Global Game Jam 2017

It's Game Jam time again! I haven't participated in a couple of years, but this time my colleagues and I decided to have our own jam site at the office. It's a weird feeling to spend the weekend at the office just drawing, painting and having fun. The idea of a game jam is that games are created within a limited time from scratch.

The team I'm in is working on a god-game where the player controls rain clouds over an island and tries to get water where it is needed and not flood places while doing so. We are working with Unity, so most of the work falls on the programmers, so I've been painting user interface stuff, promo pictures, a logo and basically anything that comes to mind. I'm a trained graphic artist but haven't worked with art in years, so it's always nice to whip out the drawing tablet and do something creative. I also did little whiny sounds for the Rain God's followers, there might not be time to implement those, but it was fun, so why not. Who wouldn't want to whimper in a microphone in the meeting room? ;D

Did I mention I love water colour brushes in Photoshop? Well I do!

So Shiny and Chrome!

For Tracon Sunday my other half and me donned on Mad Max: Fury Road inspired costumes. I can't remember the last time I've gone to see a movie more than one time, but Fury Road had me hooked and I just had to see it in both 2D and 3D. I just love the visual style and how open and unexplained the world is left, there's lots of room for my imagination!

So this is what we came up with no time to make any new props or clothes, with just what we had in our closets. WITNESS ME!

I put this outfit together by grabbing a super cheap Primark top, my other halfs old scarf, Lip Service leggings, Artifice shrug, New Rock boots, a glove, a pair of goggles and a knee pad from my other half's stash and let him choose a couple of airsoft guns to go with the rest of the outfit. 

The make-up is Sugarpill Bulletproof and a camouflage wax paint stick my other half had. The stick is perfect for adding smudges on skin, but too oily for my face.

This is us!

Serious business ;D

I really like how the outfits came out! They are a bit generic, not belonging to any faction shown in the movie, but that's kind of nice. Maybe later I could make something resembling Furiosa's belt or a respirator, to tie the outfits better to the world. But for just using what we had, these are a great achievement!

A Traveller in Time

Greetings from Tracon X, the anime and roleplaying convention held at Tampere for the tenth time! I've been working there with roleplaying games occasionally, game mastering or doing presentations. This year I talked about how roleplaying games, cosplay and video games as hobbies tie in together and what skills can be used in each and did a panel discussion on uplifting cultures in roleplaying games and fiction. Tomorrow I'll be talking about Cities: Skylines, I think this will be the first presentation about the game in Finnish that I've done!

Originally I had not planned to dress up, but I saw so many great costumes at Pax that I got inspired! The theme for Tracon this year was time travel, so I put together a costume from steampunk and Victorian things I had in my closet.

The main thing is the bustle skirt and the matching hat. I paired them with a dress I bought from the flea market some time ago that is the perfect cream colour that works well with the copper orange taffeta of the skirt. On top of the dress I put a steampunk themed harness, strapped some vintage leather pouches on the waist and put a pair of goggles to hang on my neck. The curly red wig seemed like too much of the same shade with the copper orange top I made to match the skirt, but with the cream top part it went really nicely!

My other half dressed up too to be my time-traveling companion!

<3

Come and say hi if you see me tomorrow! I'll put together a different costume, so don't look for a huge orange skirt :) One day of dragging wet hems around is definitely enough ;D

I'm Back!

Whew, what a busy business trip! I had planned to do shopping, but I had no time for that. In the last two days at Cologne the only free time I had I used to wash my hair ;D But it was still fun, it's great to meet fellow game enthusiasts.

Here's a few pictures from my ventures to GDC Europe, Gamescom and the city of Cologne.

Playing Fallout Shelter. I did my nails with an awesome thermo nail polish that goes from black to blue.

Me and a TIE Fighter at Gamescom.

A bathroom selfie from Paradox Fan Gathering.

I had a letter from Urban Decay waiting for me at home, yay!

Möttönen the cat inspecting the loot I brought home. I love my Chirpy plushie with its squished crown!

My vacation is now officially over and I'll be back to business as usual tomorrow. Seems like the summer finally arrived to Finland, but I'll be enjoying the air conditioning at the office ;P

I have a pile of make-up that I want to try out and show you guys! Especially the Colour Pop order that's on its way is very exciting, so expect to have plenty of posts in the future!

Cabals: The Board Game

I used to work for Kyy Games before, and currently they have a very interesting project going on. They have a digital card game, called Cabals, that's set in an alternative 1930's universe and quite popular. Now they are working on a board game version of Cabals and have a Kickstarter campaign.

I met with their game designer during Ropecon last month, he's an old friend of mine and we got the idea that I could design a card for Cabals. I was working on the project when the world for the game was created, and I simply love it! Think of Hellboy, Kult the roleplaying game and Neil Gaiman, alternative, magical realities, that's definitely my thing! The art on the cards is often based on photos, so I could even be on the card itself.

So after some planning, here's Frya Karolina, a medium of the ancient Frisian goddesses!



The final picture will be one of this set, but painted over. The imaginary Frisian goddesses were the keepers of an eternal flame, much like the Vestal virgins of Rome, so I chose to have a lantern as a prop. The lantern is originally saved from a bin at our last apartment, I've held on to it since it's so pretty! The headdress is new, from WGT, by a company called Videnoir. The dress was a last minute find on the flea market table at Ropecon, I thought it would go nicely with some sort of steampunk outfit, but it worked quite nicely for this shoot too. The colours are a bit interesting together, as I just collected things that had the right shape and size, and counted on the wonderful artists at Kyy Games to handle the colour palette. Lets see what they come up with!

