I'm just here to say, I made this recipe by Richa; and it was really simple and quite tasty. You should definitely check it out.

Voila: 

So, I made my very first Bitsy "game".

I also decided to publish it on itch.io, just because, why not? Check it out here.

Disclaimer Alert: This was more of an experimentation to see what I could or could not do on Bitsy, but I had lots of fun making it. 

I recently read Zen: The Art of Simple Living by Shunmyō Masuno who is a zen monk and also a Japanese zen garden designer. With its simple advice, calming and gorgeous artwork, this book inspired me to take action in certain areas of my life where I feel I was unable to for a while. 

Of course, living with the harsh realities of the Coronavirus pandemic for over the past 2 years has truly changed "our ways", and sometimes I feel it's important to be reminded about the importance of stillness and reflection.

After reading this book, I watched Masuno's talk about The Art and Philosophy of Zen Garden Design. After researching a little bit more, I decided I wanted to give it a go and try my very own mini Zen garden at home. I dove into the world of YouTube and watched the following videos as well: 

- Building a Zen Garden diorama
​- The basics of the Zen Garden
- ASMR Japanese Zen Garden

Today ıI finally got around to buying some white sand from a local shop. I already had stones and shells from before (I tend to collect them from wherever I go). I first placed the sand, I tried to even it out as much as possible. I then added the stones, and other items as I saw fit, and finally raked the sand. I created a mini DIY rake out of tape and toothpicks, but I'm pretty sure I can make a more decent one for next time (see image below). Mind you, it did the job quite well. 

This was incredibly relaxing, and it then lead me to go out and clean up my balcony area and add stones and shells across the soil as well - I have a cat, so it's quite hard to keep anything planted there (middle photo above). All in all, it's been a relaxing few hours, and I do indeed feel grateful for being alive.

"Each day is not the same" - Masuno

Playlist listened to whilst doing all of the above.

It's been a very long time since I've written in my blog.  I decided that today was the day. 

Since playing The Secret of Monkey Island when ıI was 10-11 years old, I have loved pixel art. Recently I watched "The Making of Monkey Island" and loved learning about dithering on this documentary. Listen to Mark Ferrari himself who explains it a lot better than how I would. But basically, due to limitations of pixels and colour palettes, artists were unable to replicate their art onto computers. With 8x8 or 16x6 pixel limitations, "dithering" helped create an illusion of light/shadowing and created a much richer scenery and artwork. 

Anyway, I've recently started having the idea of creating my own point and click adventure game. During Covid, I came across the Point and Click Devlog by Adam Bunker and have also joined its wonderful Discord community. I've also started following a lot more indie developers on twitters and concept artists too. Throughout this process, I realised that I also want to experiment with pixel art and artwork. That brings me to today. Yesterday I came across @Sadface_RL's tutorial posts on some basics of pixel art. And, I gave it a go! 

Below you can see my very first "brick" attempt (from this tutorial) and then a house (from this tutorial). I made it all using Pixil Art's mobile app but I'm sure this would be a lot easier and more fun on a - which I will try as soon as I get the chance. 

It's very satisfying seeing a bit of effort turn into a crumbling brick and a tiny cozy home :) I look forward to turning this into a potential hobby. We shall see!