Category Archives: Personal Life

Halloween was Yesterday

Hey guys, here’s this year’s pumpkins I gone and made. Ronja made the left-most one. Next year I need to remember to buy a carving kit, as I can only do so much with a knife.

Trick-or-treating was cancelled this year – not only is coronavirus skyrocketing in the UK again, the weather has been pretty stormy. We cooked pumpkin pie, cupcakes, and soup, roasted the seeds, ate cheap candy, and started playing Alien Isolation. The usual Halloween stuff for us.

The government is getting ready for another month-long lockdown to hopefully save Christmas. But unlike the previous lockdown, they’re still leaving schools and some other things open, so it’ll be curious to see if they make it in time. Either way, I’m sure there’s gonna be a huge surge in cases in January.

If you want to hear something really scary, I’ll repeat some doomer thoughts that I posted on Twitter earlier:

2020 isn’t a series of accidents, it’s a series of predictable man-made disasters that we saw coming and did nothing about. This is a sign of things to come, and 2020 could very well be the best year of this coming decade.

Coronavirus may never go way. Climate-change-fuelled natural disasters will become more frequent. More and more jobs will be automated, and young people will either be unable to find jobs, or never be able to retire as pensions are cut. The wealth gap will continue increase and the poor will be blamed for all problems.

We won’t get UBI, or a Green New Deal, or any improved public services. Three or four big companies will own all communications and media platforms, and control information access at will. Propaganda bots will pass the Turing test, and unlimited fake news will be created for free. Governments will fight this with ever increasing surveillance. The trends are pointing towards a Black Mirror dystopia.

Progress isn’t guaranteed. Keeping your rights, privileges and health isn’t guaranteed.

Happy Halloween!

Battle Station 2020

Yo.

My office was looking tidier than usual, so I figured this was a good chance to take a new photo of my work/gaming space. I’m pretty happy with how it looks now, especially the cable management. I can’t think of much that I’d like to change, except for maybe getting a proper wooden table instead of this cheapo one. Maybe I could put something else in the corner instead of that fridge, as I haven’t been using it for a while…

Technically I’m on a 4-display setupĀ  – can you spot all of them?

Anyway, I’m playing Terraria with my friends now. Between that and DIY projects, I’ve not been working on any games at the moment. I should probably finish off the Brawl Royale update and stick that on Patreon – it’s almost done already.

Happy Ronja Day

Here’s something I made a few months ago for Ronja, for her birthday.
We’re both 30 now, and it’s all downhill from here. The gradual decay of our bodies and minds begins.

You youngsters better enjoy it while it lasts.

…can you tell that I don’t like celebrating birthdays?

Beating My Saber

Hey guys, I made my first attempt at recording VR games.
This is the hardest Beat Saber level I’ve managed to beat so far, at 6.18 notes per second.

On one of my earlier attempts, my Valve Index controller got snagged on my shorts’ pocket, and the joystick was completely ripped out.

Expensive mistake to make.

Valve said they’ll replace it, but they don’t have any stock at the moment. Oh well. Now the only VR game I can play is Beat Saber, as everything else requires two joysticks.

Anyway, this is how I’m staying fit during lockdown.

Newgrounds Podcast

Hey guys, a few days ago I was on the Newgrounds Podcast with three other Flash game developers: Psycho Goldfish, Tyler Glaiel and Steve Castro. We talked a bit about how our careers started, how cool Flash was in the 2000s, and how Adobe dropped the ball in recent years.

Give it a listen, and maybe some of the other episodes too, if you’re interested in the history of Newgrounds. Being on the podcast actually motivated me to stop playing video games and get back to work making them.