Latest Posts by hitstun - Page 8
Wallpaper Watchface
For Android Pebble users, Canvas for Pebble makes plenty of information available to your watchfaces. It’s hard to display much information on such a small screen and still look nice. For Wallpaper Watchface, the time is still large and in charge, and the other two lines are stuffed with so much small text and icons that the screen takes about 20 seconds to load. Missed calls and unread messages make new notifications appear on top of the large wallpaper image. Replace that Pebble Beach wallpaper with any graphic you want from your phone.
Wallpaper Watchface was built on Canvas for Pebble v2.0.6 beta which requires Pebble firmware 2.0 beta 5. If you have that stuff installed, click the links below on your phone to install the appropriate screen on your Pebble.
Wallpaper Watchface Imperial Wallpaper Watchface Metric
It's tricky to photograph e-ink displays indoors, let alone time the shot to the second... Ick, this preview looks ugly. This is why I took a photo of the watch itself.
Source: My wrist again, Canvas for Pebble v2.0.6 beta, and Greg V Music – Lone Cypress Tree, Pebble Beach CA
Canvas for Pebble
UPDATE: I made another Canvas screen called Wallpaper Watchface. Go get that one instead. It’s better.
Wearable devices are the next big thing in tech. I’ve jumped on the bandwagon with a Pebble, and I want to develop for it. On Android, Canvas for Pebble lets you quickly make watchfaces that nicely display the time, date, weather, and your phone’s unread message and missed call counts. I took a few hours and made a watchface I like that displays seconds, and you can have it too.
If you want to try on the Dr. Mo Day 1 watchface, you’ll need a Pebble running firmware 2.0 beta and Canvas for Pebble 2.0 beta. These should still work when Pebble 2.0 and Canvas for Pebble 2.0 are released. Once that’s installed, visit this post on your phone and click the version you want below.
Dr. Mo Day 1 Imperial Dr. Mo Day 1 Metric
Ever notice how almost every watch ad has the time set to 10:10? Analog watches look better that way, but I'm not so sure about digital watches. It's a lot harder to fake the time on a cell phone.
Source: My blog’s first ever selfie, Numberphile, and Canvas for Pebble
Maldita Castilla
Locomalito makes hard traditional 2D games that can be beaten in one sitting, and he releases them for free out of his love of arcade culture. Check out Maldita Castilla, his love letter to dark Nintendo Hard platform games like Ghosts ‘n Goblins and Castlevania. Most of the monsters come from Spanish myths we don’t normally see in video games. Find the hidden Moura’s Tear item in each stage and try not to lose your soul. The developer also made Hydorah, a brutally difficult horizontal scrolling shooter with powerups.
For God and Castile!
Source: Maldita Castilla – Locomalito and YouTube
Oregon Trail and the Sewn-Together Ox
Oh boy, sometimes my Twitch.tv stream is comedy gold. When I play Oregon Trail, I have a rule to always ford every river. Even when we reach the 20 foot deep Green River, I must attempt to drive the wagon right across the bottom, drowning all the oxen. This degenerated into my Skype chatters Jdetan, Kinkaido, and Seriouscacodemon making up a story about the wagon leader trying to cobble together a single ox and get moving again.
I should probably say here that my streams contain NSFW language. You know, because we’re horrible people on the Internet.
The other thing we keep quoting, "ford the fing eiver," was a typo from old stream regular Acemage123. That typo stuck around years longer than the chatter.
Source: Oregon Trail and the Sewn-Together Ox – YouTube, which is an upload from a Twitch.tv highlight. Also Nickster123’s Flickr.
Bakamo Studios site updated!
So I finally updated the site that’s more important than this one. I wrote the site’s first new post since April 2012 about our switch to Unity 2D, our new Games page that includes Thong Girl and my three Ludum Dare games, and the shiny new Bakamo Studios Facebook page. I even posted to our Twitter!
It’s no big secret that I use this blog as a testing ground for things I want to implement on the Bakamo Studios site. The new post cross-posted to Facebook correctly the first time and all seems to have gone well. If you’re interested in games I develop, please subscribe to Bakamo Studios’s RSS feed or like us on Facebook.
This is closer to what a blog should look like. I need to work on it more.
