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Timasomo 2024: Week 3 Updates
Important Upcoming Dates
Tuesday, October 29 - Final Update Topic
Tuesday, November 5 - Timasomo Showcase Topic
November 1-4 are for putting the "finishing touches" on your project and readying it for the showcase.
While November 1 is technically the creative deadline, remember that there are no Timasomo Police, so if you need to keep working into November, go for it! We've had people submit to the showcase days and even weeks later.
Time for another update on your progress:
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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.
Hello everyone! Looking forward to hearing about people's projects :)
Because my project is for Halloween, and the first Halloween event is this coming weekend, I had a closer deadline than the end of the month. So I managed to finish everything up over the weekend and today. Here's the blaster in action and the whole costume (less the side buns).
I posted the models and a detailed set of build instructions on Printables. There are some more pictures there as well. I included a variant that doesn't have the internal cutouts and has a static trigger for someone who just wants a prop gun and doesn't care about the electronics. I also included the basic model with no modifications for printing or assembly, in case someone wants to use it as a starting point for something else. All the parts are step files, so they are pretty easily modified in CAD software.
I think if I were going to change one thing, I would go for "authentic" Star Wars blaster sounds. I did spend a little time poking around sparkfun for playback boards, but there was nothing that was going to meet the time, cost, and size requirements nearly as well as the $10 amazon toy blaster. Probably if I had tried to DIY that part, I would have not completed the project on time. This design also reuses the trigger and trigger spring from the original toy, along with the battery door. I pulled the internal trigger geometry from the original toy, but I had to adapt it for bring 3D printed instead of injection molded. The decision to base it on an existing design saved me a ton of time and iteration because I had a good starting geometry, which in turn let me focus on the outer details of the model.
I ended up not getting any time to work on the project until Saturday, but I got up early and started by tackling the modifications to the electronics. It was a very simple job -- desolder two LEDs and resolder them with some wire leads -- so that was done quickly. I might have accidentally swapped the LEDs (I think the one in the front end was red originally), but I can live with that.
On the 3D printing side, I had originally put the spaces to hold the electronics on the left side. Once I had the electronics ready, I realized that because the scope is offset on the right side, some of the electronics would be on the left side and some would have to be on the right side. It would be too hard to get everything in place on both sides and seal the unit up. I reversed the internal cutouts so that all the electronics can be install on one side, and the other side can just be set on top. I also found a few oversights in the original design, like not including a grill for the speaker. It took a bit of time to make those changes, but I was able to get my prints started by Sunday afternoon.
While the prints were going, I made the robe for the costume. I had my original inspiration from this post, but I modified it so that the sleeves and the robe both taper outward. This gives it a flow-ier feel.
I have no idea how well the fabric tape used in that momcollective post holds up, but to me, it seemed like sewing it would be just as easy as taping it, especially since the sewing doesn't have to be very precise. I got out my trusty 20 year old Brother sewing machine (that I got for $90 at Walmart back in the day) and knocked it out fairly quickly. I cheated by making the collar flat and having her wear a white turtleneck t-shirt (that we got from Goodwill) underneath the robe. That also helps it not be too sheer, and it will be warmer, which is good since it's getting colder outside.
The only notes I got were that my daughter didn't like the sleeves being longer than her hands, so I had to go back and shorten the them. In the end, I think it came out well. I'm also happy with the decision to buy the belt. Having it be elastic is helpful for the fit, and I couldn't have made anything nearly that nice for the $15 it cost.
This morning, I did the final assembly of the blaster. The design changes worked pretty well, and I was able to get all the electronics inside and screw the gun together with almost no fuss. There was one internal clearance problem I ran into, but I cut away some additional material with an Xacto knife and then everything was fine. I'm really happy with the fit of everything, and self-tapping the M3 screws into the plastic seems to have created a very solid-feeling end product. Thankfully it is only critical for the next week or so, but I'll be curious to see how long it holds up after.
On the longevity topic, the pirate treasure chest from two years ago lasted about a year and a half before the walls started splitting. They could definitely be thicker or have ribs to reinforce them to make them more durable, but I was trying to minimize weight since it was so huge (at her request). For a while, I was repairing it with my 3D pen, but eventually she was tired of it, so it's in my to-be-recycled pile now.
