Past and Present Projects
My whole life I've been obsessed with projects. Almost anything that I can work on, plan, and look forward to adds a purpose to my life that gives excitement and anticipation to every moment---WarCraft III Maps, stories, comic books... I can't wait to see what else appears in my futuristic list of projects yet to come.
Below are all the projects, in ascending chronological order, I've worked on that I can think of. There are of course many "mini-projects" that aren't listed, but they do fall under at least one of the categories. This list will update depending on my motivation to work on older projects and progress.
Scuttle
Started: March 2023
Progress: 100%!
Motivation to do similar projects: Sure!
I learned about the game "Cuttle" a couple of years ago seeking more strategic games you can play with a deck of standard cards. After trying it out with my brother, I really enjoyed Cuttle, but found it burdensome to have to check a cheat sheet constantly while playing with the cards. I made this version of the game, Scuttle, with cards that keep the same style as standard cards but also have the names of each of the card's one-off effects ("spells") and permanent abilities. You can purchase a copy of my version of Scuttle here! See this article for a more thorough look at the project.
Reliquary
Type: Text-based C# game
Started: June 2020
Progress: 40%
Motivation: Waning
I found myself one month at work with little assigned work to do, and as one of my professional goals was to learn the programming language C#, I decided to make a game. The game is heavily based on the online game Dragon Court, which no longer exists. Reliquary is based on the idea of playing in a fantasy RPG world while having a daily allotment of "ventures," which represents your hero's energy and stamina for the day. Each day, you spend your ventures to fight monsters and explore, and as you level up, you gain the strength and abilities to venture out into more dangerous areas that have more valuable loot and more powerful monsters. My aim for the game was simplicity and stretching myself learning C#, so it's been a lot of fun to learn how to do things I've always taken for granted in video games, like make save game files, compile stats for use in combat, and the like. I've gotten into a rut lately, but once I get past it, I'm sure I'll be able to make a stable framework for Reliquary and be able to churn out a bunch of areas and content for it.
Hearth
Type: D&D World setting
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| A hex map of the world of Hearth, showing three of its five continents |
Started: April 2018
Progress: Ongoing
Motivation: Great
I was first drawn to D&D through the Warcraft Roleplaying Game books, and really wanted to play a campaign with my friends in the actual world of Azeroth. But after reading through books like Manual of the Planes and Volo's Guide to Monsters and seeing how Critical Role adapted D&D's signature beasts like beholders and mind flayers into a custom world, I gained a respect for these elements and decided to adapt them to a brand new setting. Unlike Argaenothruzil, I was going to do actual research to make my world more believable—political struggles, realistically laid-out cities, and ongoing conflicts. However, another one of my goals now that I had a chance to start from scratch was to simplify my world. I didn't want my players struggling to remember names like Ae'brinthil and Orovion, so I purposely made the world more memorable and simplistic, while still leaving it open for much worldbuilding. A detailed description of my progress on the world's creation can be read here:
D&D 5e Tables
Type: Google Sheet
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| A screenshot of some Warcraft-adapted magic items |
Started: August 2017
Progress: Ongoing
Motivation: Pretty good
When I got into Dungeons & Dragons during the year 2017, I started this project as a way to keep track of and sort all the magic items in the game. Once I was finished with that, I used other tabs in the project to make lists of adapted magic items for other games and media. I began with Warcraft and soon went on to more obscure franchises like Lords of Magic, Zelda, Elder Scrolls, and even Harry Potter and Disney. Now it's a full-blown resource for my D&D experience, and I love going to it when I get a chance and adapting D&D 5e's rules for magic items, classes, and races. I'm even using it now as a way to organize monster stats. I think my favorite addition is the tab called Technological Devices, which is an adaptation of The Warcraft RPG: Magic & Mayhem. If you're into D&D, I think you'll really enjoy this as a resource or as a source of inspiration for your own games. Check it out!
Warcraft Resources for D&D 5e
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| A spread of some racial abilities for the Warcraft races |
Type: D&D resource
Started: April 2017
Progress: 99%
Motivation: Satisfied
In 2017, I gained an extreme interest in Dungeons & Dragons, thanks entirely to Critical Role. I started a game group at my work to play during lunch, and since I was more familiar with Warcraft than the Forgotten Realms mythos, I decided to immediately start adapting my old 3.5 edition Warcraft RPG to 5th edition for my group. This PDF was the result of my labors, and though I thought it was good at first (and it probably would be pretty balanced), over time I found it somewhat unnecessary as I accustomed to D&D's franchise and the aspects of it I found interesting like the Feywild, the differences between demons and devils, and especially the presence of religion, all which Warcraft lacked. My group also was not familiar with Warcraft, so we eventually just reverted our characters back to their 5e vanilla equivalents. Still, I'd like to run a Warcraft campaign someday, and I think these classes work pretty well overall. In the end, I'm mostly just surprised that 5e adapted itself so well to Warcraft already. Pretty much all the classes had their place, and it would be extremely easy to play a Warcraft setting just by changing a couple of things.
