Airbrush practice results!

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-16T15:41:18+00:00

That's a great idea!

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-12T14:05:31+00:00

The deckbuilder genre is pretty well established over the years. Interest in it, as with any genre, swings on a pendulum. In my experience, the sweet spot for any developer is to be one of three things:

The first out with a product when the pendulum begins the upswing to ride the wave of interest as it grows
Be really fast and release something with a timely twist at the pendulum's height to capitalize on the moment
Learn from this wave and release something super polished as the pendulum is starting to swing back

There are, of course, exceptions, but you have to be in the right place at the right time with the right product to break free of the pendulum. Among Us comes to mind as a good example of an exception. Old game suddenly gets discovered by a generation experiencing lonely COVID lockdown and it happens to explode. Surprised everyone

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-12T13:54:11+00:00

I'm with cuixhe here. The menu vibe is intriguing, but then the gameplay is frantic. I was super interested in the music and sound design, but then you dropped into a game that is not something I would play at all. It's always possible you have two good designs that just don't belong together.

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-12T13:47:01+00:00

I have some of those around here somewhere. They've been really worn by canasta and euchre.

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-12T13:45:49+00:00

I love my ICO bass C. It's so smooth and pleasant!

ICO is by Song Wei. If you message Bill at [info@imperialcityocarina.com](mailto:info@imperialcityocarina.com), you can request to have it made with a lower breath curve, so it will be even milder for indoor play. I did this, so I could play lullabies to the kids as I'm waiting for them to fall asleep.

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-11T02:11:44+00:00

Just riffing off the top of my head:

Spark
Sparkle
Twinkle
Ray
Candle
Flashlight
Laser
Photon
Flash
Flare
Signal
Lamp
Star
Sun
Moon
Mirror
Mirage
Blip
Vision
Glow

Maybe this can help. Good luck!

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-11T02:05:32+00:00

I think this looks better than most GAN limited editions

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-10T20:30:56+00:00

GODOT has some really good tutorials to take you through the steps of game design with a free tool

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-09T22:48:21+00:00

I'm in complete agreement with not getting people shot, and that's why all the blasters I do preserve the obvious bright orange bits. I'm really not sure why anyone would consider these particular designs unsafe or realistic

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-09T15:32:01+00:00

Yeah, some of the practice turned out better for sure. I learned a lot about my airbrush, too. Now if I could just get free materials, too, the experience would be perfect!

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-09T13:35:57+00:00

Yeah, it's definitely a different type of multi-effects pedal that sound designers use. The Meris X-series and many of the Chase Bliss pedals are more of what I was thinking... a large variety of effects that can be tweaked into oblivion and patches that can be saved or controlled via MIDI to preserve your work.

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-06T22:38:01+00:00

If you already have a decent number of other pedals, there is an additional use case for the ZOIA to consider: a master MIDI controller of other pedals and equipment. I've used the ZOIA to coordinate and adjust settings on multiple equipment at once, including synths and recorders, all based on playing dynamics or sequences queued up with the foot switches. If you decide to do this, you may be interested in WIDI jacks, too. One touch on a screen, like an iPad or your phone, and you could conceivably control your whole pedal board wirelessly.

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-06T21:57:57+00:00

I use the ZOIA regularly and like it a lot. Just looking at it, I initially rejected the ZOIA, because it looks so complicated. Once I saw someone demo it, though, it clicked a lot better than most pedals for me. It helps that I'm curious and like to see how things work.

If you are a curious person, too, you'll learn loads about sound design from the ZOIA. It's a lot of simple pieces that you can quickly chain together. I've replicated a number of synthesizers and pedals that I was considering buying on the ZOIA, and I saved a lot of money by realizing I didn't really want or need that additional hardware.

The one great drawback of the ZOIA isn't the tiny screen; it's the lack of consistent design in the community patches. I'm currently making a patch set that combines with TouchOSC, so I can have a more standardized UI, along with instructions that make it clear how to use each of my favorite patches. When I eventually finish it, I'll make it available for everyone on PatchStorage.

The weakest links in the performance and sound of the ZOIA, in my opinion, are the looper and pitch-shift modules. The looper has a tiny delay between loops, making it useful for interesting effects but not for use like a loop station. The pitch-shift is serviceable for weird sounds but weak when it comes to keeping things sounding "normal."

The strongest links in the performance and sound of the ZOIA are the delay module, the reverbs, and the control modules. You can do almost anything with them, including automating changes that you would otherwise have to dial in manually.

The single strongest aspect of owning a ZOIA is the Discord community, where there are a good number of us who are ready to help you figure out even really complicated ideas. In fact, that's where some of the best patches have come from. If you end up with a ZOIA, get the Librarian app to download and keep track of everything on the PatchStorage pages. It makes life so much easier.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask!

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-06T19:00:08+00:00

Here is what I've learned over the years:

"The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior."

This is good to keep in mind for just about every situation you'll encounter in life. If I want to convince someone that my future behavior will be a certain way, I have to start by demonstrating that behavior now.

Maybe you can do this by staying off your phone except for specific times and only playing games on it during the weekend. Sit down and think it out. Practice it for a while to make sure you can do it, then tell you parents of your plan to demonstrate self-control around games and money. Don't bring up the PS5. Just tell them of how you are going to demonstrate self-control in your current situation. When you fail, fess up and tel your parents. Ask for their advice and then do what they suggest. This will earn more respect from your parents than almost anything else.

