walla-pond


Cool stuff I do

My projects, grouped in categories.

Index:

  1. Game Development
  2. Art
  3. Music
  4. Writing
  5. Level Design
  6. Miscellaneous

Game Development

Loot & Roam: An upcoming physics-based, steampunk pirate themed, naval combat roguelike.

Invade islands, loot items, destroy or avoid ships, leave islands, upgrade your ship! Collect cartographic insight to find new islands to invade! Buy new ships, hire more crew, feed and wage your crew to ward off strikes. Swap your ship for a bigger one, or buy new ships, and appoint subcaptains to your fleet ships! Die to crossfire or an enemy's black-hole-charge cannonball, and start all over from the trusty Dependable Dave.

Expect updates as soon as I get a new PC that can tank rust-analyzer with Bevy! (codeberg) Should take about 1-3 years until the first playable MVP of the full version is out.

There's actually an addicting 2D topdown playable prototype, on the web, codenamed proto-lnr, made in TypeScript using HTML5 Canvas. It is a proof-of-concept of the overall gameplay loop, and a successful one at that, if I may add. Requires a modern browser. Currently only supports mouse and keyboard; mobile not yet supported.

While it is visually top-down/2.5D and lacks the SDF stuff, it has its own smoothmax-based clustered terrain generation and realistic buoyancy physics. The only external library used is an internationalization library!

Also I kinda sorta implemented my own retained mode UI library in a 1000 line file (ui.ts) to use with the Canvas API. Oops!

Anyway, the 3D version is gonna have cool terrain generation. Can't beat that!

An example of an island generated in a Loot & Roam techdemo.

And just you wait until you see the point-spring-network (softbody) based physics engine! The collision system uses SDFs! I'm dead serious!

The world is archipelagos, and you are keen to rule it, whether by cannon, speed, or plain booty.

(Also known as "Plunder an' Sink, matey! We'll enjoy our last breaths full o' riches at the bottom of this stinkin' sea!")


Crashtopia: An upcoming destruction derby style physics-based driving minigame, where your goal is to destroy as much stuff on the street as possible before your gas tank runs out!

Single-player, upgrade-loop style game without loss condition; think Learn to Fly or Toss the Turtle. Let the simple but satisfying driving physics accentuate your lust for explosions!

Expect Early Access to come soon, in about 3-6 months.

Smash it, earn it, buff it! The city is your oyster; and everything in it is flammable scratch-posts!


Art

I do most of my digital painting in Krita, with nothing but my mouse (but you can help change that!). Occasionally, though, I also make pixel art, using Pixelorama (or in the past LibreSprite). I also draw in real life, using pencils, pens, or sometimes even gouache on paper.

Don't forget to see my fursona Gus the Wallaby's referenece sheet on the Sona page!

Starstruck, an ongoing sci-fi webcomic with subtle furry undertones. A routinely space travel goes awry due to a planet's gravitational anomaly; the crashlanding's sole survivor must now survive their circumstances and fight their way back out. The plot is loosely inspired by that of Unreal. Click the link and start reading!

Seawatching Gus. This digital artwork is titled Seawatching Gus. A wallaby sits on a sandy shoreline, watching the sunset which is behind the perspective. The strokes are soft and painterly.
Bunny girl near tentacle oyster thing. This untitled digital work is drawn to resemble urban graffiti. An anthropomorphic bunny, made out of yellow contours and not filled in, lays on her back, with featureless nudity. Her body is huddled up to a blue abstract geometric oyster, out of which two deep pink tentacles can be seen jutting out the top and wriggling in the air innocently.

While slightly suggestive, this was an experiment not just in basic character design, but also more abstract ways of painting (the graffiti-esque style).

