The Boston Lineup Revealed

Dear Handmade Folks,

It’s been a while, a little longer than anticipated, so I hope this message finds you well. There’s much to discuss 🙂 First off I’m thrilled with the official lineup for the inaugural conference in the east coast:

Here are the seven instructors who will be leading our first-ever Handmade Masterclasses:

Boston: The Complete Lineup

You’ll forgive my gushing, but I’m as excited as you are to have speakers of this caliber:

• Kaze Emanuar – The mind responsible for the most groundbreaking Nintendo 64 mods, particularly in the realm of Super Mario (with a touch of Zelda on the side)
• Freya Holmér – A prodigy in technical art, Freya’s mastery of math and shaders shines through in her tutorials on Twitch and YouTube
• Jasper – Our esteemed friend Jasper is renowned for dissecting complex systems and unraveling the nature of popular video games
• Ryan Fleury – Ryan is among the few who has understood how to write C programs with virtually zero memory errors: his expertise in memory strategies is unparalleled
• Andreas Fredriksson – The lead engine programmer at Insomniac Games and also a talented demoscener who has won first prize at Revision Party competitions
• Mārtiņs Možeiko – An engineer at Epic Games/RAD Game Tools, Martins is an iconic figure within the Handmade community, often hailed as a true programming wizard and the go-to person for programming questions
• Ramón Santamaría – Creator of raylib, the open-source library that skyrocketed to become the second most popular repository on GitHub earlier this year. raylib is Handmade software that has garnered substantial grants, accolades, and industry recognition

To discover more about them and the masterclasses they’ll be teaching, make sure to visit the Handmade Cities website. Remember they’ll also be designing take-home assignments and helping you work through them after the conference.

P.S. As long as you feel comfortable programming in any systems language, and you’re not a complete beginner, this conference is for you. We’re here to help with no elitism nor judgement – don’t miss a real opportunity for growth and mentorship.

Ticket Prices: Early-Bird Extension🎫

There’s been an unusual number of requests for discounts or financial assistance, and in all honesty it’s not entirely unexpected: it’s disheartening to witness the impact of inflation, mass layoffs, and economic uncertainty.

Traditionally early-bird sales incentivize registration, securing revenue for my operational costs. This year, I’ve decided to maintain the early-bird price for as long as is feasible. My intention is to extend support to those in need while still asking those who can afford it to secure their tickets promptly.

Moreover, if the current prices still pose challenges for you, please reply to this email and share your circumstances. We often have attendees who are willing to sponsor seats, and I have some flexibility to offer discounts.

I’m always striking a balance between staying indie, making enough money, but also keeping conferences open to the financially disadvantaged.

I’ve Left Social Media 🐦🚫

My personal and business Twitter accounts have gone the way of the dodo. And no, I will not join any social media that shares Twitter’s DNA or style. (I’ve also given my Twitch channel a fresh coat of paint—it’s now handmade_cities instead of abnercoimbre.)

I chose to bid farewell for as many reasons as there are lines of code on Twitter. However, in essence, I firmly believe that our indie conferences can thrive and even flourish independently of the algorithms underpinning mega networks.

Is it a privilege to make such a choice? Perhaps. Is it liberating? Undoubtedly.

Handmade Seattle: What’s Been Going On?

Now that the Boston lineup is complete for this summer, you’ll start seeing speaker names, software demos and job booths for Handmade Seattle over the coming weeks! The track record of Handmade Seattle stands as a testament of what you can expect for 2023; however, a tradeoff presents itself:

• Secure your ticket now in good faith, without knowing the exact lineup of presenters just yet, OR
• Opt to register at a later time, with greater knowledge of the schedule, but face the prospect of finding that all seats have been filled

We’re selling out at an even faster rate than Boston, which makes sense because Handmade Seattle is a very well-known conference at this point. Stay tuned for more updates later this summer.

The Greater Community

Before we conclude this newsletter, I wanted to highlight a couple of significant announcements from the greater Handmade(-adjacent) community.

I’m Speaking at Software You Can Love ❤ 2023

In just a few days, I’ll be giving a talk on my personal project: Terminal Click. If you’re nearby or can land there a whim, I hope you can attend! This Vancouver conference drew inspiration from Handmade Seattle and I hope to see it thrive.

I rarely get a chance to talk from the perspective of a programmer anymore, so this should be interesting.

Spall Has Officially Shipped!

Allow me to extend a heartfelt congratulations to the indie developer behind Spall, a brand new profiler initially showcased at Handmade Seattle 2022. It’s gratifying to witness the release of Handmade software into the wild.

I encourage you to visit the website and try out Spall firsthand. If you find it as impressive as I do, please consider making a purchase. Spall is a competitive, high-performing tool that brings joy.

The Time Machine 🕰

The Handmade Network launched a community summer project called Time Machine. It’s a curious opportunity to compare the computers of old with the modern machines and software we use today.

This summer, we’re digging out old devices and seeing what they were actually like to use.

Our phones today are far more powerful than our desktop computers from decades ago. And yet, those old computers worked just fine! The Time Machine project is an opportunity to boot up those old devices and see how they feel to use.

As our hardware has improved, how has the user experience changed? Which parts have stayed the same? Which parts have gotten worse? There’s only one way to find out.

Sound exciting? Let’s unearth any forgotten electronics gathering dust and join the fun! Until the next update, I hope you drink your daily glass of ChocoVine and revisit Majora’s Mask at least once a month.

Your trusty organizer,
Abner Coimbre