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Replicube - Ep 97
16 Plays9 days ago
Allison shows James a neat new demo for a programming puzzle game that's not just entertaining, it's educational. If only there was a word for that, like "entertucation", or "educatainment". Oh well, I'll just have to say it the long way.
Music is "Fork and Spoon" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Transcript
Editing Challenges and Podcasting Breaks
00:00:08
Speaker
is Wow. Wow. Wow. wow wow wow You ever, you ever look at a waveform audience, James? have yeah I make it a habit to not look at waveforms. It makes editing this podcast it's very challenging, which is why I haven't done it in a month and a half.
00:00:25
Speaker
um I'm so sorry, you guys. it's high Once again, for maybe the fifth time in a row. We're back. Yay! We... Just like with RuneScape, you never really quit. You just take breaks.
00:00:42
Speaker
We've taken a couple little breaks. We haven't quit, though, because we really love doing this show. It always is a really fun time. life... life
00:00:55
Speaker
uh yeah you know yeah i've been describing myself recently as a recovering podcaster so if anything we can do sort of a uh remission whatever you want to call it yeah let's like relapse um that's the word i was looking for remission is something entirely different If you you were in remission, we've relapsed just a little
Introducing RepliCube: A Game-Changing Experience
00:01:17
Speaker
bit. We're we're here now, though. Beyond that, I have a game.
00:01:22
Speaker
ah have a video game. my My ears are tingling. I know. It's ah it's a fun one. i had I had a blast with this demo. i I'm a specific nerd. I know there are a couple of us out there.
00:01:35
Speaker
I like coding. I think it's very fun. um I've coding video games are hard. I find them either to be, I don't know. I I've always had difficulty finding a coding game that I really like. I find that some of them go a little bit too far.
00:01:53
Speaker
This one I actually really liked though. This one really like tickled my little fancy and And I very want to buy it. I'm very excited for the release of it. um It's not out yet, though. it It is still there's a demo. It's free. It's called RepliCube.
00:02:09
Speaker
RepliCube. R-E-P-L-I-C-U-B-E. RepliCube. It is made by Wallabare. Who streams on Twitch? RepliCube by Wallabare.
00:02:20
Speaker
i yeah I'm having the hardest time getting those words you out of my mouth. Replica. met We're to have to come back to that. i It is not. My mouth is not forming it correctly, but that's not important.
00:02:35
Speaker
We did not do our vocal exercises. of your Baby buggy bumpers. All right. Trinidad. Yeah, we might have to start the whole thing over. I need to take my 30 minutes of vocal warmups.
00:02:47
Speaker
um i I really love RepliCube. RepliCube was really fun. WallaBear is well known for making the Jelly Car Flash game that you may know and love from such such sites as amazing games or ah cool math games. ah Jelly Car, traditional, like, incredible old school Flash game. Been around forever. Oh, wow. Yeah. Oh, wow. I do know this game.
00:03:16
Speaker
If you had access to the Internet in like 2007 to 2010, you probably have seen this game. Go check up Jelly Car. Walla Bear made that. He also is making RepliCube.
00:03:28
Speaker
Very, very different game. um This one teaches you to code shaders. um Which is kind of neat. It is just shader coding turned into a puzzle game.
00:03:39
Speaker
That's how Jelly or Walla Bear himself describes it or themself. I'm not quite sure. ah Not that i I just haven't looked into them that much. I'm not sure.
00:03:51
Speaker
not sure of gender but uh wallabare made this game very cool they stream they stream dev updates of this game pretty regularly it's been very fun but i love this game it's got a really cool interesting aesthetic it's very like windows 98 windows xp era computers i'm looking at it now it looks very old school like chunky graphics like the classic gray like low res angled yeah like the the old windows yeah
00:04:21
Speaker
The Windows Windows. The old Windows Windows. It's very nice. i think it is supposed to be Windows 98. It is so cool looking. It's very, very retro nostalgic.
00:04:33
Speaker
But I like the way that they're set up to do... ah Where the heck did the game go? um I like the way that they're set up to do their thing. Their puzzle game is just basically you work for a company and you're coding.