Warcraft III Easter Eggs
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| The thumbnail for the first video in the series, The Scourge of Lordaeron |
Type: YouTube video series
Started: April 2016
Progress: 110%
Motivation: Exhausted
I extracted the MPQ of WarCraft III sometime in March of 2016, hoping to find some icons in the loading screen maps that I could use for a rendition of the Hard Lands; however, I soon forgot all about that project as I realized that I could extract the actual campaign maps of WarCraft III! Upon looking at them, I realized there was a wealth of Easter eggs and secrets that no one had written about before online. I was also personally excited to learn from Blizzard's triggers for my own mapmaking purposes. I decided to make a series of videos dedicated to not only finding out all of the Easter eggs in each map, but to also dig into the maps' files and look at behind-the-scenes changes, deleted scenes, story changes, and unused triggers. I shared my work on the Hive Workshop and was amazed at the overwhelmingly positive response. My videos have quickly grown in popularity, and have even gotten a WarCraft 3 developer to contact me. With how many hundreds of hours of fun WarCraft 3 has given me, I feel almost as if showcasing Blizzard's hard work to the WarCraft 3 community is my way of "giving back" to Blizzard for the awesome game they made.
Watch the series here!
Tristan's Diary
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| The titular character himself |
Type: Book
Started: October 2014
Progress: Canceled
When my wife was pregnant with our first child, I was thinking about when I had first started writing in my journal, and I wondered what it would be like if I had started writing in my journal from the moment I began my existence on earth. I resolved to write a fictional journal of my daughter's life through observation and research on infant psychology. I looked forward to writing about the strange beings kids observed us as, our communication through vocal sounds, and the curious conclusions of kid logic. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to even start until my daughter was like eight months old.
I resolved to start again with our next child, but quickly dismissed the idea when my son Carver was diagnosed with a deadly birth defect that ended up taking his life. With our third child, Tristan, I resumed the project, this time beginning while he was still in utero. I wrote several interesting entries, trying my best to look at the tiny world in the womb through a fetus's eyes, but when Tristan was born, it was clear that the project was insurmountable. Concepts like light, sound, and gravity were too hard to describe from an outsider's eyes, and besides that, Tristan was born with a birth defect himself (an imperforate anus), which would have complicated things further and made his story not applicable to the majority of infants entering the world. I soon canceled the project.
The entries I finished are found in their entirety in this post.
I resolved to start again with our next child, but quickly dismissed the idea when my son Carver was diagnosed with a deadly birth defect that ended up taking his life. With our third child, Tristan, I resumed the project, this time beginning while he was still in utero. I wrote several interesting entries, trying my best to look at the tiny world in the womb through a fetus's eyes, but when Tristan was born, it was clear that the project was insurmountable. Concepts like light, sound, and gravity were too hard to describe from an outsider's eyes, and besides that, Tristan was born with a birth defect himself (an imperforate anus), which would have complicated things further and made his story not applicable to the majority of infants entering the world. I soon canceled the project.
The entries I finished are found in their entirety in this post.
Word Lore
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| The original logo before its revamp in September 2015 |
Type: Facebook page
Started: October 2014
Progress: Ongoing
Motivation: Low
I can't remember when my passion for etymology started, but it was kindled even more by my semesters of being a linguistics (and later, an English language) major in college. I learned incredible things about how language works and the way it used to work. Since January 2014, I wanted to share this love of etymology. I felt like it was something I could be an expert in. Though I began with the idea for a YouTube channel, I ultimately thought that a daily posting Facebook page would be more feasible for me. Now I post daily etymology ditties, mainly from my favorite website, Etymonline, choosing a new theme each month. It's something I can easily do each day, keep organized, and find lots of interested followers for!
Follow Word Lore today if you'd like to support me in this project!
Life of Aust
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| The first volume of the acclaimed personal history. |
Type: Personal History
Started: July 2014
Progress - Volume 1: Finished!
Progress - Volume 2: 60%
Motivation: So-so
Progress - Volume 1: Finished!
Progress - Volume 2: 60%
Motivation: So-so
I'm the most sentimental, nostalgic person I know. I love reminiscing and going through my old things. I'm really glad that I saved so many of my old tablets, files, and drawings from when I was a kid, because they're a lot of fun to look through. This autobiography is my attempt to feed my nostalgia by writing down everything I can remember about my life in all its stages. Originally, I was going to release it all as one giant book, but that soon proved to be impractical. Instead, I am releasing it in volumes: 1: Childhood, 2: Adolescence, 3: Adulthood (my mission and courtship with my wife), and 4: Fatherhood. I've used old family videos, journals, my parents and siblings, and other things as sources so that I can make it as extensive as possible. It's also been a fun chance to practice my print publishing skills I learned in college.
Such a project will be a great thing to pass on to my descendants so they can get to know me better. It'll also be fun for me to look back on just for fun. And heck, if I ever happen to have amnesia, what better way to get all my memories back?
Such a project will be a great thing to pass on to my descendants so they can get to know me better. It'll also be fun for me to look back on just for fun. And heck, if I ever happen to have amnesia, what better way to get all my memories back?
