Still the game is this ever evolving  program turning around the axis of an idea in my head. There really hasn't been as much progress as I would have liked in the past month. Technical setbacks plagued my infantile programming and as of late another big change has been consuming a lot of my time; namely, an entire redesign of the artstyle and feel of the game.

It has been a long time coming, I've been toying with various styles for months but now my mind is more or less made up. The original artstyle, not unlike that of the game FTL: Faster Than Light, was just that; based on two ship designs I had laying around from a mod I made for FTL.  Well no more, while the 2D style was far more time efficient than making 3D models the style of old science fiction movies just suits this project so much more and I am a lot more confortable doing designs in 3D than in 2D.

Of course the top down mechanics of the game remain. This visual change isn't going suddenly make the game in full 3D, no matter how much I'd like that.
No, the extent of the change doesn't go that far unfortunately.
Additional new features include some space scavenging for items that can be found floating around in space as well as the occasional lost escape pod.

That's the latest of updates on the game development of HyperVentila: The Game.

Until Next Time!

Then he took us through his early roles and after a brief interval; the complete works of Shakespeare.
From his King Lear to Romeo and Juliet he ended his show with a powerful rendition of Macbeth.

It was, despite a relatively small theatre, a grand show in the theatre heart of London at the end he got a standing ovation by the audience and even by Sting who was sitting one row in front of me with his family. Rather unexpected but certainly caught Ilaria's eye right away. Such is London life I guess.

After the show, on the way out, I got a chance to thank and congratulate Sir Ian and to shake his hand. It was a most memorable evening and I'm very glad we went.

In other news, the game has been going well in the past month. Despite many set-backs due to a decision to reprogram much of the core of the game I now have something far more complex as a basis that will allow me to realise this project the way I had imagined it.

I have very little to show right now but since I like posting screenshots and renders here is a one of a minor hacking component I finished yesterday:

 That's it for this blog. Bye now. :)

...well that I forgot anyway. Like this blog! Yes it has been a year since my last post about squirrels. But the resillience and absoluteness of this blog shall remain resolute and keep going for a while longer. Well another four years at least since I apparently bought quite a considerable domain extension a few years ago.

A lot has happened in this year. After Oxford I spent some time in London finally ending up in Edinburgh and the summer I spent mainly in Edinburgh and various places in Italy.

Still rather unsure of what to do and where to go next, with no work and no stable future in sight, I decided to start a game project. This brings us back to the title of this blog post where Mikomwood finally gets a worthy future counterpart; HyperVentila.
Many years in the making ( in my head ) this mad science fantasy spinnoff from Mikomwood has been a bit of a mystery of how to make. While Mikomwood was to me what the Discworld was to Terry Pratchett, HyperVentila would of course seem like another jump to mad comic novelist and radio-play writer Douglass Adams and his Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Not this time! I wanted HyperVentila to be something else.
A universe of exploration, making your own madness and interactivity. So a game of course!

What have I got to show so far? some screenshots! and a silly Android port on my phone...

Some things have been a challenge in designing this game so far but I've learnt a lot.

I also recently designed a website for my dear Ilaria: www.ilariagiacon.com Check it out!

That's it for this blog. Until next time.

I 3d printed some vest buttons. They're quite practical, really easy to unbutton because of the tip on one end but they don't slip out because the wider other end locks them in place. The vest I got from a clothes-swapping event that took place last week.

I also bought this cute figure of Yoda from a friend. Check out her blog you must, at HappyYarnJobs.blogspot.se.

What else have I been doing since my last blog entry?

• I started using Instagram.
• I stopped using Instagram.
• I went to a motor show.
• I got a new laptop (HP Spectre x360 13").
• Did loads of 3D printing.
• Was in a newspaper.
• Went to Holland for a few days.
• Bought silly sunglasses.
• Did more 3D printing.
• Was in a newspaper again.
• I quite got into paracord braiding.
• I now have a plant.
  
• Went to a clothes-swapping event (where I was in the newspaper... again).
  
