I like making things. Sometimes the small things I do or make or say turn into larger things than I anticipate. That can be super fun and gratifying when it happens in a non-terrible way! Here, I’m planning to collate some of those things and put my thoughts and feelings down so I can share the gratitude I feel and let folks know that I’m often honored and amazed at the ripple effect created by my projects.
(This page is a work in progress. I’m not trying to snub anyone, so if you’ve made something cool with a project of mine, feel free to email me to jog my memory.)
Puzzles
Haunted Mirror Mazes
Haunted Mirror Mazes are a puzzle type I invented based on Mirror Puzzles by Erich Friedman. (I hope he gets some joy out of my spinoff of his creation!)
Otto Janko added it to his puzzle site under the name Spukschloss and created a Java applet to display and play the puzzles.
My friend Luke worked with me to create an iPhone version of the puzzle as an app, way back when the iPhone was still pretty young, retina displays weren’t a thing yet, and I don’t think iPad was even out yet.
My friend RoseDragon created a Flash game version of the puzzle, which saw a decent array of features on Flash game aggregators in the later years of Flash’s existence.
Steffen Bauer coded a generator and UI to make and play Haunted Mirror Mazes and placed it in Simon Tatham’s Portable Puzzle Collection under the name Undead. It’s free and has been ported to many platforms including iOS.
Jim Bumgardner created a generator for printable versions of the puzzle and worked with illustrator Catherine Yi to make great Halloween puzzle sheets available.
ErikSi made a physical version of the puzzle using tiles and printouts to make an interactive game.
Area 51
Area 51 puzzles are a mashup of loop-building puzzle varieties slitherlink, corral, masyu, and wolf/sheep logic, which I themed as an alien base in the desert.
I was told the format was used (and I was given a shout-out) in Puzzle Boat 9, a currently-ongoing puzzle contest by Foggy Brume/Panda Magazine.
Tabletop RPG
Dave’s Mapper
Dave’s Mapper is an open-source map creation app that I spun off from a simple Javascript tool created by Rob Lang and used by Dyson Logos and Risus Monkey that arranged and combined their geomorph map tiles to form larger maps. I originally fixed some issues where wider maps would wrap instead of forming a sufficiently wide map, then added very simple randomized rotation, and submitted a bugfix. Shortly thereafter, I sought permission to use the artists’ tiles and the script and run with it, adding support to use multiple artists’ tiles at once, sort and filter tiles by artist and type, modify the map in situ with rotation, swapping, and replacement tools, and export to PNG.