Development Updates

MiniScript 2.0 saw a bunch of steady progress this week, especially around garbage collection and string handling. Joe landed a new gc intrinsic with gc.collect and gc.stats methods, plus fixes for runtime error reporting and several VM/refactoring issues in the miniscript2 branch. The dev log and recent commits are worth a look if you enjoy following the architecture work: DEV_LOG, recent commits.

A notable performance decision also got locked in: separate int storage was removed, and all numbers are now double. Joe reported no meaningful benchmark difference, so the simpler design wins here — a great example of keeping the internals elegant without sacrificing speed.

Community Projects

If you’ve been meaning to get started with Mini Micro, Joe’s been actively pointing newcomers toward the quickstart and the built-in demos. The best launch point is still the getting-started guide: How to get started with Mini Micro, and Joe specifically reminded folks to try running things like run "asteroids" in /sys/demo.

There was also a fun new wave of interest around MiniScript on Godot. Community members shared the extension repo Godot-X-MiniScript and a broader GitHub search for related projects: MiniScript + Godot repos.

Discussion Highlights

Several great technical conversations happened this week around embedding and runtime design. People asked about using MiniScript as an embedded language in games, and Joe pointed to the Unity package while noting that the Unity plugin is a bit behind and may need the latest source folder from GitHub. He also shared the language quick reference: MiniScript QuickRef PDF.

On the Mini Micro side, there was a lively discussion about performance benchmarks, palette handling, and low-level 6502-inspired hardware ideas. Joe also highlighted a useful public API list providing online services usable from Mini Micro apps: public-apis/public-apis.

From the Blog

Joe published a new Mini Micro tutorial, HWYDT: Turning the Page, showing how to build a convincing page-flip animation using nothing but math, sprites, and texture mapping. It’s a fun, practical example of what Mini Micro can do — and a nice companion to HWYDT: Swinging from Vines.

Thanks for reading, and happy scripting!

Upcoming Game Jams

These upcoming jams look like a great fit for Mini Micro:

• Make Literally Anything Jam '26 (starts 2026-05-15 04:00:00) — A wildly open-ended jam with a loose theme and total freedom to make almost anything you want, perfect for experimenting, getting weird, or shipping something small and fun in just a week.
• Micro Jam 058: Tides ($400+ Prizes) (starts 2026-05-16 02:00:00) — A highly approachable theme with lots of room for clever interpretation, making it ideal for a compact 2D game built around atmosphere, movement, or shifting conditions.
• ARCADIA JAM #4 (starts 2026-05-15 17:00:00) — A short, open 48-hour jam with permissive rules and no engine restrictions, making it a great chance to build a polished web-friendly game and compete on art, gameplay, and originality.
• The Shorter, The Better (starts 2026-05-15 17:30:00) — A very friendly fit for a compact, story-driven game: the 5-minute limit encourages tight pacing, a single ending keeps scope manageable, and web playability makes it easy to share and test.
• MVM 32 - Super edition (starts 2026-05-16 02:00:00) — A long-running metroidvania-focused jam with a relaxed three-month window, open engine rules, and room to iterate on exploration, abilities, and level design.
• Campfire Creators Jam #2 (starts 2026-05-21 21:00:00) — A highly flexible jam with a retro-friendly campfire theme, welcoming everything from cozy story games to survival, puzzle, and strategy concepts while only requiring a single animated campfire sprite.