Great post. I usually mainline all Rami Ismail content and yet I’ve never heard of the 4:44 rule. Really interesting, makes me want to spend a whole week making 4 hour prototypes.
I feel like I also have a hard time committing to a true ‘prototyping’ phase, similar to what you’ve described; I get carried away with the details too quickly.
I’m glad you’re trying out fantasy console dev. It’s something I’ve been wanting to try for a while; crafting an engine built around my own personal restrictions sounds really fun.
Love the aesthetic of your fantasy console so far. Did you use fantasy-console-related restrictions while making the music as well? i.e did you limit the number of voices/plugins/etc you could use? One of my biggest love/hate things with pico 8 is the 4-track restriction.
Also, I’ve never seen that ‘50 games in 1 semester’ piece before, looks super interesting, thanks for sharing that.