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Timasomo 2024: Week 1 Updates
Update us on your progress so far!
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What did/didn't you get done this week?
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Anything go according to plan?
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Anything go off the rails?
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Any successes or struggles to share?
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Do you need feedback or help on anything?
This is your topic to share anything and everything you want about what you’ve made so far.
Oh my god, ya'll. This book nook shit is HARD. I am both annotating the instructions (dubious in places), and keeping a tally of all the pieces I have broken (5 so far) and giving angel wings to them in the instructions. I have never before done any sort of miniature building so this is completely new to me. It is both satisfying and feels like an enormous task. I have one little part of it finished, and I'm so proud of myself, but I also keep fucking up so it's rough lol.
I'm looking forward to seeing where I get with the project in this next week. It's been what I do at the end of my night for a half hour to an hour or when I get to a good stopping place. So a little stressful but ultimately relaxing? It's fun...?
It may be difficult to put together, but you can't argue with the results! Even the small part you've completed so far looks really awesome.
p.s. For those curious, Rolife (the company that makes the one eve is doing) has an Amazon store with lots more, and there seems to be tons of other DIY book nook kit and miniature dollhouse options from various other companies too. I might have to order one for myself, but it'll probably have to wait until after I move. No sense in putting one together now, only to have to immediately pack it up and ship it somewhere, hoping it doesn't break in the process. :P
I've also seen them at AliExpress for a bit cheaper, I want to say I've seen small versions at Daiso stores, but know I've seen the full size book nooks at Tesolife stores if anyone interested is near one of those.
Thank you so much, cfabbro! That's really what's pushing me forward, it's very rewarding to see the pieces come together and see what I've made so far. It's so dang cute.
I'm loving the energy your annotations are bringing. I legitimately chuckled out loud at the first page of instructions. They look like a parody of Ikea guides!
That said, the results genuinely are amazing. What you've built so far looks awesome! 🤩
Thank you so much!! I am glad my shenanigans are bringing chuckles to people. Because my god, if I can't humor my way through this, I'm doomed 😆
The instructions are wtf, but whatever you've made so far looks beautiful.
Thank you, I appreciate it so much! The struggle is so real, especially knowing all the parts I've broken, the fact that it's still looking good has me in shock and awe.
I will have to agree and reiterate your annotation:
WTF
It's gonna look cool, but holy mother of dog, I do not envy you. I do think I might pick up one of these for my wife though...
Lol thank you! Yeah some of these instructions suck, and I don't envy myself either. I actually have another book nook kit that friend got me, and I wanted to do this one as a practice run, so I'd hopefully mess up less the second go round.
Two book nooks in one month‽
Lol I don't think my heart could take that! Imma need a few weeks at least between making them 😂
Blacksmithing 𝑻𝑰𝑴𝑨𝑺𝑶𝑴𝑶 2024 hath begun!
Plan this month is to blacksmith three things:
To begin, get set up with your anvil, forge (spring was a different idea and not used), and tools at the ready.
Start with the pumpkins, get forge hot, get metal hot, and try it out with just a fat peen hammer. Make some progress, but be unhappy with the speed and results.
Break out the guillotine and try again. Find the results are much better, but is perhaps not the right tool for the job and/or too many heats necessary during attempt and end up tearing the work. Try again, move faster, get same result.
Time for a new approach. We're going to make a fuller/fullering jig out of some steel plate I have lying around. base will be welded to a nub of 1" square bar to fit inside the hardy hole, have two uprights to hold the fullers, which will be bolted in place, but allowed to pivot to create a set of jaws to reduce the work's diameter. Mark length, somewhat centerline, and roundabout where you want the holes to be. Use a center punch to mark where to drill and keep your bit from wandering when you start. The drill, baby drill! I wanted the furthest hole to be over an inch, but my knee mill is still in Texas (and would have made this job much easier) and the power drills I have just were not up to the task of opening it up more than the one inch it is at present. Ever tried to drill a 1 inch hole in 1/2 inch steel plate? It sucks.
Slice the plate in half generally along the centerline, then clean up the surfaces with a grinder. Doesn't have to be perfect, you're hitting this to hit something else and it'll wear in with time. Last step of the day was to cut a notch in the bottom jaw to clear the plate it'll be mounted to and cut clearance in the upper jaw so it can swing upward to open.