Knight Guy
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| A panel in the series pilot, where Corlis attempts to reactivate some sort of crystal power source. |
Type: Webcomic
Started: March 2014
Book 1 Progress: 25%
Motivation: No time
A webcomic has been so long in the making it makes me sick. I discovered webcomics like Awkward Zombie, Penny Arcade, Ctrl-Alt-Del, and VGCats during my senior year of high school and fell in love with them. I thought it was so cool to digitally make comics with programs like Photoshop, so that certain effects impossible on paper could be utilized. I made several goals to make webcomics, including a Zelda: Wind Waker joke webcomic. I even looked at different tutorials online made by the great comic artists themselves. But when time for my crusade came, I still hadn't made anything, and two years in Brazil erased all my ideas. I've always loved to draw comics, though, and eventually it was time to try again. I got inspiration from several graphic novels I read, like Bone, Scott Pilgrim v. The World, ElfQuest, some World of WarCraft comics, the syndicated comic Calvin & Hobbes, and ideas for a story from dreams I've had, all based on my old Knight Guy comics in high school. This is the biggest project I've ever worked on, and I wish I had time to update at least once a week. I can't believe how much I've learned in the process, and I hope to one day finish all three books I have planned.
Check out Knight Guy at http://knightguy.the-comic.org.
Shaarzahn
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| A map of the continent of Shaarzahn, written in Karquam. |
Type: Forum RPG
Started: February 2014
Progress: 40%
Motivation: Low
The origins of this spiritual successor to Argaenothruzil (see below) are quite funny. One day in the middle of a storyline my cousin Robert and I were writing, we realized we couldn't access the Argaenothruzil forum anymore. I was horrified, thinking that all those years of writing stories had been wasted. I cursed myself for not copying them into external files. Losing the forum, however, gave us the desire to start over with a less-clichéd world, without elves or dwarves, focusing more on completely unique races and magic systems. We created Shaarzahn, a fantasy world in a Bronze Age setting. Fortunately, Argaenothruzil came back online so we could salvage our stories, but the excitement of entering a new world erased our desire to finish what we started there. Other projects and Robert's busyness have put this project on the backburner, but it may be finished someday.
If you want to check it out now, feel free! Go here.
Corridor 2.0
Type: Board Game
Started: August 2013
Progress: 55% (probably retired)
Motivation: None (See "Corridor" below)
Corridor: The Role-playing Game
Type: Pen-and-paper roleplaying game
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| A sample of the different types of cards, Monster, Artifact, Item, and Skill. |
Started: August 2013
Progress: 55% (probably retired)
Motivation: None (See "Corridor" below)
I thought it would be a fun gift for my family to make a custom deck of cards containing our faces on them. When I realized how easy it was to find a site online that would print custom cards, I realized I could make my board game Corridor have much better graphics at not too bad of a price! Obviously, the cost is much higher in time, but it's been a lot of fun for me to think about aspects of the game such as design and layout, which didn't require much for the original colored pencil- and crayon-drawn cards. The hardest thing about this revamp in card graphics by far is the card art itself. I will need to figure out how to make decent card art after I get the card layouts done.
At any rate, this will also help to make Corridor more marketable. Who knows, maybe it'll be available to purchase from me someday!
Corridor: The Role-playing Game
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| The main component of the playing board, the interface of a Corridor map. |
Started: July 2013
Progress: 80% (probably retired)
Motivation: None
I downloaded a "primer" of a pen-and-paper role-playing game off the internet, and it inspired me to make a version of my own for the RPG my brother and friends played as teenagers, Corridor (earlier called "The Hero" and "Dungeons of Doom"). I started writing this RPG before actually ever playing a tabletop roleplaying game, but I used the format of the primer I found to resurrect the rules of gameplay for future generations. I intended to include all the original enemies, items, and systems of play, in addition to a new die-rolling system (based on the Dying Earth) to add some unpredictability. Unfortunately, since D&D 5e is so much more rounded out to the point where I may as well just make homebrew content with those rules, this will probably never get finished.
Writing Center Infomercial
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| The final screen of the infomercial, with cheesy contact information. |
Type: Commercial/Short film
Started: May 2013
Progress: Finished!
Motivation to do similar projects: Okay
The Writing Center I work at used to have a really cheesy (and long... like six-minute) promotional video. This spring semester, when there isn't a lot of business, we decided to revamp and streamline a bunch of things at the center, and I chose to completely redo the video. I came up with a script for an infomercial, and with input from the Writing Center staff, we began shooting footage. We elected a narrator voice, and went to the campus recording studio to record our voices for that. After all the footage was done (after a somewhat unsuccessful outreach program to find actors), I edited the footage into the video you can see by clicking the picture above. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. I got most of the inspiration for the video from an infomercial that convinced me to buy their product about a year ago. If you want to see it, click here. I hope this video will last a long time. I tried to keep the aspects of it classic.
It's a Wonderful Loaf
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| The opening screen of It's a Wonderful Loaf |
Type: Youtube Poop
Started: May 2013
Progress: Part 1 - 100%, Part 2 - 0%
Motivation: No time
A couple of years ago I found out what a YouTube Poop is (For those unaware, it's basically a video mashup with comedic twists), and I immediately wanted to make one. It's fun already to make fun of movies with my friends. Unfortunately, I didn't have the tools available to even start making a poop of my own. Fortunately, in April 2013, my parents gave me Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, and with the program Handbrake I can rip movies off of DVDs to make mashups of them! This project, It's a Wonderful Loaf, is my first attempt at a youtube poop using, obviously, It's a Wonderful Life. I'm not sure when it'll be finished, but I'll definitely release it around the holiday season. Most likely in two or three ten-minute segments. What I can tell you right now is... it's going to give you more than a few laughs!
For some hilarious Youtube poopers that I draw my inspiration from, and which are (most of the time) clean, I highly recommend Waxination (Waxinator), DaThings1, and Hoffy1138.
