< HELLO WORLD! >

Yes, that is a CSS coded NES cartridge I did for fun! (And it's responsive!)

Yes, I am a nerd.

Welcome to pxlscape.  I created this site as a sandbox for a few ideas floating around in my noggin.  There are a variety of projects that I have created for purposes like Halloween, or just to help my kids do better in school.  I hope you enjoy your time here!

Click the cartridge to learn more about me, or check out some of my projects bellow!

< /HELLO WORLD! >
< Pokemon Launcher 3000 >

This project was something I put together for my Halloween haunt a few years back when Pokemon Go was at it's height of popularity.  Utilizing a USB LED sensor bar, and creating a "Pokeball Launcher" using a Wiimote, players would have to gauge the power level and launch pitch in order to capture the randomly selected Pokemon on the play field. The Wiimote emulated mouse movement and click, which allowed players to "aim".

It was fun to see kids give it a go, then put their minds into thinking what angles, and power levels were needed to launch a Pokeball successfully. The handouts that year were Pokemon cards, and I had a line up down the sidewalk for several houses from mine.  All in all a fun haunt for that year.

All images and sounds are copyright of their respective owners, I claim no ownership of any creative materials used in this fan project, it was just for fun!

< /Pokemon Launcher 3000 >
< Unisquid Spelling Challenge >

This is a project that I whipped together to help my then 7-year-old with his weekly spelling lists. The Unisquid character was something he came up with and drew all the time, so I decided to go with his drawings, creates some pixel art and gamify his learning.  The other characters are also of his creation and design, so all credit goes to my son's wonderful imagination and creativity.  I just refined them a bit.

There was a plan to implement accounts for teachers so that they could make their own lists available to their own classes, however it's a pretty large endeavour and has been placed on hold unless there is a lot of interest in this project, all of which, would be free of charge.  Again, this game was borne out of interest to help my son, but if it could help others, I'm open to the possibilities.

< /Unisquid Spelling Challenge >
< Paul The Ball Digital Puppet >

Paul the Ball was my first attempt at a digital puppet, and really just an exercise for myself to see what could be possible.  My kids enjoyed just making silly faces and giving him a voice.  This experience eventually gave way to a few iterations of digital puppets I now use for my Halloween haunts, most notably "Boo" from the Super Mario video games.

< /Paul The Ball Digital Puppet >
< Boo Digital Puppet >

Inspired by the Magic Mirror Digital puppet I've been using for years on Halloween, I decided to create a "Boo" puppet for my 2015 Super Mario Halloween theme.  This is the digital puppet version, where a combination of PHP and jquery is used to bind keystrokes to JavaScript animations. 

Boo can look in all directions, change expressions, has mouth control, and can even change outfits.  All in all a fun and successful project that I will build on in the future.

All images and sounds are copyright of their respective owners, I claim no ownership of any creative materials used in this fan project, it was just for fun!

< /Boo Digital Puppet >