Next week I'll finish the fuller mount, make any adjustments necessary, and give it a shot hopefully turning out pumpkins by the dozen. Then onto the ghost and most likely need to either mount a vise and the fabrication that'll involve or build a mount for my leg vise...
The quality of your writeups and your photo documentation for your 𝑻𝑰𝑴𝑨𝑺𝑶𝑴𝑶 projects never ceases to amaze me, AF!
Thanks for always taking the time to bring us along on your journey.
I know that pain. I assume from the other tools you mention that you're aware drill presses are a thing, and you just don't have access to one?
I had a drill press, I donated it to my old blacksmith class once I picked up my milling machine as anything I can do on a drill press, I can do faster on a mill. If I was going to do this regularly I'd go pick up a drill press to get me by in the interim, until I move my mill up, but I've only got a couple more holes (and much smaller) to drill in the 1/2" plate and having used cheap drill presses before, anything that's reasonably priced isn't going to be powerful enough to do it and anything good enough to do the job isn't going to be reasonably priced. I'll survive in the interim.
If I really wanted the hole to be the end size right now, I'd just throw it in the forge, get it red hot, and use my punches and drifts to make whatever size hole I wanted!
Dang. This is really cool.
I didn't participate last year and hesitated to participate this year because I am uncertain whether deadlines (even informal ones) help or hurt me, but let's try it! Worst case, I'll just silently stop posting and pretend it never happened.
I've been working on an addon keypad for the Steam Deck for a couple of months now, which is Technically Not Allowed, but my goal is to get a fully-usable prototype built by the end of the month. I have a working PCB with some microscope-and-a-steady-hand bodges and I'm waiting for one to show up with the real fixes; I expect that to be the last PCB revision. Electronically, it's fairly simple - it's just a weird-shaped USB keyboard, and the mechanical keyboard community has done a lot to make those easy to build. (This also means it's automatically compatible with any game that can use keyboard input.)
The case shown in that image is a redesign (of a very broken FreeCAD model) that I've done over this past week. It's a two-part shell that screws together from the back and then clips over the Deck, covering the left touchpad but leaving space for the other controls to poke through. I'll be putting extension buttons over the stock buttons that would be too far down in a hole to comfortably reach.
I have not tried printing the buttons yet; I expect them to need some iteration. That's probably what I'll be doing over the next week.
This is cool! What are you planning on using the buttons for?
Games that need lots of buttons!
Mostly this is PC-centric games that were designed for a keyboard and took full advantage of that, e.g. roguelikes or games that bind the number keys to inventory switching.
Recently I was playing multiplayer Satisfactory, which both expects almost as many separate keys as a classic roguelike for gameplay (the community controller mappings do a lot of binding unrelated actions to short and long press of the same button), and also meant I found myself wanting to type text and having no better option than the on-screen keyboard because I wasn't playing at a desk. I don't know yet if typing will be comfortable on this, but I've set up the layout to theoretically allow for it.
NOICE! As a Steamdeck-er (is that a word? it is now.) This is fascinating, both because the onscreen keyboard, as with most of them, leaves much to be desired, and I never use the touchpads, so blocking them is a non-issue for me.
I'm sure you're already planning to, but probably want to fillet or chamfer the joystick hole.
Yep, that's one thing I discovered after printing this. It is just barely wide enough for full motion with the stock joystick, but I have a silicone cap on mine that adds a couple of millimeters of width and bumps into that circle.
Pinging all Timasomo participants/conversationalists: here’s the new topic for the week.
Notification List
@0d_billie
@Akir
@alp
@Aran
@Areldyb
@arqalite
@AugustusFerdinand
@CannibalisticApple
@Carrie
@DefinitelyNotAFae
@EarlyWords
@eve
@first-must-burn
@HEBV5
@honzabe
@hungariantoast
@Interesting
@irren_echo
@IsildursBane
@knocklessmonster
@mat
@NaniTheHuman
@Omnicrola
@Papavk
@patience_limited
@PelagiusSeptim
@PnkNBlck71817
@PossiblyBipedal
@RheingoldRiver
@ShroudedScribe
@shu
@SloMoMonday
@smoontjes
@Soggy
@Tygrak
@vildravn
@Weldawadyathink
@Wes
@WiseassWolfOfYoitsu
If you would like to be removed from the list, let me know either here or by PM.
