Thanks to Dmitriy for the sadistic christmas wishes.

Happy new year 2015 everyone!

If anyone is still on the fence about making a remix for Halfquake Sunrise - Trap in Progress (90 BPM), don't hesitate and send the results to me. I plan on remixing all remixes in February. I got new programs to experiment with, so don't you guys leave me hanging!

As for me personally, I've been on vacation for more than two weeks. I did get some writing done, and I finished playing through the game Danganronpa 2. There were some pretty Halfquake-ish scenes in there, which is probably why I enjoyed it a lot. And probably because it was similar to the games 999 and Virtue's Last Reward, both of which are two of my most favourite games.

I'm itching to make another game (now more than ever), but I simply have to finish my book first. Thankfully the December stress is behind me, so I should be able to write more often now.

Here's to a great year 2015, hope you're all having a good time.

Alex Corruptor created a video to Insane Migraine using Open Hexagon and 500 lines of code (Lua and JSON files):


The new WASD 06 is here, featuring an experimental interview with me (in English, even though the book is in German). I received the questions and was allowed to change whatever I wanted, and even modify the questions for the next interviewee. If you're interested in seeing how it all turned out, support the bookazine and buy a copy.

Some of you may remember Retention made by my friend Pinkerator, in which he also used songs from our collaboration project Keratordash. In any case, the game just got greenlit on Steam after roughly 830 days!

And last but not least, all Meadow Mayhem Pure Awesome editions have sold out now. Now to sell all the Pure Pawesome editions of Rotten Melody!

Yet another beautiful song by Inconnu Flettn - here's Farewell breeze, which was partly inspired by Farewell (from the album Remains).

(Thanks again to Niles, who handled all the communication!)

While making Halfquake Sunrise, I started several tracks that never got finished. One of those tracks actually got pretty far (full length drums line) and maybe one of you wants to try and add some instruments to it or remix it in any other way; you may do with it whatever you like: Halfquake Sunrise - Trap in Progress (90 BPM)

You can send your works to me via email. If I get enough submissions I will try to mash up all samples/remixes into another remix.

Here's a Vain Attempt Cover by Inconnu Fletnn (thanks to Niles for contacting him). The original can be listened to here.

And here are new screenshots for the Postal 2 mod Useless Soul.


I've had a sort of breakthrough in the last few days and been writing a lot for my new book. It's still difficult to say when it will be done; if I take a look at my mental roadmap, I'd say I'm close to the end of the second story arc, and there's still one arc left to write.

It's hard to convey any sort of progress with a book (or music for that fact), but since I'm used to game development, here's a work-in-progress screenshot. If you don't know yet, the book's called Walter's Deal and it tells the story of a scientist, who invented teleportation in the 1990s, also involving a salesman who's trying to connect the world with Walter's technology. And yes, there are Star Trek references early on, but then people die and the actual fun begins.

Last time I said I'm never bored, and the book is one of the reasons. There's just so much to do, and even when I'm not writing, there's enough content out there that can be consumed at any time that it would probably last a lifetime or two. I've thought about boredom a lot, and it seems it usually affects people who aren't used to being alone and can't quite figure out what to do when nobody's around to tell them. Maybe it's due to the fact that our senses are constantly overcharged by being connected all the time or it's because there's so much content available; the brain is over-stimulated and becomes insensitive, and thus becomes bored, as nothing seems interesting anymore.

I don't really know, it's definitely a strange state to be in. What I do know is that I'm used to creating and when I don't create anything for a while my brain longs for that sort of fire again. I actually get frustrated when I can't work on my stuff for several days and whatever I do - I can't stop thinking about continuing with my projects and nothing else interests me. I guess that's a form of boredom. Or is that the sign of addiction? Can one be addicted to creating?

I know I was high on updating PHQ for a while. It was a quick fix for my brain; I got lots of stuff done in short bursts of time, I wrote lengthy satisfying news articles and watched people try out the new stuff I made. I sought attention and found that compared to huge projects that took years - PHQ resulted in instant gratification.

If boredom means not getting enough attention, maybe I create because I'm afraid of being bored. And maybe I like to entertain people because I want to return the attention I've received and don't want anyone being bored.

Are you?

Here we have new fan art by Dmitriy The Fox and Kvindor!


Dmitriy is working on a Postal 2 mod called Useless Soul, which connects to the Halfquake world and thus also uses textures from Halfquake.

And finally, Niles wrote a blog article about the meaning of Halfquake and another one that explores the idea of MLP crossing over with Halfquake.

I've been thinking a lot about creating as a service vs. creating as a hobby. My stuff isn't sold anywhere and my motivations behind creating new things is because I have ideas that I like to realize, and ultimately I like to entertain people. Making people laugh is something that I've enjoyed ever since I was a child. Some of my stuff is available in my shop, but that is just something for people who appreciate real objects, and I also like to surprise people with each and every package I send out. The profit I make is minimal, it completely evaporates into nothingness when you consider the monthly costs of running this site (which isn't a lot to begin with), so money isn't the driving force behind my creations.

I have friends who create games for money. One in particular recently admitted to me that he is "a prime example of whoring out". He creates clones of other successful mobile games, and even copies those clones and sells them with new art themes. The result? He's actually making money. He says, he's offering a service to people.

It's no different than the work I do for money (I'm a web programmer). But the things I make for the pure sake of creating them have a special place in my heart. Even so, by sharing them, am I not offering a service as well? By wanting to make people laugh and experience new things - is what I'm doing that much different to what my friend is doing?

I always disliked the term "hobby". It has a negative vibe to it, it sounds like just something you do on the side, when you're bored. (I'm never bored, but that's a topic for another time.) When I build things they consume me and I give everything I have to breathe life into them. They're a part of me. So what is it that I'm doing? It's not a hobby, it's not a job. Is it a service? Am I just reaching for attention? Perhaps. Has it something to do with my past? Possibly. Maybe I haven't gotten a lot of attention when I was young, and I learned to appreciate the wonderful response of you all to carry on. Not only with my creations, but with my life.

So it's not a hobby, it's not a job - this is just me, being alive...