A few things done today, a day filled with computer admin work. The day started by preparing the Steam store for Gunstorm II which involved lots of online form filling, sizing graphics etc.
Then, preparation of The Gunstorm Soundtrack, making the Gunstorm E.P. available on Steam, which will be listed as part of the first Gunstorm game. This process took an extraordinary amount of time and work. New graphics were needed, new descriptions, and preparations of new uploads in mp3 and wav format for the album. Integrating it all with Steam took lots of time and complexity too; there are system requirements, content ratings, and all sorts of things, as well as album basics like track lists and credits, track times, cover artwork. I took the opportunity to revise the Flatspace and Flatspace II Soundtrack albums there too, so these now feature music in both mp3 and wav format, and updated some of the descriptions and other things. Before now, these albums were supplied in mp3 only, I think the 'high-quality' format option is relatively new.
This all took until about 4:30pm.
In the day, during break times, I worked a little on the repair for Mike's Zoom Q3. The main power switch was/is faulty, but also the catch for the battery compartment. Yesterday, I sawed a couple of angles of aluminium to make a mould to make a plastic catch from Polymorph (Polycaprolactone), and today, I made it. A first attempt didn't quite work, but a second one seems like it will work. Here is the white part, together with my aluminium mould:
This little 'L' shape will face down and clip on to the battery compartment door, but I need a glue that will hold it, hold the notoriously glue-resistant material Polymorph, and stick to the glassy, glossy smooth surface of the black front of the Zoom. My best guess for a glue is Polystyrene cement, the glue I used to make Airfix models with. It's one glue I don't normally have in stock.
After making this little thing, which needed a lot of sanding and careful shaping, I got back to Gunstorm. I realised that I had no Steam Achievement for completing the full game, so I added one. This was much easier than adding the first game's 'Xodar Defeated' Achievement because I had at least programmed an end to Gunstorm II.
It's been an amazingly hard and busy couple of weeks, this Gunstorm programming. Every day filled with copying and pasting, coding, and other computer admin. This process continues, but will perhaps slow down once Gunstorm 1 & 2 are listed.
I wrote a song yesterday called 'Budgets and Voting', a satirical song with the premise that all politicians care about are those things; whether it can be afforded and whether it is popular - nothing more and nothing less. If something is affordable and popular, a politician will do it without question, and if not, will not.
