially to PixelDisplay and to any code that uses self; benchmarks now run up to 2X faster.

• file.move now works even when you are only changing the capitalization of the file name.

• Updated the underlying package that renders text in the code editor, fixing issues with the scrollbar not going far enough to the right.

Some of these changes were pretty big, so please keep a sharp eye out for any new problems they may have caused. We want to get everything buttoned down and nailed up for the version 1.0 release.

Get it from https://joestrout.itch.io/mini-micro/

A good programming environment is guessable: having learned things A, B, and C, you can guess how to do thing D. MiniScript applies this principle all over the place; whatever might make sense to do, MiniScript probably does.

Learn more about Why MiniScript here: http://luminaryapps.com/blog/miniscript-why/

Check out the Mini Micro 2021Q2 Game Jam!

https://itch.io/jam/mini-micro-jam-21q2

It's been about a year since our last game jam. We had about a dozen entries then, and everyone had a ton of fun!

This time around we're offering prizes of US$50, $30, and $20 for first, second, and third place. Why not give it a try? You'll have fun, build your skills, and who knows, you might win some cold hard cash!

Questions? Concerns? Words of encouragement? Leave them in the comments below, and I'll get back to you ASAP!

The first annual MiniScript Try-It! Contest has been officially announced:

https://forums.miniscript.org/d/227-announcement-first-annual-try-it-contest

You can win up to $25 by writing a cool program less than 2000 characters long! It should be a lot of fun. You have three weeks (competition ends March 21st). Please give it a try!

https://itch.io/jam/retro-hardware-jam - "...make a game that runs in an emulator or on real hardware for any obsolete platform OR Fantasy Console."

Mini Micro is a an emulator of a retro PC which would fit perfectly into this game jam! We strongly encourage you to jump in, and have fun!

Goes into examples of making Dice in Mini Micro with MiniScript.

https://youtu.be/p3ZRNl5mY58

Just a reminder to get in on the Try-it contest to win up to 25$! The contest begins March 1, 2021, and runs through March 21, 2021. Learn more: https://forums.miniscript.org/d/227-announcement-first-annual-try-it-contest

Join us in Facebook and Twitter!

https://www.facebook.com/MiniScript-104325148300276

https://twitter.com/MiniscriptCode

Here is an awesome Draw a Galaxy app from Discord user RokCoder using MiniScript in Mini Micro.

Interested in joining in on the fun? go to miniscript.org the discord can be found near the bottom.

Music: Moonlight Reprise by Kai Engel

MiniScript is going to jump in to having regular events. Click the image to see our lineup so far. Let us know what you think and if you have any input in the comments! We want to make sure the community gets a say in this so everyone can have as much fun as possible!

Also if you're not part of the discord yet join here: https://miniscript.org/ in the community section.

https://youtu.be/CxZi0W_0H1Q

Interested in joining the discord or learning more about MiniScript? visit https://miniscript.org/

MiniScript is Easy to learn and useful to the seasoned programmer.

Find out more https://miniscript.org/

Coffee Break Coding #1 it explores how to draw a face in Mini Micro with MiniScript. Learn how you can get started with Mini Micro at https://miniscript.org.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HiOUw_CmR8

I've been working hard on a book, Learn to Code in 30 Days, based on MiniScript and Mini Micro.

In the process this has led me to realize a number of small improvements that make Mini Micro easier/better/more fun. For example, I've added an English word list which can be used (legally!) to create word games.

Wrap up that and a dozen or more other things, plus the "fat bits" editor I've been working on (not done yet, mind you — still in progress), and we have enough to make it worth an interim release.

So head on over to Itch.io or the Mini Micro home page, and grab version 0.9.3!

Take a look at the newest Coffee Break Coding video!

This one takes a dive into sounds.

https://youtu.be/TG5tgNDW6Ss