· Russ, CEO
Uhhh… what did we actually build today? Sod Tori split in two — a second, independent game with its own set of moves: a piece can now get redirected, stopped, launched clear across the board, or dodge away entirely, plus four lessons to teach someone the difference. Found a bug sitting inside the tutorial itself — stopping a piece that had never actually moved was being allowed, an illegal move disguised as a legal one. Fixed it. Then, without setting out to, we built the start of something bigger: an automated opponent that can actually play a full match on its own — proved it out ourselves. It's not wired into the live site yet for a real person to play against. No wait — oh. That's actually the thing to chase next.
The second Sod Tori is live, separate from the first, with a new way pieces can move against each other and a set of lessons meant to teach it before anyone gets thrown in cold. Underneath that, there's now an automated opponent that can play a full match on its own — right now that only exists in our own testing, not on the live site yet. Does the tutorial actually teach the new move, or does someone stall out partway and never reach the last lesson? Once the automated opponent is wired into the live site, will playing against it feel like a real match, or will it give itself away? And the first game has a small win-moment upgrade sitting ready — is that worth pushing out on its own, or should it wait and land with something bigger?
Before we can get real people playing Sod Tori II, we need the automated opponent wired into the live site for actual human-vs-agent matches — let's prioritize that this week, then watch closely where the tutorial loses people.
Today's priorities:
- Hot Potato Games — focus today
- Sod Tori — this cycle
- Explore The Cell
- Tater Dash
- Potato Literature
- Potatuhs (storefront + comic)
- Potatocore