Coding and Community in RepliCube
00:04:47
Speaker
ah You get emails asking you to do specific tasks and create an end product. um While you are doing this little coding project, you are kind of tasked with figuring out how to program voxels, essentially. And it goes layer by layer, X, Y, and z And you can do like...
00:05:09
Speaker
X equals 11. And then the color that is 11, which I believe is like a dark blue. ah no, it's green. Uh, you do X, uh,
00:05:23
Speaker
X equals 11 then it'll be... Or if Z is equal to 2, then it is equal to 3. i can't remember. Sorry. The coding is itself is... Explaining coding is always hard. um Yeah, I do recognize voxels, though.
00:05:39
Speaker
This does a good job of explaining how to do simple coding... And it runs it through layer by layer, voxel by voxel, and checks each cycle to give you kind of a score and tell where what percentage to goal you are.
00:05:55
Speaker
So it coaxes you in the right direction with your code, which is really cool. And then also it has two separate leaderboards. And I think that that is the thing that really got me the most is the leaderboard system.
00:06:06
Speaker
One is for writing a working script in the fewest lines. And the other is for getting it to run in the fewest cycles. So the most optimized and efficient way, which could have a ton of lines, but it runs super efficiently uh,
00:06:22
Speaker
kind of inefficient but has the fewest lines and it just really gets you going back and reanalyzing and being like how can I redo this to like work but better which I've not gotten from a puzzle game in a long time I think yeah this is interesting so listening to you describe and kind of looking at it too it's a I puzzle game seems Yeah.
Educational Value and Career Inspiration
00:06:55
Speaker
programming assignments that you would get in like a high school computer science course yeah but it gives you like a target it shows you that target and it gives you watching the video explains a a little bit better gives you a target and that rotates in 3D space along with another three d object that you're programming that 3D object into being.
00:07:15
Speaker
And it treats it like a puzzle. It does some clever things into teaching you new techniques that stack on top of each other that let you program in new and new new ways and create different and different shapes and...
00:07:29
Speaker
It shows you that in a progressive way that I think teaches coding very interestingly. And then it will even get you into being like, all right, cool. Now that we've gotten these fundamentals, let's get into like scripting and we're going write like the script out. And then you're going to call to that script in this other thing and then cycle through that.
00:07:46
Speaker
It literally teaches you full coding. Very interestingly, and like but it runs it through shader language. So if you make video games, if you are gaming nerd like me and James, who really thinks that make that act action of making games is interesting and do you want to learn how to code shaders, this is not a horrible way to learn some of the basics of shader coding and how shader...
00:08:16
Speaker
compiling and uh not compiling but um god i'm just lacking my words but ah it's it's cool the math and the concepts and the the logic it looks like behind shaders and now they yeah they function Yeah, um I yeah, no, I I feel like I'm trying I'm looking through because the heaven above forgive me. I cannot remember the name of the game that you talked about a while ago about making stickers. This reminds me a lot of that in similar concept where it's not, not exactly the same game.
00:08:55
Speaker
Yes. Sticky business. It, it seems like this game teaches you about coding and specifically like graphical shader coding in kind of in the same way, quote unquote, that like stickers and then like kind of business management and the um friend like running out of business.
00:09:15
Speaker
Vague graphic design as well. Yeah. Like a little bit of like putting the graphics together, creating the sticker, running the shop and like business management as a game.
00:09:26
Speaker
um This does a lot of that for coding as work um because it does very much. It's just handing you coding assignments through an email. And the plot is you're.
00:09:38
Speaker
in a coding like you you work for this thing and you code objects into being whether i monuments or computers or bowling equipment or that's just some of the stuff from the like trailer but like they're like i need this thing and then you're tasked tasked with programming into existence ah bowling equipment and then sending it to them and then that's how they make bowling equipment it's It's very interesting. It's very open ended. And I think that that's the thing that really got me was that it's like, all right cool.
00:10:09
Speaker
Can you make it faster? Can you make it smaller? How can you like edit this to make it better? But also you achieved your goal. So like you can move on, like there's no reward or anything that like that. But there is an online leaderboard and you can play around there.