Also, if anyone would like to be added to the notification list, let me know as well!
I am back in town and my graphics card fried! So today I replaced my graphics card
honestly that feels like a timasomo project in and of itself 😂
anyway I am very low energy rn recovering from surgery so the chances of me participating are a bit low I think, but I'll see how I feel in a few days, I've been looking forward to doing this project during timasomo for a few months now so I want to at least start something by the end of October!
Hope you recover well!
thanks!!
Life happened - partner doesn't have a PA, he's been sick and I literally just hurt my back today. Hoping to still participate. I just need to find my knitting bag. I'm tempted to find a random set of needles and loose yarn but I'll fret more about what to make than I will just work on it.
Hope things get better for you soon!
Thanks, me too ಠಿ_ಠಿ
I'm working on a guide for my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! deck, see original post here.
I've laid out all the important combos (and I'm considering whether it's worth writing about 3-card combos since most of them have the same end result as one of the more important 1.5-card or 2-card combos).
I also wrote about some of the individual cards, but I got sidetracked by researching the lore of the cards. I dunno if I want to include a snippet of the lore under each relevant card, or if I should dedicate a chapter to the lore. I could do both I guess.
Progress has slowed a bit these past few days because I went to the pre-release event of the new set (Rage of the Abyss) and was caught up in buying, trading and/or selling cards. I'm close to completing my deck which means I can playtest the combos IRL too, which means more opportunities to experiment and find new things I could cover.
For my DIY server rack / upgrade:
Technically not much has happened. Just picked up some new furniture pads for the wardrobe because the ones I got earlier are too big.
We have another project - creating wood stands for Halloween tombstones going in the front yard, so they can be supported by being covered in rocks instead of using stakes which we always have problems with.
Whatever leftover wood we have from that will be used to help stabilize the bottom of the wardrobe. Might try to stabilize the shelves too if we have enough and I feel ambitious.
It's worth stating that I have zero experience with wood. We have everything down in theory, bought clamps, a miter box, waterproofing for the wood, etc. it's just a new experience!
One thing I haven't looked into yet is how to secure this thing to the wall (eventually). Not really any earthquakes here, but once we get Ethernet running to it, I don't want that to take place of support and get yanked should it fall over. Open to advice on that - I've heard of hooks for shelving but haven't looked into it. I need significant space behind it, though.
I'm a big fan of this style of bracket because it's pretty easy to hide it behind the unit and still reach back there to pull the pin if you need to get it away from the wall. This probably also meets your requirement to have space behind the unit. If it won't give you enough space, you could probably replace the cable with a longer one.
Just make sure the brackets are secured into studs on the wall (or otherwise securely if it's a not a stud-framed wall) and to a sturdy part of the furniture. Mainly, don't use drywall anchors for this application. If the stud is not conveniently close to the place you want to put the bracket on the unit, you can put a piece of lumber on the wall attached to the two studs on either side, then attach the bracket to that.
I think I would need a longer cable, but that at least gives me a good starting point of what to look for. Thanks!
I should be able to get it into at least one stud. For the other side, I have some high weight rating metal toggle anchors that should do the trick.
It is of course up to you, but those load ratings are for a static load, not dynamic load. If it does actually get tipped over, the load on that anchor may be a lot higher. There's also a chance that the drywall itself fails even if the anchor doesn't pull out. We are at the far end of "things to worry about" but I am a safety engineer by trade and nature.
That's a great warning, thanks. Maybe not as important for this scenario (due to the below statement) but really important to know in general.
Honestly the risk of this thing tipping over is incredibly low. I'm putting a UPS and fairly heavy computer on the bottom, so it should have enough weight there to prevent tippage. The only thing I need to do with that is brace the bottom shelf(?) more since it's elevated off the floor.
If anyone's interested, this is the wardrobe I purchased.
So far my baking project is going quite well. I have only attempted 1 loaf so far, and it has been a fantastic success! Well the bread wasn't cooked very well and it didn't taste good, but it was a great proof of concept.
To start with, I pulled a very old bread recipe I had found somewhere online. It was just sitting in my recipe app, and I didn't really remember how well it worked. It makes 2 loaves, and that is far too much for my setup here, so I halved the recipe. Unfortunately I forgot to halve the water, so the first dough I tried to make failed miserably. Lesson learned, don't trust myself to remember things. Paprika will automatically scale recipes for you, so I need to always rely on that.