Source: Bakamo Studios » Developers of Thong Girl
Minigolf Exam
Finally, I get to post a game I made! Minigolf Exam is an 8-hole miniature golf game where you only get one round to prove your skills! If you do badly on your first run, you are a minigolf failure forever. I made this game in 48 hours as my Ludum Dare #28 compo submission, and I wrote a few status updates about it here.
Play Minigolf Exam now!
Source: Minigolf Exam by Dr. Mo and Minigolf Exam Sources
Ludum Dare #28 is on!
I’ve entered this weekend’s Ludum Dare competition! Sure, it’s been two weeks since my last post here, but it’s been a full year since my last game compo. They announce a theme Friday night and you have 48 hours to make a game with that theme. I competed in LD #23 and LD #25 using Game Maker 7 and I’m pretty happy with those games, but this time I’m changing it up and using HTML5.
The theme for LD #28 is “You Only Get One.” I don’t know what I’m making yet, but I know I want to use HTML5’s Local Storage to make sure you don’t get another “one” by reloading the game. I need to test if my HTML5 Local Storage, Canvas, and Audio methods work on all of my target browsers, so here’s a quick demo. What you type into it gets stored in your browser’s local storage and doesn’t get sent to our servers. Check back here Sunday night and I’ll post the finished product.
(In the original WordPress post, I embedded my HTML5 Test here. Tumblr doesn’t support HTML5 canvases in posts. That makes me sad.)
Source: Dr. Mo's Ludum Dare #28 HTML5 Test and a sound effect made in Bfxr
Automatic
Well, this is neat. For years, we’ve seen OBD-II scanners that can read Check Engine light codes from your car at home, but Automatic goes much further by working this into a smartphone app. Automatic constantly monitors your fuel consumption, speed, and trip data while you drive and offers up tips to improve your driving style and use less fuel. If it detects an accident, it can even call the authorities for you.
Source: Automatic – Your Smart Driving Assistant via Wired
Did You Know Gaming? — A Link Between Worlds
UPDATE: Did you know? I actually appear in Did You Know Gaming’s Mario Glitches video at 2:17 with footage from Fun with the Orb Glitch. I’m glad they cite their sources too, but I liked them more when they posted images like this.
Every fandom needs its useless trivia. For video games, you can find tons of useless trivia at DidYouKnowGaming? Their RSS feed is perfect for this sort of thing, and it all shows up on their Facebook page too. You too can find out how in the new Zelda game on 3DS, every character and object is doing a constant Michael Jackson lean because it looks better than looking at the tops of their heads all the time. Smart stuff!
You know, I put too much effort into these posts and I'm not posting often enough. I ought to start posting images and videos without any titles or context. It works for Tumblr! (If only I knew I’d remake this WordPress post on Tumblr 4½ years later...)
Source: Did You Know Gaming? — The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. ..., which sources Iwata Asks.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.
http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/a-link-between-worlds/0/3
Did You Know Gaming? — Grand Theft Auto V
By the way, testing something here. You're reading the title text, not the alt text. (...That's what the WordPress version of this post said when you mouseover the image. Tumblr doesn’t support mouseover text, so you get the mouseover text as plain text instead.)
Source: This one sources the Verge...
Grand Theft Auto V.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/4/4693052/gta-v-features-real-gang-members-as-voice-actors
Did You Know Gaming? – Star Fox
(The original post on my Wordpress blog had five Did You Know Gaming? entries in the same post. When porting to Tumblr, I decided to give each reblog its own post since that's the way Tumblr seems to work. I might change this later.)
Source: Finally, YouTube.
The new episode is up! Star Fox - Did You Know Gaming? - Featuring Egoraptor!
Jake Kaufman – Journey into the Rift
Let’s try an audio post again. WayForward’s music composer Jake “virt” Kaufman has a series of great chiptune albums. FX4 plays like an adventure movie soundtrack with orchestral stylings and guitar riffs, but in authentic NES sound. If you can’t see the Bandcamp player, there’s a YouTube player below it that should work for everyone, even Facebook.
And now, the blog’s first block quote! From the source:
INTO THE RIFT Despite the hazards of deep-sea exploration and growing diplomatic unease, the salvage operation begins. The surface team is protected by a small fleet of hired mercenaries. Hours into the dive, they are suddenly attacked by an unknown military force, far better equipped than any provincial warlord. The attackers suddenly retreat, however, as soon as the news breaks that the wreckage has been secured.
Source: Journey into the Rift | Jake Kaufman
Chopin’s Twist Guide
Most Tetris games made since 2001 let you twist blocks into gaps that seem impossible. Some of these setups can be used to help correct mistakes, and others are just for fun. Even if you only learn the T-Spins, you’ll be able to send garbage faster than just back-to-back Tetrises all day. If you want to play around with twists, try King of Stackers, a turn-based Tetris battle sim where you can use every trick in the book to make the most of your seven pieces per turn.
Source: Chopin's Twist Guide – YouTube
Phonebloks
I like a good half-baked design every now and then, and this modular cell phone caught my eye. Each of my past few cell phones have met their end from just one component failing. With a Phonebloks phone, you could simply replace the bad component and be good as new. Motorola’s on board with this now, and I hope the project continues to gain traction. How about blocks for buttons and a D-pad?
Source: Phonebloks – YouTube via WebUrbanist
Today Phonebloks is launched!
Ohio State Marching Band – Hollywood Blockbusters
The Ohio State University football team has a 20 game winning streak and is still somehow only 4th in the polls. One thing’s for sure, though. We have the Best Damn Band in the Land.
One of these days, I’ll have to dig up some videos from my band days at Westerville North. Band was awesome.
Source: TBDBITL's Hollywood Blockbuster Show With HD Sound – YouTube and HD 1080P OSUMB Video Game Half Time Show PLUS Script Ohio TBDBITL Ohio State vs. Nebraska 10 6 2012 – YouTube
Weird Al SHREDS!!!
The first CD I ever owned was Weird Al Yankovic’s album Bad Hair Day. The wisdom tooth pain and root canal I’ve been recovering from for the past week remind of the track Cavity Search, so thought I’d make that the first song I post to the blog. Trouble is, I can’t find a decent way to embed the song that’s in any way legal, but you can play it on Spotify if you don’t mind getting an account there.
For the rest of you, you can still watch Weird Al shred.
Source: Weird Al SHREDS!!! – YouTube
Botchamania
Pro wrestling is good dumb fun, but it's hard work. It's easy for someone to do a move wrong, receive a move wrong, say something wrong, or have a table fail to cooperate. Those mistakes are called botches, and Botchamania is a highlight reel of botches. It's about the only wrestling I watch anymore.
Botchamania has to bounce around to different hosts due to copyright claims. Maffew's feed is the best way to get new Botchamanias as they're uploaded. If this video breaks, let me know and I'll find it again.
I like to keep this blog work safe, but Botchamania contains some NSFW language.
Source: Botchamania 238 | Botchamania
Introvert Signal
Sinfest is a web comic veteran with new newspaper-style comics almost every day since 2000. It's up to 4787 strips, or almost four 8-Bit Theaters. Sinfest covers topics that come up a lot on Facebook, so I'm sure you'll like it.
Maybe I’ll use one of the more religiously- or socially-challenging ones later. You know, standard Facebook fare.
Oh cool, you're reading the full blog post now. Here's a GIF I wanted to post, but I can't find who this is or where it came from.
UPDATE: After four and a half years, I've found the source! This comes from the 78th All Japan Costume Grand Prix from 2007, where this earned 3rd place.
Source: Sinfest and yjiefcs.gif via Us Vs Th3m
Frog Fractions
Frog Fractions is an epic journey masquerading as an edutainment game. I played this blind on my stream for eleven fifths of an hour, and it was a trip. Sure enough, by the time I was done, I had gotten better at investing money based on how flammable my warehouse is. The only proper way to play this game is with at little prior knowledge as possible, so just play it now and look stuff up later.
What are you doing reading this old post? Go play Frog Fractions already.
Source: Frog Fractions | Twinbeard Studios
Plamoo - Mystery Stop Motion
What kind of blog about cool stuff from the Internet would be complete without Plamoo’s stop motion movies done with Japanese action figures? For the past few years, he’s been perfecting the art with unusually smooth animations, unpredictable action sequences, and wacky parodies.
Also worth mentioning is LUXE37, which is this idea done with die-cast toy cars.
Source: Niconico (was 003 謎のストップモーション / Mystery Stop Motion – YouTube) and 疾走の追跡(Miniature car chase) – YouTube.
Foothills Of Passage
Dead End Thrills brings out the best in video game environments. This community goes beyond simple screenshots by making modifications to the game engines to render super high resolution images so professional you'd think they're marketing assets. My dual-monitor desktop just got taken over by this one from the new Shadow Warrior.
The old WordPress blog had the 'large' 2221x945 version and a broken link to a ‘full’ 3755x1598 version. Never mind those, I found this 8192x3486 monster on Flickr. Enjoy!
Source: Flickr and foothillsofpassage.png via Dead End Thrills
Federal budget request timed out
Our federal government couldn't get their act together and agree on a budget before today's deadline. Now vital federal services have lost funding and the global economy will suffer for it. If you're in the US and your Congressmen come up for re-election, remember this shutdown and fire everyone involved.
(I really try to avoid re-posts, but Slate’s video player doesn’t work on Tumblr because Tumblr doesn’t support iframes.)
Source: Gravity trailer mashup: Government shutdown hits NASA. (VIDEO) via RT
Hitstun's Challenge (and Failure)
For the past four years, I've been doing a weekly Twitch stream where I attack a game in my backlog. If I pick the game and fail to finish it in reasonable time, my viewers get to pick next week's game as punishment. That happened tonight.
This time, I've put up a poll with five games my friends and Skype chatters want to make me play. Whatever wins this poll is the game I will run next Tuesday at 10pm EDT. This poll is open to everyone. Here are your choices:
Amnesia: The Dark Descent (PC) Megaman X6 (PS2) My Little Pony Crystal Princess: The Runaway Rainbow (GBA) Redneck Rampage (PC) Kick Master (NES)
I must have seen this screen a hundred times.
Source: The House of Hitstun » Stream and my Twitch stream of Rogue Legacy.
Cookies n' Creme Oreos
Thanks to some creative food scientists, you can now go to Walgreens and buy Oreo ice cream flavored Oreos. Sure enough, they taste like cookies and cream ice cream.
TVTropes calls this Recursive Adaptation. Another one I'd like to track down: the Words with Friends board game.
By the way, this post is a test of writing and publishing a post entirely from my phone. This picture might be huge.
Source: My phone camera and SPOTTED ON SHELVES – 9/16/2013 | The Impulsive Buy via Consumerist
ComboVid.com style exhibition v.two
This blog's cross-posting to Facebook is making me rethink how I want to post things. You should subscribe to my RSS feed instead, but I have too many friends that just use Facebook, and I want that to look nice too.
Videos cross-post well, right? Enjoy some tool-assisted goofing off in fighting games.
Source: ComboVid.com style exhibition v.two (TFC2k13) - YouTube via Shoryuken.
Tower of Heaven
Tower of Heaven is a Game Boy-styled platform game with a great soundtrack that keeps adding conditions for failure. The controls are simple, but it's easy to get near the end of a section and accidentally break one of the game's many rules. Take ten minutes and try this out. Since then, they've made another game, Pause Ahead, which I want to run blind on my stream soon.
Speedrun times are almost a minute faster than this. This is a fun game to run, and I'd totally race this on SpeedRunsLive. There's only one real skip, and everything else is just platforming skill.
Source: Play Tower of Heaven | askiisoft.
Imperial Boy - Vegetable Garden
Imperial Boy's detailed, colorful background art makes for some great desktop wallpapers. He's always got this sense of vertical scale that I've always tried to work into my level designs.
(Starting with this post, every image on my old WordPress blog had unique mouseover text. Tumblr does not support mouseover text for the featured image in an image post, so I’ll have to copy those over as plain text captions as demonstrated below. Mouseover text doesn’t work well on mobile, anyway. As far as I know, the mouseover text on images is the only feature I lose in the transition to Tumblr. I could theoretically fix this in the theme, but it wouldn’t affect Tumblr’s dashboard or the mobile app since those ignore themes.)
Hmm, I think I'll add alt text to images. It's a nice little easter egg in XKCD and Dr. McNinja, and hopefully Feedly supports Wordpress's method of doing this too. I just have to remember to change the tag from alt= to title= each time.
Source: 霊雨さん設定資料集 - Ms.ReiuSetMaterialCollection (with Google Translate)