“Tradewinds” and revisiting the towns

In Tradewinds Classic, this is what the port of Jia-Ching looked like.

And here is a silly piece of trivia from a quarter century ago. At the time that we made Tradewinds, everyone at the company was a fan of the web cartoon Homestar Runner. When thinking of names for ports in our fictitious world, I decided to translate “Home” (家 “Jiā”) and “Star” (星 “Xīng”) and now you know something.

The original art is kind of small, because the original game was 800×600 and had a sidebar on the left, and a captain’s log on the bottom. To remake the game, I’d want something much bigger. And with more screen real estate, I can improve the environmental storytelling as well. I experimented with Google Gemini image creation to feed it details about Jia-Ching, and my thoughts about a new art direction. I told Gemini what structures and geography to include, and where the camera should be positioned. Here are some pictures from the journey of remaking Jia-Ching.

This version nailed much of the geography, time period and environmental details. But part of Tradewinds is having several clearly identifiable buildings to click on. Here was the next version:

The shipyard, alehouse, port authority, bank and moneylender are present now, but there is no obvious warehouse or marketplace yet. I doubled down on the specific art style that I wanted, but switched to a different platform to generate the concept art:

Now we’re getting somewhere. I like the art style. There is an alehouse, bank, marketplace, moneylender, shipyard and warehouse. The port authority is missing. I tried again.

This version got all of the buildings I need for Jia-Ching, and has a pleasing art style. I specifically asked it to remove all people so that they can be added later.

What do you think?

“Trader’s Tales” or “Tradewinds Retold”?

I have finished remaking Tradewinds Classic. It took 40 days.

In the past, I had started remaking the game with Unity3D. I abandoned that project. Later on, I started remaking the game with GameMaker Pro. I abandoned that project, too. This time, I stuck with it.

I think the difference was that I intended to make an entirely different game, but in the Tradewinds universe. In recent years, I have enjoyed a couple of games from a relatively new genre, and was feeling inspired to move away from the “simulation” aspect of “Tradewinds” to focus on the stories of the characters. For years, I have known the details of the characters in Tradewinds Classic, and I have been alone with that knowledge. This new genre, which began with the amazing Citizen Sleeper game, focuses on heavy storytelling, deep characters, and tough choices. It felt like a great match.

And as I started making the game, I started referencing the original music, art and dialogue. I kept going “Aw, why not? I’ll throw in this mechanic from the original. It will work nicely alongside the new mechanics.” After doing this maybe twenty times, I realized that I had stopped working on the Sleeper mechanics. I was happily remaking the original, and addressing the issues and compromises I made with the original game some twenty years ago. After a couple of weeks, I decided to set aside the story game and just finish remaking the original Tradewinds.

And I did. And now I have a dilemma. I want to release this game, but I can’t. Not yet, at least.

I made the game while at Sandlot Games. After I left Sandlot, the company was acquired by Digital Chocolate. Digital Chocolate was acquired by RockYou. RockYou went bankrupt, and took Sandlot’s games with them as they sank beneath the waves.

Many years later, a kind soul at Good Old Games (gog.com) helped me track down the firm that handled the transfer of assets. With that information, I started learning about what happens to old games when their owners disappear. In April 2026, I learned that Ubisoft acquired the trademark to Tradewinds Classic along with all of RockYou’s other trademarks. And I learned that they have not done anything with Sandlot’s titles, which is why they are not for sale anywhere. There is nobody to pay royalties to.

I have a working version of the game. But to make it, I propped it up by recycling assets from the original game, and I don’t have the rights to distribute a game with that trademark, or with that intellectual property. So I can’t distribute it.

And I am very poor. The jobs market has not been kind to my family. I couldn’t find tens of thousands of dollars under a sofa cushion to pay artists and sound engineers to remake everything. Nor do I have the money to secure the trademark.

But I might be able to.

