andymakesgames

[andymakesgames]

Here I am working with the other members of EMMA to update Cloud Gobblers, our contribution to the Weather Sys Admin arcade cabinet by Arcade Commons!

[andymakesgames]

16 frame shooting star animation. January 2022-September 2024 Needlepoint

Frames from my shooting star gif. 16 frames total. Each frame is 8x6.5 inches on a 10” mesh. Designed and animated in photoshop and needlepointed by me. I started drafting this 1/14/22 and finished animating it 9/25/24. It took approximately two years and eight months to finish. This is one of the largest projects I’ve ever worked on and I’m very happy with how it turned out.

[andymakesgames]

Some photos of Ziggurat of the Titan Beetle being played at the Arcade Commons launch party for the new Nightmare Kart cabinet. Photos by Sam Seddon (@samseddon_ on Insta) Game art by Chris Hernandez Console by Alex Panait

[andymakesgames]

Another motion graphics menu for Rocket Dog! This time it's the high score initials entry screen for the arcade version.

Once again, this menu was designed by @jane-dump based on a 90s rave flyer and implemented in C++ by me.

Here's the (wonderfully headache inducing) flyer:

And here's a still of the menu:

You can learn more about this upcoming game at indomitablerocket[dot]dog

[andymakesgames]

The next graphics priority for @andymakesgames's The Indomitable Rocket Dog was the level complete screen. Andy gave me this flyer as potential inspiration:

I gave it a whack, but it wasn't quite right. We couldn't really get it to a place where it had all the info (your grade, your time, the various ranking data, the menu options to keep going) presented in a readable way that also went well with the geometric symmetry of the original poster.

Andy then had the idea to use this style on the "new high score"/"put in your initials" screen instead. I think it's a way better fit and, quite frankly, that it slaps.

[andymakesgames]

I have long been feral for the extraordinary vibrancy and saturation of risograph prints. My apartment is covered in riso prints bought from students and professional artists. I was devastated when I realized I missed this year’s student riso fair at SVA. Riso prints are so juicy, I just want to eat them.

I’m not much of a visual artist myself, but it’s long been on my bucket list to try making one. And out of nowhere, while on a work trip across the country, I stumbled across a mini print studio in an auxiliary building that had a risograph machine!!

I didn’t have enough time to learn how to do it properly, but with enough grit and Spectrolite (and Austin, who kindly guided me through using the machine at 1AM), all things are possible.

I made a print of my games (original game art by Jenny Jiao Hsia) and also designed and printed one to celebrate the 10th anniversary of @andymakesgames’s PARTICLE MACE.

They both have flaws but I don’t care. I was l, and still am, absolutely giddy. And I’ve only eaten a couple.

[andymakesgames]

I've spent about two weeks working on implementing the level select menu that @jane-dump designed for The Indomitable Rocket Dog! I've been teaching myself a ton about shaders as I work on this game and I think it's really paying off.

Just like she did for the title screen, this menu is based on real 90s rave flyers. Here are the two she primarily based the design on:

And here's the mock up she handed off to me:

And here's what the menu looked like a month ago:

Soon I need to get back to working on the game!

[andymakesgames]

A (low-key) cosplay: Majima Goro

The best outfit I'll never make again.

I've heard the tumblr algorithm hates links, so peep my full process on the post before this one.

[andymakesgames]

A (low-key) cosplay: Majima Goro

I've never been a cosplayer. Heck, I don't even really dress up for Halloween.

But shortly before the 2024 Music and Games Festival (aka MAGFest) (yeah, I know, really needs a new name nowadays), I finished all the entries in my favorite game series, Yakuza/Like A Dragon. I was feeling the heat and got a wild idea to do a lightweight cosplay of everyone's favorite gremlin, Goro Majima.

I knew from the start that any cosplay I did had to be low-key. Bless the folks who wear wigs and facial hair and carry big accessories for their cosplays--my volunteering schedule, forgetfulness, and sensory issues could never. But I figured I could do a cute little low-key cosplay somehow: boots, pants, jacket, and of course, The Tattoo.

It seemed easy: someone on Etsy sells temporary tattoos of his whole irezumi, with loads of amazing customer cosplay photos. I hit 'order', and figured I would just get some pleather pants and an eyepatch, apply those tattoos, find a strapless tank, and be done with it.

It was not that easy.

The mail came, and immediately, I realized a couple of problems:

I didn't size the tattoos correctly, so when they came in the mail, they were obviously way, way too big for me. (My fault entirely. They have multiple sizes and even do custom sizing--I just spaced.)

I like to shower a lot at MAGFest (I play a lot of rhythm games lol), and that doesn't mix well with temporary tattoos.

I, obviously, needed to cover up my chest, but there weren't a lot of good ways to do that without covering the tattoo (which I was stubborn and didn't want to do).

And the most important one, which I should have realized already: I work during MAGFest!

I've been part of Arcade Commons for years. At MAGFest, we're responsible for bringing, maintaining, staffing, and running events for a whole pile of indie arcade cabinets. That involves a whole lot of schlepping, maintaining, running around, carnival barking, and all that. So if I was going to cosplay for a significant amount of time, I needed something that would:

Be durable enough for moving arcade cabinets around;

Be flexible enough to lift stuff, plug stuff in, gaff tape things down, etc.;

Be warm enough for the cold of the main hall (it gets so cold when there's not a billion people in it!!!!), but also

Be cool enough to not drown in sweat doing endless runs back and forth for supplies, events, food, etc.

So unless I wanted to only wear the cosplay for a brief amount of time off-shift, a temporary tattoo and bandeau wouldn't cut it.

