Oops, I didn't make another devlog post, but I did write a bit in the description on Tic-Tac-Crow's itch page. Let's see...
(quote from 2021, feb 22 below)
If you're reading this, the Nemesis system patent is in effect (or is just about). When I set out to make a game for the Nemesis Jam, I really wasn't expecting to find the document so educational and inspiring.
The working title for Tic-Tac-Crow was "My Tic-Tac-Toe Nemesis is a Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo!"; it was made for the Nemesis Jam, a prompt to "make something in any way regarding this system." So, I made a game about birds with individual traits and parameters (My system calls them STATS and QUIRKS) that change in response to player action and other things... and we crafted a living, breathing world out of this dynamic. Birds play against each other, and you can see their individual personalities in motion!
There's no way to explicitly view these in-game (you can dig through the save file, it's pseudo-plaintext), but STATS are numerical values that every bird has (e.g. their hidden level is directly related to how good their Tic-Tac-Toe-playing AI is), while QUIRKS are pairs of triggers and reactions.
e.g.
- When my opponent cheats, I cheat back.
- When the player joins my table, I make a happy noise.
I think this all combines to create a great sense of individuality between birds, and it's something I'd like to continue using in future projects - as well as continue to work on this one.
I don't even know if what I've developed constitutes patent infringement or not, and it's frustrating to imagine a future where game design is fraught with this type of worry.
There's not much I can do about patent law, but maybe this tiny protest will make a tiny difference.
(Also, I'm publishing it on the App Store soon, which will hopefully serve to lend it extra legitimacy!)