The Rusty Rocket

A few years ago I built a six foot Zoltar fortune teller cabinet that had a coin-operated animatronic mannequin of Zoltar himself. I've been to a number of comic cons with the cabinet and run school group showing how he's programmed, but he's getting a little tired and worn out. This is an update video on how I'm trying to build a virtual version of the fortune teller to allow more people access to his words of wisdom. The virtual Zoltar makes use of a cloud messaging platform called Ably which allows the fortune teller to 'see' all the questions coming in from anyone accessing the sight. If you watch him long enough, you will start to see these requests coming in and being answered. Be careful what you wish for, it might just come true! .

I really enjoyed making my first 3d printed solo game ( You can see it here ), it was a space-themed game that could be played solo but also it allowed two boards to be connected together and played asa two player game. I wanted to dive deeper into making solo games, so I began developing ideas for a dice-based dungeon crawler. Honestly, the first prototype didn’t turn out very well. My original concept was to create a game you could play entirely on a Post-It note, using stencils for each level. The idea was that the player would pick a stencil, draw out the dungeon rooms, and gradually piece together a complete map of the dungeon as they advanced through the game. I still like this idea, but I think it would work better as a multiplayer co-op game since there would probably be too many parts for a single player to manage. I prefer to play solo games that are simple in set up. So how might a two-player version work? Players could team up to fight their way through the dungeon, collect...

I recently came across something fascinating in a house clearance warehouse last week. It appears to be a trophy or commemorative gift, featuring an old 1980s Astro Wars console mounted on a wooden base with an engraved dedication. It's quite old and solidly built, which likely explains why it has remained in such good condition. There's something about it that gives off this vibe, as if it once held some sort of special meaning. The engraved plaque reads: "TO THE WORLDS GREATEST 'HACKER' FROM YOUR MUTUAL APPRECIATION SOCIETY" In an effort to learn more about it, I shared some photos on Reddit, posting to a few subreddits where I thought it might be a good fit. Unfortunately, all the posts were removed for apparently violating community guidelines. However, before one of them was taken down, a few people had commented and suggested I look into the famous hacker Kevin Mitnick. Often referred to as the "World's Greatest Hacker," Kevin Mitnick has a...

I have recently been attempting to get a few personal projects across the finishing line. My recent efforts have been focused on an online chatroom that I've been developing whereby the users can only message one another via Morse code. This would be a great way to help people learn and practice their Morse.  When a user is connected to the chatroom and they're the only person present, then there is an option to trigger auto-generated massages to help simulate a conversation. I also include a helpful translate button for those users, like myself, who are rather rusty and need a little assistance at times. The online Morse chatroom can be accessed here . Just remember though, it's not perfect but it's still a lot of un to play with in its current state.

It's launch week! After more than two years of development my Gameboy game, Squirrel Falls is finally here! I think the physical release looks incredible. Massive thanks to my publisher Bitmap Soft for all their help with getting this to market and for such a great job on the beautiful box art and the charming instruction booklet. What I loved most about developing this game was working within the limitations of the Game Boy hardware. Trying to squeeze as much as possible into the cartridge was both frustrating and rewarding. The game is packed with so much code and tiled artwork, the cart feels like it’s taught like a drum. It's an awesome but also scary thought knowing that people are actually playing it now. I think I'm mostly worried by the fact that everyone plays games differently and so edge case scenarios might result in a undiscovered bug surfacing as some point. If people are interested in how this all came about, I first started learning how to use GB Studio ...

It’s finally time to play this game! I’ve spent a lot of time playtesting, experimenting, and fine-tuning key aspects to ensure the core mechanics are balanced. In the video below, I dive deeper into the rules and introduce some new ideas, in particular the orbital moves. These add a dynamic element to the board, keeping gameplay fresh and ever changing. The current rules provide a solid foundation to build upon, after all, every game has to start somewhere but I feel the gameplay is already off to a strong start. Since the pieces are shaped like cogs, they interlock with neighbouring pieces, allowing them to rotate together when moved. Right now, I’m considering incorporating a rotational move that could influence attack success. A head-on confrontation would have a standard chance of success, while a side attack would carry increased odds. An attack from behind, however, would guarantee victory. The challenge is to make the game feel balanced and I've been playtesting this new i...