Raygun Gothic

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- designing its layout, many key buildings and the pathfinding tools to help people around - might have gotten a little out of date.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.’

In’shari Venture Yacht “Bellen”

‘There we are - my completed ship plans. In summary of the “work in progress” posts which preceded this, I’ve submitted the map for a contest at The Cartographers’ Guild. It’s my first time drawing a complete map of a ship, though I’ve drawn a few conceptual outlines as part of my work on DarkConduit.

These plans are intentionally drawn in the raypunk style, mirroring the game project upon which this is based. I’ve also opted to write a novel set in this game world for National Novel-Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), entitled Median: Frontier. Its protagonist is a Tellerian explorer, and this is her vessel: a trimaran venture yacht which isn’t actually named until the end of the book.

The plans were drawn in Adobe Illustrator and edited for presentation in Photoshop.’

“Jo’feen’s Ship” [work in progress #3]

‘Yep, another update.. and a name this time! It’s a bit of a spoiler, which is strange given that I haven’t even written the bit of the novel where this spoiler is revealed…

I’ve tweaked a few colours, added some texture and some raypunk labelling which I hope puts the work into a much clearer context. Barring any further tweaks to the ship’s design or epiphanies on the colour scheme, I think all I have left to do is map the Bellen in profile, and come up with some sort of Ynsharr Industries emblem.’

“Jo’feen’s Ship” [work in progress #2]

‘This is the second update from a piece of work I explained in greater detail right here.

I’ve now added a colour scheme, much more in the way of furnishings, and some patterns. The scheme may appear a tad bold: this is part of the raypunk aesthetic I have in mind for the Median project. These colours are actually based on a pulp magazine cover, which I leaned on mostly because I’ve never actually used such a bold scheme before. As ever with this NaNoWriMo project, I’m learning at some pace!’

“Jo’feen’s Ship” [work in progress]

‘Further to my #NaNoWriMo project based on Median, here’s a map I hope to enter into the November challenge at the Cartographers’ Guild! Goodness, that’s a lot of layered projects and contests… To explain:

• Median is my raypunk-themed, pet MMO project. I write it not so much as a candidate for development, but for the practice and to help express some ideas for a game I feel I’d like to play.
• I decided to write a novel based on this world, entitled Median: Frontier, for my first attempt at National Novel Writing Month. It’s coming along nicely - 16000 words at this time - and has gotten me thinking afresh about this world I’ve created. Writing this has also gotten me drawing again, though I tackle this in a much more relaxed manner.
• I knew I would probably benefit from designing the interior of the lead character’s ship anyway, just to help ‘place’ a number of early scenes. This has turned out to be essential. There are all sorts of vivid imaginings spawning from my work on this book, but I lack the discipline to draw most of these. I can draw maps quite comfortably, though. So, seeing as how the Cartographers’ Guild is running a contest to map vehicles this month, I thought I’d try killing two birds with one stone.

.. and that’s the story of this image.’ :P

Jo’feen[Work in Progress]

‘I’m quite pleased with how character sketching has gone so far - though I can lay no claim to a sound anatomical knowledge, having somewhat lifted the upper body torso from reference. Still, the objective is not to practice anatomy or produce a truly original artwork, but merely to draw.

I’m deeply absorbed in my NaNoWriMo project at the moment, which is set in the world of Median, which I devised a couple of years ago. Jo’feen is the protagonist of a story I’m writing in this space, entitled Frontier. In the context of the game, she is a Tellerian explorer: human-basic, but clearly too human in this piece. I intend to bulk this up now with more alien nuances, and much more of a raypunk vibe, too.’

Curriculum Vitae

‘I’ve been revamping my CV for the past few days, giving it a nudge from being a plain old OpenOffice Write document. Naturally, I opted for a raypunk theme to match my website.

It’s been a fun project, not least because it gave me more chances to experiment with Adobe InDesign; it’s also allowed me to think carefully about the design of a single document, rather than focusing on quite generic templates which might suit a design document.

The CV is available in PDF format at my website.’

Aetheric Ludometer logo:

This newest venture of mine has been live for a little while, but now it has a raypunk-themed logo! There was nothing of great challenge here, but I did enjoy working with an unusual colour scheme. I’ve been stuck in blacks, purples and neon blues for far too long.

You can check in with the Aetheric Ludometer over here, for all your cartographic and game design designing needs!