In the mean time, take a look at the Cabals Kickstarter campaign!

UPDATE: The Kickstarter is currently closed, but will be back later this year. I'll keep you posted!

Ropecon Outfits

Here's pictures from my extended Helsinki and Espoo trip! Last week I travelled to Helsinki on Monday evening, gave a presentation at the Games First event on Tuesday, went out for dinner with friends on Wednesday, had sushi lunch and went to Kiasma art museum with my brother on Thursday, then checked out the Steam Helsinki bar with the rest of the Ropecon entourage on Thursday evening.

From Friday to Sunday I enjoyed Ropecon, the largest non-commercial roleplaying event in Europe! I've been going to Ropecon for something like fifteen years and it's always lovely. This year was the first time I participated in the costume competition because I had my Demon Hunter armour with me. I also did a few photoshoots in the armour, it's super tiring because it's so heavy to wear, but the results looked gorgeous!

So today I was a good girl and back at the office with work as usual. On Thursday my other half and I are leaving for Leipzig, so no rest for the wicked! And tomorrow I have another photoshoot with the Demon Hunter costume, it will sure feel lovely to wear the huge pauldron when the bruises it left on Saturday are still sore. But what wouldn't I do for some awesome pictures! ;D

Going to Steam Helsinki

Preparing for Ropecon Friday at the hotel.

Friday's Victorian outfit with steam punk-y sunglasses.

I love how well the top made by Tiina of Rogue fits the skirt!

Look at my muscles ;P

Demon Hunter on Saturday.

On Sunday I spent my day in just jeans and a t-shirt for comfort! I always love the variety of stuff to do at Ropecon, this year I learned about the history of piracy, of how Atlas games publishes games, saw a Game of Thrones burlesque performance and listened to a geek choir sing songs from Skyrim, Doctor Who and the Moomins! Nest year Ropecon will be held at Messukeskus, so it's bye bye to Espoo and Dipoli, looking forward to seeing what wonderful things they have there!

Ropecon Saturday and Sunday

Saturday went so fast! I listened to presentations about designing sword fight card game, the life of medieval knights and my personal favourite, roleplaying game designer Vincent Baker's presentation about how to design roleplaying games that don't suck. Then we played some games in the bar, it's been a long time since I've played Once Upon A Time :)

Saturday's outfit.

I bought these earrings from the Flash Market, they are gorgeous!

Another find from the Flash Market, a second hand tiny purse for only 1,50 euros. I love it!

Games!

I had forgotten my dice, but at the info desk they luckily had some to lend out.

Today, on Sunday, I gave my lecture about roleplaying games and video games, and was very surprised that so many people came to listen! I hope everyone learned something, or at least enjoyed it. Now I'm on my way home, on the train, I miss the kitties already!

Me talking about stuff.

Waiting For Spring

After surviving the Global Game Jam, I'm concentrating on waiting for spring. Days are getting longer an there's more light but it's still too damn cold. In a few months I'll plant some seeds, watch them grow and then forget to water them and find them dead. Such is life.

I've done a no-shopping January and did okay, I only bought a sofa, half of a vacuum cleaner and shopped on one weekend (which I had promised myself in December! So it's not cheating!). I'm thinking of trying to buy only ten items in February, but I already have a long list of stuff I want...

Like some more false lashes! I'm looking for something like the third pair from top, something full but not too long. Maybe some cheap ones from ebay, or if I'm feeling rich I'll shop at Madame Madeline. Last time I got  a latex-free glue by Revlon and I've been really pleased with it. 

Picture from mystylebell.com

Cool shoes! These are by DSquared and are waayyy out of my price range, but they look awesome. I have my eye on some replicas, if I can find ones that look decent and don't fall apart the instant I put them on my feet.

Melissa Amazonas shoes have been on my wish list for some time. I have purple flat peep toe shoes by Melissa, but they are a bit too small for me and haven't stretched at all. The material is very nice so I might splurge on the Amazonas in black once summer arrives.

Also on my list are some Lime Crime lipsticks. I wouldn't touch their eyeshadows and the new upcoming palette doesn't interest me, but the lipsticks in Styletto (black) and Chincilla (grey) look nice. I'm also fond of the packaging. I don't own anything by Lime Crime at the moment and might look into finding some other good black lipstick as a substitute. I have one from Evil Shades, but it's gone dry because I didn't close the cap tightly enough :(

I'm also drooling over Detrivore Cosmetics eyeshadows, I have to have Livor Mortis!

Bonus pics from the Game Jam! Here I'm giving a pecha kucha presentation on lolcats. The subject was free and I only had two days to prepare, so in the end I chose kitties because everyone loves kitties! 

Lolcats make me lol

A picture of the game we made. We had five people working for 48 hours and we did an epic sledding game for Windows Phone, it's called Samuel L. Jackson's Super Sledding '86. The inspiration was Nintendo era sports games which usually had some sports celebrity's name on the cover but the games was just regular golf or basket ball game. Well, our's has Samuel L. Jackson all through it! His face is on the could, on trees, he's sledding and giving commands. We had tons of fun!

 You can download the Windows version here: Samuel L. Jackson's Super Sledding '86 It's super easy, because the game is optimized for the phone, but I thought it was still quite fun.

Samuel is doing an awesome stunt