00:10:24
Speaker
um so just like real life there's not necessarily a reward for doing it better but your work will be compared against everybody all the time and you will feel a certain way about it you're like well if i do a little bit better that would be better ah Better than these other people who did it worse.
00:10:41
Speaker
Yeah. Dude, I'm the top 5% for this puzzle. But, like, this teaches you something actually kind of valuable and just coding and coding thought.
00:10:55
Speaker
I think that there's a lot to be said for the way that you have to think for coding because there's a very logistical way of, like, working through a problem with...
00:11:07
Speaker
code um and some games i feel teach you that a little bit better than others and i think that this one teaches you that pretty well and i like it a lot yeah this is really fascinating i've been interested for a long time like passively kind of interested in education by way of games because everyone's familiar with the the crappy old like when you're coming up as a child and you learning to read and recognize letters you got these like typing games and and um what is it hu sonic schoolhouse and stuff like that like mario teaches typing typing yeah all this like garbage educational content that's like a video game but it's just kind of the task this feels like a more fun evolution of that almost it's almost
00:11:58
Speaker
It's really weird because there's ah something, i don't know, a little bit ominous about like we've taken this task that people do for their jobs and turned it into a game where you're just kind of doing wing that task, and know but in a more controlled environment. In more controlled environment, so that way you don't get handed like, hey, it's your first day. Here's the most complicated assignment you've ever seen.
00:12:22
Speaker
Exactly, yeah I don't think I can do this. Like, here's a very... This is a job that you could do. Let's make it fun. Let's make it enjoyable. like Let you see some joy in that and then ramp it up in difficulty and then give you kind of a goal of like, how can I better myself in this skill?
00:12:41
Speaker
um How can I... create this new skill in myself and how can I make that skill more honed? And I think that's kind of neat because it is something that is valuable and that could actually put you on the path to landing a job. I'm not going to say that this game is going to get you a job, yeah but this game could spark something in you. If you find this game fun, the way that I did, you could definitely like focus on that, learn coding a little bit better and then work towards getting like a pretty decently paying job.
00:13:13
Speaker
Like this is, this is a really great way to get someone inspired into computer science, specifically like visual graphics. And I think that's really neat. I like that a lot. And I think that's part of the reason i feel you should play this game.
00:13:26
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. It serves a really interesting like this this niche that comes up with this game, Sticky Business, things like that, where it's it's entertainment. It is very clearly video game, but it is also like a trend not quite transferable, but borderline transferable skill, or at least the framework for developing a skill that's kind of taken root in your brain after having gone through it.
00:13:51
Speaker
This one is actually very interesting, very usable because this is just Lua. The programming language that you're programming is just Lua. So, like, this very usable skills. Like, it just teaches you how to program in Lua.
00:14:05
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, it just renders everything out through cycles in a shader style, but, like... this is This is a really, really usable skill that it teaches you in a very interesting way, in a very fun way, and I think that the entertainment factor of that is really cool. Yeah.
00:14:22
Speaker
Because I've always wanted to learn Lua, because it's very useful as a programming language. a lot of the, like... uh, mouse controller things that I've wanted to do to like create second keyboards and stuff like that on my computer. a lot of them are programmed using Lua. So it would be very useful to learn. And a lot of like a modding for video games is done a Lua. It like, there's a lot you can do with it.
00:14:46
Speaker
So it's, Very, it is a trimmed down version of Lua. There are definitely some limitations. It's not just like full fat Lua, but you can animate with it. um There are like animations that people do and all sorts of other stuff that like it's fully open right now, too.
00:15:02
Speaker
Like they have a very limited, I think like 12. puzzles that are up on the demo but after that there's like a free mode where you can just code and they give you 10 by 10 cube and 10 by 10 by 10 cube and you just code and whatever you want you can share it there's like a in-game forum like inside of the game there is a forum that you can upload stuff to and share with your the community and like go back and forth and work through problems and be like hey i got
00:15:34
Speaker
X amount of cycles. I use this as like a framework. You can basically create a stack overflow um in game. It's really neat. And then they have a second part of this, which is replica paint, which is the same thing. But instead of it being a 3D shaders, it's 2D shaders.
