Weekly Links #84

I never know how to open up these newsletters, so I'll get right down to it: my new book is out! It took me five weeks (excluding the delays) to write, typeset and illustrate the whole thing, and even though we're only talking 13500 words and 32 pages, it was exhausting. But now it's out, and after publishing two books in one summer it's time for some programming again. Speaking of which.

It's been a month and a half since David Wheeler contacted me about further developing Jaiffa. He thinks it can be turned from a learning toy into a serious authoring system for interactive fiction, and his early work towards that goal is promising. (Check out the tutorial!) Should have covered this earlier, but Tales of Space and Magic was just starting to absorb all my attention. Well, better late than never.

In unrelated news, it turns out that Windows 10 will refuse to run games with some forms of DRM. And never mind how that will impact the honest people who bought the game, while pirates will have no problem -- again. But as Jay Barnson points out, some of those games that won't run anymore are Microsoft's own! Securing their OS... or shooting themselves in the foot? You decide. And in the mean time you might be in the market for old games, which still sell despite being easy to pirate, proving once again that convenience beats all.

Until next time, sell smartly.