[Dev Talk] Dust Bunny with Adam Saltsman

Sean and Alon are joined by Adam Saltsman, co-founder of Finji, designer of Canabalt, and creator of Flixel.

On today's episode, we're discussing Dust Bunny – Adam's 12.5th PICO-8 release since last October!

Hopping off from Dust Bunny, we explore the immediacy of the PICO-8 development environment, designing by playing, and the intimate relationship between designers and players.

Find Adam at:

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/adamatomic.bsky.social

itch.io: https://adamatomic.itch.io/

Finji: https://finji.co/

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:06 - Describe PICO-8 and designing with PICO-8

00:10:15 - Adam’s design process (for Dust Bunny specifically)

00:18:40 - A curve of discovery and the designer player relationship

00:34:00 - 12.5th PICO game (a quarter of the way to a full UFO50)

00:40:04 - 90% bad ideas

00:46:45 - What do you do to rest?

00:50:05 - Outro and Adam’s links

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SHOW NOTES

Dust Bunny: https://adamatomic.itch.io/dust-bunny

PICO-8: https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php

Cave of Cards: https://adamatomic.itch.io/caveofcards

Celeste: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=11722

Dark Souls: https://store.steampowered.com/app/570940/DARK_SOULS_REMASTERED/

Desktop Dungeons: https://store.steampowered.com/app/226620/Desktop_Dungeons/

Doom: https://archive.org/details/doom-play

Dungeon Synth album that Adam mentioned: https://cthulugans.bandcamp.com/album/stay-false

Elden Ring: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1245620/ELDEN_RING/

Mirror's Edge: https://store.steampowered.com/app/17410/Mirrors_Edge/

Mole Mole: https://adamatomic.itch.io/mole-mole

Prince of Persia: https://archive.org/details/msdos_Prince_of_Persia_1990

PuzzleScript: https://itch.io/games/made-with-puzzlescript

Quake: https://freebie.games/games/quake/play/

Rat Dreams: https://adamatomic.itch.io/rat-dreams

Sokoban: https://www.sokobanonline.com/

Super Mario Maker: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/super-mario-maker-2-switch/

Tetris: https://play.tetris.com/

UFO 50: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1147860/UFO_50/

Wipeout: https://retroonline.net/DOS/Wipeout

Zachtronics: https://www.zachtronics.com/

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WIDE FLANK LINKS

Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/ACbDjNhMpJ

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The rest: https://linktr.ee/wideflank