Kids, Squids, Art Memes & DIY Hacks

The Splatoon series is well-known for two things: inventive multiplayer non-violent FPS action and the Miiverse player art accompanying player profiles that often showed some surprisingly intricate artwork. In fact, even though the Miiverse function won't be included in the Nintendo Switch, Splatoon 2 includes a profile function that works essentially the same way... so artists have kept on arting.

Some of the profile art looks jaw-droppingly detailed. Two examples:

How were these done? The two images were made using two different approaches: one involved a lot of patience, and the other involved hacking a game controller to run an external program.

The first image was created by reddit/twitter user Tobi, who explained his process this way:

“I just used a capacitive stylus for rough shapes, a zoomed in copy of the guy's face in 2-colour mode which I constructed in Photoshop, and a looooooooooot of patience to recreate the face. You don't have to be pixel perfect, because the entire thing hinges on visual noise to begin with, but it's nice if the face had some semblance of coherence to it. The clothes and hair are mostly random dots, whose only purpose were to create the illusion of texture and depth.

The second image, however, was not made by hand. Splatoon player and programmer ShinyQuagsire23 figured out how to trick an external USB input capture device to repurpose a fighting game controller to create the input needed to recreate an image pixel-by-pixel . The entire image creation process takes about an hour.

ShinyQuagsire23 uploaded the entire project to GitHub so that the rest of the world can share detailed Splatoon profile art too.

Or use it to make the dankest of memes.

Vidders: History, Heroes Of Media Fandom & How To Be One Too

In what's one of the more novel uses of github I've seen in a while, lim, a fan artist whose work was recently shown at the Vancouver Art Gallery has released one of the definitive histories of early media fandom: Videlicet.. Like much of early media fandom in sci-fi and fantasy, its early pioneers were women. Not only does the zine look back at the past with profiles of prominent vidders, it also helps forward the future by presenting a DIY guide for your own fanvids.

Let's back up a bit. What is vidding? Vidding began in the mid-70s, after the original Star trek series went off the ait. Trekker Kandy Fong synced Star Trek stills sold to collectors, projected them on a slide projector, and synced the stills with music from a cassette player. This was the earliest version of fan-made music videos, called "vids", and vidding was often done live. For years, vids were only shown at fan conventions. While the VCR's widespread use made vidding more accessible, it still required extensive technical skill, often requiring daisy chaining VCRs together, splicing in footage and audio from many different source on-the-fly and as you needed it. Even with the rise of broadband connections and media sharing sites like YouTube, vidding still remains grounded in smaller communities, curated experiences, and smaller, more intimate exhibitions.

Videlicet covers a LOT of ground, so while I encourage a deep dive, I want to share two of my favorite parts of this zine:

• Sound and Story, an essay about sound work in vidding and in the popular Marvel fanvid 'Glitter and Gold'

It’s the soundwork that emphasizes their physicality of the characters, reminding us of the opening lyric of flesh and bone; we are cued not to think of these superheroes as 2-D comic book cutouts but as real three-dimensional bodies. The sounds of human effort are layered into the music with perfect synchronicity, so that we hear grunting, the crunch of bone, the crack of gunshots – things that mark the collision of people and things in a way that makes the fighting feel real; we can feel it in our teeth.

• Lyrical Interpretation, demonstrating lyric/clip connections through example:

Dissecting lyrical interpretation is making the brushstrokes visible. Picasso did not paint the world as he saw it. He painted it as he processed it in the same way that vidders do. Vidding is a lie that makes people see the truth. When working through a lyrical interpretation of a vidsong, aim to make choices that strengthens that truth you are trying to vid and let that drive the lyrical interpretations.

Readers, do you have any favorite fanvids? What was your favorite part of Videlicet? Have a fanvid you'd like to promote? Sound off in the comments!