Alfred Shortstaff and the Cavern of Time
Data Month
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| The cover of the novel, depicting Alfred in the Way of Yormoth |
Type: Novel
Started: Mid 2006/February 2013
Progress: Done!
Motivation to do similar projects: Decent
I started Argaenothruzil (see below) in February 2006. It was a fun little pastime for my friends and me, but the only story that was completely finished was one my cousin Robert (see his blog here) and I wrote called Alfred's Story or Alfred and the Cavern of Time. After nine years of on-and-off editing for plot holes, inconsistencies, and stylistic issues, we finally were able to finish the book and self-publish it on Amazon, which was a great accomplishment. You can buy a copy here, or, since you're awesome enough to be reading my blog right now, you can download the PDF on the house if you want.
I'm considering one day performing the book as an audiobook, complete with dividing music composed by Robert. I created a sample of how it's going to be here: that is, modifying the audio to fit with the separate voices and making background sound effects that will add to the feel of the book. I've wanted to do one for quite a while now, and this project should be a lot of fun and give me a lot of experience in editing and voice acting, if I ever find the time to do it.
Data Month
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| The Excel sheet I filled in religiously for a month |
Type: Month-long project
Started: February 2013
Progress: Finished!
Motivation to do similar projects: Zero
I listened to a podcast in the summer of '12 about a guy named Nicholas Feltron who took statistics of his life for years at a time. I was fascinated that he would work that hard to preserve how many times he had eaten ice cream, and which flavor he had eaten the most. I remember the lawn I was mowing in St. Anthony, Idaho, when I heard that podcast, and knew that someday I would try to do something similar. In February the next year, I did! I jotted down a bunch of stats I wanted to keep and kept a notebook on my person at all times to keep the numbers. I also kept a strict record of exactly what I ate every day in February. I posted the results on this post if you'd like to see them. This was a fun project, though laborious, and I learned quite a bit about myself in the process. I like to think in the afterlife we'll be able to look up any statistic about our life we want, and the angels will just pull it up for us to check it out.
AustinCraft
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| The pack icon as seen in Minecraft. |
Type: Minecraft Texture Pack
Started: November 2012
Progress: Ongoing (whenever there's an update)
Minecraft was one of my favorite games for quite a while after it came out. I loved the endless possibilities of the game and its replay value. During Thanksgiving Break in 2012, my brother Redge and I found out that it was easier than we thought to make our own texture pack from the game, and decided to give it a whirl. I personally prefer the default look of Minecraft, but there are some things about it that bug me. For example, the brightly colored clothes of the zombies, the odd-looking armor, the dim palette of the lamps, and the gray clay. I fixed all of these bothersome things in AustinCraft, as well as add a few things just for the heck of it, such as custom paintings. This was an ongoing project, but now that Minecraft is largely a kid's game I don't think I'll make too many additional updates. Luckily, it is optimized for the current packaging system. The latest version can be downloaded here. Consult the AustinCraft page for details on changes.
Wormie Intro
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| The mysterious blight infects a prisoner on the island of Meh. |
Started: October 2012
Progress: Finished!
Motivation to make similar projects: Low
Ever since I read Jeff Smith's Bone graphic novel, I've harbored a strong desire to make my own graphic novel. When I got ahold of the most recent (still unfinished) version of my friend Jason's and my RPG Wormie (see below), I decided that the introduction to the game was an interesting story and would be a fun way to practice the sketching, inking, coloring and lettering a true graphic novel would take. This was good practice for Knight Guy, but the coloring and shading in it won't be as detailed as it is in this Wormie graphic novel. At any rate, this was a super fun project to make, and it is unfortunately only a single 4 page long issue.
If you want to read this project in its entirety, go here!
If you want to read this project in its entirety, go here!
I Nephi
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| The first dialog of scene i in I, Nephi |
Type: Screenplay
Started: February 2012
Progress: ~33%
Motivation: Low
As I assume many Christians do, I sometimes have difficulties making good habits of reading the scriptures. In February 2012 I came up with the idea to write a screenplay of the events of the Book of Mormon's first book, the First Book of Nephi, in order to be able to focus better in studying it. The first scene of this screenplay was thought up and sketched in Brazil, and I have since expanded to five acts. As I've written this screenplay, I've tried to look at the book of Nephi through modern eyes, in a similar style to the musical Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. The characters dress in modern clothes, speak modern English, and use certain modern technologies, but the overall story is the same. I have also taken certain chronological liberties, such as adding into the story the Biblical prophets Jeremiah and Daniel as characters. Overall, my objective has been to capture, in our language, the gyst of the real dialog spoken by the ancient prophets in their time.
For the current, unfinished version (ignore the notes and marks), click here!
Epic Chess
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| Eight of the seventeen Epic Chess cards |
Type: Board Game variant
Started: December 2011
Started: December 2011
Progress: Beta testing now!
Motivation: Low again
When I was in Brazil, I religiously used a daily planner nearly every single day I was there. There was a section labeled "Notes" on each schedule entry which I often used for doodles. I kept all of my daily planners, and a year or so after I got back looked through them reminiscing. One of the doodles was plans for "Epic Chess," a variant of chess that involved using cards to add RPG elements and an entire new dimension of strategy to the age-old board game. It wasn't until December 2011, however, when I played chess at a college intramural competition that my idea began to show some promise. I thought of ideas with my friend Dustin and narrowed the cards down to 12 general cards and 5 piece-specific cards. It's been on and off for me with this game, but I'm mostly just stuck because I need people to playtest it with me. What's that? You're interested and want to play and help me playtest it? Well, click here then, and download the beta version to test!
