I posted my first interactive fiction story to Itch. It can be played in-browser here: https://wjball.itch.io/sargasso

It’s a short story in the virtual novel format (although definitely not with the typical subject matter for that genre). The primary thing that got me interested in doing this was using AI to help create art for a game experience. I initially was planning to create a board game with these characters and this plot, but realized I had no ability to create the required art work. The further I got into the project, the more it gravitated away from a board game toward a more scripted narrative with options (I have more experience with narratives than games anyway).

I used Scenario for the AI part. It was a lot like working with an uncooperative partner. I was able to get it to generate something that would work with a great deal of prompting and example images to work from. Making changes that were consistent was almost impossible. This work flow makes AI pretty much like a Photoshop filter at present. I hope things improve in terms of consistency and IP rights issues before I do another project like this.

Here is the description on Itch:

“A visual short story with interaction, Sargasso immerses you in a stranding afloat on the mysterious Sargasso Sea with three potentially dangerous characters onboard. There may or may not be a monster in the seaweed. Your only goal is to survive.

This game will play full screen in your web browser. As with other browser based games, there may be a brief delay as screens load.

The title screen of Sargasso contains a button for full playing instructions. Save at decision points for a full play-through, which takes about 20 minutes.

Sargasso plays on phone browsers, although it is not optimized for them. In order to speed up loading there is no sound in the current version.

This visual short story was created primarily as a test for the tools and workflow used, including using generative AI as one part of the workflow for the images.”

The Vortex Cannon I built with a colleague at IBiB. was a big hit a the Rochester Makerfaire. Or, I guess it should be a big puff.

Some slow-mo action:

It was fun blasting out fog rings. However we discovered that if you pump it very slowly the rings will just hang in the air for an extremely long time. Makes me wonder if there is a good way to light them up while their just hanging there….

More improvements to come, the next event will be the Syracuse Makerfaire.

Looking for a quick and fun project recently, I came upon the 3D printed Snap-Together Marble Maze that ericman314 posted to Printables

I had a wooden version of this toy when I was young and it was one of my favorites.

Making these things is never as simple as they seem like they will be. I broke several of the components from his design before I fundamentally redesigned all the parts to be more robust. I also deleted his maze and constructed one of my own that is significantly more complex.

I have included a zip file with all the 3D printable components. If you want to make one of these you will need to print 1 each of the base and the maze (either the finished maze or, even, better open the blank maze in a CAD program and design your own) and 2 each of the cams, knobs, and linkages.

The base, cams, linkages need to be printed in something more flexible than PLA (I used PETG) so the snap fittings don’t break. The maze and the knobs work fine in PLA. See his original for assembly instructions.

The stl files for printing my version are here.

I have a wide variety of projects under way. Here is a sample.

I am building and extending the ball balancer by Aaed Musa. So far I have replicated his design and begun to modify it for continuous and interactive use at maker show cases. The biggest change has been to add a remote selector for different patterns. I have also enhanced the air flow, made the patterns a bit more reliable, and changed the look somewhat. It is good enough for public showing for now. In the future I plan to make it more interactive with additional controls and find a more eye-catching base to put it in.

Slightly less finished is the Vortex cannon I am building with a friend. It’s based on a 55 gallon plastic barrel, so it is about 3 feet long and 2 feet in diameter. Although not shown in the picture, I have a basic tilt and swivel stand for it. He is going to clean up the look and we will take it to the next Maker Faire. We will shoot fog rings out of it with a party fogger. I hope we don’t set off the fire alarm and cause an evacuation!

Lastly (for now), I have been working on the idea of a kind of electronic pet–something that is between plant and animal like with some alien thrown in. I have mostly focused on the electronics but recently started playing around with the look. It’s going to need a translucent skin (so the inevitable blinky lights will show through). I picked up some soft, clear TPU to experiment with (it will probably be silicon in the final version). Once this stuff is off the 3D printer you can soften in an oven (about 370f) and re-texture it.

As these things get more finished I will put more details into project posts.

I am leading a project of the robot builders guild at my local makerspace (It Begins in Brockport) to create a Mini Sumo Robot league. We will be supporting builders wherever we find them and hosting events local to us.

In robot sumo two autonomous robots compete in a head-to-head match following the basic system of traditional human sumo matches. Robots are allowed no weapons, and are not allowed to intentionally flip each other. The sole purpose is a pushing match between the two robots to force the other from the arena.

