Comments, Scheduling, AI Playgrounds, Old Pirates & Mules!

What a mouthfull!

---

Studio Dev: Comments, Scheduling, AI Playgrounds and Old Pirates

Well, the website got a few more updates. Again.

At this point, I'm starting to think I spend almost as much time building tools to support the games as I do actually building the games.

But hey, at least these are useful additions!

Now With Comments!

Yep. If you haven't scrolled that far down the page yet, take a look at the bottom.

We have comments now!

I've added a commenting system to the website, so readers can actually respond to posts, share their thoughts, ask questions, or tell me I've completely lost my mind.

That last one is probably going to be fairly popular.

There is a little moderation involved. Comments from new users may be held for review before they become visible, but once someone has been approved, future comments should appear automatically.

At least that's the plan.

Do I really need a commenting system right now?

Probably not.

But with the recent improvements to social publishing and the beginnings of an actual audience, I figured it wouldn't hurt to start thinking a little further ahead.

Besides, I like the idea of having discussions right here on the website instead of everything happening on some other platform.

So if you've got something to say, feel free to leave a comment!

And Now I Can Schedule Posts Too

Another addition to the website is scheduled publishing.

Sometimes I have a lot of things I want to write about.

Sometimes those thoughts all happen on the same day.

And while I'm perfectly capable of writing six posts in an afternoon, I'm not entirely convinced everyone wants six SquigglyFrog updates showing up in their feeds at once.

Especially now that every published post gets distributed across X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and Discord.

That's a lot of notifications.

So now I can write posts whenever I feel like it, schedule them for later, and let the website automatically publish them when the time comes.

Write it.

Schedule it.

Forget about it.

The system handles the rest.

In fact, this very post should be appearing sometime in the morning.

Assuming I didn't break something.

Which, considering I wrote the system myself, is always a possibility.

And Now You Can Subscribe, Too!

Because apparently comments, scheduled posts, and automatic social media publishing weren't enough, I've added one more thing.

Email subscriptions!

Yep. If you actually want to know when I post something new, you can now subscribe to receive an email notification whenever a new blog post goes live.

No need to keep checking the website.

No need to hope the social media algorithms decide my posts are worthy of appearing in your feed.

Just a notification delivered straight to your inbox whenever there's something new to read.

And before anyone asks, no, I'm not planning to bombard you with marketing emails, advertisements, or daily reminders that SquigglyFrog Studios exists.

Just new blog posts. That's it.

Of course, considering how often I get distracted by some new project or decide the website needs yet another feature, that could still mean a few emails now and then.

You've been warned.

And naturally, you can unsubscribe whenever you want.

So if you'd like to follow along with my ongoing adventures in game development, questionable project management, and the occasional descent into complete madness, look for the email subscription option on the website.

It's free, it's simple, and I promise not to sell your email address to some shady company offering extended warranties on pirate ships.

Playing Around With Google's AI Playground

I've also been spending a little time experimenting with Google's AI Playground.

If you haven't seen it, the basic idea is pretty fascinating.

You log in, describe a game you want to make, and the AI attempts to build it for you.

Not just the code, either.

It can generate the assets, put the pieces together, and give you something playable that you can publish and share with other people.

That's pretty cool.

Obviously, we're still early in this kind of technology.

I don't expect to type "Make me the next Baldur's Gate 3" and have a fully realized AAA RPG pop out five minutes later.

Although that would certainly save some development time.

But as a concept?

I think it's fascinating.

And I can already see some genuinely useful applications for it.

AI Is a Tool. Get Over It.

One of the things that continues to amuse me is how much hostility there still is toward developers using AI.

You've probably heard the argument.

"You didn't make that. AI made it. It's not your game."

I'm getting really freaking tired of that one.

Look, I understand the concerns about AI-generated content. There are legitimate questions about quality, originality, ownership, and how these tools are used.

But the idea that using AI somehow automatically invalidates the work of the person directing the project is ridiculous to me.

Developers have been using tools to make development easier forever.

Game engines.

Asset stores.

Code libraries.

Visual scripting.

Procedural generation.

And now AI.

Why would I deliberately avoid a tool that can help me work faster?

I'm still deciding what the game is.

I'm still designing the mechanics.

I'm still deciding what works, what doesn't, and what needs to change.

I'm still responsible for whether the finished product is actually worth playing.

AI doesn't magically make a bad game good.

And using AI doesn't excuse releasing unfinished garbage.

But if it lets me spend less time writing repetitive code and more time actually designing and improving the game, I'm going to use it.

End of story.

That's also why something like Playground interests me.

Even if I never use it to build a complete commercial game, imagine being able to describe a mechanic, generate a quick playable prototype, and see whether the idea is actually fun before committing weeks of development to it.

That's incredibly useful.

And honestly, it's just plain fun to experiment with.

Speaking of Games... I Remembered Another One

My recent thoughts about potentially expanding onto Steam got me thinking about some of my older projects.

And I mean older projects.

I've been making games for a long time.

Over the years, there have been puzzle games, arcade games, pirate games, and all sorts of other projects that have come and gone.

Some were finished.

Some weren't.