The second batch was significantly better. It turns out following the recipe is better! After kneading I had the beginnings of a beautiful dough. I gave it 2 full rises. I tried to get fancy with the lame and cut a tree into the dough, but it didn't end up turning out very well. Anyway, I baked it for quite a while. I was going for a slower bake than normal. Since I only have heating from the bottom, I thought a slower bake would allow the top to bake well without burning the bottom. And here are my results. I will admit it doesn't look very appetizing, but I consider it a huge success. It shows that my project should be possible.
You can see the ring in the middle of the bottom where the burner was. My burners are quite small, and there is nothing I can really do about that. You can also see that the bottom is overcooked while the top is undercooked. The middle of the loaf was cooked perfectly though. I don't think there is much I can do about that. I think the best solution will be to just bake smaller loaves. That really isn't the end of the world. I am not cooking for anyone, so a partial loaf is more than enough. Back when I cooked normal sized loaves, I often had waste I would throw out after a few days.
I will also admit that it didn't taste very good. It wasn't bad, it was just very bland and unappetizing. I place most of the blame for this on the recipe. I also eyeballed the salt addition, so I might have undersalted it. I am going to look for a new recipe and try that instead.
So far, I am very happy with this first result. I am excited to try my next batch. If anyone has some recipes they would recommend, shoot them my way!
I asked my home-baker husband if he had anything he would recommend, and he said he's done this one in a dutch oven before (though that was in an oven, not on the stove).
This is perfect! I tried no knead sourdough once before, but I wasn’t too impressed. That recipe only had me leaven it for 12-24 hours in the fridge and this one recommends up to 7 days, so maybe I just didn’t give it enough time.
I also have loved absolutely everything I have ever seen from King Arthur baking. Their flours are fantastic and reasonably priced. Their cookware appears good quality, and their recipes always knock it out of the park.
Anyway I threw together a 1/4 batch of this. All I have is a minifridge, and I don’t even have any mixing bowls I can devote to this project. For now, I have a single small loaf worth sitting in my single sauce pot in my fridge. I have some busy days soon, so I’ll probably end up baking this on Saturday. I hope it turns out well!
My husband swears by King Arthur Flour too. He loves them.
I hope this new batch goes well for you!
Do you have anything, like a steamer basket, to get the loaf off the bottom of the pan? To create an air gap so the bread isn't getting concentrated heat on the bottom and it creates more of an "oven"?
That’s a great idea. I don’t have anything like that right now, but I am open to suggestions. I’m not sure about how that would work with dough though. I would imagine that the dough would just expand through the gaps and get stuck after it bakes.
I have also considered flipping the loaf part way through. It would end up like a big English muffin, but I’m not too particular on loaf shape.
You could try lining the basket with parchment paper. I put a thin layer of semolina flour in the bottom of my dutch oven when baking bread so it has an air gap. You could try that in the skillet too.
Got a track done! Gonna give it a listen in a couple days to revise/tweak it and see what more I can do with it but like where it went. Wrote a few bars for the next one as well, since I had an idea I've done in Renoise, but wanted to play with in LSDJ.
Project 1: 3D Printer Rebuild. It's actually substantially done. Printed first object on rebuild version last night. Need to do some tweaking and polish, but now it's time for a print-a-thon since I'm planning on making a bunch of little 3d printed toys to hand out for halloween for kids that can't have candy.
Project 2: Jukebox. Got my hands on it this week. Amplifier tubes and condensers are replaced and the inter-module wiring is sorted out. Amplifier internal rebuild next (got a kit with replacement capacitors), and studying the service manual since the record changer/turntable logic isn't currently working correctly, which I'm guessing is because the previous owner did some kind of nonsense to it to try to bypass the coin mechanism, but it resulted in it just being able to play one record continuously rather than acting as though it had unlimited credits.
Things are coming along with the blaster design. Model shots 1 and 2. Since it's pretty small (13" end to end), I've mostly merged the model into a solid piece, then split it down the middle. This gives a big flat surface to print from and leaves only a few overhangs that need support. Next steps:
Right now I'm thinking about a way to have cutouts for the electronics in one half and then make an interior cover that can be attached first to capture everything before finally attaching the other half. That way I don't have to try to keep the electronics in place while aligning and screwing in the whole second half.