Some gouache paintings. A trio of untitled gouache paintings. The top painting shows a bridge over a canal, akin to Venice. A second bridge can be seen in the distance through underneath the first. The first bridge has ideogram-esque glyphs carved onto its side. The middle painting is Asapétala, and depicts a black, curvy, slender sci-fi hovercraft right above the gorund of an orange, Martian-esque wasteland with a deep orange sky. THe bottom painting is an unfinished architectural pracice sketch in pencil, with only a single pillar filled in with gouache.
Geada em Faróis. This gouache on paper artwrk is titled Geada em Faróis (Frost in Car Lights). It depicts a street at night time. A deep blue sky with small white stars contrasts against the foreground, wholly composed of black chiaroscuro silhouettes of buldings and a streetlamp, with gray or white highlights. The light of the streetlamp is diffuse as if due to snow or a thick fog. Two lights, implied to belong to a car's headlights, dart through the fog.

Sal-Pel: An upcoming webcomic, an urbanist thriller / political drama. The assassination of the Federal Ministry of Transport, in the fictional country of Passochia (loosely inspired by Brazil), leads to nation-wide intrigue and protests; a corrupt government body tries to sabotage the investigation by appointing an overworked college student as its lead. Soon they, and their corporate benefactors, will realize—that was their biggest mistake.

Music

Every now and then, I like to make music, especially tracker music. Usually I use OpenMPT. I've been trying to get into SunVox, though the workflow can feel a bit awkward sometimes. (Don't let this read as an indictment - SunVox is still very cool!)

You can see my main releases on my Audiomack (basically SoundCloud without a free tier upload limit). I rarely bundle my music in actual album releases, since that usually takes designing cover art, filling out a bunch of metadata, having a bunch of virgin music to pack up, etc etc. But there are a few I can show besides individual items.

If, instead, you want to see my complete collection of tracker music, see my Mod Archive profile (a repository of tracker music with an online player). Click the little Modules tab in it, right above the "About" section.

Album list:

Programming

Though I grew up getting good at Python and JavaScript/TypeScript, and have also sharpened up on Rust like a real adult, I've been getting a lot into Zig lately.

ZetaBot: a companion NPC bot for Doom, which can play alongside you in coop, or against you in deathmatch. Features advanced pathing with customizable and persisted pathnode networks, state machine based AI, several player orders, voice lines, and more!

The marine's smartest friend, because 'best' is yesterday.

Stigma Propagation: ongoing machine learning experiments, exploring Stigma, a computationally and conceptually simple 'local backpropagation' credit assignment for reinforcement learning applications. The main goals are to be able to support non-differentiable activations, support online learning/training without the use of episodic splits or populational (genetic evolution) type algorithms, support even relatively low end machines (given enough learning time), and real-time applications with delta times.

Maybe with this one day I'll be able to make agents that learn to play video games! Or actually useful real life robotics stuff... boring, I know!

Emergent, self-learning agents—on a budget.

triarc: a framework for creating platform-agnostic automated bots. Currently supports IRC and Discord. Rewrite pending.

MushMatch: an asymmetric social deduction gametype for classic Unreal Tournament, inspired by the 2010s Flash turn-based social deduction game Mush, by Motion Twin (also known for Dead Cells, and an inspiration to GameCircular).

UT-ModBuild: A build system made originally for MushMatch, for building new Unreal Tournament mods using a Makefile. Has some nicetries and conveniences, such as automatic artifact build numbering, and source templating powered by Mustache.

Quick guide to mush-spotting: if someone deceives, hides, and infects, strap a Suspicion Beacon and put them face to face with a Flak Cannon!

ZDCode: a state machine definition language and compiler which targets ZDoom's legacy modding language, DECORATE, extending it with many nice features through clever syntax sugar, metaprogramming, and compile-time semantics. Comes with Zake, its own build system, bundler, and packager for ZDoom .pk3 (renamed zip) mod archives.

Sentient Mushes Adventure: a text-based, turn-based RPG written in Python, on top of the triarc engine (see above), inspired by Mush (also see above!). Not a lot to say about this one, except, entity definitions are Python-in-XML. Cursed!

