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Weekly Links #195

Hello, everyone. As of this writing, the Procedural Generation Jam just started, while the Interactive Fiction Competition still has ten days in which you can vote if you're so inclined. Apparently, EctoComp 2017 is still open as well. So it's a good season for gamedev events.

In related news, Hannah Powell-Smith announced her collection of resources for interactive fiction authors, mainly for Twine and ChoiceScript authors, while Kenney Vloegels updated his getting started guide for aspiring game developers. Not to be outdone, Emily Short posts some advice on developing an audience, which as usual applies to any kind of game.

But game artists need advice too. For them, Gamasutra found out how Cuphead managed to look so much like a 1930s cartoon. It turns out to involve... a lot of traditional animation work, cel sheets and everything, which is kind of awesome. Too bad they also seem to have copied the racist stereotypes prevalent in those old cartoons. And unlike in a period piece, they did not need them for authenticity. Keep your eyes open, folks. The past wasn't all roses.

I'll end with a couple of features about computing history: one, (also via Gamasutra) of a man's quest to preserve the Flash games Nintendo made at one point. The other, about a ZX Spectrum clone called the Cobra, that warmed the homes of many Romanians since the late years of Communism until the mid-1990s. Having grown up with one myself, the story is one hell of a trip down nostalgia lane.

There was another rant in store, but we have more than enough links for one week. See you next time.