discmaster jam

~ devlog for cell culture ~

devlog

i joined the decker visual novel jam in may/june, but bailed because i didn't come up with a story idea
- i still do want to make a VN in decker... hmmmmmmm...
- maybe the "novel" part intimidates me. would it be easier to get started if i call it a poem or a zine?
BE BOLD! IT'S JAM TIME!

searching my mind for ideas, still not finding any stories
starting from scratch is too hard, so what if i just expand on something i've made in the past? what's an idea that still nags at me?
- i think about /weirdweb/ritual/ a lot
- omg pink decker jam is still going
- whoa... that's it -- pink cell culture point & click
deadline is now July 19th 2025 at 9:41 AM EST if i want to submit to both jams

took some photos in lab today
- no plan, just the obvious ones: biohazard labels, hood, microscope, cells
- put a few into decker and they look good in 1-bit pink :)
not sure if i want to go in a more point & clicky or text-centric direction
- at minimum, i could just give each written step from /weirdweb/ritual/ a corresponding photo
- i want to do more, but... small scope → finished game
did the css for the itch page

i'm so used to working within the limits of html/css that having a canvas where i can put anything anywhere feels kind of overwhelming... aaaaeee
thinking about multimedia, thinking about tone, thinking about real data vs the illusion of data
added a table from wikipedia
- highlight table text → ctrl+c → create new google sheet → ctrl+v → download as .csv → open .csv in notepad++ → ctrl+a → ctrl+c → open widget menu in decker → new grid → check "Edit as CSV" → ctrl+v → yay
really pleased with the first two cards, but the third is kicking my ass for some reason
- text is starting to diverge from original webpage (good) but idk exactly what i want to say (frustrating)
- the image i wanted to use looks awkward every way i've tried to arrange it with text (extra frustrating)
i still have like a week to make this! it will be ok

oh shit where did the week go?
- mostly work
- dinner & live music one night w/ ben's ma
- melonland got guilds! i made one! so spent a bunch of my free computer time this week working on that instead of working on this, oops
  - "you got nerd sniped" - ben
i still think i might be able to make the pink decker deadline (1 day 11 hours from now, at time of writing). i may not have been actively working on it but the ideas have been rotating in my mind. i think i know how i want to rework the part i was stuck on over the weekend

i took some more photos in lab
- didn't get every step of cell culture because i didn't want to be slow and stress my cells out
eeeek friday night crunch
spent a while messing with the position of text instead of writing again...
asked ben for advice on text positioning and he told me that is isn't the layout, it's the text (true)
- rewrote it and made a card that felt good and right, then scrapped all original plans of what should come after and focused on that feeling
  - it is done :)
all that's left is to add links to the credits section
- wait can i not have text be a link and be monospace? it's one or the other? noooo
  - well. ok. 'tis what 'tis
i submitted with about 9 hours left yaaaay wooohooooo
still past my bedtime. i sleep

almost jumped out of my chair when i noticed pizzapranks added cell culture to this collection on itch.io
- "If your game is on this list I would certainly recommend submitting your game to Indiepocalypse!"
- i was literally listening to indiepocalypse radio at that moment
- unbelievably wild. i did it