Design: Saharasha Part 2

Hello

I think I have my final design for the bird. I ended up basing it heavily on the Blue Jay. As the etymology behind the made-up name refers to a “young gazelle”, I wanted to integrate gazelle features into the bird as well. I even tried to combine hooves & talons, though I’m dubious the feet bear any resemblance to hooves.

Aside from drawing both views crooked, I’m pretty happy with how this turned out. I had real trouble trying to not smudge the drawings (not sure if I should blame my left hand or the habit of writing left to right for this).

Front View

Top View

Design: Saharasha Part 1

Hello, I’ve started a new design project.

Whilst the aim of this project is to create a new design for a mythic bird, its so far devolved into doodling random living birds. This is part of the research into coming up with a design I hope would be fairly unique; believable yet intangible (if that even makes sense). Unfortunately I’m going at a snails pace, averaging one doodle every business day. It’s only now that I’ve finished research & will move onto the concept/development portion of the process.

What is Saharasha? Well, some time in late December I… had a dream? More accurately I awoke & could only remember the flashing image of a great bird (like a Roc) with brown feathers & light blue highlights. A name like “Saharasha” stuck in mind. I’m not sure why, but it inspired an idea for a new mythic creature for me; a sort of Phoenix born not from ashes but the waking from a dream.

Mini-Project 2 – Card Design

Hello, I’ve gotten my second mini-project done for my application portfolio – an encounter card for a conceptual boardgame. I created this over the span of about twelve days, whilst I was dog-sitting in Te Anau for my parents. It was nice to hang out with three small dogs for a while, but that’s not what this post is about (there is however a weird story I may post about later). Anyway, the card…

A Gryphon encounter card.

The idea for this card stems from an adventure storytelling game idea I’ve mulled around for a long time, & have only now bothered to create something for. Whilst this is meant to serve as an encounter template, I wanted to treat it as an actual card that may appear in the game, so I chose to do a Gryphon (which might have been too ambitious for me).

Mini-Project 1 – Blog Header

Hello, you may have noticed my profile image is different. I felt it was appropriate to have my first mini-project be an update of this. I finally have something more current for my application portfolio!

Since the portfolio requires evidence of a process for a few items, I’ll touch on it a bit here.

Old Header Image

New Header Image

 

Another Video + Update

Hello, got another video to share. This is a talk about the modern cultural role of games & how they could be done better. It voices many of the concerns I’ve been having about games today & made me realize who the audience of games may actually be (it also made me realize some games could be a sort of modern ‘drop-in centre’ for fringe elements of society). It is another 30 minute video (I like long videos) so set aside time if you want to watch it.

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This also gives me the excuse to give a quick update (wow its been months since I did this):

November Life Update – Cutting Back

Hello, I know it’s December now but this update is about things that happened last month. Besides, I might end up doing one more update before the end of the year.

It feels like I’ve delayed this update too much so there’s a fair amount of things I want to cover & try to recall.

Quick summary for those with little time:

• Been thinking about my dreams & if I can ethically justify them in the context of the world at large (something I’ll delve into on a separate post).

• I’ve had two sets of random guests stay over at my flat briefly. I’ll be talking about the first pair (the second largely kept to themselves).

• Cancelled my D&D campaign.

• I’ve taken a different approach to my game projects, & now I’ve found myself actually sticking to a project for once (yay!).

• I also finally got around to getting most of these questions up in front of my house.

A 1st D&D Campaign Handout

Ugh… finally got this done! This took me way too long to get done (my excuse is I got caught up in world building  😀 ).

I’m posting it here so those who are curious about it can see it, & also so I can free myself for other pursuits. Fair warning – it’s a long read (over six pages long, way too big to paste into a blog post).

To summarize the document, it covers:

• What to expect from me as a DM.
• What the setting is + some lore regarding what your character should know from the get go.
• Some house rules, mainly about leveling.
• What I’ll need from players.

If you feel up for it (& can open Word documents) here it is.

Farewell.

September Life Update – Game Time

Hello, I thought I’d end up writing about the uncertainty of my job as my contract ended yesterday, but now I have good news. For those who haven’t kept up with my work situation, or forgot, I’d advise reading July & August before reading the next part.

My boss has presented his case about the future & value of my team (& my own role) to his own boss &, from what I can tell, he has no problem with me going part-time. Now we’re just waiting for those above him to approve. This could take a while since apparently there’s a backlog of matters they must see to first.

In the meantime, he has given me a 3 month extension on a part-time basis. I haven’t received any actual paperwork for this yet, but it’s agreed between us that my standard days for the rest of this year starting next week are Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday; with days changing to suit the needs of the team as they arise.

So yep, it’s kinda official now – I’m no longer working full-time. Yeays!!

August Life Update – Not Quite Yet?

Hello, I actually wrote this out in a single afternoon.

This month I’ve become more weary of working full-time & was looking forward to a change in situation, but this last week has been kinda weird for me in an oddly ironic way.

My contract was set to end this coming week & it occurred to me that I hadn’t taken any leave since April. I’d asked about the leave I’d accumulated & was advised to simply sit on it for now. The policy is I’d be paid out for any annual leave I haven’t taken, but this wasn’t the case for sick leave. I’d been advised to simply use it since I hadn’t actually taken any sick days. My plan was to use it to make this current weekend extra long & go visit my parents + dogs in Te Anau again.

Well, this past week my body decided now was the time of the year to be sick.

July Life Update – Changes for the Better

Hello, I’m going to try & make this concise since there’s a lot I want to bring up.

A quick overview for those low on time:

• Work – my old boss returned & changes are happening + temp contract ending next month. I also made an offer with him; if he wants to keep me.

• D&D – need to actually put into action the campaign I’ve been planning all this time (yes I’m terrible  😛 ). May keep my word of posting about it next time.

• Health – taking action to cut down & change my diet. Going dairy-free & reducing sugar intake.

• Return to Game Dev – I made a simulation demo in Unity based on an old assignment & I have more assignments I’m planning on re-imagining.