Drew Cook: A Biting Cat

It's been a while since I shared the "soundtrack" for Repeat the Ending: youtube.com/playlist?lis... (spotify mirror: open.spotify.com/playlist/6cD...)

Part 2 of my series on Infocom's Bureaucracy is finally up. golmac.org/please-find-...

Sat down to work on Bureaucracy this morning, only to find that my Wordpress site had stopped displaying bullet points. Fixed it, but I had hoped to be finished with the post by now :(

My survival horror Inform game is maybe 75% done, so I've put out a request for testers. I always seem to have trouble finding testers. Hopefully a lot of people will volunteer!

A new post, continuing the previous discussion re: a system of initiative in Inform. topexpert.blog/2026/10/13/d...

My Windows 11 laptop crashed and, let me just say, they never should have retired the blue screen. Pretty soulless experience, 0/10

I’ve been trying, off and on for ages, to write a craft essay about Repeat the Ending. I think it is hard to avoid emphasizing the personal, but many decisions were made to maintain what my MFA brain would like to think of as “rigor.” It’s hard to get it all together on a page. I wonder if I will.

Oct. 11, 1975: It’s a very special week which music historians and musicologists commonly refer to as “Peak Cocaine”* We’re headed to the arcade to listen to the #AT40 and play an 8-person game the size of a modest living room. [*This term would later be repurposed for Gremlins 2]

I've reached the point I always reach near the end of an inform project where the complexity of everything begins to crowd out the content, changing something is a bit like shoving a rollerskating wildebeest at the top of a hill

Harvard just dropped a study AI productivity in software engineering and it found the average increase in productivity from using Claude code is.....zero and for exactly the reasons you'd think fion.ac/jellyfish.pdf

They know

Fright Fatales is making a terrifying return on October 17th and 18th! 🎃 Check out the schedule and get ready for a horror filled weekend alongside Frame Fatales!

working on the playlist for Inherent Depravity. it just passed 80k words! I think we have maybe 9 rooms, three endings, and maybe four fights left to write. Then, filling in all the placeholders, help, etc. It's getting there youtu.be/kbPR6IIi3tE?...

This morning, the D&D team and Magic's Studio X informed our leadership of our intent to unionize. We love the games we make and the work we do, and unionizing is how we protect that work. unitedwizardsofthecoast.com/news/dnd-stu...

For comparison's sake, Repeat the Ending is almost 15k lines of code. 50k is a *wild* number for a random to just roll up, unsolicited, and ask for a review

I finished my replay of Bureaucracy the other night, and I've been "about to start" writing a post ever since. Starts well, but loses sight of its mission perhaps halfway through. There's also one puzzle that I absolutely never would have solved without hints. I had a hard time with the hard parts!

Anatomy of a wild-pointer bug in Infocom's Infidel. Yes, in the released version. I believe this is a brand-new discovery. blog.zarfhome.com/2026/10/infi...

I'm going to start a new Dark Souls 1 character and stream for, oh, maybe 90 minutes. This is not going to be, er, high level play exactly. www.twitch.tv/thebitingcat

saw someone mention Vonnegut's Mother Night on Discord this morning, was reading it by noon

Visible Planetfall is up. eblong.com/infocom/visi... blog.zarfhome.com/2026/10/visi...

L M A O

Ok ok yes Lanterns has been brilliant But is the guy who wrote Lost going to wrap this up in one episode #lanterns

I’m revisiting Infocom’s Bureaucracy for an upcoming essay. I feel I might enjoy it more than I did last time, though I cannot say why. Perhaps this is just a fortunate season of liking. I have laughed a few times already.

I think we are getting close to a second playtest for Inherent Depravity, the RE fangame. There's a big set piece sort of boss fight thing to wrap up, and I need to write some in-world texts. I wonder how people will feel about it? It's going to be Very Drew Cook

Continued discussion of the RE fangame in Inform. I'm trying to work my way toward a system of initiative (i.e., deciding who gets to act first), but it's tricky. topexpert.blog/2026/09/28/w...

I've published "complete packages" for all of my Inform games: zip archives including source, image assets, templates, scripts, and extensions. Everything required to compile from scratch. I've also updated the code to improve support for mobile web browsers. ifdb.org/showuser?id=...

goodness!

Today on Top Expert: the beginnings of a rudimentary combat system for Inform topexpert.blog/2026/09/16/p...

working on a playlist for Inherent Depravity youtu.be/wzadPklQwuQ?...

I plan on writing about my upcoming survival horror fangame for a while. An Inform thing. topexpert.blog/2026/09/14/d...

Today, I extend grace to the makers of harmless media that I do not like.

I am still working on the Inform survival horror game! The map is maybe 2/3 finished

If anyone has contacts at Valve who can help expedite this, we certainly wouldn't say no to the help. In the meantime, I'll be here swimming in cortisol.

This is going to be the first time in a minute that I haven't owned a current Nintendo system for a new Fire Emblem release. I'm having some feelings about it as a superfan, but I don't have a good reason to buy a Switch 2 atm. I have dire ergo issues with handhelds so I could only play it docked

I am currently planning to stream some of porpentine's "Money for Girls" tonight on twitch. I should start around 830 CST. Streams usually go about 90 minutes. Hopefully my voice doesn't give out! www.twitch.tv/thebitingcat

Perfect couple of posts summarising the Wolverine / AAA space.

Introducing Infocom's "Bureaucracy," a game that went through a very rough development. It is seldom discussed today, though it can be quite forward-looking. golmac.org/bureaucracy-...

I’ll stream maybe 90 minutes of Sinking City 2 by Frogwares later this evening. It’s a Lovecraftian thing. Haven’t ever launched it; that’s all I know! I’ll start between 830 and 900 cst tonight www.twitch.tv/thebitingcat

I am one of those people who doesn't love the look of the OoT remake, IG. Faces in particular. Oh, well, I don't own a Switch 2 anyway Though I'll get one for Fire Emblem one of these days

Good news dlss 5 is out

The best song on the Breeders' Title TK is "Forced to Drive," isn't it? youtu.be/3-XsaLH9qsg?...

What is the secret of… Inherent Depravity? An Inform thing this Spring

I wrote some advice for handling line breaks in Inform. Line breaks are kind of a rough ride for a lot of people, including me. topexpert.blog/2026/09/03/w...

My unsolicited advice is, ironically, solicit advice.