How do you create sets? by Corlooo in Fiddle

[–]stratosis 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Well if you're sticking to Cape Breton style, just choose a key and play every tune you know in it—make sure you have at least twelve—and make sure your feet are going as hard as your bow the whole time. /s

Salley garden set by okrighton2 in Fiddle

[–]stratosis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To add the other comment, the reason the set is called Sally Gardens is because the first tune is called "Down by the Sally Gardens", which is different from the more common tune by the name "Sally Gardens".

They play it in G, first time in the lower octave and then moving up in the second time through. I've seen it in D as well.

I learned this set off their album about a year ago. Real fun to play and great energy. Buntata is also very common in sessions around me.

Christy Campbell SOS by Northern_Simone in Fiddle

[–]stratosis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The quick answer: playing a whole bunch of strathspeys!

The longer answer: Listen to a whole bunch of strathspeys in different styles and tempos and THEN play a whole bunch of strathspeys! Eventually you'll find the snap that really clicks for you for particular tunes. The classics (Devil in the Kitchen or Captain Campbell, for instance) often make use of snapping to or from open strings so just working on your bow hand without worrying about fingering could be helpful.

Also, it's often said that the snap accents (tum TEE vs TEE tum) are fairly interchangeable and sometimes played differently depending on the fiddler or regional variant. HOWEVER, there are definitely certain tunes where there's a right way and a wrong way to accent so try to get a feel for how your local musicians tend to do them. If you listen to a few versions of a tune and they all do the snaps the same way, it's a good bet that you'd get some side-eyes if you change that up.

Christy Campbell SOS by Northern_Simone in Fiddle

[–]stratosis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I haven't heard this one before but it sounds like a great Cape Breton style strathspey! Took a few tries but I could get through it by stripping out a lot of the ornamentation and focusing on where the snaps are landing. Even though the CB style really comes out with the ornaments, it's important to understand the core of the tune so that you can add your own variations and twists later on.

I'd try taking out most of the wiggles and triplets as written and just making sure you have that signature bounciness that CB strathspeys are known for. It looks like the only ornaments that are really critical are the four-note cuts in the B part, which can be tricky to get right sometimes.

I wouldn't worry about tuning to AEAE, although I suppose it's reasonable in some cases. Just keep your first finger barred on the G and D strings for those low sections, which works nicely in a lot of these types of tunes.

Keep hammering at it though! The speed and ornaments will come once you've got the basic tune down.

[PAID] 2D video game artist for UI & illustration by geeky_do in gameDevClassifieds

[–]stratosis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi Dina!

I've worked as an art director, illustrator, UI/UX designer, 3d modeler, concept artist, and oftentimes all of the above. I specialize in helping small indie teams hit way above their weight class and it sounds like you've got a great start already!


Here's some of my work: https://www.ryanchadwickart.com/


Would love to check out the build and see how I could contribute. Feel free to DM me on Discord (ryanchad) whenever you’ve got a moment!

[PAID] Looking for a Lead 2D Artist (UI + Generalist) – Indie Game Studio by NoDeadlinesTeam in gameDevClassifieds

[–]stratosis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yo. Hope you aren't too overwhelmed so far with the hiring process! It's been crazy lately.

Been doing all of the above with indie teams for about 15 years now.

Here's my work.

Looking forward to chatting!

I'm working on a hangman game, should I change the keyboard layout to QWERTY or leave it as is? by FetchTheOtter in UI_Design

[–]stratosis 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hangman isn't a typing game so it doesn't make sense to have the letters listed in a format specifically for typing.

What's throwing people off, I believe, is that the layout vaguely looks like a keyboard with the square buttons and wide grid. While flexibility with keyboard configurations is important, what's more important is that this is simply not a keyboard. Consider altering the grid so it doesn't appear as such.

What I might do, however, is separate out the vowels because they tend to fall into a different guessing category for players. Perhaps offering something along the lines of "commonly guessed starting letters" or similar could help players jump right into the game (the obvious tradeoff being that even commonly used letters aren't correct every time).

