I’ve moved the blog to my own webspace.  This will allow more flexibility. To subscribe to updates, paste this into your RSS reader: http://blog.dfyb.net/?feed=rss2

One new feature will be a “currently playing” field at the end of each post, letting you know what games I’ve been playing.

edit: I realize some of my old posts have links to other posts, but still link to the wordpress URL — please inform me of any errors you run across as a comment

LittleBig Train Heist makes another ‘Top Levels’ article — this time earning 18th out of 50. I had previously posted about how the level made a top 10 list from 1up.

Load in, drop a car into play, and zoom off after a speeding train full of point bubbles! This stage forces players to use plenty of caution when progressing through each of the train’s cars because they’re full of booby traps. And don’t die, because you’ll have to start the stage all over again while the train keeps chugging onward. We also like that the first time you jump to the train a well-timed photo op creates a keepsake actually worth holding onto.

The more exposure it gets, the more motivated I am to make appropriate improvements. One improvement will be to put the checkpoints in more intuitive locations: the article claims there are no checkpoints on the train, but there are two (three, if you include the one in the engine) — admittedly, it is a valid complaint, as they are easy to miss (again, the level is more a proof of concept — not a polished product). School has been swamping me the past few weeks and doesn’t look like it’ll be easing up in the immediate future, so it’ll be a priority of mine over christmas break.

I’ve completed my dish. The front of the dish has a layer of a translucent yellow under a layer of a translucent gray — the yellow bled through for a neat effect.

The underside is a bluish green to give a bit of contrast from the top and the stand. I may take better pictures and replace these cellphone pics later after I get the dish back.

The current project for metalsmithing is a dish — we are required to make a dish and a stand for the dish; we also need to utilize enameling, which is basically coating metal with colored glass (by melting powdered glass). Most people are making circular bowls — I chose a different shape.

For the stand, I wanted to mimic some sort of sleek wooden table.
Read more »

Despite my LittleBigPlanet level being very much a proof of concept, it has found itself a spot on 1UP’s 10 Favorite User-Generated Little Big Planet Levels (So Far).

LittleBig Train Heist has over 12,000 plays so far. I’m looking forward to finding the time to make some refinements and upgrades to the level

My eventual goal is to create an ambient wall piece that I’d have around my apartment as a sort of interactive decoration. I was thinking I’d have it change according to music or vibrations. Well I have some preliminary work done — I have the arduino communicating with a tri-color LED bar, which is powered through an external AC adapter. Currently they change colors by having each individual color (RGB) fade in and out with pulse width modulation. I gotta give thanks to Jesse for an example layout using a zener diode (to protect the arduino) and a darlington transistor array. Next steps will involve buying a microphone and vibration sensor to start toying around with different potential interfaces.