The electronics from the raygun I bought on amazon will be perfect I think. I need to desolder two of the LEDs and put them on wires to route them out. I think I'm going to end up putting the front one (red) all the way out at the tip, the top one (yellow) coming out the front of the scope and the third one (flashes red/blue) behind a thin screen on the back of the scope. I'm planning to reused the battery door, so I'll base a lot of the internal models off the existing plastic. Sometimes that is a bit tricky because the constraints on injection molding are different.
I have GOT WOOD. Ahem. This isn't all the wood I need but I'm cannibalising some from the old bed and from some other furniture. It should be, barring maybe a few bits of dowel, all the wood I need to buy. This came to £134 ,which is a bit over budget but I splurged on some 145x45 timber for the frame rather than the 90x45 I'd planned for.
I have also cut wood (thanks to the little Shinwa penguin for helping me cut square), then marked up some wood for drilling and made a drilling jig (which turned out to be rubbish and had to be remade). So probably 90% of the frame is now cut to size, marked up so I know where it's going and drilled for dowels. About 50% of the wood has been sanded and of that half, 3/4 has had a coat of primer. The remaining sanding is mostly already-planed wood so it's just a touch up pass before priming. There are some details and additional non-structural parts which aren't at all ready, but they're coming from bookshelf material so I need to move a lot of books first! Those bits can, and should, be fitted post-assembly anyway.
I also cleared out the old bed which had been there a decade so I have some space to assemble the new one. The only way this bed will fit is if it's put together in the room, and it won't come out without a saw. Eventually all those shelves are coming down and will be replaced by built-in ones in and around the bed and every other spare bit of wall. Side note: with the hard floor and ceiling but sound-absorbent walls, the reverb in this tiny room is epic.
This is such a cool project!
Also, the room that bed is going into is gorgeous! Great natural light, fantastic paint color, and I love those full-length bookshelves.
Looking good: Question, is wood in the UK true-to-size or do you have to play the BS "dimensional wood" nominal vs actual size game?
Timber is true to size as sold, but the size is smaller than it used to be and shrinking. 145x45mm is what used to be 2x6in - which should be 153x50mm. Joist hangers still mostly come as 47mm because the wood suppliers have shaved another 2mm off but the metalwork hasn't caught up yet.
Just to add confusion, I can email my timber guy and ask for "25 linear metres of 2x4"
StepMania Space Channel 5 port crossover what the heck do I call this project
I took gameplay recordings for the first report (level) in OBS, cut them up and rendered them in Kdenlive, and copied out the audio using ffmpeg, so that's all good to go. I've never done any streaming or video editing, so it took a little while to figure out how to record it without ending up with black boxes on either side because of the different aspect ratios.
I used a cheat code to get perfect timings on the player side, but entering the code makes an extra "Yeah!" sound play. I could have left it in, but it was bothering me, so I made an extra recording that didn't use the cheat code and cut them together. I can't find the cut in the video or the background music, so I think I nailed it!
I also started syncing the first stage in ArrowVortex... and remembered why I abandoned this project the last time I had this idea. There are so many tempo changes, it all has to be synced up by hand, and my only song charting experience is playing around with DDR's Edit Mode way back when so I'm figuring it all out as I go. (Also ArrowVortex failed to save my sync data at one point, so now I'm starting over again, again.) No backing down this time, but I'm very glad I only committed to finishing the first level this month.
As a lifelong Dreamcast fan AND someone who grew up going to the arcade on Saturday mornings right when it opened so that I could play the DDR machine uninterrupted, I am so excited for your project!
Also, as someone who has made their own DDR stepfiles before, I feel your pain on tempo changes. Those are so hard to get right.
I only just started this week. So far I've acquired a white polyester shower curtain and some acrylic fabric medium.
I'm wondering whether if it's okay to just use acrylic straight without the medium. It's just the shower curtain.
I've also started some very minimal sketches/plans for the curtain. I want to paint my cat on the curtain but her fur pattern makes her hard to draw.
But that's all I got for now.
Side note: The link leads to an unlinked page on my personal website. I was too lazy to make an account on an image site and I already had something that could host images. I don't know if that's considered as self advertising. I'm not. But do let me know if that's okay?
I looked around a bit. Your art is beautiful.
