toomuchcucumber

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I have peered into the soul of my favorite rock

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i think the near-extinction of people making fun, deep and/or unique interactive text-based browser games, projects and stories is catastrophic to the internet. i'm talking pre-itch.io era, nothing against it.

there are a lot of fun ones listed here and here but for the most part, they were made years ago and are now a dying breed. i get why. there's no money in it. factoring in the cost of web hosting and servers, it probably costs money. it's just sad that it's a dying art form.

anyway, here's some of my favorite browser-based interactive projects and games, if you're into that kind of thing. 90% of them are on the lists that i linked above.

A Better World - create an alternate history timeline

Alter Ego - abandonware birth-to-death life simulator game

Seedship - text-based game about colonizing a new planet

Sandboxels or ThisIsSand - free-falling sand physics games

Little Alchemy 2 - combine various elements to make new ones

Infinite Craft - kind of the same as Little Alchemy

ZenGM - simulate sports

Tamajoji - browser-based tamagotchi

IFDB - interactive fiction database (text adventure games)

Written Realms - more text adventure games with a user interface

The Cafe & Diner - mystery game

The New Campaign Trail - US presidential campaign game

Money Simulator - simulate financial decisions

Genesis - text-based adventure/fantasy game

Level 13 - text-based science fiction adventure game

Miniconomy - player driven economy game

Checkbox Olympics - games involving clicking checkboxes

BrantSteele.net - game show and Hunger Games simulators

Murder Games - fight to the death simulator by Orteil

Cookie Clicker - different but felt weird not including it. by Orteil.

if you're ever thinking about making a niche project that only a select number of individuals will be nerdy enough to enjoy, keep in mind i've been playing some of these games off and on for 20~ years (Alter Ego, for example). quite literally a lifetime of replayability.

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Who told you I love this band and their newest single that came out yesterday slaps?

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I have seen shellfish before, they were not kind

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I just stumbled across these and I always struggle with canopy glass. can't wait to try it out my next painting session! Hoping the pt. 3 gets released soon.

How to Paint: Canopy Glass (pt. 1)

I promised it so here it is- my breakdown of a couple different techniques I use for painting glass canopies on my miniatures. Because of tumblr's dumb image limit and the different ways I go about painting glass we're going to be doing this as a multipart series. Today I'll be starting with a 'flat black' reflective glass.

Paints I used:

AP Matt Black (black)

Citadel Mechanicus Standard Grey (grey)

Citadel Dawnstone (light grey)

AP Spaceship Exterior (grey off-white)

Citadel Ardcoat (gloss varnish)

Method

First, finish the details around your canopy glass. I usually find that getting the rest of the model in a finished state means I end up with less overpainting on the canopy and I can choose my glass colors to compliment the rest of the scheme. Once you're ready to begin, block in your glass areas with black.

Next, we're going to build up a slight gradient in the color. Start by taking your grey paint and sketching a diagonal line across your glass panel from corner to corner, then paint in the area above that line with grey. Once that area is blocked in, mix your grey with a little of your black to make a slightly darker grey, then sketch over the same line as before. You should have a triangle of black on the bottom of the panel, a triangle of grey on the top, and then a thin line of darker grey in between the two.

This should be easier to do with square or rectangular panels like the Firefly's main window, but it can be a little trickier for curved or irregularly shaped windows. I recommend completing the 'least wierd' panel first and then using that as a guide to complete all the other panels similarly.

Next we're going to continue to build up the light parts of the canopy. Take a thin brush and your light grey paint and sketch an upside down 'L' centered inside the grey part of the glass. You want this to be just ever so slightly in from the edge of the glass panel, so a small ammount of the darker grey is still visible above and to the side of the light grey. Once this is dry, take your off-white grey and dab a small dot into the corner of the 'L' as your brightest highlight. Finally, as an optional step you can brush all of the glass with a little gloss varnish like ardcoat to give it a nice reflective shine.

And our first glass technique is done! Outside of just flat color for extremely tiny vision slits this is my most basic style of canopy. I find this strategy works best for smaller canopies made of flat planes where the tight space doesn't leave much room for more elaborate techniques and different viewing angles don't dramatically change what of the glass you can see so you can easily paint in a basic reflection with it looking off from some directions. This works best for mechs like the Shadow Hawk or Wolverine, as well as on any color scheme where you don't want an elaborate canopy to draw attention away from other nearby details. In the next two parts I'll go over some techniques that work better with more space or struggle less on more geometrically complex canopies.

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So i figure i'm going to start acting on my namesake. From now on every once in a while you will get a post of a cucumber, each time a single cucumber will be added to the image until people start begging me to stop. At that point we will know that we have collectively reached the point where we can answer the question of how much is too much cucumber? Cucumber Count: 1

[toomuchcucumber]

Shadowhawk: I am perfectly optimized to engage at multiple ranges, enemies will be exposed to a constant barrage of fire in all range brackets. Women fear me, men fear me, fear fears me, me fears me. I am equipped with jump jets suitable to clearing obstacles and perching myself on ideal positions for sniping, spotting, and indirect fire. I am inevitable, I am constant, I am the greatest threat on the battlefield. Hunchback: Big......gun.

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I've been watching this project over a few apps since it started and I have to say. Each time this gets a little bit bigger I still comb through it as if it's the first time.

I spent too long making this to not upload it everywhere I can.

