Raygun Gothic

Gem Dev Story

‘Just a harmless bit of fanart here, as it took my fancy to customise my own Game Dev Story-style pixel avatar. She is, of course, a writer since the game considers designers to be artists.

Based on sprites originally drawn up by Kairosoft for Game Dev Story.’

Transit Map of Basingstoke

‘I don’t think I’ve worked on a map for longer than I have this one; it proved to be far more complex than I’d guessed at, and my spontaneous decisions to include new layers of information at each stage of development just compounded the thing. It’s also been great fun to make, though.

While I imagine this is in need of some proof-checking, I’m fairly confident that it is complete. I’m just not sure I can justify adding bus stops to the main map, as while they’re a useful feature on most city maps, Basingstoke’s bus stops don’t follow a regular pattern. The Kings Furlong stretch of Winchester Road, for example, has four stops going into town, but only three coming out. I could attempt to show this information in a different map, but that would have to be much more abstract, more in line with Harry Beck’s Tube map than a more geographically-accurate layout like this.

For those who didn’t see my work in progress posts (here and here), some context:

I’ve never been especially happy with Stagecoach’s map of bus services in Basingstoke, as while any map would strain under its rather cramped town centre (through which all routes pass), it’s very hard to work out where some of the more unfamiliar routes actually go.

On a few occasions, I have taken buses further than I would usually go, or tried to reach somewhere I’d never been before, and spent the entire journey panicking about missing my stop. My goal with this map was to add a few more landmarks to help alleviate that worry, but more importantly, to address some of the loops which go unlabelled.

To fellow Basingstoke residents, I hope it proves useful or interesting; to fellow cartophiles, I hope it doesn’t just make your eyes bleed. Fun as it was to make, though, corrections and helpful critique of this map are definitely encouraged!’

Transit Map of Basingstoke [work in progress #2]

‘Continuing from the progress of two nights ago, on a line-only drawing of Basingstoke and its bus routes, here’s one which has some labels on it. The landmarks are all filled in and traffic loops are marked, though I’m not yet sure how I shall label the roads and bus route numbers. It is likely that I’ll leave this project until after the weekend, and see what comes to me then.’

(Source: raygun-gothic.net)

Transit Map of Basingstoke [work in progress]

‘This is a fairly meaningless doodle which turned into something I may actually use as a personal reference. I’ve never been especially happy with Stagecoach’s map of bus services in Basingstoke, as while any map would strain under its rather cramped town centre (through which all routes pass), it’s very hard to work out where some of the more unfamiliar routes actually go.

On a few occasions, I have taken buses further than I would usually go, or tried to reach somewhere I’d never been before, and spent the entire journey panicking about missing my stop. My goal with this map is to add a few more landmarks to help alleviate that worry, but more importantly, to address some of the loops which go unlabelled.

For reasons which baffle me, the Jazz 1, 3, and 6 services have arrows which mark the direction of travel, as does the Popley end of the Jazz 5 route - but not its Oakley end. I also cannot make sense of where the number 10 goes after it arrives in Basingstoke. I assume it heads straight for the bus station, and so does a loop around Black Dam on its way out to Hook and Odiham, but the map doesn’t make this clear.

Anyway, the base is not complete and I think I changed some of the colours for visibility reasons, but the map is coming along. I’ve gone from a version which used broad strokes, missing some details of the roads out, to adopting something more geographically accurate. Given that Basingstoke - like many British towns - does not have the benefit of a grid layout, this seems to suit best. I’m not best pleased with how the Winklebury loop turned out, at the top left of the map, mind…’

‘Et voila, my business cards in corporeal form. The photograph seems to have brought out more dust than is actually visible on the cards, and the colours appear dull here; in truth they’re suitably vibrant, and I’m pleased that my dark purples haven’t come out of Vistaprint’s machines looking wan.

I went with Vistaprint because the prices were reasonable and they could actually deliver within my 10-day deadline. I’ve actually gotten them a few days early on a priority print run, which is nice. It’s a good, glossy finish and like I said, the colours look fine. The only criticism I could make is that about half a dozen cards have been cut with white lines left at the bottom - presumably an accepted casualty in any die-cut(?) print run.

I expect that 50-odd cards will be more than adequate for my needs. As I’ve mentioned, I shall be attending the Women in Games Jobs meetup this Wednesday, so in the unlikely event that anyone reading this is going as well.. see you there!’

Business Card

Today I set out to finally order a run of business cards. It’s been a long while since I went out networking - though not from lack of want - and I’d missed my chance the last time I attended a conference (that was GLS 5.0, in 2009). It’s unlikely I’ll actually need them, but as I’ll be attending Women in Games Jobs’ first meetup in London, it does me good to be prepared.

The design is nothing special - just a reshuffle of the basic elements from my website, as I felt things should be. It is, after all, my personal branding. I ordered a small run of 50, with a glossy finish; I look forward to seeing how they look!

‘It was at this point in my recent reunions with the Grid that I realised my work in Extropia - designing its layout, many key buildings and the pathfinding tools to help people around - might have gotten a little out of date. Visitors and residents may have been left wondering what on Earth this all alluded to!

Some things don’t change at all though, and Extropia is still carrying on much as it used to. Although I usually just push my own work through this blog, I actually wanted to tip my metaphorical hat to Deebrane String and Galatea Gynoid, whose work keeps this cherished Second Life venue afloat.’

Lamia

‘It’s been many a year since I let my infatuations manifest in some artistic way, but so powerful was my reaction to the lamia - who I first learned of in Laurell K. Hamilton’s Circus of the Damned - that I thought I’d give photomanipulation a try. This is the result - two nights of dabbling with liquify filters, blending and lighting. It’s based entirely upon stock gleaned from DeviantART, with credits as follows:’

• Human: Art Nudes A7 by Marcus J. Ranum
• Snake: free use
• Background: Old Dark Room by Anne Willems