Thank you!
Totally okay! It's fine to post your own stuff here as long as you're not being spammy about it (which you're definitely not).
Also, I'll second @first-must-burn, your artwork is stunning.
That's great to know! I'll just keep using that to host my images then.
Thank you! Also thank you for the compliment!
I created a game for the Ludum Dare game jam in 48 hours exactly according to plan. The theme of the jam was "Tiny Creatures". The game I made is called "Let's Go to the Magical Frog Party in the Dark Forest!" and it's pretty much a clone of Party House from ufo50, with some small twists.
I am pretty happy with how it ended up, well maybe except for the music -- I was pretty much finished midway through Sunday with almost everything on the game except for the music, but when I was recording it just didn't really go too good and I spent a few hours trying to make some cute track but I just wasn't really able to do it. I really am just bad at music :D. Anyway, I still recorded something that I am happy enough with, though it doesn't really fit the mood too well I think. But for all the other parts I am happy with how I did. I didn't even commit too many programming crimes in the name of making things quickly.
Now the biggest question is what I want to do next. I am not really sure. I've kind of been thinking about if the game is too similar to Party House. I think it is ok if it is, for a jam game, the source code is all released, I am not profiting of it, I don't think I am doing any harm just by making the game jam game, but also I don't know if I should work on it more since it's so similar. On one side of me I think it definitely is too similar, but on another it does have some changes already and it's normal to make games that are very similar to other games when the games also somehow change the formula/expand on it. I mean no one says that I don't know Super Meat Boy is plagiarizing Mario. Or more recently that 20 Minutes Till Dawn plagiarized Vampire Survivors, even though those are basically the same games, just with some different artstyles and upgrades and things like that.
But also very recently there were some news that feel particularly close to me, about someone who was cloning the game Dire Decks and how the developer was understandably unhappy about it: "Dire Decks creator kindanice is at a loss after a fellow indie dev remade his game and refuses to take it down.". Because I did exactly that. Spellswapper is pretty much a clone of Dire Decks. I mean I did expand on the mechanics, change them, meanwhile this game looks exactly the same. But my game also looks very similar even visually. Am I a huge ass and it's just that no one even noticed that I am? I do have Dire Decks and kindanice mentioned in the credits, but I wouldn't be surprised if no one ever saw that. And literally in that exact article there's this:
What is the thing I wrote in the credits 1 year ago? "Initial idea for the game was inspired by Dire Decks, created by kindanice on itch.io". It's literally exactly...
I was wondering if I should just instead make something more original, instead of stealing the idea of someone else again, but I was also wondering if I even have any good original ideas.
So, I think I'll do some more thinking. Maybe I'll try to record some music in the meantime. Maybe I'll decide. Maybe I'll do nothing. I don't know. I want to do something though, so hopefully I will.
When I look at Dire Decks and Wildcard, I see pretty much the same game. Same layout, same concept -- even details like the hearts and xp ring on the left-hand side match.
When I compare those to The Spellswapper, I see a different game. The inspiration is certainly clear, but your game is a restructuring of a lot of the ideas presented there. You build on them as well, because you added a lot. Your game has different characters, an entire elements system, items, metaprogression, etc. Rounds are determined by waves, not experience. Casting is randomized rather than driven by player choice in the moment. There are individual spell cooldowns instead of a universal one. You got very creative with the different projectile types and affixes.
From my perspective, you took a nugget of an idea and then built it in your own direction, rather than just copying it wholesale. I don't think you need to feel bad at all. Instead, I think you should feel accomplished. Making games is no small feat, and I genuinely love The Spellswapper -- not just because it was an amazing Timasomo project, but because I genuinely love the game itself!
Thank you, it really means a lot
Decided not to officially participate because all my weekends in October are gonna be too busy to see a project to completion, but I've nonetheless been inspired to start a new short film project! Love reading about what y'all are working on!
As a recap, I'm working on a story called City of NPCs. The plot centers around a sci-fi city where cities are mostly populated by artificial humans called NPCs, and the main character meeting other humans for the first time in a while. Basically exploring themes of loneliness and solitude, an almost physical version of dead internet theory, and unraveling terrorist conspiracies because I like writing thrillers. Work on it is slow so far because I'm also working on a website for my cousin, my first webdev project in a while.