The trademark is set to expire in just a few weeks if the current holder does nothing. So far, they have had a year to renew, and have not done so. On June 6, I have a chance of pursuing the trademark, if I could afford a trademark lawyer.

So I have a game and I have some options. I think that no matter what path I take, there will be a Kickstarter campaign. I haven’t decided if the Kickstarter should only be about getting the trademark and putting the game out with the original content, or if I should go for the full re-skinning. I want to do the full re-skinning. I’ll post more concept art here.

What do you think?

“Trader’s Tales” – Revisiting the mechanics of “Tradewinds Classic”

I’m making a game like “Tradewinds Classic”. I’m doing it to see what I’ve learned about software engineering in the twenty-plus years since I wrote the original. And since I do not yet know whether I can secure the original trademark, I have been experimenting with AI to reimagine the series.

Let’s start by re-envisioning the playable characters. I have been thinking about their storylines, and how to deepen their characters while also weaving a newer story that intertwines their fates. With those ideas in mind, I have started adding more details to their personalities and to their wardrobes.

Douglas McGowan

Douglas McGowan is a hard businessman and a successful trader who recently fell on hard times. With nothing but determination and a forceful personality, Douglas worked his way from being an apprentice clerk to running his own trading company. He believes he will once again prosper. Until he does, no other captains will sail with him.

And here is an updated look for him, created during sessions with Google Gemini AI.

Petra Gale

The only child of notorious South Sea pirates, Petra Gale has a gift for getting into trouble. Due to a simple misunderstanding, several mainland authorities have launched a misguided attempt to impound her ship. Running from the Law has caused some unforeseen expenses. Luckily, the local moneylender was more than happy to… “help”.

Here is the 2026 concept:

Madame Tso

After the death of her husband, Madame Tso stepped in to become the successful boss of a highly prosperous “merchant fleet”. The Madame has a highly respected reputation in certain circles, and plans to leverage this to expand her operations across the seas.

Here’s Madame Tso with her new look.

Gossamer

Not much is known about the mysterious figure of Gossamer. Ask four captains where Gossamer is from, and you are likely to get five stories that only agree on one point: He is ruthless.

And today…

Remember, these are all first-blush concept art. I’m still looking for an art style and to nail the details. There’s an unfortunately homogeneity to the characters right now, and I hope to find the funds to let a real artist breathe some life into them.

What do you think?

Get Your Own Dirt

I will start with a very old joke:

God was once approached by a scientist who said, “Listen God, we’ve decided we don’t need you anymore. These days we can clone people, transplant organs and do all sorts of things that used to be considered miraculous.”

God replied, “Don’t need me, huh? How about we put your theory to the test. Why don’t we have a competition to see who can make a human being, say, a male human being.”

The scientist agrees, so God declares they should do it like he did in the good old days when he created Adam.

“Fine” says the scientist as he bends down to scoop up a handful of dirt.”

“Whoa!” says God, shaking his head in disapproval. “Not so fast. You get your own dirt.”

—

For the past couple of months, I have been working to protect myself from the insecurity of the job market by creating a couple of products that can generate some revenue. The first product was inspired by my work at Bitpart.AI. The very specific text-to-speech workflow that I created there could be an order of magnitude better if it was pulled into its own product that could handle a more versatile set of situations.

It has now taken longer than my original efforts at Bitpart.AI, and I’m almost halfway done. I had to figure out how to implement a multi-stage build pipeline, how to make a cost-optimized content-generation solution and content-storage system. I had to figure out how to write a cost tracking system so that I can charge customers when they use my tool to hit services that charge me. The list goes on.

Pursuing my financial independence has meant spending a LOT of time “getting my own dirt”.

The “Bucket” Strategy

Something that has stuck with me for the past year is a tiny story buried within the bigger story of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. It is the story in the most recent Tim Burton version, of Charlie’s dad, William Bucket.