00:15:53
Speaker
Gotcha. Okay. But ah it's really cool. i really think you should play this game, if only just the demo. ah just If you can get through the demo, I really think that you could learn like a a pretty the basics of a pretty valuable skill in literally just the demo.
00:16:10
Speaker
um It took me... what, an hour? 117 minutes to do the entire demo. I do have some coding thought knowledge in the beginning, and that i also played around with my code a lot to, like, trim it down and see if I could make it run faster and beef it up to see if I could make it run slower, because that was the other side of the leaderboard that I thought was really fun, is, like...
00:16:34
Speaker
How many lines of code can I write to do the simplest task? I can write like a billion lines to write it cube by cube by cube. Let's see if we can make this like the biggest on the leaderboard, not just the smallest. Let's go the opposite end.
00:16:49
Speaker
Um... let's Let's see if we can make mine run the slowest. ah Make it kind of recursive and stuff like that. It's very fun. like Not fully recursive, enough. miserable. Yeah. like there are There are ways to play with this. and it's It's a very structured, safe environment for you to play in this space um and learn a little bit without anyone
Wallabare's Development Journey
00:17:12
Speaker
judging you.
00:17:12
Speaker
they're they You don't have to be live. You don't have to have the leaderboards. But also, those are there, and I think it's very cool to see see something like this just kind of happen. I've literally got no one on my friends list who played this game. It was on NextFest this past time, and I got really obsessed with it. I started watching the streams of them like making it, and like there are some really cool puzzles, and watching them think of how to create a coding puzzle that's solvable in a specific way, and like...
00:17:41
Speaker
Creating code and then reverse engineering that code into a puzzle is so fascinating. It is a very fun time to watch, and they're a very interesting person. And they do a weekly game jam kind of thing where they like once a week ah they spend that day just making it ah a random game.
00:18:00
Speaker
And then if that takes on, they'll add it to their like, all right, cool, I'll work on that next week maybe. And then if not, they're like, I didn't like the one I made last week. I'm going to make a new game. um And then I'm kind of done with that. I'm going to make a and that's just like one of the streams that they do is they make a game, the entire stream. and they're like, yeah, I'm just going to fiddle around see if I can come up with like something silly.
00:18:20
Speaker
I'll start with a base in unity and go from there. Start with like a ah base project in Godot and go and see what I can create. I think that's just neat. Yeah, as a side note, that has that concept has always terrified me of live streaming the programming process for like making a game.
00:18:37
Speaker
Yeah, same. That sounds incredibly like everyone's eyes are. If you've got an error, if you missed a semicolon somewhere, or if you had the smallest logic error, you're be eaten alive by Twitch chat.
00:18:56
Speaker
But the nice thing is Wallabare is a really gentle and nice person and they have, I feel like your chat a lot of times with streaming and this is something that I should have gone more into on the Twitch episode, but here we are.
00:19:08
Speaker
With your chat, I feel like a lot of the time the energy you put out is energy you get back. Not necessarily 100% of the time, but if you're a little hectic, your chat's going to be very hectic. But if you're, like, really chill, the people who stick around are typically going to be also, like, pretty chill and nice. And ah his chat's always really supportive. So, like, if something's not working, they're like, oh, what's the fix? What's the fix? let's Let's find the colon. Like, I want to find it first. And, like, everyone's like, all right, cool, I found it. Like, here's the here's the issue. I think if you fix this and then you fix it and you're like, oh, cool, it compiled right this time. And, like, everyone's like, yeah, we did it. And it's...
00:19:41
Speaker
and It's a different environment. There definitely are moments where it's like, ah, you should have seen that coming. But I genuinely think that it's really cool to see a chat come together and like work together with you to like solve the issue. But ah it is really cool to watch. Yeah.
00:19:59
Speaker
Wallabair, make a game because I like the process of making games. And I think that that's that's another reason why this one really struck me. um Also, the fact that I can animate it and I'm like, animate whatever I make. and i'm like, oh, that's really neat. I want to get more into that. I did play around with it a little bit.
00:20:20
Speaker
I didn't get anything working, but I'm very excited to figure out more of how that works. I'm sure that they're going to include more of that in the the full release, which is coming April 24th, 2025.