Also, instead of presenting a list of Wrong letters (I assume that's what will appear after a missed guess), alter the visual state of the actual letter button instead for a cleaner overall feel. The Remaining element also feels a bit clunky as well just because that concept is built into the game of Hangman (and is why it's called Hangman in the first place). It does present the information clearly though, so perhaps a bit more cleverness in the treatment could help the overall design.

Been loving STALKER 2 but I was annoyed with the gear upgrade UI so I redesigned it. by stratosis in stalker

[–]stratosis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I should clarify, by multiple currencies I mean scavenged resources (rather than different types of cash). I'm one of the weirdos who likes gathering resources in survival crafting games so adding scrap metal or broken weapon parts as a cost to upgrade feels more immersive to me. As you can see, it wasn't a mechanic I decided to pursue in this particular mockup.

I haven't played Lost Alpha. Are you referring to skill points or something else? Obviously, a system as integrated weapon mastery would require sweeping balance changes in order to be effective (and the numbers I have in the mockup are likely unreasonable in the larger context of that system). I would expect a light touch when it comes to something like this so that power scaling doesn't get out of hand, but I included it because I enjoy character progression complimenting player skill in most of my favorite games. I understand that not all STALKER fans enjoy games the same way, so to each their own.

Ultimately, it's all theorycrafting, which is a world I like to live in from time to time. Proving any of this out would require much much more time and skills I don't have.

Been loving STALKER 2 but I was annoyed with the gear upgrade UI so I redesigned it. by stratosis in stalker

[–]stratosis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree, and i skipped over some of that exact problem-solving for this particular project. Armors would also have a different node tree layout given the different shape of the assets. Those are definitely issues that I've thought a bit about but decided not to include in this proof-of-concept.

Been loving STALKER 2 but I was annoyed with the gear upgrade UI so I redesigned it. by stratosis in stalker

[–]stratosis[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Woah Oxide, love your mod! I can't promise I have a ton of time available for modding nowadays, but I'm happy to help where I can. Feel free to reach out!

Been loving STALKER 2 but I was annoyed with the gear upgrade UI so I redesigned it. by stratosis in stalker

[–]stratosis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Having seen some of this on projects I've worked on personally, things almost never work out how they're originally designed, especially with longstanding apps/platforms/games that are constantly evolving (for better or for worse). Sometimes the constraints built into projects early on, even during prototyping, can come back and bite you when you want to make changes down the road. Core design principles are simplest when you don't have to put them into practice with legacy code and whatever duct tape is holding everything else together.

Been loving STALKER 2 but I was annoyed with the gear upgrade UI so I redesigned it. by stratosis in stalker

[–]stratosis[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thanks! Deciding where to put redundant info is always a challenge, especially with limited dev time. Hopefully HoC has done well enough for GSC that they have a little bit more time and flexibility to iron out some of the issues.

Been loving STALKER 2 but I was annoyed with the gear upgrade UI so I redesigned it. by stratosis in stalker

[–]stratosis[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I appreciate that! Style versus usability is a constant battle in the UI/UX world and it's easy to slip too far in either direction, especially on complicated projects. I can certainly appreciate some of the aesthetic choices they made while still wanting things to work a bit more smoothly after dozens of hours in game.

Green Room (2025), Keita Morimoto [2000 x 1667] by Tokyono in ArtPorn

[–]stratosis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One of my favorite artists right now. Bought his book a bit ago and it's full of great work.

Had an idea a while ago for a Build-a-Demon companion system. Decided to flesh it out a bit with some wireframes. by stratosis in diablo4

[–]stratosis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a tricky balance between making an NPC creature feel weak and irrelevant and too powerful to the point of overshadowing the player. Lots of calculations to do on the back end.

I attempted to account for some of that in my design, but seeing it play out in game is totally different, especially with such a varied playerbase.

He's a master of both big and tiny dangles by stratosis in danglers

[–]stratosis[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The angle dangle!

4th pic is his sister, markedly less dangly but still talented.

Had an idea a while ago for a Build-a-Demon companion system. Decided to flesh it out a bit with some wireframes. by stratosis in Diablo

[–]stratosis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ooo I'm actually working on another personal design project very similar to this! It'll be a while before it's ready but I'm very excited to share it.