My unfinished video game – a visual novel / point&click adventure hybrid – has been languishing untouched lately. I was seriously ill for a long time and now that I’ve gotten better (since January) I’ve been working very hard to catch up with work. So this meant that the game had taken a backseat… I’ve been feeling really bad about it, to the point where this was actually keeping me from working on the game!

But, but, but I think I’ve found a solution Enter NaNoRenO. This is like NaNoWriMo, but instead of writing a novel in a month, you have to make a visual novel video game in a month. From scratch. (There is also a similar event for finishing previously started games, but I don’t think I would be able to finish my original game in a month, it’s much more complex than a visual novel.)

A visual novel is reasonably straightforward to make, and I managed to come up with an idea for a game that I can hopefully finish in March. I wrote a design document (not sharing it just yet ) and calculated the amount of assets that need to be made, and I think it’s doable… though not easy. (Yes, I could just make a super short visual novel with stock art, but where would the fun be in that?)

I’ve already started working on Amesirun (working title) and there’s a bunch of stuff I managed to finish in the past 3 days. I made the core programming (quite simple, though it is a nonlinear game), wrote the first scene (quite long), and mostly finished two backgrounds.

The whole game is inspired by some concept artwork I did for Emerald Spires (my main game) several months ago, a drawing of a character I really liked, but the whole thing did not fit with the more realistic approach of Emerald Spires. So I cropped the character, who will be used as the main – and only! – character once I finish drawing the different emotions.

Amesirun will be set in the same universe as Emerald Spires, FYI. You can think of it as a teaser

Speaking of teasers, I have two images for you, a background and a (the) character. The game is set in “conceptual space”, so they are quite odd and not what you’d expect from visual novels. But I wanted to get away from realism, which led me to become completely stuck with the character art on my main game. It’s such a relief to be able to draw random outlandish things.

I made the images with ArtRage with some postprocessing using other software. They use some public domain line art from expired patents, and NASA astrophotography for the color overlay. The rest is hand-drawn.

Enjoy:

I uploaded a bunch of old photos from 2005-2007 to the image gallery (and many more are missing *sigh*) I think I’ve given up on uploading the original accompanying text and reposting the original posts, but at least I tagged the images.

I also made a new category “Lolarious” for random hilarity… usually photos snapped with my cell phone (so the quality is not particularly high) or desktop screenshots. I have much more waiting to be uploaded, but first I want to put “prezzey.net” on them, because those kinds of images are stolen all the time. I’m OK with people reposting my work – that’s what my CC license is for -, but not without attribution.

I’m sorting through my books and I have quite an amount of duplicates, books I want to sell, etc. I only used to swap books, but these days I get more and more queries from people who want to buy my books. So I priced some of them… here you can take a look at the catalog. If you speak Hungarian, you can also try here (registration required, but you can also read my short descriptions of each book including minor dents, etc).

Most are in English and Hungarian, some are in German. Prices are kindasorta negotiable and I also accept trade-ins if you have something cool (books, used games, cheap DVDs of arthouse movies, etc. you get the idea).

There will be more coming on Thursday IY”H, and the missing prices will also be updated. (I just don’t have those books here with me right now so that I could accurately set their prices.)

Prices include tax but do not include shipping.

I prefer to ship to Hungary and Austria, but I can ship anywhere. If you live anywhere else it’s probably not worth it (especially since the prices are adjusted to the Hungarian market), unless you absolutely need that vintage Hungarian copy of The Chrysalids…

(In case you lose track, this post is about the SF webzine I help run. I have little to do with the content, I’m just the tech side of things… I volunteered to help out because I love the mission of the magazine – to strengthen the presence of underrepresented groups in SF – and tend to enjoy the stories. No, I won’t make your website for free. But I am available for hire )

The new double issue of Expanded Horizons is out, if you see any technical issues, let me know! I’ve only read 7 stories out of the 8 so far (before the launch; I also helped out with proofreading) but there were some real gems in there. Miss Lonelyhearts has to be the best zombie story I’ve ever read and I normally don’t even like zombie stories! It also reminded me of Fallout 3 in a good way (if you’ve played it, you’ll see what I mean). And Silver Veins is autism-related. Really, I could list half of the new stories as ‘do yourself a favor, read this now’.

We decided against having downloadables at launch, because every month there are a few minor after-launch changes  (authors find typos, formatting issues etc.) and it’s just inconvenient to reexport and reupload everything every time someone finds an extra comma. So we’ll probably upload the PDF and ODT files next week, and until then you can read the stories on the web… oh and if you find any typos, let us know

So, go off and read, I think this is a really strong issue. And if you have something to submit, send it in – I think at the moment EH is especially looking for essays, poetry and art. (yes, it is a paid venue.)