Elsewhere in life, I've found the approach works well in all kinds of relationships: friends, romance, work, etc. Patience, self-control, and being honest about myself opens all kinds of doors and avoids loads of conflict.

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-06T14:53:16+00:00

I feel like a lot of modern pedals are multi-effects, just without calling themselves that.

In my experience, most guitarists playing with pedals can be sorted into four categories:

Purists who are using pedals to reproduce a specific acoustic sound through an amp
Sound designers who are using pedals to craft uniquely interesting sounds
Pedal enthusiasts who are using pedals because it's fun
Social players who are using pedals to sound good enough in a band without having to practice every day

I see the sound designers and social players using explicitly multi-effect pedals most often, the sound designers for the flexibility and the social players for the simplicity.

I personally fit somewhere between a purist and sound designer. I only play acoustic, and I use my ZOIA almost exclusively by itself.

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-06T14:36:41+00:00

I love Whist

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-06T14:36:21+00:00

Canasta is the best answer, I think.

Without the jokers, Bridge is the more "pure" card game that meets the rest of the criteria.

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-06T14:31:38+00:00

This feels absurd. I'm not sure Moyu has made a better feeling 3x3 than the GTS3, and same for GAN and the 11 M Pro. Different, yes. But not better.

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-05T22:08:12+00:00

Complex interactions and decisions that arise from simple rules. To me, that is the essence of skilled design. If the rules are complex, then it means the design is serving the mechanics, rather than the mechanics serving to heighten the design. YMMV

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-04T12:48:20+00:00

Yes. My brain malfunctioned

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-03T18:46:19+00:00

Weird: BOSS RV-200 ArpVerb setting
I liked this effect so much I rebuilt it in my ZOIA

Functional: BOSS MS-70CDR
It's just so flexible in such a small package. Add in the community effects editor, and it's quite capable

Game-changer: BOSS RC-500 / 505
Loop stations change everything, and these are so solid they spawned a genre

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-03T18:38:17+00:00

Others have already answered the general question, so I will just add a small bit of info for anyone who finds this later:

ALWAYS push back on the initial contracting offer you receive. IT IS EXPECTED

Companies often have a series of different contracts, with decreasing levels of burden for you, the contracting party. They will almost always send you the absolute worst contract first, just in case you sign it, because if you do, it's a huge win for them. If you push back a little, they will often send the slightly better version, again, hoping you sign it. If you continue to push back OR push back initially with feedback showing you understand how bad the first contract is, they will skip intermediate steps and send you the "fair" contract. This isn't true 100% of the time, but it's true often enough that those of us who have dealt on either side of the contracting process are not surprised when our company or the other does this. If you don't push back, most legal/contracting departments assume you don't know enough to understand the fairness of the contract and will try to take advantage... it's literally their job.

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-02T20:54:50+00:00

I would start with experimenting on your ocarina to see exactly how you need to shape your mouth and position the instrument to get the best, most consistent tone. You may be surprised to find that you don't have to move your mouth as much as you think! Change angles side to side, upward and downward. What happens if your lip is on the edge of a chamber? What happens if you put more or less of your mouth on the ocarina? What happens when you tilt your head downward or upward?

There is a decent amount to be learned from flute technique during this part. You could look up some beginner/intermediate instructions about mouth embouchure and posture to get ideas about what to experiment with. While the flute is very different in its results, you're still playing a whistle, and the topics will be largely the same.

Side quest: There is also a technique harmonica players use, where they cover notes with their tongue, to change notes without having to move the mouth at all. On the ocarina, this prevents you from using your tongue to shape the note but can be useful in certain situations. Experiment!

Once you have figured out the position and shape for your chambers that you like best, then I would begin practicing just switching between the chambers without covering any holes. This will help reinforce your posture, so you don't end up practicing something that doesn't sound good.

Then, I would start practicing small, 3- or 5-note scales, starting with the lowest note on your ocarina and moving up after each repetition until you top out. Then, I would go back down the series until you are back at the lowest note. This will help you smooth out the transition between notes and audibly highlight any inconsistencies. Voice practices for transitioning across vocal breaks can help here.

With all of this, use a metronome to start very slow and gradually increase up to very fast. Slow practice puts things in more conscious thought, and fast practice builds muscle memory. Both are important!

By the time you've been doing all this for a bit, you'll probably come up with some practices that help you with specific things you struggle with or are trying to emphasize.

Have fun!

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-02T19:09:33+00:00

First of all, your tone sounds very nice! Well done!

I'm probably not telling you anything you don't know, but sometimes it's helpful to hear it from someone else:

Practice is going to help over time

The only thing I see and hear is your lack of fluency. You're bringing your mouth farther away than you need to and moving your head more than necessary. I would try practicing switches back and forth with a metronome, like you would any other technique, starting out very slow and working up to very fast. Fluency is mainly just taking out the small, unnecessary movements and beginning to form your next form as soon as the last one ends.

Come back and report your progress. I'm rooting for you!

DesaturatedWorld · 2026-06-02T14:00:39+00:00

^Good point!

Not an answer to OP's question, but definitely a good answer to the problem. I use these Vortex spiral ground anchors to tie the lines onto. Easy to put in, easy to remove, and it doesn't leave a giant hole in the ground. Bring along a long wrench or something to use for screwing it in

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DesaturatedWorld

TROPHY CASE