VIDEO: Fan Makes Working Cortana Hologram In Real Life

Sure, you might be a big Halo fan. You've beaten every game in the franchise, have series-accurate battle armor and Master Chief pajamas. You've still got nothing on this brilliant tinker and fan. Microsoft named its virtual assistant program, Cortana, after the AI that assists Master Chief over the bulk of the Halo series. But Micosoft's virtual assistant existed only as a disembodied voice on your device of choice. Until now, because this guy and his wife teamed up and made a freakin' working holographic Cortana! Check it out:

Make Cool & Weird Game Stuff With No Prior Experience

So you have been inspired to want to make your own video game, You saw something artistic or cool or weird, or maybe you want to try a new way to make art... but you're feeling intimidated. Or maybe you've been making art but want to incorporate that into a game with no idea how.

Well, today is your lucky day. Bronson Zgeb and G.P. Lackey of the artist-run gaming studio KO-OP have created a step by step guide with easy to follow and understand instructions. As they explain in the introduction:

This tutorial is about empowering people who feel constrained by their lack of experience. For example, programmers who feel like they need artists to make cool things, or artists who think they need programmers to make cool things, or even people who are neither of those who want to make cool things. 

The tutorial is written for folks who have no experience with Unity or 3D modelling.

So what are you waiting for? Go check it out! Maybe make something cool, or weird, or meaningful!

DIY D&D: 3-D Monster Minatures

Dungeons andDragons,Pathfinder and lots of other tabletop role-playing games have an optional, but helpful, visual component to them: the battle map with miniatures. In fact, my pal Drew of Drew's Robots has a 3D printer he's designed and built himself, and he's used it to pretty impressive effect in the Pathfinder games he runs, as I showed on my instangram once:

When your GM places a giant monster he personally 3D printed on the board... You know you're in for a fight. #d&d #tabletopgaming

A photo posted by Shawn Struck (@shawnstruck) on Oct 29, 2015 at 6:09pm PDT

3-D sculptor, designer, and fellow dice-chucker Miguel Zavala has created a series of 3D-printed monster miniatures for use in Dungeons & Dragons and similar games and uploaded the designs at Thingiverse for free so that interested folks can use them to print out their own. There are a lot of really awesome designs, but I'd have to say my favorite is probably the Dread Gazebo, pictured below!

Description: A mini model of a gazebo given a monsterous appearance by adding tentacles sprouting from each corner, sharp
and jagged teeth and lolling tongue in the entryway and red, bloodshot beady eyes atop its roof.

Roll For Accessibility: Make Your Own Braille d20

Description: A blue 20 sided die resting atop a gray and white grid background.
The numbers 2, 12, 15, and 10 are on the visible facets of the the 20 in Braille.

Thingaverse user idellwig has a visually impaired friend who had been searching for a decent Braille 20-sided die for ages with no success. She designed a Braille d20 and now thanks to Thingaverse, anyone with access to a 3D printer can download and make their own accessible d20!

Actress and geek taste-maker Felcia Day featured a version of this die on her facebook page last year, and aside from the obvious uses for any tabletop game involving a 20-sided die, others mentioned it could be a good tool for teaching kids about everything from geometry, shapes and numeric Braille.

DIY Steampunk Mouse Project

Description: A computer mouse with a light wood finish &
2 wooden buttons, with a cord trailing out of frame.

I've wanted to do something like this for years, ever since I saw hobbyists do complicated and expensive things like make brass typewriter-style keyboards and oak wood PC case mods.... figure out how to make a working wooden computer mouse. Thanks to this Maker guide, now you too can like your dream of making a wooden-case mouse like some sort of techno-druid, rustic log cabin hacker, or Steampunk enthusiast.

And it's all pretty simple and straightforward-- all you need is a cheapo USB mouse (for the electronics), a small block of wood, two tiny buttons and optionally, 2 wooden dowels. Read on to see how you can end up with a mouse like the above picture.

Hands-Free Super MArio: Now You're Playing (Music) With (SMB's) Power

Via Kotaku, an incredible 10 minute video of a Super Mario World level that not only plays itself, but plays MUSIC.

Go. Watch it now. NOW.