If I can get this game balanced in a timely manner, I'll Photoshop the cards myself and maybe even start a Kickstarter campaign to get the game funded. Unfortunately, I may have to change the name "Epic Chess," since it has already been taken.
If I can get this game balanced in a timely manner, I'll Photoshop the cards myself and maybe even start a Kickstarter campaign to get the game funded. Unfortunately, I may have to change the name "Epic Chess," since it has already been taken.
The Search for the End
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| Abelhawk's portal, as seen in the story near his house. |
Type: Minecraft Story/Diary
Started: November 201
Progress: Finished!
Motivation to make similar projects: Not high
I fell in love with Minecraft the day I found out it existed, and I enjoyed playing it for quite a while afterward, until it became largely a kid's game. After owning it for a year, and after many new features including an End boss were added to the game, I challenged my friend Jon to a race to see who could play a whole game from beginning to End first. As we played, we documented our adventures in a narrated screenshot form, beginning with the Minecraft character's mysterious arrival on an island searching for "The End." I enjoyed adding story twists to Minecraft's vague storyline, such as explaining the End Realm and its negative effect on the world, as well as exploring a made-up "history" of Minecraft's ancient lore. The result was a very interesting story with rising conflict and foreshadowing. I enjoyed the protagonist Abelhawk's Minecraft world quite a bit, and I kept it still in my world list on the game. I debated on making a sequel called "Advent of the Wither," but I'm not sure if it'll happen..
To read The Search for the End now, click here!
Heroes of Azeroth: Warlock
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| The titular Warlock hero arrives in Gol'grak for his training |
Type: WarCraft III scenario
Started: July 2011
Progress: 87%
Started: July 2011
Progress: 87%
Motivation: Decent
I've always loved the PC game WarCraft III. The World Editor has, in my opinion, the best "Easy-to-use" to "Powerful" ratio that I have ever found. This particular map is loosely based on WarCraft III's sequel, World of WarCraft, in that it uses several RPG elements unknown, but not unprogrammable, to WarCraft III. These includes mounts, higher leveling, crafting, spawning mobs, and a death system. The universe of the game is a spinoff of the game's universe of Azeroth. In the game, you play as a Warlock, using basic chaos spells, and later learning to summon demons to help you out. My goal with this project was to make a fun RPG with lots of quests and replay value. I even planned to add a reputation system or something similar. I considered future similar projects with other heroes, for example "Heroes of Azeroth: Hunter" "Mage" and/or "Warrior"; after starting this in 2011 I took a hiatus for some time, but then made major progress on it nine months later. The map is almost complete; I need only implement the quests (and the mobs associated with them), a few more mechanics, do bug fixes and some playtesting. I am proud to claim this as perhaps the only WarCraft III map I'll ever finish.
Corridor
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| An example of one of the many ways Dungeon Tiles can fit together. |
Type: Board Game
Started: May 2011
Progress: 90% (probably retired)
Motivation: None (see below)
Corridor is a board game based on an old pen-and-paper RPG my brother Redge and I would play called "Dungeons of Doom" (later "The Hero"). It combines elements of board games such as Dungeons & Dragons, Settlers of Catan, and HeroQuest, as well as video games like Rogue, WarCraft and Legend of Zelda. There is a die-based combat system, 21 skill cards, 12 enemy types, 16 classes, and a randomized 25-tile dungeon map. I tried to resurrect as much of the vague universe of the childhood version as I could recall, inventing several monsters to try and recapture the odd game culture. Ogres (formerly "Orcs"), Ghosts, the Stone Dragon Head and Xziron (originally "Firois") are original favorites. I got burned out working for this game for two reasons: first, the game was turning out to be a computer game in tangible form, which required too much dice-rolling and mental math just to play; and second, every time I playtest it with someone I always have to be the Architect and never get to actually play as a hero in the game, which is frustrating. I may not ever finish this game. I've realized it's not really a groundbreaking idea in the world of board games. Still, it's a lot of fun and I definitely treasured the time I put into it.
Ever since I discovered Dungeons & Dragons 5e, I realized I probably will never finish Corridor. D&D is so much more fun and flexible, and it takes as much time to play with more fun and less math. Who knows, though? Maybe I'll make some homebrew content for the creatures and bosses in the game someday.
Ever since I discovered Dungeons & Dragons 5e, I realized I probably will never finish Corridor. D&D is so much more fun and flexible, and it takes as much time to play with more fun and less math. Who knows, though? Maybe I'll make some homebrew content for the creatures and bosses in the game someday.
Raoul's Voyage
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| Despite his skills in Basic Navigation, Raoul finds himself shipwrecked in the Land of the Brown Isles |
Type: Heroes of Might and Magic III map
Started: March 2011
Progress: ~35%
Motivation: Low
A couple of years ago I got into a phase I hadn't been in for a long time: Making Heroes of Might and Magic III maps. I got the idea to make a campaign based in theory on the adventure game Kings Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow. The game had nothing to do with Kings Quest, but the maps and basic storyline were inspired by the islands on the game, namely the Isle of the Crown, the Isle of Wonder, and the Isle of the Sacred Mountain. I even named the area in the game the "Land of the Brown Isles" (changed from "Land of the Green Isles"). The storyline seemed good enough. I even finished the first scenario, complete with a unique boss battle and intriguing storyline, before losing interest on the rest of the campaign. In my process of sacking the project for an indeterminate amount of time, I have forgotten much of the storyline. I may be able to salvage most of it if I get an urge to continue in the future, but this was a time I need to learn from, remembering to preserve my ideas for future attempts. Have Heroes III Complete? Want to play the completed episode? Click here to download.