When I last promoted the magazine, some people asked me whether the following “count” as underrepresented groups in speculative fiction – I asked our editor and the answer is yes to all, so keep those submissions coming:

* Women authors
* People from Hungary
* People from the Balkans
* Jewish people
* Otherkin
* Occultists / Neopagans in general / Wiccans in particular

Note that this is not a “checklist”, so if you send something about Croatian Jewish otherkin that misrepresents these groups and is not well-written in general, it won’t stand more of a chance…  or any chance, really. (Also note that I’m not the editor. I don’t even see most of the slush pile, I just format and upload the content and wrestle Wordpress into submission.)

I’ve recently given English-language genre fiction a try, I wrote a few stories and submitted them to  online venues just as an experiment… I had much more success than expected, so I’ll keep on doing this IY”H. I’ve also written a rant about publishing, ethnic themes, how unpaid markets are pure evil, etc. that will probably be up here fairly soon (I just need to tone down the ranty elements  ).

So here is Experimental Archaeology, a story set in the Eren universe (my fictional universe), published in Labyrinth Inhabitant Magazine. It’s a small online mag, but it has a great theme going on, so if you like labyrinths, it’s probably worth checking out.

It’s not connected to the Emerald Spires main storyline (gawrsh, I should post about that too) and if you read it, you’ll probably understand why… it would not be physically feasible. But at least it’s set in the same universe and offers you something to read until the game comes out! Unfortunately coding and writing both take up my free time and I don’t have much of that right now… if you cheer me on, the game will be completed faster!

KTamas asked for a post on this, so here we go! Some of the stuff that follows was written a long time ago, some right now, etc. it’s a big mess, but maybe there are some interesting bits in there. Just don’t expect a coherent treatise on the subject.

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Have you ever been to a journal club where someone wanted to present an article, didn’t feel like making a a set of slides, but still had to show something (after all, someone had to lug the projector all the way…)?

If you are a grad student, you probably have Here is a very easy solution that beats putting your average pdf reader on screen and suffering around with the scrollbars! (Scrollbars on an unfamiliar laptop can annoy the heck out of even the most patient presenter. Trust me on that.)

I talked about making complicated zooming presentations with Impress!ve in the previous entry, but this versatile little piece of open-source software can be used for this purpose too, and you don’t need to do anything taxing.

Just install Impress!ve (it should run on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, but I only tried the first two) and run it on the article pdf! Absolutely no configuration necessary, though you might want to launch it with the -e parameter if zoomed-in pages are low resolution (depending on your video card and drivers).

That’s it! You immediately have the article on your screen and converted into a nice presentation. Useful commands:

* Left/right arrow to move forward/backward

* Tab to create an overview (choose between pages)

* Enter to create a spotlight (really spiffy! You don’t need that laser pointer)

* Z to zoom in on the page (it zooms where the cursor is placed)

Have fun!

I had to make a presentation and I wondered if I should try using a zooming presentation editor – I usually don’t use them because most of the time I don’t need flashy visuals, and they can be quite distracting if your content doesn’t lend itself to a spatial metaphor. But this time was different.

However, I was faced with an obstacle. None of the major zooming presentation editors like Prezi (no relation to me despite the name! Though I worked together with one of their founders on a research project, Hungary is a small place…) or Ahead offer easy printing. Maybe there’s one which does, but I was in a hurry and didn’t find anything. Also, my laptop only has Linux, so Windows and (especially) Mac solutions like Keynote were also out.

I came up with a solution that worked quite well for my purposes, though it probably wouldn’t work for you if you expect full Prezi-like functionality like the rotating virtual camera, etc., and it only offers three levels of zoom, so I don’t claim it’s perfect. But since several people have been asking about it, here is the howto beyond the cut! Note that it assumes that you can make a regular presentation, and you have some computer proficiency. (If you have specific questions, comment away and I’ll do my best to answer!) (more…)

Sorry for the lack of updates – I have been very ill the past few months and I simply haven’t felt up to posting… or just doing much, in general. *sigh* I’m much better now, so posting will resume IY”H!

At least I can put something into my “Writing” category – one of my stories will be published in the special anniversary volume (#200!) of GFK – Galaktika Fantastic Books. Be sure to pick it up! I’m really happy because I grew up on the KFK and GFK series, so this is like a childhood dream come true. Also, since I can’t bring myself to write an actual novel, I’d have to wait for the next anniversary volume for such an opportunity! (They usually don’t publish short story collections.)

I know, I know, I should also write stuff in English… hopefully now I’ll be able to get around to doing just that!

Something else – if you live in the area, I made a list of my books available for swapping. (Hungarian, English, German… also a few video games.) I’d use something like BookMooch, but all of the sites seem to be deserted when it comes to people in Austria or Hungary. Any ideas?

This was originally a series about the many faces of magic. Four images, and the more I think about it the more I realize that there are several equally valid orders. So, in no particular order…

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