machai-umno

I got tired looking at the old site, so I pushed up the new one...incomplete and with issues... there are some load issues I need to resolve and some broken links that need fixing but it's nice to give DFG a face lift.

Working on the Leviathan Crusader, I have his feet done as well as the Vulkan cannon. I will work my way up the legs to the torso and head and finally the claw. The feet took about 35 hours to complete because this model can be posed, everything had to be engineered not only with the movement and collision issues in mind but also with how it would need to be broken up for casting.... Very complex and a challenging build. I feel like I deserve an honorary degree from M.I.T.

A look at the printed model, courtesy of Miniature Review, seen in this comparison to a 15mm scale T34/85 tank

Now it is time for the final part in these series on puzzles in horror games! This post will be about some puzzles in Penumbra that I personally find especially interesting. Because of this, the post will be filled with puzzle spoilers so if you are planning on playing any Penumbra game and have not yet done so, do so before reading! First I am going to go through some basic guidelines we had when designing the puzzles though. General puzzle design Our main rule when implementing puzzles was something we called the "Island approach". What this means is that all things needed to solve a puzzle are located in the same area, the "island", and connections between islands should be very few and quite obvious. An example of this kind of connection was the hand and head needed to open the door the in residential area in Black Plague. The puzzles to get hold of the head and hand where both confined to their respective islands and where then linked together, hopefully obviou...

In between all the freelance work I get to work on my products... This is a much more heavily detailed arm and gun for one of the Mechs I'll be making.

John at Moddeler does some good work, keeps me and my clients happy. Hats off to Comfy Chair.

I had the opportunity to work with Chris at Outland Games. Chris has a great sense of humor and wanted this reflected in his models. This was a hard project for my to wrap my mind around because I'm so used to designing with a mind set that its got to look lean mean and 100% killing machine. After some back and forth I realized what he wanted and got to work. The large weapons were supposed to be on tripods and gun mounts but I wanted to add some personality and quirkiness to the design. I envisioned the weapons on robotic mounts that would wobble to the next firing position as its crew scurried to keep pace and rather than complicated fire controls on the back of the weapons, just a big red button labeled DESTROY! ;) Chris describes his race of "Skins" as funny little aliens that use weapons that look like toys, but they are the baddest fighters around. Ultimately I enjoyed working on this project and hope to work with Chris again to flush out some more not so serious ...