Austin and Redge: America's Mowing Crew
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| The title screen, as seen early in the short film |
Type: Short Film
Started: January 2011
Progress: Finished!
Motivation to make similar projects: Sort of low
When I first got Adobe Premiere Elements, I was excited to make movies like this one. I was lucky enough to have footage of my brother Redge and me before he left to Brazil for two years, enough to make this comical documentary of mowing tips. It goes through tips for efficiency in lawn care, inside jokes, MSL (Mower's Sign Language), and random silliness. I look forward with much anticipation to show this project to Redge himself, one of the two main stars.
In Austin and Redge: America's Mowing Crew, I am highly satisfied; I only have two minor regrets: I forgot to put in a clip of Redge ("I'm glad I'm not payin' for that!") and I couldn't get the ending "Dance Party" scene to splice seamlessly with the music ("Bulletproof" by La Roux). A huge regret for both myself and Redge is that we didn't film more material. All the footage shown on this video was filmed in a single day (the last day of work in 2010).
Amoledhese
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| The Amoledhese language cipher in its entirety |
Type: Language
Started: October 2010
Progress: More or less finished
Motivation to make similar projects: None
This was an unusual project, and one that took very little time. This is probably why it is at best mediocre, but nevertheless an inspirational precursor to possible future projects. Amoledhese is a language I created, inspired by my studies of phonemes in my Language 321 class in college. In learning IPA and other aspects of language, I was intrigued by how certain sounds fit together. I used basic substitution to make a series of rules for changing English words into Amoledhese. Since 'R' and 'L' are both approximants, for example, they could be easily switched for a satisfactory swap. The vowels in particular have an interesting twist, as shown in the picture; I (/i/) becomes E (/e/), which becomes O (/o/).
The word "Amoledhese" itself is a two-part word, the first, "amoledh" = "americ," and the second, "ese," used to make the word sound like the name of a language. If I had not simply added "ese" to the end, but literally translated the word "American" like I had originally planned, the name of the language would have been "Amoledhann."
The language is a bit sloppy and hard to speak, but spoken it sounds more or less Arabic or Hebrew as far as phonetics go. If you want to see a more in-depth guide, go here.
Pretzel Lectern
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| The original title screen before its revamp |
Type: Blog
Started: September 2010
Started: September 2010
Progress: Indefinite
Motivation: Great!
Pretzel Lectern was just an idea one day, a desire to be heard and to share my work. A blog was the easiest solution, and I was excited to have a blog of my own. I thought long and hard for a name for the blog; Something that would define my personality. The result was "Pretzel Lectern." I love pretzels, and they are my favorite snack of all time (I can eat pretzels and water for hours); and I chose the word "Lectern" because besides adding a nice ring of a name to the blog, I love to write and draw, and lecterns contain quills and ink for doing just that. My blog is a fun place on the web to retreat and publish my work, even though a lot of it is just vomiting my raw thoughts into digital type and putting it on the web.
Final Quest
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| Victus the paladin is tried for his murder of the king's brother on a mission. |
Type: RPG
Started: Summer 2010
Progress: ~15%
Motivation: Medium
I have high hopes for this project. This is one of the two RPGs I was so excited to make. Made with my favorite RPG engine, the OHRRPGCE, Final Quest was in part named because it was more or less my "final attempt" to make a decent, full-length RPG amidst so many unfinished, lame stumps of RPGs.
My motivation for this project was found in the fact that the RPG required little drawing (which saved lots of time), as I hoped to compensate for the lower quality graphics by doing a graphic overhaul when the game was finished. I intended to completely focus on character development and unique attack systems, and especially the plot.
Much of the mechanics of the game were thought up while I was in Brazil, written down as notes and kept. A great deal of them are complete and ready to be incorporated. It is notable that Final Quest is also easy to program, as the game combines both serious and comical references ("VICTUS: Alright, kid, listen up... We ain't got time for no storyline or nothin'. We just gotta run in there, capture Duke, and get outta here, see?")
After a long hiatus of being stuck on the vague plot, a bunch of solid, promising ideas came to me and my enthusiasm rekindled. On and off, I work on aspects of the game, especially when the game engine is updated, so I' hope it will eventually be finished.
If you'd like to playtest the latest saved version, you can download it here.
Brazil Journals
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| All three Brazil journals, identified by the Brazilian flag stickers on the spines. |
Type: Writing Project
Started: May 2008
Progress: Finished May 2010
Motivation to make similar projects: Ongoing
I have been writing consistently in a journal since February 2003, and hence have on record my embarassing and hormonal teenage years up to the present. My Brazil Journals were unique, however, in that I wrote in them every single night. For those nights I was unable to write, I made sure to make up for it with a follow-up entry the following day. I have in them, beginning May 14, 2008 and ending May 6, 2010, my experience from start to finish as I traveled to Brazil, learned Portuguese, preached my religion to them, and had many spiritual, social and cultural experiences. Of the six journals I have (one being the one I'm writing in currently) these three are particularly precious to me because they record two full years of my life, day after day, and my feelings and impressions of each. It was a great achievement for me to stick to my consistent writing, so that I can look back and view my gradual personal, emotional and social transformation during two exciting years of my life. As a sub-project of my journals, I am currently transcribing them to another blog, though I update it very rarely. You can find it here.
