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Downpour creator on how Elon Musk killed the nice bots on Twitter: "only terrible bots are left" (on X)

V Buckenham created open-source Cheap Bots Done Quick and shared with others, "and now there are successors on Mastodon or Bluesky"

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At the BIG Conference last month we got the chance to catch up with V Buckenham, as the creator of Downpour was in Bilbao to talk about the successful creative tool for both devs and regular users to experiment and create simple games easily.

In the video below, which you can watch fully with local subtitles, V explains how Downpour is designed as an easy-to-use platform for anyone, even those without programming skills, to create interactive games. If you haven't tried it out yet, it allows you to make games by simply collaging images and text, linking different pages, and sharing them online.

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In the interview, V shares several interesting examples of creative projects made using Downpour, such as a hilarious game about how to make tea (by VVVVVV creator Terry Cavanagh, speaking of Vs), and another game that procedurally generates all possible Tic-Tac-Toe boards.

For those who are into the platform already, V also discusses plans to continue improving Downpour with new features, such as video support and enhanced social capabilities, while maintaining its simplicity. And while V is cautious about integrating generative AI into the tool (out of respect for artists and dev colleagues), the plan is to add non-generative AI features, such as background removal for images, to improve the user experience.

However V was also known for the popular Cheap Bots Done Quick for Twitter, and here's how they look back at the project after the platform's shift into X.

"Yeah, like it was my attempt to go, 'Oh, maybe I can make some of this stuff happen.' Other than Downpour, I worked on Cheap Bots Done Quick, which was basically a tool for people to create creative bots on Twitter. But now, with the changes on Twitter, it's not really possible anymore."

"Yeah, no, Elon got rid of all of the nice bots and only terrible bots are left there", V explains about the current situation on Musk's X, where they no longer have an account. "And I made the source for that open source and now that there are successor ones for Mastodon and for Bluesky, so there's people still making stuff like Cheap Bots Done Quick on these other platforms which feels really great to me."

Have you tried creating a game with the free-to-play Downpour on your phone? And what do you think about bots on Twitter/X?



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