Last week, after knowing each other for more than fifteen years, I finally met Pospi in Vienna. If you don't know who that is, he's the guy who made these incredible wallpapers:

In short: He's brilliant and he inspired a lot of my projects after Halfquake Amen (i.e. the teleportation effect of Somos in Halfquake Sunrise :D). He, Rosa, and I talked a lot about the past, cults, comics, cryptocurrency, AI, food, games, the cold weather, and why Austria and Germany (basically) speak the same language (I think the simple answer is - they stole our language and cleaned it up :D :D Seriously though, apparently it's complicated).

Pospi asked me why I include the first Halfquake whenever I package the mods together, since it's such a different project. I know that a few people think that I shouldn't even bother including it in the Steam release. I told him that to me, it all just belongs together. Sure, I could just look away and pretend it doesn't exist, but it just feels like a vital part of the puzzle. This is where it began. Also, my hope is that with a bit of new music, easter eggs, and maybe a new texture or two, I can bring it a little closer to Amen and Sunrise. I can't hide its firm roots in Half-Life, but that's not my intention; it exists because I love Half-Life, and if leaving it in the Trilogy is an open love letter, I'm happy with that.

The evening went by way too quickly, and I wished them a safe trip home. Pospi and Rosa are two of the most wonderful people I've met in my life and I'm happy that they scheduled time in their visit to Vienna to meet with me. I'd like to use this space to thank them again for the wonderful dinner, and for accepting me for who I am. <3 May the new cult AI alien gods be with us!

Changes and New Music

Back to our regular program, here's what I did the past few days:

* I fixed spikes going into each other in halfquake10. I remember why I had to do it this way (to save some r_speeds and to still kill the player when they walk through), but performance is no issue anymore, so I replaced the bigger spikes with smaller spikes that kill the player, but don't clip into each other anymore.

* I made thinner doors, beds and cupboards for the house in halfquake9. Also, doors open on use now, which fixes the annoying bug that caused players to get stuck in the past. Here's what it looked like in the past (you'll see the current version in the game xD):

* And finally, I spent most of the time making my own cover of the tetris theme (or more specifically, Korobeiniki). You can listen to an early version if you download it from the attachments (I called it "triste" :D).

Here's how I made this, in case you're interested:

* I began by playing it on my e-piano from memory to see which notes the song uses (I recorded the piano version as well). Surprisingly, it was in A minor (I was expecting something like E minor).

* Afterwards, I drew the notes in Samplitude's MIDI plugin, and set the track's bpm to a similar speed as the song in Tetris.

* I experimented with the sound until it closely resembled the Gameboy version, and added some bass synth and percussion (from a recording of a bunch of noises in the apartment). I think it sounds a bit more aggressive right now, and not as playful. I'll see if it fits the game, otherwise I'll adjust it accordingly.

* I also added sounds from a wind chime that I bought and recorded last year, which played A, D, F, G notes (quite fittingly!). I did this to add a bit of an analogue layer/accent to it.

For the mp3 release, it needs a bit of a structure / build-up, so that it "makes more sense" when listening to it without the game as context, but after a little more refinement / changing it so that it fits in the game, I can replace the copyrighted looped version in the game, and start creating the next song.

To be continued... (<