Writing

Stella & Finn: A cozy, steamy furry romance/erotica between a softie Labrador who likes tending to his carrot garden, and a forward Jaguar who just can't keep her claws off of him.

(itch | ko-fi) Get the free teaser or buy the full, snack-sized book (~3000w) for just $1.50!

From pounces to pins—the carrot meets the stick.

Ela Mia: An upcoming urban fantasy / adventure novelette with sci-fi undertones. A catgirl wakes up in the middle of a city of humans. She has no idea what she is, where she is, or who made her. She has to find comfort and acceptance in a human friend, as she navigates the alienness and the good and bad parts of urban human life, while in dangers she didn't even know she was in.

A cat-girl in a human world, stuck between two abysses: the chaotic and indifferent city, and the mystery of her own past.

Ashore a Ruined Old World: A slow-run hard sci-fi political epic, in chapter releases. When most of humanity has left a devastated planet behind to live in huge spacescrapers or in orbital habitats, how will the underclass down below fight back and prosper?

I also write poetry works in both English and Portuguese, though most prolific in the latter. If you like Portuguese language poetry / Brazilian poetry, watch out for Ilhas: dos isolados aos obstinados, a 17-poem collection I'm about to self-publish.

Level Design

I admit I haven't touched a level editor in quite a while, but I'd love to do it again soon. Here's some of my highlights for a few different games.

Doom

Temple of the Marshes: a small-to-medium, Boom-compatible, Doom 2 MAP01 replacement, focused on atmosphere and somewhat non-linear progression, as you explore an ancient temple buried below the marshes, now overrun by demons and replete with foul traps and treasure. Try to find all the secrets!
Sentient Mushes: Does this count? It's more of a total conversion, or an abandoned but fascinating attempt at one. It is also inspired by the 2010s Flash game Mush. In this TC, you convert a mushed yellow wyvern, who just arrived on Earth, while Earth is in the middle of an overwhelming invasion by a greater, cybernetic alien force. Your goal is to eliminate this force, and eventually track its origins through various planets! Has its own full roster of weapons, a spattering of campaign levels (MAPs 01 through 03 + 05), and even two deathmatch levels (DM01, and - impressively - DM02 which takes place on an oil rig in the night). SM deathmatch is cool!

Psst: the Claw's alt-fire infects enemies to become mush, so they fight alongside you. Use that wisdom to your advantage!

Spread the spores of interplanetary salvation—in explosive style.

Unreal Tournament

DM-Davva: An open, terrain-based, medium-sized Deathmatch level, with a general snowy-but-sunny theme and some very mountainous terrain.

Not recommended if you're afraid of heights, cold, or Redeemers!

Miscellaneous

Modular Universal: a freeform, modular roleplay system, where arbitrary tags can be assigned to objects, locations, inventory, players, etc; complexity can be dialed in by mixing and matching modules; and the GM decides what tags decide the outcome probabilities of what rolls in what ways, for which requested actions.

Gurigambá TCG: an upcoming trading card game, with simple combat rules, centered about Rio Grande do Sul's local culture and folklore and ecology.

Each character has attack, defense, damage type, and a 'vulnerability' table (multipliers on incoming damage types). Each game also takes place over a location card, which has an 'amplifier' table (global multipliers on damage types). For example, water-based locations have a high Water damage multiplier.

Ever wondered if Elis Regina can beat a Boitatá? Will the Market's statue, A Bronze, come on top, or will the Teiniaguá call the shots? Will the eternal duel between the Dupla Tinga-Nei and the Imortal Gremista ever be settled? Let's find out!


All my works are 100% wallaby Human-Made. This is a No AI Content Zone.

Footer image. A pixel art nightly city background, depicting two frontages around a street, with a small grocery store, rows of street lamps, a large billboard in the background, and large buildings and trees further in the distance. The palette is very cold; all buildings are deep wine, and the sky is an unsaturated blue.