00:20:32
Speaker
Like yeah so later later this month. It's like two weeks away. Not too long. Yeah. Not too far away at all then. Yeah. Um, So I had one more question. This does sound compelling and I definitely am going to check this out.
00:20:48
Speaker
um but And that that kind of leads into my question is like we've kind of danced around here. i We both have experience having programmed, having made games before various parts of it, um having been at a school where that was kind of our objective. so that's that's kind of the the long and short of that um so with that in mind i i i hate have experience with the programming aspect of like game creation and things like that um but i'm i'm not very experienced with the shader side of things at all specifically that type of logic the visual and graphical um like manipulation that kind of thing if
00:21:30
Speaker
Is that something where like if somebody is already like proficient enough in basic coding principles, but the visualization visualization.
00:21:41
Speaker
Oh, baby. Oh, we're speaking good today. Got that one. The visualization aspect of of it, is that something alone that would be worth um taking? it's I mean, I know you said it was but like an hour or two hours at most yeah to kind of to plug through all this. So either way, it's not going to be a tremendous time sink.
00:22:02
Speaker
But is that something that would be... Does it stand out in that area? i suppose So far to me, kind of, yeah, because I'm... I'm...
00:22:16
Speaker
Used to my code turning into like a little calculator and or like turning into a little video game. It is really cool to like have it immediately like type in code and have it turn into immediately a 3D manipulatable object that I can like play around with.
00:22:30
Speaker
um That is a new experience for me and kind of getting to play around with some of the shaders. And I'm sure as it gets further into the functions of its animation, learning some shader animation would be really useful going forward. Just learning some of the basics of how to use shaders and animation and like the functions of that would be useful, especially for making 3D games, which I do want to do. So I think that I would say that there is value here in just learning the like visualization and the like shader animation. If that's something that does stand out to you, but if it's not, then yeah,
00:23:09
Speaker
I don't know. the Your mileage may vary. i I think it sounds like a great time to learn, but if it doesn't seem your speed, then like if you already know how to code, it is going to start very, very simple.
00:23:26
Speaker
So there is that you're going to have to go through the basics. But the fun part about that for me, as someone who did know how to code, and was like, yeah, the the first few levels, was like, whatever these, I don't need to I, these lessons are not some that I need to learn.
00:23:43
Speaker
um did definitely have me scratching my head at like, how did someone get this down to six lines of code? yeah How did someone get that down to four? Like, how do I, Let me figure out how to streamline this more. And then like learning a little bits of like tricks with Lua and how to refine code and like turn it into less lines and like actually create something that's more efficient data-wise was very interesting. And it did have me go back and replay those first few levels that were not of any value to me.
00:24:17
Speaker
education wise again because it did then give me a new value and like okay cool that leaderboard number was really low how do how do i get mine like that like there is a there's a corner that i'm not cutting that there's like uh there's a way to shrink this even further how do i get there um I genuinely think that that is that is something that like is valuable as someone who does already know how to code because it does get you get you thinking in a kind of different way. Instead of just teaching the basics, you're like, I know the basics, but someone knows the basics better than me. How do I do that?
00:24:56
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there's there's never anything wrong with going back to the basics every once in a while. i Yeah, I think you answered my question as well. Just knowing that there is a such a visual aspect to it that maybe that that that can be a little bit unique um when you're first starting out with that kind of thing, when you're when you're going through the basics.
00:25:14
Speaker
Very, very cool. Yes, i definitely going to give this a try. Again, the the low ah the the low barrier to entry is very appealing yeah as well.
00:25:25
Speaker
um and Absolutely. You don't need to know how to code at all. I know me and James are both like coding knowledge at least a little bit. uh already you don't need that you could probably not know how to code at all and this game will teach you from the very beginning so you should be fine even if you don't know how to code if you listen to this i i will say i will only accept the title of coding wizard um master would be acceptable but feels a little iffy don't you code in javascript um no actually java oh god yes and it's very worse yeah i mean at this point c++ plus plus c sharp um python i'm not too familiar with python a little bit python python fun um nothing too crazy mostly c sharp recently and like will which is basically python
00:26:21
Speaker
Genie script is fun. Yeah, it is just basically Python. um I want to learn more C-sharp. I know C++ plus plus better than I know C-sharp, but... Or C++++, plus plus plus plus because the four pluses make the sharp. um
00:26:37
Speaker
But, uh... Sorry, I'm just writing a little footnote here to include a cricket sound effect in the... Hell yeah....editing... and could been ah I got you, James. You don't even have to.