That blaster is so COOL! And the costume looks great!
Genuinely incredible job, first-must-burn. Your daughter is going to have a Halloween to remember!
Thank you!
My Timasomo project is a tame one: I wanted to come up with a new category list to be used for Bingo for the upcoming Backlog Burner event next month.
The last list consisted of a lot of very specific criteria (e.g. a game with a non-human protagonist), so I wanted to offer a complement to that with broader, more abstract categories (e.g. “power”).
My idea is that “power” could inspire a lot of different choices depending on the interpretation of the player. Maybe they interpret it literally and play a city sim game that requires power management. Maybe a horror game where you have to manage the batteries on your flashlight or radio? Or maybe “power” is political power or military might, so a grand strategy game is in order. Perhaps you think “power” as in “exponent,” and so you play a clicker game. Or maybe it’s just a straight up power-fantasy game where you get to kick ass and take names.
I like the idea of giving participants a lot of conceptual freedom for filling their cards, in contrast to the much more rigid requirements of last time.
I challenged myself to come up with 100 of these, not because I want to use all 100 (that’s way too many) but because I figured it was best to over-brainstorm and then cut back. I’ve officially come up with all 100, so my next step is pruning that list. I plan to do this by rolling some random cards with the categories and then seeing how I would fill them as if I were actually doing them for Backlog Bingo. I’m hoping this can highlight categories that don’t quite work, or ones that overlap with each other.
I’m also getting some list-editing help from the always-awesome @Wes, who made the whole Bingo site in the first place.
If you’re someone who liked the old categories — have no fear! They’ll still be available too. I’m going to tweak them a bit — take out some tough entries, maybe add a few new ones — and those will also be available for the event in November.
This is so interesting! Did you have some strategy, like "think of words that could describe games from last year"? I feel like this is adjacent to the categorization challenges discussed here.
Between Timasomo and BBW, I feel like you should be up for social director of Tildes or something.
Thanks for the kind words!
As for process, I actually cheated a little bit because I started my list way before October (please don’t tell the Timasomo Police!). I knew I wanted to do a more abstract category list since the last Backlog Burner and so I’d throw something on the list whenever inspiration struck.
I only had maybe 10 or 20 by the beginning of this month though. Once I started in earnest, I did a couple of brainstorm sessions which were mostly just word associations, and then I also looked at my Steam library and the big list of Steam tags to try and come up with some other concepts. I wanted to walk the line close enough to “directly applicable to games” but not “already a gaming category” (so, “strategy” is out).
Doing this I maybe got to 70 or 80 total. I then cheated again (I’m seriously going to have to go on the lam after this). I figured I’d ask good old ChatGPT to help me out with the brainstorming, so I asked it to give me a list of abstract concepts — very politely, because I’m always extra nice to AI so that it will hopefully spare me after its eventual takeover of humanity.
This ended up being helpful, and not just in the way I expected. I cribbed some good suggestions to finish out my list all the way to 100, but I also felt pretty validated that a lot of what it brought up were ones I had already brainstormed myself!
The first rule of Timasomo is there are no Timasomo police! Until someone charters them as their October project, that is!
Lol, what a great project idea! I’m envisioning little handmade figurines in a cruiser that says
THE RULES ARE ACTUALLY JUST GUIDELINESon the side.RULE INFRACTIONS WlLL BE MET WITH (VIRTUAL) HUGS.
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
@em-dash
@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!
You can remove me from the list I think. I intended to get back into the groove with embroidery but I haven't even touched it all month, it's just collecting dust on my table here.. no motivation really :(
Will still be following and seeing what everyone else is up to though!
Well, it's that time of the year again: I have utterly failed to keep up with my (very wishy-washy) TiMaSoMo plans, and I won't have time to do much of anything before the end of the month. So please take me off the list.
That said, I look forward to seeing what everyone else has done when it comes to the showcase!
Fully synced and charted! I've got six-panel charts to match the original Space Channel 5 game inputs, and two different four-panel chart versions for lots of DDR-style jumping around.