Stat Shot: More Home-made D&D Characters

Partially as a reminder for tomorrow night's D&D game my wife is co-running, and partially so I can gauge interest in more homebrewed stuff, here is a quick and dirty info sheet on the character I'll be playing this Friday: a Faerie Dragon Mage.

Character: Jareth Q(uincy) F(aerie) Dragon
Class: Mage
Level: 5
Align: CG
Racial Advantages: As per Faerie Dragon PC write-up
Racial Disadvantages: As per Faerie Dragon PC write-up
ALT USE OF EXPXP /PENALTIES: One Clerical Spell, 1st Level (Cure Minor): 10%, Being a Faerie Dragon: 15%= 25% XP penalty
Advantages:
Bonus Spells, Any School (15 points), Improved Hit Die [d6] (10 Points), 4 Extra non-weapon proficiencies (4 points)
Disadvantages:
Allergy, apples [SEVERE] (8 pts); Behavior: Must Reciprocate or Repay Gifts (2 pts); Forbidden from Using Spell Under The Necromancy School (5 pts), Phobia, Undead [Severe](14pts)
Jareth was always a quiet and studious faerie dragon, rather shy and bookish for his kind, viewed as something of an oddball for his allergy to apples. He also turned out to be born with an unusually keen intellect (INT of 20), and wanted to know what made magic MAGIC. He dotes on his younger sister, Teedra, and encourages her to always excel in her magical studies. He also spoils her rotten (at least, as rotten as a Faerie Dragon can get), continually sending her all sorts of exotic bananas and banana-related desserts.
While Jareth doesn't need to wear spectacles to correct his vision, he dwears them because he feels they lend him an air of authority (or, in one case, are a minor magical relic). His guiding purpose in life is to study magic thoroughly enough to unlock the secret to becoming a Chosen of Mystra, goddess of Magic.
Jareth loves bananas, especially banana pie. Despite his academic nature, his devotion to magical studies, and his large vocabulary, he does have a typical faerie dragon prankster's streak within him that occasionally manifests itself in harmless cantrips (like the time he made a stuffy knight nearly beside herself by daily changing the color of her horse's mane for one week straight). Unlike most faerie dragons, Jareth tends to keep his scales one color-- a royal purple.
NWPs: Arcanology; Sage Knowledge: Cartography; Alchemy; Read/Write; Spellcraft; Religion; Heraldry; Fire building; Cooking; Direction Sense; Hypnotism; Languages: Common, Elven, Dwarvish, Draconic

Crayon Physics Comes To A Browser Near You!

It looks simple:

A child's crayon scribblings on a piece of graph paper.

The goal sounds simple:

You play the game by moving the red ball so that it collects the floating stars. You can cause the red ball to move by drawing physical objects, like ramps, or shapes, like squares. You draw with the left mouse button and erase with the right mouse button.

Even the game engine sounds simple:

It was created with C , and SDL.

But Crayon Physics has taken the gaming world by storm.

Now, you don't even have to download the game to enjoy it.

Online Crayon Physics is Flash version of this sleeper indie game hit, and still totally addictive. For us homebrew-running-capable DS owners there's also Pocket Physics. Still in beta and a little buggy though.

Life Meter: Amazing Art & Creative Comics, All About Video Games

Hey, you!

You read The Code, so you obviously like video games.

You probably like art. You've maybe even read a comic or two in your lifetime, I'd wager.

Then you will love the happy mutants over at LifeMeter.

Edited by Zack Giallongo, Dave Roman, and Stephanie Yue, Life Meter is a collection of comics and cartoon art inspired by the artists' collective appreciation and love of video games. The site manages to show off a diverse range of art styles, while maintaining respect for the characters and their game worlds.

And contributors to Life Meter have racked up some pretty impressive recognition. Life Meter contributor Matt Loux's videogame inspired graphic novel, Sidescrollers,
was listed by The American Library Association as one of the Great Graphic Novels for Teens in 2008.

You can check out the art gallery or read up on the collection of comics.