The project is still in early stages as of the spring of 2024. However I have created a project page on this site that provides details, including complete plans and assembly instructions for a reference example from our IBiB2040 class of mini sumo bots.

We will be hosting exhibitions and competitions starting at the Syracuse Maker Faire in May, 2024. Anyone interested in our assistance to build bots or establish events in their area should get in touch with me at bill@tinkerfarm.net

Having taught workshops for a beginners on a variety of development platforms, from Arduino, to ESP32, BBC Micro:bit, and Raspberry Pi Pico, I have moved on to a new one for the next round of turning people on to physical computing. The Maker Pi RP2040 doesn’t have an elegant name, but it’s a great platform for learning and experimentation.

The Maker Pi is very inexpensive, starting around $10 (through Newark). It has a RP2040 chip at its heart, so it can be programmed as a Raspberry Pi Pico. Thus no setup and easy Circuitpython or Micropython programming. It has onboard neopixels and a buzzer, a dual motor controller, user buttons, and breakouts for servos. It uses Grove connectors, which are much more secure than headers, but less permanent than soldering. The unit thoughtfully comes with 4 sets of Grove to jumper wire adapters, so you can use any commodity accessories as well as Grove-enabled ones. There are helpful status LEDs and on/off switches as well. You can power it with USB, Lipo (with a built in charger), or other power source using screw terminals.

It doesn’t have wireless communications but it is a cinch to add an external component for that.

I will be teaching a workshop on this board at the It Begins in Brockport maker space starting in October, 2023. I will post the workshop materials under the classes tab here once they are mature.

In the meantime check out the manufacturers site at: https://www.cytron.io/p-maker-pi-rp2040-simplifying-robotics-with-raspberry-pi-rp2040

I’ve been involved with a lot of makerspaces in a lot of roles, but it is always fun to dive into a new one.

My current project is to help get It Begins in Brockport off the ground. It Begins in Brockport (IBiB.us) is a maker place in the making currently located in Hart Gallery 27 in Brockport, NY. Operated by Brockport Original Builds, a nonprofit organization committed to the enhancement of professional development and creative play through digital technology, IBiB’s mission is to empower community innovation and learning through accessible digital fabrication.

I have been asked to join the board of Brockport Original Builds and am actively working with the crew at IBiB to get the organization up and running.

We held a preview event in early May, 2023 and started programming and memberships in June.

I recently completed this wall decoration for the lobby area of the Shore Foundation. Shore provides refurbished computers to non-profit organizations and recycles/reuses/recovers material from the computing equipment that is not up to standards. I volunteer there on a regular basis and we get a lot of old hard drives that have no real value (plus we are obliged to destroy them by the equipment donor). So here is one way to use them.

That’s 96 hard drives in various states of disassembly. These are usually taken all the way down to individual components for resource recovery. We have recently acquired access to a x-ray fluorescence machine and its pretty amazing to see how many metals are actually in some of the small parts.

Instead of XRF analysis I just needed lots of steel wire and some spacers to put this together. Since the strands are hanging from wire the shiny discs cause moving reflections when something brushes the front of this display. Which will be pretty cool until the wires break and the strand falls on someone’s foot.

 

After finishing my first table top game (Planetary Profiteers), I felt compelled to roll on into a second. I really wanted a cooperative game and I wanted to do something with a board that players move pawns through.

The experience with Profiteers has taught me that you really have to monitor costs on low production games using a service like The Game Crafter. The box alone for that one is $12.  The high costs are, of course, a matter of tiny print-on-demand production runs.

The new game, named LockSwap, aims to get the most out of a limited set of materials in a board-based cooperative game. It will be available on The Game Crafter after some final play testing.

I feel like it has accomplished my goal of a playable cooperative board game. It also plays extremely well with a single player, although there is a lot to keep track of!

Of course it didn’t spring into existence looking like the above. This game required a huge number of trial runs to set up a well functioning set of instruction cards, creating a pair of challenging mazes, and, mostly, setting the challenge (via a par system) for each variation. I’m still sorting out that last one and play testing finishes up.

After about a year of teaching an introduction to microcontrollers class using the Pi Pico I thought I would share all my workshop materials online. They can be found here.