Space
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| Two PN-4 pirate drones attack the A-8 Probe in outer space |
Type: RPG
Started: Early 2008
Progress: Less than 10%
Motivation: Stuck
Space, like Corridor, was an attempt to resurrect a childhood game into a playable modern game. Space had everything going for it—balanced weapon and enemy types, beautifully textured tilesets and backdrops, spectacular and fitting futuristic music, and best of all, sound effects from StarCraft! I was working on this project before I went on my two-year crusade to Brazil, so on my return it was hard to get it started up again. It was also the loss of the StarCraft sounds when I switched computers that contributed to my discouragement. However, I think the key purpose to this project's current halted state is the fact that this was my first ever attempt at a sci-fi genre story, and my already-limited plot creating capabilities were greatly challenged. I hope to some day continue this project, as it has a lot of potential.
Thebis
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| Thebis powers up a pyroblast in Zangarmarsh, c. level 65. |
Type: World of WarCraft character
Started: 2006
Progress: Retired (Level 67)
Motivation to do something similar: Awesome!
(Xilmara, level 36 human warlock)
I loved World of WarCraft as soon as I was introduced to it. I've been somewhat of a die-hard fan of all WarCraft games since I was in 3rd Grade. The story of WarCraft has developed during the course of my lifetime, and I was amazed and delighted to see connections from WoW to as early as WarCraft 1. My first character was named Abelhawk, a human rogue (prior to being a paladin) I made in 2005, but I had the most fun with a troll mage I made named Thebis. I loved the troll race for their tribal background, Jamaican accent, and Capoeira "/dance" emote. Thebis favored a Fire talent tree, had a pet snake and a turquoise raptor, and made it through the Burning Crusade expansion to level 67 before I stopped playing. By the time I came back from Brazil in 2010, WoW had come out with nearly two new expansions, and the mage class had been changed completely. I tried to work on Thebis some more, but there were too many changes and he was impossible to get used to again. I became very attached to Thebis not just because I was a geek who loves roleplaying games, but because I played with friends during Thebis' time whose company I no longer enjoy. I thought I could relive the fun of leveling him up in the vanilla game through Nostalrius, but Blizzard kaboshed it. Horrible decision, in my opinion.
Argaenothruzil
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| A simple map of Argaenothruzil. |
Type: Role-playing Forum
Started: February 2006
Progress: Lost/deleted
I remember looking at, very briefly, a Forum RPG called "Hyrulian War" when I was in Middle School, and it planted a seed of inspiration for me to start my own years later. My first idea, called "Nadrian Diplomacy," was crudely constructed in Junior High, and was never actually posted online. However, in High School I began a simple Bravenet Forum I called "Argaenothruzil." The title was the name of the main continent on which the game took place, and I immediately created specifications for my friends to play. My hope that the game would be well-received was based on my luck that all my closest friends enjoyed creative writing more or less as much as I did. The rules on the game were loose; Basically, players would choose a race, name, class, and alignment, and then embark into the world, writing their own story. I was to play the role of "Fate," or the odd-numbered posts in-between each player-controlled post. It began as more of a written form of playing Dungeons & Dragons, but over time it evolved into a more complex form of actual novel writing. The main motivation for the game was to write long and creative chapters; to do so would "please" Fate and give increased luck to the character. Short, choppy or uncreative "thinking" posts were penalized with terrible, sometimes fatal luck. The game ran for several years, and a few stories were finished.
I put a great deal of effort into crafting the world of Argaenothruzil, from the stories of its origins to its Gods and cities. Though cliché in many ways (dwarves, gnomes, magic, etc.), I hold Argaenothruzil in my heart as a very satisfying accomplishment.
Unfortunately, in 2014, the unprofessional platform site for Argaenothruzil, getphpbb, inexplicably disappeared, taking Argae along with it. I have a few of the best stories saved, but much of my work has been lost forever.
Wormie
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| Wormie seeks the aid of the pirates to travel the islands. Wormie is the light green slime. |
Type: RPG
Started: 2003
Progress: Unfinished since c. 2007
Motivation to do similar projects: See "Space" and "Final Quest"
Yet another RPG, and this project was perhaps the only one I ever worked on as a team with someone. When I was a young teen, my friend Jason and I discovered this game-making engine and wanted to make our own RPG. Responding to Jason's discouraged attempts to make decent graphics, I replied, "They don't have to be elaborate. Heck, you could make a game about slimes." I drew a blob on his computer, and this animation was never changed in the entire making of the game. The game was strongly based on the sample demo that came with the OHRRPGCE, "Wandering Hamster" and even used some of the same graphics and music in the early stages. Jason largely did the programming for the game, while my main job was to create the graphics for the game. Wormie's plot was cheesy and vague, but evolved over time to have at least an interesting backstory. Included in the game was an Arcade Casino, a series of holiday islands, a Human Island that housed computerized versions of Jason and me, and several bosses such as Red Fish and Farmboy Munns. Jason and I have since parted ways and focused on other things, and I assume Wormie will never be finished. Recently I got back into contact with Jason, and he gave me the better, more recent version of Wormie! You can play it here!