I started noodling on better solutions. I could just grab a snakeskin jacket to be warm and do the area around my collarbones, but I didn't like the idea of covering most of the costume at any given time, and I wanted to do the whole thing anyway. A t-shirt with the tatt would be okay, but I wanted more of an illusion effect.

And then I settled on an idea that I imagine a lot of cosplayers have invented before: skin colored mesh over a skin-colored tank. I could get a mesh bodysuit and just draw the irezumi on it. Then I would have the durability of fabric; the coolness of the mesh; and the extra layer of warmth of the tank top.

The problem is that "just" drawing the irezumi on it would be hard--just like applying the tattoo to my body would have been. Perhaps it was worse, since even if I did it 1:1, the bodysuit would stretch over my in unexpected ways, leading to distortion. Corners and meeting points were also a nightmare, as they'd also need to be carefully aligned along 3D body dimensions. Plus I had to actually figure out a way to actually draw the damn thing on.

I wish I could say that I came up with some genius solution with iron ons or transfer materials or something. In the end, after fucking up a bunch of cheap mesh body suits, I developed the following workflow:

Trace the bodysuit onto cardboard

Use that cardboard to make a sort of body insert

Print out a majorly upsized version of the irezumi parts and wrap it around the cardboard body as best I could

Stick the cardboard inside the bodysuit

Put on a good podcast and carefully, carefully ink the bodysuit with dye markers, one little flick at a time

Carefully, carefully freehand any weird little corners where the patterns didn't line up quite right

I had to do this while also carefully taking it out to try on every so often and make sure everything lined up properly. No shortcuts: it took a really, really long time.

And then somehow, eventually, it was done. Right in time: I think I finished it maybe 2 days before I had to get down to DC. Then came the test: would it work? Would it last?

Luckily, the answer was a resounding yes. It was cozy when the main hall cleared out and everything got cold. It was cool when sprinting across the Gaylord to pick up tools or get food. It was even breathable enough to do my yearly 4AM rhythm game marathon. When I had to push or wrangle cabinets, the mesh was durable enough not to tear. And it was convincing enough that a couple of MAGFest employees went to pull me over for being naked, before realizing and having a laugh.

I worked hard enough on this that you better believe I'll keep wearing it. For MAGFest 2025, my partner @andymakesgames even had the brilliant idea to dress as the hated couch guy enemy. It was a big hit (pun intended).

Serious respect to all the hardcore cosplayers out there--I don't know how you do it. This was by far the best outfit I'll never, ever make again.

[andymakesgames]

For all you XCOM sickos out there: I made my partner @andymakesgames this custom sticker for Christmas. The font isn't commercial so don't sell this on redbubble you jerks

[andymakesgames]

I've been helping make screens for @andymakesgames' The Indomitable Rocket Dog, just to get some juice into it while it's being developed/before he gets a proper Visual Artist for it.

Andy is really interested in having it fit a '90s rave/garage style, so loads of the inspiration/moodboard content has been these cool rave flyers. It's been fun to try and map game functionality to the super dynamic styling of these kinds of posters.

References/inspiration:

[andymakesgames]

I was pretty pleased with this translation of poster -> screen for @andymakesgames' Rocket Dog on this one, not gonna lie.

Reference/inspiration:

[andymakesgames]

Fishin' 500: A Pico-8 Game in 495 characters

Play it here

This is my entry for #TweetTweetJam 10, a game jam where games have a limit of 500 characters of source code and no external assets!

It's a simple fishing game with a final size of 495 characters.

Here's the full Pico-8 source code for the game:

q={}c=circfill r=rnd::z::x=20y=20h=0v=0g=0m=0::_::cls(12)l=line c(65,800,760,1)for i=30,45do l(0,i,75-i,i,4+i%2)end x+=h*g y+=v*g v+=g/9f=.88+sgn(40-y)/9h*=f v*=f if btnp()>0then if(g<1)h=1+r() g=1v-=1.5end if(r()<.03)add(q,{x=-4,y=60+r(60),c=r(5)}) d=4for o in all(q)do a=o.x b=o.y c(a,b,2,8+o.c)l(a-3,b-2,a-3,b+2)pset(a,b-1,1)o.x+=r() if d>abs(a-x)+abs(b-y)then o.x=x+1o.y=y d=0end if(b<40)del(q,o)end m=max(m,y)c(x,y,1,7)l(11,29,20,20)l(x,min(40,y),5)l(x,y) if(m>40and y<40)goto z flip()goto _

You can find a much more thoroughly commented version of this code that explains what's going on here.

Don't forget to check out my entry from last year: Tastebud Tapdancer

[andymakesgames]

Andy’s LWotC Notes & Guide (v 1.2)

This is pretty niche, but I maintain extensive notes while playing XCom 2 Long War of the Chosen (a very expansive/brilliant overhaul mod).

Andy’s LWotC Notes & Guide (v 1.2)

I took some time to clean it up into a very large collection of tips & tricks learned from several successful and many unsuccessful Legend/Ironman campaigns.

It is a hard mod to get into because it is very deep but not tutorialized well so I'm hoping this doc can be helpful to anybody curious about it. I'm particularly pleased with the class guides which are the result of a lot of experimentation.

It recently got pinned to the LWotC subreddit!

[andymakesgames]

Brought the video feedback arcade game I'm working on with Allen Riley to the playtest night at Wonderville yesterday!

The game is written in C++ using openFrameworks and Video Waaaves by andrei jay.

[andymakesgames]

Working on new shaders for the background and tiles in the game.

Very much a work in progress but after a few days of getting mad at my computer it's starting to congeal into something I like.

[andymakesgames]

My partner Jane mocked up a menu for Rocket Dog based on an old rave flyer I just wrapped up bringing it into the engine and animating it! Here's the original flyer: