Free Bonus Download
5 Rings, my vaguely interactive Christmas ghost story is out now for the ZX Spectrum. You are traveling home for the holidays and stop off at a village known for its standing stones! A place you haven't visited since childhood.
Ghost stories were a popular staple of tv at Christmas particularly in the 70s. Although not normally set at or featuring Christmas this is my go at that sort of thing. I've been focusing on putting this together over the last month or so. Thanks to everyone on the spectrum computing forum who've been supportive since I started doing Speccy stuff.
download for FREE it's part of the WOOT! Christmas compilation. Which has many seasonal contributions. You'll need a ZX Spectrum emulator or a way to run files on original hardware.
click here to download WOOT! 2019 bundle
woot! 2019 description, contents and download
EDIT (if the tap file loads it should run)
Shorter projects. coming soon....
Doing monthly updates made more sense when things were going well! I've been working on tools this month. Even though I'm making progress it might not be so interesting to read about. So as it's halloween month I've decided to introduce a new character called goth apple to liven things up a bit.
Attending Chunky Fringe
Last time I was working to complete a demo to take to Chunky Fringe. I can report that I was able to get ready in time. And I'm very pleased with how the day went. I was invited to take part in the Chunky Fringe by David Walford. The Chunky Fringe was a room of exhibitors and panels. Full of stuff related to Teletext, Digitiser and a little of retro computing. It provided a bit extra for people on the way to the Digitser Live Show. you can read about the Chunky Fringe on David's site. you can also browse the Chunky Text teletext service created to coincide with the event with many contributors. I'm very thankful to David for inviting me to take part.
Progress on follow up to clicky click.
i have a playable version of the first chapter on pc. The first chapter introduces a wrestler who's been invited to perform the opening ceremony for a jumble sale. But he unfortunately encounters dracula's ufo. i also have the synopses for all chapters. Each chapter will be about the size of clicky clicks dungeon. i've got designs for characters and models for some of the environments.
Getting Ready for Chunky Fringe
My focus at the moment is getting ready for Chunky Fringe. i plan to show off the spectrum version of the first chapter. i have a version using the same art style as clicky clicks dungeon. with the wire frame lines. here's how the jumble sale looks now with the model i made and the zx graphics. i might go with this depending on things turns out.
But my hope is to switch to a style of art that uses text characters. so i'm trying to integrate that and get it up and running. All the 3d modeling work may have been overkill. As the text art is quite different. And less able to convey details. But it fits in with other stuff i'm doing and i like how it looks.
Mowgawr
i made this print recently for a show in Falmouth. It features the Morgawr, which is a Cornish sea monster. i got it printed at A2 size and it looked amazing so big. i'm so used to seeing everything i make on small computer monitor or phone screen. i really recommend printing out your artwork and printing BIG!
i want to make more stuff like this. So even though the zx spectrum can't display as many characters i'm pressing ahead with working in this style.
Giant Space Owl
i'm not a fan of deadlines. But as i'm aiming to have the demo ready for chunky Fringe space owl has lost its day a week. It currently stands at 41 penciled pages. i can tell you that its shaping up to be very very odd.
That's all
It's starting to be a long time since clicky clicks dungeon was released. i was hoping to be putting stuff out more frequently. but it's not looking like that. it all just takes a long time. Anyway most important thing to take away is to come to Chunky Fringe on saturday 20th july. At the Harrow Arts Centre. Play my new project. Hang out. The Chunky Fringe page explains it better than i can.
i've been working on the successor to Clicky Clicky. With early development for a bunch of titles. Including Mathew Hopkins bmx trials. But the one with dracula and ufos is emerging as a favorite. It's got that old super 8 reel feel.