Design

Hey everyone! Looks like I’ve been neglecting this place a bit. Well that’s not entirely true, as you can see. There’s a new theme! I did a bit of hunting a while back for a new theme since the old one was starting to get a little stale looking (to me, that is…I doubt anyone else truly cares). I found a few candidates but I finally settled on this one. I had to make a few alterations but I’m more or less happy with it. Except for the logo placement at the top…I wanted it to be centered but I wasn’t able to figure out how to do that in the stylesheet. But it’s fine for now :P. Oh and some older posts with large images might be broken because the width on this theme is narrower, but it’s really no big deal.

So let’s see, there’s the new theme. WordPress has been updated a few times and Mekworx is now running version 3.1.2. Lots of content on the Design page has been updated. I still need to update the Info and Resources pages at some point, but those aren’t really a priority.

Hey, what about some project news? About a month ago I finished up MAP01 of Vela Pax and released a public test candidate! Since then I’ve received a ton of great feedback and bug reports. The general reception has been very positive, although many people are finding it really hard to digest and navigate such gigantic maps (especially without saving). I knew that might be the case given the goals I had for the maps; it’s just the nature of the beast. But all of that aside, people seem to have genuinely enjoyed my work so far. And that really makes me happy

In case you missed the test release, you can grab it below. There are also two time-lapse Doom Builder recordings of me working on MAP01 available for download:

Vela Pax Beta 1 [18 MB]
Time Lapse Doom Builder video #1
Time Lapse Doom Builder video #2

If you have any feedback or bug reports or anything, please don’t hesitate to send them to me!

Continuing on with the project escapades, I’m currently working full-time on my other Doom project, Supplice. I decided to take a break from Vela Pax and mapping after that test release to then focus my efforts on Supplice. It has been over a year since the project was officially started and things have been going relatively slow. Since starting my break I have been working on making textures…lots and lots of textures. So far it’s been quite the learning process, but I have made a nice chunk of textures that I’m happy with. The challenge thus far is trying to make details. I am able to put together base textures and then some really minor details like bricks or bars. When it comes to adding details like fancy indents/extrusions, tech bits, computer panels…all stuff similar to that, I fall flat on my face. But I’m still trying and I’ve also scoped out some possible help too. We’re also looking for a dedicated sprite artist to help finish and polish off some of the work Jimmy and I have started. So far that hunt has been really difficult…but we’re still looking to get someone interested on board. If you are interested, please contact me

Well that’s all I got for now! I’ll be sure to post some more about Supplice as I continue working. Perhaps sometime soon we’ll have something worth showing off