With a title partially inspired by our fearless jam host's own games titles, I've been working all week on a nemesis-inspired version of the Tic-Tac-Toe game I made earlier this month; it took me a day of fruitless experimentation to realize I had the perfect foundation sitting in front of me all along. What I wanted from the nemesis mechanics was to bring a world to life. That's the big part of what I got out of reading through the whole patent: as a document it's a wonderfully detailed heap of descriptions of interlocking mechanics that create a very particular sort of alive-feeling world.

I don't know if I'm properly patent infringing with the game I've ended up with, but I am going to publish it on the App Store (assuming they'll have me, this is my first time dealing with that whole thing), because if I'm trying to enter a legal grey area I might as well do it on a big stage!!!

I'll try to talk a little more about it before the jam is over but since I'm trying to spend all my time either working on the game or taking pointed breaks so I don't burn out I'll just quickly wrap up this opening post with a picture of the game:

I just played the AIs and that's really fantastic use of tone with interaction. Looking forward to what you release for this!

Oops, I didn't make another devlog post, but I did write a bit in the description on Tic-Tac-Crow's itch page. Let's see...

(quote from 2021, feb 22 below)

If you're reading this, the Nemesis system patent is in effect (or is just about). When I set out to make a game for the Nemesis Jam, I really wasn't expecting to find the document so educational and inspiring.

The working title for Tic-Tac-Crow was "My Tic-Tac-Toe Nemesis is a Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo!"; it was made for the Nemesis Jam, a prompt to "make something in any way regarding this system." So, I made a game about birds with individual traits and parameters (My system calls them STATS and QUIRKS) that change in response to player action and other things... and we crafted a living, breathing world out of this dynamic. Birds play against each other, and you can see their individual personalities in motion!

There's no way to explicitly view these in-game (you can dig through the save file, it's pseudo-plaintext), but STATS are numerical values that every bird has (e.g. their hidden level is directly related to how good their Tic-Tac-Toe-playing AI is), while QUIRKS are pairs of triggers and reactions.

e.g.

• When my opponent cheats, I cheat back.
• When the player joins my table, I make a happy noise.

I think this all combines to create a great sense of individuality between birds, and it's something I'd like to continue using in future projects - as well as continue to work on this one.

I don't even know if what I've developed constitutes patent infringement or not, and it's frustrating to imagine a future where game design is fraught with this type of worry.

There's not much I can do about patent law, but maybe this tiny protest will make a tiny difference.

(Also, I'm publishing it on the App Store soon, which will hopefully serve to lend it extra legitimacy!)

The fear that fills my heart! Gosh! I enjoyed making this and the system is wonderful and robust, so there's room to add some more birds, which I am excited about.