What's left: some graphics tweaks (especially to manage file size...), some volume adjustments to the audio, and taking feedback from my
long-suffering wife and kidsdedicated beta testers.I also need to figure out the best way to present this for Showcase Day. I want to upload the files somewhere for the maybe-handful of people who'd want to actually play this, but maybe I should also record some video that everyone else can at least watch on YouTube and get the basic idea?
I think it would be neat to see some video of it in action, but only if it's not too much work.
I think a video would help it reach a bigger audience, as installing and playing the stepfiles manually is a much bigger barrier to entry.
That said, I’m one of the few who’s more than eager to try out the stepfiles. 😁
Alright, this is actually pretty scary for me to share publicly. I probably won't be able to showcase it this year or next. It's a long-term project I'm working on - hopefully it'll be a book.
I am in the plotting and world-building stage. I started 2-3 years ago and life got busy, but I'm back to taking it pretty seriously.
This week I made major, major "finalizations" to my physics-based magic system. I even made a spreadsheet to do calculations.
Without giving away too much, the magic system is based on transferring and converting energy from a source to a target. It includes energy loss, conservation, and uses real-world (ish) calculations to determine what is possible and what isn't.
If anyone has any interest in magic systems and wants to perform free labor in exchange for nothing but gratitude, I would love some feedback. I would gladly DM the laws and general world info in a brief message.
Everyone loves what they create. I get that. But I scrapped about 200 ideas before I found "the one." I think this could be good.
I tend to find magic kind of lame honestly, especially soft magic where I have to accept the unknown or illogical. I also don't like the "dark anime moon power" style of magic systems personally (absolutely no offense to anyone who does). I like internal logic and consistency, I like to avoid cliches, and I like to rip my ideas to shreds looking for oversights or bad/lame/corny ideas. I would love someone to give me harsh feedback. And I'd love for someone to take my magic system to its extremes to come up with clever ideas of what might be possible.
I would love to take a look at it :D This sounds very much like it could be my kind of book.
You made my entire week just now.
Let me put together a little summary and send you some snippets of information.
I have a massive document with a lot of information and brainstorming, so I'll trim the relevant information and send it along tonight.
Very excited to finally get some feedback from someone on this project. Please, be harsh, be uncompromising, and tell me what's bad and what could be better.
Apologies, my 1-year-old has been sick and life has been throwing me a few curve balls. I haven't had a moment to even sit down and do this. I'll send it in a couple of days and you can give it a look if you're still interested then!
No worries! Can't guarantee I'll get to it immediately either, life happens.
This week I have not accomplished any of my timasomo goals, however I did put pool noodles on my table legs so as not to stub my toe or hit my head when I'm doing cable management on the floor. Pictures:
I know these are intended to be functional and not aesthetic, but I genuinely love the pops of color they add to your furniture.
They're ABSOLUTELY intended to be aesthetic as well as functional!!! As soon as I heard the suggestion to use pool noodles for what I needed (toe protection) I got so excited to make a rainbow haha! I made sure to buy a pack that had multiple colors and specifically ordered pool noodles and not the product labeled as pipe and furniture protectors which are basically pool noodles, but black and not super colorful ♥
I stand (wonderfully and happily) corrected! ❤️
So I am slightly back on track, with trying to edit a photo a day. I had some software issues, but then was recommended Darktable and have been starting to learn that. I have only edited 3 photos this month from my backlog, but I am hoping to start increasing and try to make it back. Although, my workflow will have to change a bit with new software, so need to also figure that out
Sort of got a lot done and not a lot done at the same time this week. Didn't put much time in, but the time I did was doing some pretty big things. Spent more time painting, largely limited by the available space for bits of wood.
Then I marked out and drilled the last set of holes for dowels. Submillimetre accuracy is probably not important but I tend to think if I shoot for sub-mm, then when I inevitably get something wrong, my errors will be of the order of mm rather than cm. Also pictured, one of my most favourite tools, the awl. It's just handy for all sorts of stuff, and makes for much more accurate drilling, especially when combined with a brad point bit which can locate easily into an awl-poked hole.
So with everything drilled, and the two end pieces of the bed assembled last week, the only thing left to do was assemble the whole, very heavy, thing. On my own.
