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Graphics from my now-defunct 2D RPG-adventure gameMay-11-10, 10:40 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Video games, fun, tech, game design  Here's some old graphics for my first real attempt at building my long-fabled RPG, code-named RLOA. This was a 2d game, designed to be played with a mouse on a PC or Mac. It was surprisingly far along, but also still quite far from being finished. I did all the art and programming for the game. It was started in 2006, and it looks like I stopped working on it in 2008.
 The game has a full conversation engine in it, and you could talk to that old man.  Some sort of temple, with a purple barrel hidden in the trees. I wrote the engine to support tiles, but support many tiles overlapping, to be able to build up layers. Tiles could not only be multi-layered, but also be offset on a pixel-by-pixel basis. For example, the moss you see in the cracks in the image above is a separate image that is hand-placed, scaled, and rotated. Same with the bricks in the walls. Ron Gilbert told me this was "colorform style", nicknamed the famous kid's toy.  Some mushroom fruity things, and a giant life-giving energy spring.  Some alternate rockwork.  Jules Verne slept here.  Entry into some other kind of temple. Notice at this point I hadn't gotten around to doing proper art for doors. They all looked like this. I could actually tint any of the tiles individually as I laid them down, so this made reusing tiles quite easy. Most all the architecture tiles were done with a standard color (known as "the blue") so that they could all be used interchangeably if needed.  A placeholder guru guy hanging out under some nice vegetation.  Crystal caves. Exciting. Sketchbook: Building SketchApr-29-10, 9:00 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: fun, tech, uncanyondev, sketchbook 
I'm going to try to post more photos and sketches on this blog. Not necessarily my best work, but just things I find or draw that interest me. This is a pen sketch I came across in my sketchbook. Not my favorite piece but I thought it was working going through the process to blog it. LEGO robot and LEGO zombieFrom the LEGO Minifigures collectionApr-27-10, 3:38 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: fun, LEGO 
These are my two favorite new minifigs from a very cool Minifig collection that LEGO has released. I'm not 100% sure but I think these are like blind boxes. I can't actually find them for purchase on the LEGO site yet (it appears as though the nav bar has a blank spot where "purchase" is going to appear) Check it out on the Minifigures site. Photoshop CS3 and money securityApr-21-10, 10:22 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: tech, Photoshop, fun I wanted to zoom in on the new 100 dollar bill the US launched today, so I copied and pasted it into Photoshop. Photoshop warned me that I wouldn't be able to print it! I knew Photoshop has had this kind of detection in it for a while, but I didn't think it would apply to low-res jpegs of the money from various blogs and whatnot. While my intent was never to print it (just look at it with the magnifying glass) I decided to see what Photoshop would do if I tried to print it. I pasted into another document I was working on and hit print. Here's what happened: 
It printed fine until it got to the very bottom of the bill, then it killed the rest of the print job and replaced it with a URL to rulesforuse.org. Rulesforuse.org (no I'm not going to link directly to it here) has some info about reproduction, but also a bunch of broken links. It sent me to a 404 when I tried to click on Reproduction Rules for US money. Nice. NOTE: Like I said above, I originally was not going to print it. I only tried to after Photoshop warned me I wouldn't be able to. I'm assuming then that the partial document Photoshop did was a legal-to-reproduce portion of the money. I'm assuming I didn't break any laws here. If I did -- I blame Photoshop. And I shredded the printout. Hold on, someone's at my door ... I want a pod car daddy!Give it to me now!Mar-24-10, 2:29 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: fun 
[via wired] And you thought the LEGO turkey leg was coolMar-22-10, 8:53 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: fun 
Check out the LEGO turkey. Check-in FatigueThis is partially why I stopped using Foursquare. continue reading Mar-20-10, 10:26 am by HanfordSmuggler's Cove graphic designOr: How I spent my summer vacationMar-2-10, 4:41 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: fun, design, Tiki  If you're looking for a great place to drink in San Francisco, look no further than the newly opened Smuggler's Cove.
It's a Tiki bar -- and dare I say it -- The Greatest Rum Bar In The World, opened by my good friend Martin Cate (The same man who co-created the Alameda tiki bar Forbidden Island, and helped me with my Rickrolling of Dr. Tiki). It's getting rave reviews from all over the place. Continued Attempting to watch the iPad video on Apple's siteFeb-1-10, 4:44 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: tech, Apple, Bad User Interface Just went to watch the iPad video on Apple's site. This is what I got: 
No error message. No "do you want to upgrade?" message. No indication of what's wrong. Clicking on it does nothing. I don't even know how to download a new version of Quicktime. So much for the whole "Flash is dying" thing*. If this is the user experience people get -- something out of the RealVideo playbook -- Flash video isn't going to go away anytime soon. * Not officially endorsed by Apple, by the way. Just unofficially. How Hanford saved New YearJan-2-10, 2:19 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: fun  If you remember (or still watch) any of the classic animated Christmas TV specials like Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer then you know how, year after year, Christmas comes this close to not happening -- until someone saves it. It's a timeless plot line that we see again and again.
However, this year, in real life, Happy New Year came this close to not happening for a crowd of Continued   |
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I make things. From consumer electronics, to video games, to theme park attractions. Perhaps I can make things for you! Check out my portfolio. When I'm not making things for other people, I'm usually experimenting.
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