At the beginning of the story, Charlie’s dad had a job screwing the caps onto tubes of toothpaste. He lost his job when the factory replaced him with a machine that automatically screwed the caps onto the toothpaste tubes. This was the origin story of why Charlie’s family was poor.

While Charlie was at his tour of the Chocolate Factory, Mister Bucket put his time into learning how to maintain and repair toothpaste-cap-screwing machines. Mister Bucket accepted the reality that the world have moved on, and put his efforts into understanding its new nature. He found a better job by maintaining the very thing that had replaced him.

That was just a story. The reality today is more nuanced. Tools only rarely replace professions. It’s more likely that a tool will make someone more productive within a profession, but it will mean stepping into a new role that still leverages one’s experience and judgment from the old.

Mister Bucket has been my role model as I taught myself how to work effectively with AI assistance.

Why Would Someone Go To A Minecraft Theme Park?

What’s my motivation?

In my previous piece, I mentioned a wide range of other entertainment venues. Arcades, entertainment centers, miniature golf centers, GameWorks, theme parks, DisneyQuest and Metreon, amusement parks, and theme parks. They all fall under the broad category of Location Based Entertainment, or LBE. LBE is generally considered an entertainment venue outside of the home. It can include theme parks, theaters, casinos, national parks, roadside attractions, boardwalks, midways, county fairs; you get the idea.

The kinds of entertainment that we pursue outside of the home are in a state of perpetual evolution as the diversions available at home continue to evolve. Home theaters, smartphones, and gaming consoles have replaced the actual need to leave the house for many of the things that required us to visit the cinema, the theater, the arcade, the casino, the bookstore, and the shopping mall.

So you might be scratching your heads about this one. Minecraft is already something you play at home. It’s already online, so it’s a social activity among friends without the need to gather in public. You can purchase merchandise online, and watch millions of videos of other players on YouTube. In fact, on December 15th, 2021 YouTube celebrated the posting of its one trillionth Minecraft video.

Why would anyone be motivated to leave the house to go somewhere for a property that seemingly is custom-made for keeping you at home?

I think it’s even worse than that if you look at it through the lens of a traditional theme park business model. A theme park is a big and complicated investment, and you want to leverage assets that are guaranteed to bring in capital. A park wants licensing with high-profile properties that will drive attendance, interactions, and merchandise purchases. Minecraft does not have any movies, any stars, any iconic locations, or memorable lines. Nobody wants an autograph from any particular character in Minecraft.

And yet…

Minecraft is the best-selling videogame of all time. It generates more YouTube videos than any other topic in the world. The content is wholesome. It inspires curiosity about how things work, and about morality. The world is instantly recognizable and iconic. It has all sorts of merchandise, LEGO kits, and even its own section in bookstores.

The fans are there. I had a talk with my wife Alice about what a park would need to do to entice fans to come to the park and she stared at me like the fool I occasionally can be. She said, “If they are fans, and you make a park for something they’re fans of, they will come. That’s really not a problem.”

She’s right about that. If a Minecraft park existed, I would have gone by now.

The question changes, then. If a Minecraft park existed, what would make someone want to go? And to be honest, what would make them want to go again and tell others to go, too?

Without knowing anything about what’s at the park, this is what I would go to a Minecraft theme park to do:

• Do things exclusive to the park that will impact my home game experience.
• Physically experience things that I have been exposed to virtually for years in the game.
• Share my love of the game with friends and family who do not play it.

I could have specific experiences that would convince me to bring others back and say “You have to try this.” Things like:

• See how tall an Enderman and an Iron Golem are in real life (hint: they’re really, really tall)
• Walk through a portal from the Overworld to the Nether and feel the blast of heat from the lava
• Pet all the animals
• Taste the foods I’ve been crafting and eating for years
• Gross-out my kids by eating a “spider eyeball” candy
• Take a wild ride in a minecart
• Earn a hat for my son’s Minecraft character that only park guests who have completed a secret quest can get.
• Carve a giant smiley face into a cliff
• With a bow, defend a building from zombies, skeletons, spiders, creepers, and raiders (oh my!)
• Glide through the air in The End Dimension on an elytra
• Solve a wiring puzzle with friends, flip some switches and open a secret door in the park
• Go over a waterfall and into a chasm in a little wooden boat
• Stand in front of a “mirror” and wave, and see my character waving back at me.
  

Why else would a fan return? Because Minecraft is never finished. The franchise is under continuous development. When the world changes, the park will follow.

And the park itself is malleable. The essence of Minecraft is a world that players can change, so we must allow many details of the park to be fungible at the hands of the guests. It should never look the same twice.

Whether I’m a fan or not, a theme park where these are the kinds of interactions I can look forward to is a location I’m willing to leave my living room for.

Why a Whole Theme Park for Minecraft?

Theme parks are very expensive to build and maintain. And sometimes they fail. A brand new park is a risky proposition. Why would an entire park dedicated to Minecraft make sense? Would it make more sense to try for something more modest? Let’s take a look at starting small.

A single standalone Minecraft attraction is more cost-effective. I could design a boat ride like it’s a small world or a dark ride on a track like Pinocchio’s Daring Journey, something that takes you through some scenery that looks like something from Minecraft. I could alternatively make something more ambitious by adding scenery to a kiddie coaster (look up “wild mouse” or “runaway train” roller coasters for example.) Or for a smaller footprint, I could design a motion simulation ride through a lot more of an adventure, in the spirit of Star Tours or Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

The existence of a solitary attraction presents some problems. There’s not a good place to put it. Minecraft is owned by Microsoft, which does not have a licensing deal with any theme park companies. Microsoft’s only presence outside of our computers is in a few Microsoft Stores in shopping malls. And shopping malls themselves are in the process of reinventing themselves without, you know, shopping.

Microsoft would need to cut a deal with an existing entertainment venue for a single attraction. That would be a family entertainment center such as GameWorks, Castle Mini Golf, Chuck E. Cheese’s, or Bullwinkle’s. Those places deal in high-volume, low-overhead off-the-shelf solutions, not flagship products, so this would not be a prestigious operation. Since it’s a bestselling title that many people already have at home, the differentiating factor that would drive people to play outside of the home, without any of the benefits of their own account or hardware, would be limited to things like motion simulation rides. Customers are not likely to be inclined to leave the comfort of their homes and pay to trade interactivity for immersion. Microsoft would lose out on the opportunity to sell merchandise alongside their property by licensing a standalone portable attraction. And the franchise does not revolve around any particular story, but rather around the adventures that players create for themselves. There is no singular, appropriate narrative that captures the essence of the brand the way that–for example–flying through the trench on the Death Star does on Disney’s Star Tours.

Alright, let’s go bigger, and dedicate an indoor entertainment center to Minecraft. This is 10,000 to 100,000 square feet of indoor space, with individual attractions taking 20 to 1000 square feet. Such a center could be open anywhere in the year, and all year round. There are clever things that we could do with smoke and mirrors to make interior spaces look like outdoor areas. But while the space allows for simulation rides and electronic entertainment, it closes the door for actual rides. And large entertainment facilities have not historically done well, for a variety of reasons. Sony’s Metreon in San Francisco and DisneyQuest in Orlando, despite impeccable location and incredible production values, were jaw-dropping financial failures. The ICO (Indirect Costs and Overhead) and initial investment were too great to recoup.

Miniature golf or mixed indoor/outdoor like Bullwinkle’s or Castle Miniature golf have lower costs to create and maintain and tend to stay in business for decades. At the next step up in size, perhaps they offer the right template for a Minecraft destination? They require minimal staffing and almost no marketing, as the fantastical architecture and proximity to freeways does the advertising for free. There’s no admission, and guests can wander for free, as individual entertainments are off-the-shelf coin-op games, and the remainder of the facilities follow the bowling alley business model of having you rent the equipment needed to enjoy the facilities: golf clubs, golf balls, go-karts and so on.

As you’ll see in a later essay, I’m getting closer to the reasons anyone would want to make the trek to a Minecraft-themed destination in the first place. With a mixture of indoor and outdoor spaces, we get the best of both worlds. Indoors spaces give us globally accessible, year-round attractions. Outdoor spaces give us the open-world experience, true rides, and the opportunity to incorporate nighttime activities and weather-related activities from the games into the experience.

This is better but does put heavy constraints on the variety and quality of experiences available. I also strongly subscribe to Disney’s immersion principle and don’t want the outside world visible from within the experience. And like many properties with enthusiastic fan bases, Minecraft has lots of checkboxes for things that people consider critical to the “heart” of the experience. There are creatures to be seen, buildings to enter, caves to explore, mine carts to ride, boats to row, and magic portals to walk through, at the very least. And so many cubical animals to pet. A couple of acres and space for perhaps two rides won’t do it.

The next largest option would be a themed land within an existing theme park. Disney and Universal invested in creating entire lands for huge individual franchises (Star Wars, Avengers, Harry Potter) and in one case for a small franchise with large merchandise potential (Cars Land). I think Minecraft is a huge franchise, with brand recognition on par with both Star Wars and Harry Potter, so a dedicated land would be the minimum appropriate treatment. Now we’re getting somewhere. The problem is, we’re once again coming back to the problem of a property owned by a company (Microsoft) that doesn’t own any theme parks. If the license can change hands at any time–like when Universal made Marvel Island and then Disney bought Marvel–then a theme park operator can get caught with a property that can slip out of their fingers at any time.

I could have just said this upfront. The Minecraft franchise is substantial enough to support a full theme park of shops, restaurants, rides, shows, and attractions. We’re gonna need a big damn park. It will need space for a spectrum of rides, walkthroughs, shopping, playgrounds, interactive experiences, character encounters, scenery, and dining spread across at least five distinct regions.

Sixty acres minimum, I reckon.

My December 2021 Project

For the past eleven years, I have set myself a task every December to play a new computer game and write some critical analysis about it each day for thirty-one days. This year will be very different.

Due to health issues, I have not played a computer game in about five months. I don’t know when I will enjoy it again. I am focusing on healing. Rest assured that in many ways I am more healthy than I have otherwise been in several years, but I had to step away from work for a few months in order to do some repairs.

So this year, I have been preparing something new that relies upon all of my background experience: Architecture, City and Regional Planning, Software Development, Ride and Show Controls, Video Game Design, Stage Magic, Location Based Entertainment, Massively Multiplayer Game Development, Network Code, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. And maybe parenting, writing, and some wordplay. I hope you engage with me, discuss, ask questions.

I’m going to write a proposal for a Minecraft Theme Park.

Stuff I Have Done That The POTUS Probably Hasn’t

I have been thinking for several months about our elected officials and how they differ from the people who voted for them, and who they represent. And the angle I’ve been preoccupied with is that they have lived fundamentally different lives from the overwhelming majority of U.S. Citizens. In other words, unless you buy into the popular misconception that wealth is an indication of some kind of superior character or breeding, they are the least qualified individuals to represent us.

In particular, I started asking myself about authentic experiences that shape the human condition, and how I have experienced a vast quantity that our current President of the United States has not. Ordinary stuff. Things that we all do, which are not special at all. And that led to the list.

I started this on Facebook, but while I was hoping for a simple list showing the most basic life experiences that the POTUS has missed out on, it instead became (understandably) a place where my friends and family unleashed very specific criticisms about the POTUS. That was not my plan. Through there may be some truth in the vitriol, the thing I was getting at was that the POTUS has missed out on some authentic experiences, and that perhaps these are things we should look out for when choosing who will represent us.

