Useful Programs!

A highly customizeable note taking, journaling, scheduling, anything-app. I personally use it to line up tasks and hobbies so I don't forget to *do things*. It's also great for storing tabletop worldbuilding material or any notes I may be taking on my special interest of the week. The sheer breadth of its capabilities are limited only by how much time you're willing to sink into tweaking it.

A simple RSS feed reader and collaging app that puts all of my interests in one easily accessible place. Great for keeping up with artists who use websites that support feeds, like Bluesky or Tumblr! It's also useful for knowing when Dwarf Fortress updates come out, among other game websites that post updates.

A feature rich IDE ideal for scripting, whether it be for Python projects, website design, or otherwise. Sleek and convenient, nothing more to really say about it - If you've programmed for a decent length of time, chances are you've used it at some point. Before this I was using Sublime Text, and Brackets. Does anyone remember Brackets? Feels like a lifetime ago since that editor was going around, now it's dropped off the face of the Earth.

I've been developing games for a long time. Small games, mind, little hobby projects written in Java that play over websocket in a Discord bot, or the odd experiment with PyGame. I was hesitant to start with Godot, but after getting the hang of it, I've found myself very happy with what it's capable of! Working with Compositional objects was a big change of pace for me, compared to the Inheritance-based techniques I've used for software design, but it was a greatly enjoyable experience to make use of. If you're looking at getting into game dev, I recommend Brackey's beginner tutorial for Godot - That one video helped me get acquainted with everything very quickly.

My art program of choice for serious works that involve my drawing tablet. I use the default G-Pen with the minimum pen pressure turned way up, and a bit of randomness added for texture - This helps keep line sizes consistent while also texturing them enough to help prevent perfectionist tendencies in sketches. Even as someone who hasn't drawn for longer than a few months, it's been my favorite art program out of the half-dozen or so I've tried. The cherry on top is that it has perpetual licenses with no monthly payments, of course.

What more is there to say except that it's MSPaint but with layers and plugins and is better in every way? For any quick edits, color corrections, idea concepting, or seamless generated textures, PDN has been one of the lighter-weight tools I've used to just get things done *fast*. From quick logo compositions to eye-catching images and backdrops for tabletop character profiles, it can get things done quick in situations where I'd be suffering with tool juggling with a heavier program. The backgrounds on this website were made with it!