If you'd like to play the old version with an AWFUL storyline, click here.
Norse Runes
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| A hasty example of Norse runes in written form. |
Type: Alphabet study
Started: ~2003
Progress: Memorized!
Motivation to master: Some day
I discovered Norse Runes in a children's book called "Wizard Craft" that I got for Christmas or my birthday in my pre-teens. They immediately intrigued me, but it wasn't until Junior High School that I made an active effort to memorize them and learn about their ancient meanings. I thoroughly studied websites to come up with a constant for the alphabetical representation of the Viking runes of old, and the alphabet I have memorized to this day is a mixture of the Futhark and Dwarf Runes from J.R.R. Tolkien. I would write blatant secrets about myself all over my book covers in Junior High School, to which everyone would regard as merely "cool writing." I also fantasized of teaching all my friends the Runic language so that we could pass notes in class, unafraid of them being intercepted. I was surprised with this project to find out how thoroughly and quickly I managed to memorize a foreign alphabet. To this day I can write very smoothly in Runic, and can read it with little effort, though obviously not nearly as quickly as English. I used to know each rune's name, color, meaning, and representation, but these attributes have faded somewhat, leaving me with the knowledge of merely the secret Runic alphabet. An example of this type of runes is found in the map of Middle-Earth in The Hobbit.
Abelhawk
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| Abelhawk sits in his constructed house. |
Type: Runescape character
Started: 2002
Progress: Retired
Motivation to do similar projects: Low
Many people ask me where I got the name "Abelhawk." The answer is more boring than you'd expect, and is explained by this project. My brother began playing the game Runescape in 2002, and in time I created an account to play. The original Abelhawk had a white beard and all blue clothes (Because I "wanted to look good in wizard robes") and was created on the old version of Runescape. I paused to think for a couple of minutes what my name should be, when I inexplicably typed in the name "Abelhawk" and began my game. The name was wizardly and fit the character (though I didn't end up focusing my character on magic at all), but more importantly the name stuck as a permanent game/screen name that I've used countless other times, as in my own email, characters on World of WarCraft, my username for almost every account imaginable, and the main character of a tentative fantasy novel. The look of the Abelhawk on Runescape 2 was much less cliché, with white shaggy hair, a yellow long-sleeved shirt, studded chaps, light blue boots, a purple cape, and a teal wide-brimmed hat; Abel's fascination with the colors teal and yellow continue to his present incarnations, and the two are coincidentally my two favorite colors.
For a personal hand-drawn representation of Abelhawk's Runescape self, click here.
Battle Cards
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| All 200 Battle Cards in elemental order. |
Type: Card Game
Started: 2000
Progress: Done
Motivation to make similar projects: Low
Battle Cards were playing cards that I made with my friends Nathan and Dustin. We each made our own deck, and would play against each other's cards on the bus and at school. A very primitive version of Battle Cards called "Character Cards" were made in 1999, and the updated ones were made to include a uniform size and layout, as well as a more unique and thought-up universe. Rather than adopt the overused "Fire, Air, Earth, Water" elemental system, I created my own with "Good, Evil, Wild and Tame" cards. Each card had a name, hitpoints, element, three abilities, a picture, and a description. Some cards had special attributes. The rules of the game were somewhat vague and undefined; Basically, two or more players would draw a certain number of cards, and take turns using abilities to fight each other. The only limiting rule was that you couldn't use the same ability twice consecutively. Of course, since we made our own cards, sometimes liberties were abused and "power-happy" cards were made numerous times. We oftentimes countered this by making new cards with better defenses. In the end, after more or less a year of card making, I had a deck of over 200 Battle Cards. I was in the process of making a new form of the game, "Campaign Mode," when the particular paper and pencils used to draw them ran out, and our interest for making them died. Some Battle Card battles are still preserved on audio tape to this day, and the Battle Card deck itself is somewhere at my parents' house.
The Never-Ending Comic
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| A scene from the N.E.C. showing one of the main characters, Brai. |
Type: Comic Strip
Started: 1999
Progress: Retired (52 pages) (or is it?)
Motivation to make similar projects: Low
Perhaps the earliest project I can remember, the so-called "Never-Ending Comic" was a graphic novel involving illustrated versions of myself and my two friends Dustin and Nathan. It tells the story of Austin who discovers a shiny pebble, revealed as a "Fai," an evil-banishing stone used to summon mystical creatures. After finding the Fae and learning its significance, he goes on adventures with his new friends to fight evil. The comic was heavily based on the Digimon anime series, with some Pokémon references; and many jokes, expressions and character positions found in the comic were taken directly from Calvin & Hobbes. The storyline was monotonous, involving battle after battle with monster after monster. The vague conflict was not unlike that of Digimon, where evil arch-enemies were corrupting friendly creatures into minions. In N.E.C. I was depicted as an archer, later as a wizard, and my friends Nathan and Dustin were a warrior and a mage, respectively. Some creatures in the book were Brai, Gur, Rocky, Fenton, Sicam, Rep, Thornhare, and Manto; Many of which have made guest appearances in my other projects. The story, ironically true to its name, never really did end, and I became bored after 50 pages front and back, despite my hopes to "continue writing until I [got] a job."
Click here to read the entire scanned comic from start to finish!