Stuff I Have Done That the POTUS Probably Hasn’t

• Owned a dog
• Changed a diaper
• Written code
• Read a novel
• Played a musical instrument
• Taken dance lessons
• Learned a second language
• Pumped my own gas
• Vacuumed and swept
• Bought groceries
• Driven a pickup truck
• Played basketball
• Sewed a button
• Taken the bus to work
• Been hired
• Been fired
• Gone hiking and camping
• Been to counseling
• Written a book all by myself
• Sat in coach on an airplane
• Given money from my pocket to someone on the street
• Fixed a garbage disposal
• Taken the stairs
• Cleaned a toilet
• Washed dishes
• Assembled IKEA furniture
• Worked at a fast food counter
• Climbed a ladder
• Driven my child to the emergency room in the middle of the night
• Built a LEGO model
• Loaded and unloaded a moving van
• Filed for unemployment
• Washed dishes
• Shopped at Costco
• Taken pets on their final trip to the veterinarian
• Pushed a stroller
• Shaved my head (take that, Donald!)
• Mowed the lawn
• Painted a bedroom
• Been in a high school play
• Bought secondhand clothes at a thrift shop
• Shoveled snow out of a driveway
• Watched a movie with subtitles
• Baked a cake

I may expand this list when the urge hits, but my point is this: the lives of our elected officials are often devoid of the most common experiences. It is absurd to expect them to relate to us, or to make our priorities their own. Just as a human being shares more DNA with a banana than with a monkey, many of our elected officials are more like corporations than people. Do not expect human responses or decisions from them.

Story/Game idea: “Mother Hood”

After the critically acclaimed flop of a game “Coconut Queen”, I wanted to continue to explore combining resource management, city-building, and a fun story about another Girl Who Kicks Ass. One of the ideas that iWin generously hired a development team to let me prototype was for putting a twist on the familiar legends of Robin Hood.

There are practically no female characters in the original legends. Maid Marian, while not a completely helpless character, didn’t really move any stories forward in the way befitting a protagonist. After poring over multiple versions of the legends (did you know that Robin Hood took place in two different forests, Sherwood and Barnsdale Forest?) I found room in the legend for a new story based on the following:

• Robin Hood almost never won in a fair fight, in hand-to-hand combat.
• Robin Hood was a master of disguise, impossible for anyone to find when he was in town.
• Robin Hood and Maid Marian always met in private. Nobody saw the two of them together until their eventual wedding.
• Only Robin Hood’s most trusted companions were with him at his deathbed, and the grave of such a famous individual was suspiciously absent.

It’s obvious, isn’t it? Robin Hood is a persona that Marian created on her own.

Marian came across the Merry Men living in the forest, and saw the miserable conditions of their existence. They were cold, hungry, filthy, squabbling among themselves and completely disorganized and unprepared to handle the Sheriff of Nottingham. What they needed, she realized, was a Mom. So Marian became both Leader and Mother to the Merry Men (and women) of Sherwood. She got them to bathe, train, build homes among the trees, and become a big family in the forest. To improve their living conditions, she enlisted the help of a gifted bachelor inventor, Friar Tuck, whose constant tinkering and knowledge of mechanical devices in his home within a hollowed tree led to it being dubbed “The Tuck Knowledge-y Tree”.

But for morale, one of her greatest creations was a Legend. She couldn’t always be there for the Merry Men, and any real leader ran the risk of being captured and executed by the Sheriff of Nottingham. The men needed a leader that could never be caught, never be beaten, and whom all of the Men could love. So she hatched a secret with them, fashioned a signature look that she or any other number of outlaws could don as needed, and gave birth to a legend.

This was the framework for a game about building a new civilization from scratch in the middle of a forest, with plenty of room for humor and inside jokes. Joan of Arc and Mulan provided some useful wayposts for fleshing out the story of a woman living secretly as a man, including the complications of the men falling in love with Marian, who in turn fell in love with someone else.

If I can get an artist to help with the character design, this story could still kick ass. I know what the cliff-hanger ending would be, even.