Some disappeared into the depths of old hard drives and USB sticks, never to be seen again.

And then there's one particular project that just refuses to stay dead.

Coastal Glide.

Coastal Glide: The Game I've Started Ten Times

Coastal Glide is an idea I've been carrying around for years.

And when I say years, I mean I've probably started developing this thing at least ten different times.

Each time, I get a little further.

Each time, the systems get more complicated.

Each time, I come up with more things I want to add.

And each time...

It eventually gets shelved.

I probably have at least five different versions of it scattered across hard drives and USB sticks, each representing a different generation of the game.

Some of those versions are probably old enough that getting them to run again would be a project all by itself.

But the basic idea has always been the same.

A pirate and merchant trading sandbox.

Buy Low, Sell High... Or Just Steal It

The idea behind Coastal Glide was to give the player a ship, a world full of ports, and the freedom to build their own trading or pirate empire.

Buy a ship.

Travel between ports.

Buy and sell goods.

Take advantage of different prices and demands in different locations.

Upgrade your ship.

Get into battles while traveling.

Maybe become a respectable merchant.

Or maybe decide that taking somebody else's cargo is considerably more profitable than buying your own.

Eventually, you'd be able to establish your own base of operations and grow your little empire.

Merchant.

Pirate.

Or some questionable combination of the two.

Whatever you wanted.

There wasn't supposed to be a traditional ending.

No final boss.

No ultimate quest that suddenly declares you've won.

Just a sandbox where the goal was to become the biggest, wealthiest, most powerful force on the seas.

And then keep going if you wanted.

Simple idea, right?

Yeah.

Except the trading system became incredibly complex.

And then the ship systems.

And then the ports.

And then the combat.

And then the base building.

And suddenly I was building something considerably larger than the little trading game I'd originally imagined.

Funny how that keeps happening.

It Even Had Custom Music

Coastal Glide wasn't just some random idea I scribbled down and forgot about.

I actually put a fair amount of work into various versions over the years.

At one point, I even had custom music composed specifically for the game.

That's how serious I was about eventually finishing it.

But one of the biggest obstacles was always the artwork.

A game like Coastal Glide needs a lot of visual content.

Ships.

Ports.

Buildings.

Goods.

Characters.

Environments.

And all the other little things needed to make the world feel alive.

I simply never had the budget to create or commission everything I wanted.

So development would progress, I'd hit another wall, and eventually the project would go back on the shelf.

Again.

I even considered adapting Coastal Glide for the Infinity Game Table at one point.

But honestly, it really wasn't a particularly good fit for that platform.

So that version never went very far either.

Maybe It's Time to Sail Again?

Now that I'm looking at developing for more conventional platforms again, Coastal Glide has started creeping back into my thoughts.

Maybe a Windows version.

Maybe something that eventually finds its way onto Steam.

Modern development tools and the availability of more affordable assets could make some of the old obstacles a lot easier to overcome.

And there's another idea I've been kicking around.

Coastal Glide was originally designed as a single-player experience.

But what if the world could occasionally connect you with other players?

What if you could encounter another player's ship?

Or discover their base somewhere in the world?

Maybe trade with them.

Maybe raid them.

Maybe discover that somebody else has been building a considerably more successful pirate empire than you have.

There's a lot of potential there.

Of course, adding multiplayer elements to an already complicated trading sandbox is probably exactly the sort of thing that caused me to shelve it the previous ten times.

So perhaps I should be careful with that one.

For now, it's just another idea floating around in my head.

But I definitely have that itch to dig out the old projects and see what I could do with them today.

And Then There's M.U.L.E.

Because apparently remembering one old game wasn't enough.

I've also been thinking about how much fun it would be to make a modern take on M.U.L.E.

For anyone unfamiliar with it, M.U.L.E. was a classic economic strategy game built around resource production, trading, competition, and trying to outmaneuver the other players.

It's one of those games that proved you don't need a million complicated systems to create something incredibly engaging.

And I've always thought the basic concept would be a lot of fun to revisit with modern graphics, interfaces, and a few new ideas.

Not necessarily a direct remake.

More something inspired by the things that made the original so enjoyable.

Of course, that would be yet another project.

And I already have a few of those.

Just a few.

And I definitely did NOT do up a basic game design document for this.

Nope.

Apparently I Need More Hours in the Day

So let's see.

The website now has comments.

It can schedule posts and publish them automatically.

Social updates are going out across multiple platforms.

And now you can even subscribe to get new posts delivered straight to your inbox.

I've been experimenting with AI game generation.

Threefold is still being developed.

JOFD still needs finishing.

SLOA is still waiting for attention.

And now I'm thinking about resurrecting Coastal Glide and possibly building something inspired by M.U.L.E.

Oh, and somewhere in there I'd still like to actually play some games myself.

Maybe go fishing.

Maybe even outside.

At this point, I'm starting to think my biggest development limitation isn't hardware, memory, programming languages, or even money.

It's the unfortunate fact that there are only 24 hours in a day.

And apparently I intend to fill every single one of them.

Oh well.

At least now you can leave a comment telling me which project I should actually finish first.

Back to work!