I still don't know how to start the story proper, since I want it to have an interesting hook. So I decided to start by writing drabbles and random snippets to help get an idea of the protagonist's character and the setting. I do that with other private writing, just write down random scenes that pop into my head that I later end up rearranging into actual, coherent plots, so I figure it's worth a shot. So far I've written basically an internal monologue about the protagonist's average day and how he's not different from NPCs since he follows a set routine. It's rambly, but already helped me figure out some details and get a more solid feel for him, and even get some new ideas for new characters and setting details.
Minor challenges I've already encountered, and things to figure out:
Please, for some reason my brain defaults to Japanese names.Heh. Looking at the list, sounds like I've got barely anything figured out. I've never been a heavy planner when it comes to writing though. I like to have certain major events in mind so I can know where to go and start setting up foreshadowing, but otherwise I leave room for inspiration to strike. Some of my best writing decisions have been spur-of-the-moment whims and thoughts which unfurled into something amazing. (That also means I struggle to write finite stories, but hey, I plan to publish this one online in a serial format anyway! Which also means I'll get comments that can give me even MORE inspiration, which leads to a vicious cycle that means this story will probably go on for years and years.)
That aside, if anyone wants to read the first drabble I have, here you go!
A Rambly Internal Monologue
Sometimes, Ethan felt like he lived in a city of ghosts.
People walked around everywhere, he had his set routines and the city still breathed and moved—but none of them were fully real. The greetings tended to be repetitive, the shopkeepers recited the same canned lines with every purchase. Pedestrians followed the same paths each day and week, ignoring the world as they wandered from one set destination to the next. Ethan could go days with the exact same set of interactions with no variation, from the conversation about oranges from Mrs. Mandel to a simple wave at Javier as he headed to his construction job.
It had been one hundred thirty-eight days since the last time Ethan had a confirmed encounter with a human being.
That fact didn't bother him. After a lifetime of growing up surrounded by NPCs as his only company, Ethan was used to it. It was just how things were in his life. Humans were a rarity these days after all; he could count the number of humans he knew he'd met on one hand. The city would be far creepier and emptier without NPCs.
NPCs weren’t that different from humans anyway. A bit simpler in some ways, sure, with set patterns and behaviors and all that. But they looked just like humans, their movements and facial expressions just as natural as his own. They never set off alarm bells or freaked him out like the old footage he'd seen of early prototype NPCs, who just always had a certain wrongness that sent chills up his spine. The ones he knew were physically indistinguishable from himself.
They ate the same food and drinks. Needed sleep just as much. Could get hurt and bleed just as easily. Had to work to pay bills, developed friendships and relationships, grew up and aged alongside him.
As far as Ethan was concerned, they were basically just a different flavor of people.
It wasn't like he was that different from them either.
Wake up, eat a protein bar for breakfast. Go to work. Follow the same set route cleaning trash, leaves and bird droppings, and graffiti. Respond to queries about local businesses and routes if a street was closed for whatever reason. Stop for lunch at Mama Lou's. Finish the afternoon shift. Buy a pre-made dinner at the corner store. Go home and eat while watching the news. Play video games until some ungodly hour when he had to sleep.
Wash, rinse, repeat, ad infinitum.
Of course his schedule varied a bit, he didn't work every day. But he had his routines, same as the NPCs. Even on his days off he always visited the same set of stores.
Marcel had more variety in his routine than Ethan, which he often remarked about. Marcel worked as a safety inspector who visited all sorts of places every day to check for safety risks. He could spend anywhere from a day to a week at different sites, watching for any dangerous patterns based on a checklist. That meant he regularly went all over the city, getting exposed to all sorts of things.
He was the one to drag Ethan out to various places and parts of town. He had even insisted on them getting apartments in the same building because “otherwise you'd never leave your place.” He was just naturally more extroverted than Ethan ever was, and had far more energy.
Ethan didn't mind it though. Overall, he was content with his quiet, peaceful days. It was a normal, ordinary life, with no real concerns.
Really, he liked his life, and would be perfectly content with everything staying the same for years to come.
So of course he was due for life to throw him a curve ball.
So I have not been doing too well on staying with my goal of editing one picture from my backlog. I did the first day, forgot the second day, then on the third day I had software issues that I have been procrastinating on addressing. I really need to figure that out, but my motivation to do most things has been really low