Given the trouble I'd had with some of the end pieces being very stiff to fit together, I sanded down my dowels just a touch to make the fit a little less friction-y and a little more glue-friendly. This made the final assembly a lot easier and less stressful, because I wasn't desperately pushing dowels into holes they barely fit into while glue rapidly goes off. The moisture in the glue will make the wood expand and the joints will be just as strong as if they'd needed a hammer to assemble.
So I cobbled together some supports out of bricks and bits of wood and shimmed them up to the right height, daubed everything in glue and shoved it together. More ratchet straps holding it all in place, and the big sash clamp was there to correct a little bit of a twist. Once the glue had gone off I got a bit paranoid and added a few heavy duty brackets, but they'll be invisible once the bed is in use.
That's the main frame done. When I took the clamps and straps off everything was pleasingly nice and square. I needed to add some more supports to hold the slats up, they went in easily and are nice and level. The slats are coming from the old bed and they need cutting down a bit, which I haven't done yet. But once that is done and they're installed, that's the main bed built. I have a few stretch goals though..
In my last update I mentioned there was a design feature which was complicating things. It's this gap here, which I decided to put into the headboard, and another board at the footer end which covers the underneath (underbed will be used for storage). These both could have just been solid boards, which would have made life a LOT easier but no. That little gap was a massive pain to deal with, but I do think it looks rather good
I know how imposing this bed looks, but we're going to be making the shelves in this room rather more compact so it will be less cramped once that's done - but that won't be for a while yet. It is not a room in which you do stuff on the floor, and never has been.
The bed is coming together amazingly, and those slits look really good!
And big thanks for documenting so much of your process. I love following along and seeing how it comes together. It also helps me appreciate just how much of an expert craftsman you are!
Thank you, that means a lot. Although if you'd heard the amount of swearing it took to get the frame actually assembled, the word "expert" might seem less appropriate. "Improving", perhaps :)
Mat! Bed looks amazing, brother!
Are you going to make rolling underbed storage or using something pre-made?
Thanks! I'm very pleased with how it's going so far. I think I can get a few of my stretch goals done before the end of the month too.
The space under the bed is definitely destined to be storage, I'm either going to make something out of the to-be-decomissioned bookshelves, or buy a few Systainer/Euro MAXI containers (600x400x350mm). I like standardised container sizes, and any excuse to buy more Systainers. The height of the bottom part of the bed frame was specified as "height of my big suitcase + 10mm" because we currently have nowhere to store our suitcases.
I have fallen behind on my project due to life and stuff, but I'm still really happy with the progress I've made. Not going to be finishing it this Sunday like I had hoped, but it's taking shape really well.
I have had the As You Wish pattern on my list of things to knit for a while and it was finally time to cast it on. My favorite Local Yarn Store, Hearts on Fiber, is having a Makers Movie Matinee and showing The Princess Bride and they hand-dyed some amazing yarns for our local yarn crawl that I just had to have a reason to buy.
The pattern is laid out into 5 sections and I finished 2 sections before I realized I didn't take a picture of the first one. I started section 3 this week and I'm hoping to at least have section 4 started before the movie on Sunday. I keep telling myself that I can still finish the project by October 31st....
I find I do so much better when I have a deadline for my knitting/crochet projects. When it's for a gift or occasion, I'm usually so much better at getting things done. When it's just for me, it takes forever (looking at the blanket I started in January 2022 that is still not done).
It looks so good! That pattern is awesome, and I love the colors you’ve chosen.
And a big part of why I started Timasomo was to give people an artificial deadline. I’m very deadline-motivated myself, so it helps me to get something done. I’m happy other people operate the same way.
I am still kind of not feeling like doing almost anything, but this weekend I have created a drone song for a weekend music jam that happened in a discord community of fans of the band Natural Snow Buildings. I'll post the full compilation, probably during the showcase, when it will be up on Bandcamp.
Here is the song (warning, not only is it drone and bad, it's also over 9 minutes long)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PigRGVlvGS8
Nothing this week, had family fly in from Switzerland and spent the weekend entertaining.
I came down with the flu or covid at the start of October and was out of commission for two straight weeks... :) I haven't touched my polymer clay since September.
Hopefully I can pick things back up soon even without an external event like timasomo to bug me to get things done!