• Stacked some wood at my parents place.
• Went biking for the first time of the year.

That's about it for this blog. Happy Easter!

Here is also a picture of the bus-ride home:

I visited another Makerspace yesterday, might even work there at some point in the future. They mainly work with bio-composite 3D printing and some PLA-based materials.

Here are some examples of things printed with these materials:

They are bringing in even more 3D printers and the goal appears to be being able to print products at any size and custom built specifically for that consumer.

It's an interesting project and place to be for sure. I'm currently learning their machines and way of operating but maybe I'll joi... OH MY GOD, A MOTHERFLIPPIN' ROBOT

...ok while this isn't part of the 3D printing-project, she is just standing there in a half-abandoned production facility in the adjacent locales. This thing is freaking massive and I think is used to stack and move around planks.... maybe. Either way, she looks lonely.

That's about it for this blog. We'll see how this turns out. That robot though...

Here's a project I have been working on for a few days now. This is a house built from easy-to-assemble polystyrene blocks and wood panels. The idea came from a French company who also make these Pop-Up houses.
My client contacted these guys but it seemed they were busy so he then turned to me instead.

This was a rather fun project to work on. Now let's see whether it actually makes it into real life or not.

Also, here's a picture of a candle:

Here is another prototype fresh from the VITRIOL 3D R&D department. The lamp I designed in my original concepts has been realized with some measure of questionable success.

I started in trueSpace more or less the same way as I did the furniture.

I bought the screws and lamps needed. Next it was off to Karlstad Makerspace to craft the final components.

When the machine was finished I went home and painted it quickly in the evening because the very next day I went back to Karlstad and assembled it at a new initiative called a "crAfter Work".
Essentially it's a get-together for people who like to craft things of any and all descriptions.

After that the prototype was finished and ready to be tested in my apartment. Mounting is still an issue but has several solutions already.

...and there you have it. This was a fun project for sure but there are a couple of modifications I'm going to make.  For one, I'd like it to be brighter so I'll probably end up mounting two lamps instead of one.
I also have some space left below the small LED lamps so I could probably reduce how tall it is as well. Perhaps arrange the lamps slightly differently so I can make it even smaller.

The paper is another issue, it was surprisingly hard to find a paper that let through enough light, was big enough and didn't cost a fortune. Especially coloured paper since for this prototype I had hoped to go for a purple or red colour rather than the pure white. Just for funky experimentation's sake.
Another issue with the paper was how annoyingly hard it was to mount in the grooves. Only bottom grooves for the final version.

Maybe I'll switch to using thin cloth instead of paper. More experimentation is needed there.

Obviously for the final results I will be using less obvious screws, or just simply paint over them.

How does one turn an idea like this into reality? I don't know but in my mind this is part of how to do it.

I wonder if IKEA is hiring...

A couple of weeks ago I made up my mind that I was moving out of this apartment but... due to certain unforeseen consequences I have decided to stay a while longer. About two years most likely, more on that in a later blog no doubt.
So right now my apartment is in a dreadful state. Boxes everywhere, random furniture with no actual stylistic cohesion and quite a lot of dust that built up over the years. Well let's see if I can put an end to this.

This new project is intended to sort out this dreadful mess and make it a much nicer place to live.

Here are some real-time rendered screenshots in trueSpace of what I've got in mind.

The bed and lamp in the corner I already have... so there's that.
As for the rest. The sofa I might be able to buy somewhere, the table can probably be made quite easily provided I can find the right wood and glass. Same goes for the little bookshelf and night stand, I will see if I can have those made or make them myself.

The table for the printer and television are very much placeholders but I'll settle for anything that makes sense stylistically and that holds up the TV. The TV itself I thought would be far to expensive, 40 to 60 inch TVs cost around the 600 Euro's. Obviously I forgot that I have two gaming monitors that cost about 700 Euro's each so that puts that into perspective I think.

Those ceiling lamps though... they're going be tricky. Maybe with some 3D printing and/or paper I can craft a couple of them.

Apartment Update Blog 2 is coming whenever.

Cheers!