00:26:53
Speaker
um But ah yeah, no, dude. ah Coding's fun. It is very interesting. You can do some really cool stuff with it. This shows you, i think, the immediate feedback of like typing a line of code and immediately seeing an update in your little machine and like it being over there and being like, huh.
00:27:13
Speaker
Okay, cool. And then typing another line and seeing that like change and update is very interesting to like have immediate feedback for what you're coding. And I think that as if you're learning to code, I think that that is very useful because you can immediately see where what's going on, where you're having issues, and kind of visually...
00:27:35
Speaker
assess your code in kind of a different way than just reading lines you're you're actually able to see like a little object that reflects how your lines are bad not just looking at lines and being like why are these lines bad god i hate it when the lines are bad yeah when the lines are bad no one's out there to help you but yourself That's why I need a Twitch chat of 50 followers. they helping Yeah. be like, Hey, you missed a semi, you put a colon instead of a semi colon about three lines back. Hey, yeah. You fell asleep on the keyboard for three hours. I don't, I think every keystroke registered about a billion times.
00:28:14
Speaker
I can't imagine that's going to compile ever. I'll fix it in post. i'll fix it in post
00:28:23
Speaker
it'll be it It'll be optimization for later on down the line. Yeah, if it compiles and like whatever. and Exactly. God, that was so much of college was like, oh dude, it compiled and it just worked. I'm submitting it. I'm not touching it again.
00:28:39
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. the The glorious I hit it and it didn't give me an immediate error. I hit it. It worked. Every test I've thrown at it has come back positive and it doesn't crash. We're just going to submit that and we're going to move on. Never been so happy to see like see a computer like pause and load for a second in my whole life. They're like, oh, it's doing something.
00:29:06
Speaker
Hell yeah. God. but Okay. I think I'm wrap it up there. Thank you all so much for listening. Sorry we've been gone for so long. I can't guarantee the regularness of the schedule again, but we are...
00:29:19
Speaker
we're really trying this time we really want to get back on this we're we're very excited to be back um if i may go a step farther i can guarantee the schedule will continue to be irregular because we are full yeah human beings with messy and full lives we both live in america in 2025 i don't think i need to elaborate further yeah anyway um fun truths about the world aside um it's it's this is maybe how it'll be for the foreseeable future and i we're maybe talking to a group of two people right now so not that big a deal
00:30:03
Speaker
We're here to do our
Podcasting Passion and Closing Remarks
00:30:04
Speaker
thing. You're here to do yours. i'm I'm excited to talk about stuff. You're excited to talk about stuff. oh that's That's where we're at. At the end of the day, that's what we're doing. And we're we'll probably have some new and interesting things happening here and there. We may pop in to say, hey, we've got this other thing going on. Come check that out. Maybe not.
00:30:23
Speaker
I don't know. That's not a promise. It's a threat. What? i talking about now take it away alice hey if you want to talk to me you can honestly just shoot a question on the spotify thing thank you for listening if you've made it this far we really do appreciate i i like making this show yeah um it's always a fun time Yeah. And if you've made it this far, thanks mom and dad. And I'll be over for dinner next weekend. Cause I have to imagine that's it at this point. lily I miss you. feel like texas I have to have alienated everybody else who's ever interested in me talking at this point. I mean, there's only so much I could talk about before I just start saying the same buzzwords over and over.
00:31:12
Speaker
But I mean, I have to have this podcast. we We can't stop this podcast because no one else. There is nothing else for me to do with my thoughts about video games. So they're always going to go here. I have to yell at someone. Yeah, don't get it twisted. I absolutely love the coming back and having ah this brain dump.
00:31:31
Speaker
Just get it twisted. no no holds barred. You've twisted it again. Now, haven't you? Haven't? Haven't you? yes
00:31:44
Speaker
the The twister lure over here. all right. ah Bye. Yeah. See you, everyone.