[toomuchcucumber]

Mint's TTRPG Library

Here is a list of links to the Collections I add Itch.io games to on the regular, where I often go to in search for games to meet folks' recommendation requests.

These collections are large and unwieldy. I'm not certain that they're easy to navigate, but if you want to do some browsing, you certainly have options!

Systems

Belonging Outside Belonging Breathless Caltrop Core Charge Descended from the Queen Firebrands Forged in the Dark Honey Games (Honey Heist) Into the Odd Lasers + Feelings LUMEN Par-AGON (Paragon System) PbtA Push Together We Go Troika (A bunch of Troika supplements) Tunnel Goons (AKA Goon Games) What’s So Cool About _?

Genre

Adventure - With Pulp! (Westerns, Dinosaurs, Spies, Time Travel) Bittersweet Futures (Post-Apocalypse) Botanical Adventures (Plants) Bring Me The Evidence! (Mysteries) Cogs and Steam (Steampunk) Delicious Delights (Food & Cooking) Dirtpunk (Revolution, Rebellion, Fighting) Eras Both Real & Imagined (Historical, Faux-Historical) Everyone Loves A Competition (Competitions, Sports) Fae and Fen (Faeries & Goblins) Fangs, Fangs, Fangs (Vampires) Grim & Gritty (Gritty & Grimdark Fantasy) Hearts & Threads (Romance) Manners & Mischief (Social & Political) Mechs and Tech (Mechs & Robots) Modern-Day Mishaps (Modern-Day Setting) Monsters & Mutants (Monsters, Monster Hunters, Pokemon - simulators) Neon Lights & Cyber Nights (Cyberpunk) Oh So Anime (Anime & Manga themed) Paranormal Activity (Ghosts, Cryptids, Death) Pastoral & Cozy (Cozy Games, Witch Games) Paws and Feathers and Scales (Animals) Sorcerous Intentions (Magic-Users) Stars and Science (Science-Fiction, Space) Sword & Sorcery & So Much More (General Fantasy) Teenage Hijinx (Teenagers) The Sea Calls (Oceans, Aquatic, Pirates) With Great Power (Superheroes, Magical Girls, Fantasy Superpowers)

Other

Abstract Games & System Bones (SRDs, Genre-less) By Pen and Paper Played (Epistolary Games) Funky Fresh Flavors (Miscellaneous) GM-Less Solitary Adventures (Solo Games) System-Neutral Settings (Adventures & Settings) The Art of Creation (Collaborative World-building) Two Can Play At That Game (Duet Games)

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OOooohhhh, a scale with calibration weights! Did they come with

me: hey do either of you own a kitchen scale? I’m trying to make 2-3 ingredient MCAS-safe lip balm and I need some precise measurements

dad: sure kiddo I’ve got just the thing

[toomuchcucumber]

Don't forget the Canopian cat girls and dinosaur riding infantry!

Come to Battletech, we have

Space Scotland

The BATTLE POPE

(source)

Space Wizard AT&T

Gene-enhanced big muscle mommies

Crabs

And just big stompy robots beating each other up

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Bipedal? Check. Featherless? Check.

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The J. Edgar Hover tank will remain my favorite pun in BattleTech

[toomuchcucumber]

What to say during sex

ooh

ee

ooh ahh ahh

ting

tang

walla walla bing bang

[toomuchcucumber]

How To Paint: Lense Gemming

In the Heat Sink tutorial I mentioned that glow effects are really common in 40k paint schemes but see less use in Battletech so let's look at something that I frequently see go the other way- flat painted gem effects for lenses. These work well for Battletech energy weapons, but they can also be used for sensor clusters, glass eyepieces on things like a space marine helmet, or jewels on a more fantasy inspired mini. There's a variety of ways to do these- gem or contrast paints over a metallic base coat, gloss varnish, or just splashing the area with a little color all work just fine- but today I'm going to go over my basic recipe for a green reflective glass effect.

Paints I Used:

For as much of a love/hate relationship as I have with GW citadel paints their color system is remarkably good at getting proper highlight colors for things like this- I'm largely cribbing my color choices here from the old Duncan Rhodes videos and you can feel free to sub out for whatever colors work best for your particular project.

Citadel Caliban Green (dark green)

Citadel Warpstone Glow (green)

Citadel Moot Green (light green)

Army Painter Matt White (titanium white)

Method

Once you've completed the area around whatever you want to gem, start by painting this with your darkest color. Here we'll be using our dark Caliban Green, focusing on the Starslayer's two large lasers. If a little gets on the rim around the lense at this step that's fine.

Once your dark green is dry, take a very small brush and thin down your mid-tone green. Choose one of the bottom 'corners' of the lense and start carefully applying paint there. Ideally, we want to paint a 'crescent moon' shape centered on that corner, with a fatter middle section and thinner tips, leaving the darker green visible in the lense center and one of the upper corners. If the detail proves to small or your hand-eye coordination is too unwieldy for this, sketching a 'C' shape or simply putting a diagonal line thru the lense and coloring the lower half with your light color will also work at this scale.

Next, take your light green color and thin it with your smallest brush. Very carefully apply a thin line of this color along the outer edge of the area you painted with your green midtone.

Finally, apply a small dot of pure white to the upper corner of the lense that remains dark green.

And the gemming is done! Once you get the basic idea down you'll find that this is a pretty versatile technique (I use a variation of it for canopy glass as well). Definitely worth giving a try, and if you aren't a fan then like I said there's plent of other things to do to achieve similar results.