I gave up on the game I was working on in my last post... After three days of farting around with exactly zero progress to show for it, I realised I just am not the kind of person who can design that kind of game right now.
At which point my brain promptly designed a totally different game.
And now I'm ignoring that in favour of a new project.
I joined in a Kickstarter project for a 3D printer (Printrbot, to be precise) and I'll be getting that sometime in March, most likely. One thing I'm already noticing is that the software available to hobbyists is very functional, but very basic. I'm now looking at building a super-cheap computer to control the printer and provide functionality like job queuing, status monitoring, and whatever else seems interesting.
Since the printer itself doesn't have a powerful-enough onboard computer to do this work, I'm going to have to build one to do that control. I don't want to waste all the space and electricity it would take to run one of my old boxes just for that, so I'm looking into building a little ITX computer to act as a server. I've found the board I want (I think) and I've verified that I can load Linux on it, and I think I know enough of how the normal printer software works to hook in appropriately (or at least shell out to it). There are a few things I need to sort out still but it looks like everything's going to be achievable.
Which means the next thing I need is a case to protect the computer and hopefully mount it directly on to the printer to save space & hassle... which means I need to build a case and some mounting system... which means that my first project when I get my 3D printer will be to build upgrades to my 3D printer. It's amusing me.
In the meantime, I'm keeping my new game idea floating around in the back of my head for consideration. I'll get back to it before long, but for now I've got a shiny new toy distracting the everloving crap out of me.
