Showtime! ...and lots of other events
Hi there! It's been about a month and a half, which is apparently enough time for me to write a giant email anyway! At the rate I'm going, maybe I'll actually have to start getting concerned about my 'one email a week' promise.
...yeah, probably not. Anyway, there's been a lot going on in my life:
Life Updates
I went to Japan for the first two weeks of July! Specifically, Tokyo, Kyoto, and a random day trip to Osaka because I happened to be on the correct train. It was a lot of fun, and the amount of content could fill up an entire email, but also my family's a lot more fit than I am and we ended up going on far more hikes than I ever thought I could handle :'D.
Upcoming Events
STAR WARS
I mentioned last time that I'd joined a theater troupe called Hello Earth Productions, and that we're putting on a play of Star Wars Episode V outdoors in August. And now, it is almost August, so I've got some more details!
(ok I had the details a while ago I just didn't actually send them out)
For anyone who's in the Seattle area: the show is at the Dr. Blanche Lavizzo Park on every Saturday and Sunday in August at 5 PM (except the 31st). There's a Facebook event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/650244725494636/
Here's the poster!
Mechanical Keyboard Meetup!
Tomorrow is the annual Seattle Mechanical Keyboard meetup! Last year at this time I'd only made one keyboard, and now I have...uh, more than any person would reasonably need. I think I'll bring one or two boards.
I'll definitely take a lot of pictures, so expect a good number of them in the next update.
I've also been working on (probably my last) keyboard, which is a solid-metal Mars themed board. I don't think I'll finish it in time for the meetup, but at least it looks pretty nice as is, if you ignore the tragedy that is my desk, and the board above it:
Sadly, the case doesn't support split spacebars, so it'll likely be more of a display piece than a daily-use-board, but it looks really nice (and much better in person than in pictures) and it also feels really nice too.
JSConf US
I'll be attending JSConf from August 12th to 14th, which is in Carlsbad, California (very close to San Diego). If you happen to be there, or around San Diego during that time, let me know! I should have a little time to say hi! I'm going to do more Javascript-y things and learn about the web and talk about WebXR and stuff.
It is a pretty tight travel schedule, considering I'll be performing a show the day before, but that's okay!
Projects
Ok there's a lot of events going on right now, but somehow I keep finding time to make projects anyway because I don't know what else to do.
Recital
Recital is the interactive fiction / visual novel engine I've been working on for a few months now. Progress is coming along smoothly - I'm at the point now where I'm actively writing a game in it! The script is written, and I'm mostly waiting on (procrastinating on) art now.
To help me with development, I've been working on a web-based editor for Recital that I'm calling Rehearsal, which I've been using to live-preview my stories. I'm not too comfortable with releasing the tool (and the engine) to the public until I've at least documented them, but in the meantime, I've made GIFS:
This is the main rehearsal editor (using the create-react-app README as an example). The system lets you write scripts using Markdown, and then show passages one by one or make choices with links:
...or add placeholder images or custom-built components:
The script system and tool aren't quite there yet to create stories with fully animated images, and I haven't even started looking into adding audio yet, but it's really coming along. Also, the code is really pretty, which I think is the most important part.
Designs
I've been thinking about touching up my online profile pictures and general web presence, mostly because it's been a while (the profile picture I use everywhere was made my freshman year of college)! I've been doing some explorations, but not much more, here:
Possible profile picture?
Logo stuff. I think I made the logo back in middle school, and never found it in me to change the shape.
I don't think I'm going to actually change anything online yet, but it's stuff I'm thinking about! Funny enough, I think that every time I've changed my personal site, I've flipped back and forth between using red or blue as my primary highlight color. I've been identifying more with red as of late, but we'll see how I feel in a few weeks time when I get back to this.
Games (jammin' along)
They're still happening! Most of the progress is blocked by the fact that I'd need to get Recital in a working state first, though.
I've been making pretty good progress on learning Godot! I've been working on a turn-based strategy RPG with a friend, and we spent a weekend together figuring out how to use the engine and making a small demo with map making and pathfinding.
A map, with all possible travel points from the middle marked in blue. White squares are ground, green squares are difficult terrain, brown and black are walls.
That's another project in a sea of projects though, which I'll talk about more once it actually looks like something.
(Actually, that's something I've been thinking about - I'm good at showing off progress in work if it's visual, but for stories? Written work? I'm still not sure how to talk about them in any way. Especially since I'm jumping between so many of them. It's something I'll try to figure out slowly, though!)
Ok, looking back, a lot has happened in less than two months. I personally thought this was going to be a shorter email than it was, at least. But events are happening and things are being made, and that will probably always remain a constant.
Doodlin'
I had a lot of free time on the flight back from Japan, so made some drawings in a style I don't normally use, with heavy inks to emulate an American comic book style.
I also wanted to practice drawing hands.