(The art piece used in this post is entitled Castelvania by Bill Mudron and is one of many outstand fan works presented in the Life Meter art gallery.)

Dungeons & Doggerel 2: Electric Bugaloo

Remember my previous post detailing spell poems I wrote for my 2nd Edition D&D Bard?

Reader R^2 has contributed a few more! here they are:

Time Stop--
For this spell all the Mythal is beckoned
And the power of aracnists reckoned
All reality twists
While this spell exists,
But it's Time Stop, so I've got second.

Prismatic Sphere--
If you're as dangerous as you appear,
I'll defend with a Prismatic Sphere.
You've got seven dispels
Before this ward is quelled
While you do that, I'll go get a beer.

Power Word, Kill--
I've patiently waited until
your health dropped below 60. Now we'll
Allow no saving throw
'Cuz when it comes, you go;
That's what I mean by "Power Word Kill"

Gate--
The gods themselves laugh and chortle
At reality at the whim of mortals
Let's pop open this Gate
To see if we can relate
Because now, we're thinking with portals

Dungeons And Dragons Special Martial Arts

In the aforementioned houseruled 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons games my gaming group runs, players are continually encouraged to come up with new or unique ways of doing things with one's character. One of my characters, a half-dragon thief/martial artist, has a few maneuvers I've created that may be of interest to anyone that used martial arts in either 2nd AD&D or the Oriental Adventures handbook setting.

Long Talon Heart Strike:
Forgoing all other attacks for the round, on a successful hit with this maneuver, the opponent struck will take no damage. However, once the opponent has moved a total of 15 feet (or ten feet if the opponent is size Small or smaller), they must immediately make a saving throw vs. Death Magic. A successful save means the opponent is stunned for 1d2 rounds. A failed save means that the opponent falls, instantly dead.

The Long Talon Heart Strike may only be attempted once on an opponent. If the opponent's save is successful, then it is immune to the attack forever after. This attack will automatically fail if used against undead.

Heart of The Dragon Kata:
Once/day the martial artist may apply half of their level (or level of Martial Artist, if they are multi-classed) as a bonus to one's Strength score. This bonus lasts only one round.

Relentless Midnight Kata:
Once/day, if the Martial Artist has been wounded to half or more of one's maximum hit points, the Martial Artist may spend one melee attack to gain temporary hit points equal to four times the Martial Artist's level. These hit points are temporary, lasting for 1d6 rounds, and the martial artist will suffer damage at the end of the 1d6 duration if healing has not been performed.

This is the coolest DS Homebrew application ever. And I have proof!

See that cat? That was painted.. with a DS.

If that has you intrigued, check out this amazing gallery of images created using Colors! A Nintendo DS homebrew app that makes use of the machines little-known pressure sensitive capabilities.

Sure, you need a flash card to paint yourself, but as the gallery shows, it is SO totally worth it.

A Quit To Go Galga For!

This Galaga quilt from Carolina Patchworks is, according to the etsy listing, it "is fully compatible with the XBox 360, Wii, PlayStation III, all high-definition televisions, most models of fireplace, and a wide variety of good books."

It is also 100% AWESOME.

A Bricked Game Boy You'll WANT In Your House!

A Dutch ceramicist by trade and a gamer by passion is selling a pretty cool combination of both these passions: a line of clay bricks cast in a mold taken from an original Nintendo Game Boy-- y'know, the grey, fat, won't-fit-in-your-pocket, green and beige color display Game Boy.

They're 20 Euros each, putting them firmly out of MY budget... but the idea is just so COOL. Check 'em out here!

My new year is starting off hilariously!

I don't know which has left me laughing harder whilst on-hold with vendors for work today:

• Supporters for Presidential candidate Ron Paul decided an effective use of their time and energy to garner support for their candidate of choice was to lead a campaign rally march... in the middle of WORLD OF WARCRAFT, or
• this RPG.net thread devoted to brainstorming a new game setting, "Weaboo Fantasy"

Either way, it looks like my year is starting off with a lot of laughs.