Projects
Sometimes I work on miscellaneous projects that don't fit into the categories of writing or drawing. I have collected them here, I hope you get a kick out of them!
Note: As some of these projects (to be specific, Labb Rat and the French Translator) were built before the current website design, they are "stand-alone" and as such I do not intend to revisit the code behind them and update them to match the aesthetic of the rest of the website. Projects like this will have a "toolbar" of site links at the top and will almost certainly not display nicely on mobile devices. Apologies for the lack of consistency!
Discworld Noir: An Annotated Playthrough
Project date: 2009
Discworld Noir is definitely my all-time favourite video game, combining classic film noir and Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld into a memorable (and funny) game.
Rather than talk over the top of the voice acting like in most Let's Plays, I decided to do a "Let's Annotate" instead, utilising YouTube's annotations to add information about noir film/book references and the Discworld.
You can find out more on this page here or go straight to my YouTube channel to watch the videos.
Labb Rat: A Text-Based Adventure Game
Project date: 2010
Originally devised as my final project for my web design university course, it can now be played for free on my website here.
Taking the role of a detective investigating a murder, you find yourself trapped in a mad scientist's diabolical maze - can you make it out alive or will Dr. Labb have the last laugh?
Incidentally, "Dr. Labb" is the alias of a certain Dr. Ralph Smiffington III...
Paint-Your-Own Gromits
Project date: 2013 - 2014
"Gromit Unleashed" was a charity-led event in Bristol featuring over 80 customised Gromit statues (you know, the dog in Wallace and Gromit). One thing that came out of the event was the ability to buy small models of Gromit you could paint and customise yourself. I have done a few myself and put the pics on my blog:
The Silly French Accent Translator
Project date: 2014
There are plenty of silly accent translators on the web, but apparently nobody has ever decided to write one for the funniest accent of all: French!
In all honesty I just wanted a quick and easy way to translate perfectly good English into faux-French gibberish for one of my comic projects, and it just seemed easier to build a tool to do it.
The PAYNEful podSPLOSION
Project date: 2014 - Ongoing
Occasionally I sit down with my other half Sam and talk some nonsense about popular culture. Specifically, films we've seen, video games we've played and comics/books we're reading. It's a bit of fun and each episode has a bonus YouTube version with video accompaniment of us playing video games should that be something you're into.