Mathematics PhD; algebraic geometry, data science and statistical learning theory.
Yes; I ordered a) before b) as I thought a) is an easier action, but that is subjective.
Shipping domestically via water is the most environmentally friendly option available.
Can someone elaborate on this? I would imagine that (electrified) rail is the most environmentally friendly option available. Or perhaps you consider rail to not be an available option?
Some ~5 years ago I played a bit of Baba is You with a friend. I did Tiny Pond on my own before the workshop (I was Raemon for the purposes of our event), but I found it a bit too easy. In particular, I remembered how all the mechanics in the level worked, so my certainty about each step was very high. I collaborated with Jenn in the second round and felt similarly.
Even though the surprise anticipation part of the exercise was moot for me, I still think that the practice of trying to discover and write out the entire solution before solving it was worthwhile, and I plan to do it again on more Baba is You levels.
Many of the others in the workshop felt that this exercise is artificial because 'you'd never solve research questions like this', you would always play around with things in advance. I think if I were to run the workshop again, I'd emphasize more how for some problems, playing around in advance is prohibitively expensive, so planning far in advance is important. I think your web version of the game that tracks development time is a nice step towards addressing this part of things.
On a similar note, in my experience doing research, a long-term plan might include cycles of experimentation and plan-making. Maybe you should have a section of the plan-making exercise where you set out 2-3 small experiments you want to run, running them, and then return to long-term plan-making? Or maybe that defeats the purpose of the surprise-anticipation portion?
Personally, I conjecture that as a math PhD student and puzzle game enjoyer, Baba is You is too similar to the exact type of training that I have had for years at this point. I want to try doing a plan-making and surprise anticipation exercise where I have to do something totally foreign to me, like making a chair out of wood!
Thanks Raemon for your effort putting this together.