P1, P2, P3 (you're here)

17.07.26

Will continue writing here

I'm just incredibly tired because today we had a boardgame evening at work and I came home late enough that I'm barely able to not fall asleep at the PC. So yeah, I'll continue this post possibly but not guaranteed tomorrow

We're back from our first LARP in ten years. It's my wife's first LARP ever and I've only been on three or four others before; one as Player Character, two as NPC and one as helping hand to the GMs. That particular Con was organised by the people from Schwert & Magie and I can really recommend at least this specific one. It's an Ambiance Con, but in lieu of not really having quests, there are In-Time Workshops which players can freely join (well, as freely as they feel like it would fit their character). Schwert & Magie have other Adventure/Combat Cons they organise, as well, and they now have two very large areas which the main organisers actually fully own. That massively helps to keep the cost of the tickets down (I think around 50€ per person for the early-birds and 80€ for the non-earlies

My wife went as Albrun, a hermit herb lady who lost her alchemy book. I went as Quendel, a crow that had been transformed into a human against his will by a sorcerer when he stole a ring for Albrun and is now using his fingers for music while on his way to get himself transformed back. We also brought our Eurasian Bosco, who played Albrun's and Quendel's black bear cub Bosco! It's crazy how many workshops there were, actually! A few of the ones we were interested in happened to be at the same time. Sad and pressed for time, I joined Mr. Pfeyffer's Small Knot Class and immediately put myself into in-game debt by borrowing copper from another player to buy the knot handbook. My wife and our bear went to the Alchemy Basics Class, from which she brought back my main objective for that and the next day. She was looking to get a hold of glowing toads, bright golden mushrooms and blue salt which could only be obtained by thievery or trade.

03.07.26

I should have maybe done a little bit more, but all in all I'm pretty happy with how my game jam entry turned out. My wife came up with the very fun name "Egocentric" referring to how everything in this game revoles [aka spins] around yourself (remember how the theme was "Spinning"?). If you read this and feel like it, check out Egocentric out on my itch.io page.
We kept the main idea of spinning the sun to use object shadows and extended that to kinda-spinning other objects as well. My lovely wife made the sound effects using wine glasses and dragging a big water bottle across the floor and the music with the keyboard she unpacked for just that occasion.

(click me) In case you're stuck on any of the (currently) four levels despite the hints, here are some concrete solution spoilers. I did receive a bit of feedback that some of the puzzles are a little too obscure if you're not the person making them
Level 01
  1. You only need to look at where/when the shadowy tips of the two big spikes touch
  2. The shadow tips should touch exactly where there's a small pile of rocks
  3. Stand on the rock pile and press E
Level 02
  1. Go to the little pyramid and press F to make it move
  2. Follow the pyramid
  3. The pyramid should end up revolving around a bright yellow light
  4. Every second full revolution, the pyramid tip will point at a specific location on the floor
  5. I envisioned the spike shadows to line up with the pyramid tip shadow, but then I realised that going where the pyramid tip shadow is is already enough so manipulating time really is unnecessary here lol
  6. Stand exactly where the pyramid tip shadow points and press E; the level transition teleporter is invisible for this level
Level 03
  1. First you must assemble the big artifact in the sky by going to each of the metallic-brown spikes in the ground and pressing F at each of them (please don't spam-press F, otherwise the quest-counter adds 1 at each press and it'll go above the required 6 (6 relics in total on the map) and won't trigger the next part...I should really make it if quest-counter >= 6 and not == 6)
  2. The artifact in the sky spells "GO UP"
  3. Once the sun is behind the artifact in such a way that the shadow is around this little inclined "beach area" — when it very clearly spells "GO UP" — there should be a quiet wineglass-sound for a while
  4. If you stand around the place of that shadow and jump up repeatedly, the sound should get louder and the level-finish platform should appear after maybe 7 or 8 airjumps
  5. Get up on the platform and press E
Level 04
  1. Like in Level 03, move the relics in place
  2. Follow the spike shadow tips into the ocean where they meet up
  3. A platform should appear and you need to stand at or very close to where the three shadow tips meet up
  4. Press C to call the little pyramid to you and move it into position
  5. After rotating around you, it should end up in front of the bright yellow light
  6. Go where the pyramid tip shadow points
  7. The level-finish area for this level is much larger and more generous, so pretty much any spot near the pyramid tip shadow and/or along that shadow's edge should work
  8. Press E to finish the game <3

I would've blurted this thought much sooner but we had this year's external audit from Monday to including Thursday. The company I work for already has had their ISO 9001 (Quality Management) certification for years and now wanted to add ISO 14001 (Environmental Management) to that due to more and more customers asking for it.

19.06.26

Today is the day that the very first game jam of a Youtuber/Gamedev I religiously watch begins. It's Juniper Dev's very serious game jam. I'll go and start doing stuff momentarily, I just wanted to note down that I'm thinking to do a puzzle game similar to this prototype I made, because I really really like this idea of manipulating shadows and the sun to solve puzzles. I haven't done any game dev in months because of my new job but I'm sure I'll be able to cobble something cool together in just seven days, four of which I'll have to work my normal job ,,ԾㅂԾ,,

Anyway, here's the announcement video for the jam's theme!

15.06.26

We've been looking through old pictures in search of a specific Halloween costume of mine. In the process, we found a little gem I wanna save for eternity, just in case the posts ever get deleted from Reddit. In the ARMA subreddit, u/Bedky posted two drawings of a ghilie-wearing dude doing domestic chores. At the time I still served in the Bundeswehr and had just (almost) finished my very own Ghilie, so my wife and I had this silly fun idea.

is goofy fan art allowed? I have a thing for domestic pin-up ghillie man, don't shame me
by u/Bedky in arma

For archival purposes, the pic itself

Domestic ghillie dood part two, from last year! Enjoy!
by u/Bedky in arma

For archival purposes, the pic itself

And here what my wife and I came up with

Inspired by u/Bedky's pin-up ghillie man
by u/Crotaro in arma

For archival purposes, the pic itself