Chris Allcock

@taskbaarchitect

Writer and Video Game Designer for hire. Wrangles words, finds fun. Opinions are my own!

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Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· 20d

This is my new favourite thing.

Inside a dimly-lit tavern, a green lizard sits on the bar, being observed by a woman in red.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· 20d

Larinna deserves an award for her masterful mango acting, and finally she can have one!

A dark-haired female pirate leaning against a wall stands next to a lamp and a barrel (with some rope and an award statue on it) against a blue sky. A ship is visible behind her.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· 26d

I've been giving Star Trek Voyager: Across the Unknown a try. It's very compelling, but the writing can be all over the place. They've got Tuvok down, same with Neelix, and then you get someone like B'Elanna who sounds like she's from the TOS Gangster Planet.

The bridge of Voyager, mostly brown and grey, with several bright schematics of the ship visible behind Tom Paris, Kathryn Janeway and B'Elanna Torres.

A text box from B'Elanna reads: "You managed to get something. You Starfleet don't know how to fight, but you sure talk good."

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· 29d

A bonus for #DrawMerryDay as I finally force myself to learn how Photoshop's pen tool works. I even took notes! Will that help future-me? No. Anyway, here's Merry as jittery jester Pomni from The Amazing Digital Circus.

A frightened young woman in a jester costume. She has green eyes, a purple bow, and a blue and red costume with yellow trim. Based on Merry from Merry Hell, and Pomni from The Amazing Digital Circus.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· 29d

For @stuartgipp.bsky.social's #DrawMerryDay I decided to think outside the box and inside the blocks... #Minecraft

A map on a wall in Minecraft showing an image of Merry, a brown-haired girl with a purple bow, red top and blue jeans. There is red kanji to her right roughly translating to "cheerful person".

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· Jul 13

Seeya, tree mate. #FinalFantasyV #FourJobFiesta

The final boss battle in Final Fantasy V. A green background speeding by can be seen behind a purple portal on the left, from which a huge abominable creature is reaching. A white mage, time mage, bard and chemist face it.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· Jul 7

A screencap of Principal Skinner from the Simpsons episode "22 Short Films About Springfield", standing in front of a window in which a fast food restaurant is framed. His expression is cunning as he declares "What if I were to remove the Super FX Chip? Ho-ho-ho, delightfully devilish!"

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· Jul 5

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· Jul 4

I see what you're doing here, Minishoot Adventures...

A top-down view of a small spaceship, at a junction with a cave in the top-left corner and three paths to the north, east and west. The spaceship has three hearts.

It looks like it would be dangerous to go alone.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· Jun 28

Me, twenty minutes after Caine appeared and asked "Who's ready to go on an ADVENTURE?!"

A Sea of Thieves pirate stands morosely in a hot tub, surrounded by stools, gunpowder and a maelstrom of dead, flying Splashtails.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· Jun 25

Today is apparently #makeaterriblecomicday, so here's one I made earlier:

A two panel comic. In the first, Agnes, a pig in a green dress from Animal Crossing, tells the player "Surprise gift exchange! Here, take Aran-knit cardigan!"

In the second, Samus Aran, in her trademark red helmet and orange combat suit, struggles with knitting.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· Jun 19

Sega launch sonic-me.com, delivering a (human-only) avatar editor with customisation options that can charitably be described as "minimalist" and more accurately described as "shite". If the background wasn't Green Hill Zone, I'd have assumed this was the opening titles of a C4 sitcom about gamers.

A pixelated homunculus wielding a gigantic mug stands defiantly, resisting the innate pointlessness of its own existence.

It has unkempt brown hair and a goatee, glasses, a red T-shirt with Knuckles on it, black trousers and shoes. The background is Green Hill Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog with blue skies, green hills, palm trees and lush grass.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· Jun 18

My #FFVFJF line-up for this year: White Mage! Time Mage. Bard!! Chemist!!! Me entering any battle:

An image of the Tenth Doctor from Doctor Who, floating surrounded by a field of pure magical energy, unleashing a beam of energy from his hand.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· Jun 16

I broke the habit of a lifetime and got really *nerdy* earlier, because I wanted to check something. There's every chance that 2028/29 will be the first year that we haven't had one of either Star Trek and/or Doctor Who on TV/movie screens in some form... since 1963. Yikes. (Stargate for flavour.)

A timeline showing Doctor Who, its spin-offs and movies, next to Star Trek, its spin-offs and movies, and Stargate just for funsies. It stretches from 1963 to 2026.

Yes, I know I forgot the two made-for-TV Stargate movies. I think most people did.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· Jun 13

Dug up the Super Play issue cited, with Ted Woolsey:

An interview with Ted Woolsey. Of particular interest is the right-most column where he's asked about Final Fantasy V, which reads:

Q) Final Fantasy VI is going to be released as Final Fantasy III in the US, with FFVI being held over 'till 1995 to be released as a separate game. Could you explain this decision, and tell us about the games themselves?

A) The Final Fantasy series basically has two separate tracks: the odd series (FFI, FFIII and FFV) are controller command drive games, whereas the even series are more story line driven games. As for FFV though, well although we're sure it's a great title it hasn't been a hit with too many people in our focus grousp, although experienced gamers loved the complex character building - it's just not accessible enough to the average gamer. But, we're determined we want to release it so we're going to wait and introduce it once there's a larger audience for its particular style. Hence the wait.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· Jun 11

It's taken me this long to realise why I found the #OoT Remake model so off-putting and yet slightly familiar...

Link, asleep on his bed in Ocarina of Time.

An uncanny shell of Link, formed by playing the Elegy of Emptiness in Majora's Mask.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· Jun 6

Well... I took some comparison footage but it turns out -- surprise! -- there's no Disney+ account on BlueSky. For me this is inconvenient, for others it could render the service useless. So while I chase, enjoy these shots: the largest I can make it on my PC, and the only option on my TV via Xbox.

A King of the Hill screenshot from the Disney+ app.

A photo of a camera showing the Disney+ app on Xbox.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· Jun 4

Still very much a #Minecraft work-in-progress but this is the Nether Hub entrance to what'll be my cyberpunk city and building something this dense is *exhausting*.

A cyberpunk skyscraper in Minecraft made of grey stone with a black connecting sky tunnel and lots of neon lights.

A cyberpunk skyscraper in Minecraft made of grey stone with a black connecting sky tunnel and lots of neon lights. Two big billboards are visible.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· May 28

I remember once having a long conversation with DK64 software engineer Simon about the various text formatting options he'd put into the code. The English script hardly made use of them but the Japanese localisers created what he described as "a rainbow of text". Some examples clipped from YouTube:

Squawks talks to Donkey Kong outside of his treehouse. All of the text is purple.

Squawks talks to Donkey Kong outside of his treehouse. Most of the text is purple but a couple of words are red.

In his lab, Cranky berates DK. All of the text is purple.

In his lab, Cranky berates DK. Most of the text is purple but some is a vibrant green.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· May 23

An episode title card in the style of Star Trek: The Animated Series. The text reads "Big Spock Will Return .. Avengers: Doomsday"

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· May 22

Okay, Yoshi and the Amazing book, everyone says you’re for kids but maybe you’ll—

An image of Yoshi and the Amazing Book. Three plants have cleavage.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· May 21

It's MAY, for fuck's sake. At least we doubled-down on green energy sources to provide-- oh. Well at least there isn't an-- oh. Oh.

A temperature graph for the next week reading predicted temperatures, in Celsius, of 27, 24, 27, 30, 30, 28 and 27.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· May 18

Presenting the first in my experimental new series, SHATFACTS! #SHATFACT #001: William Shatner portrayed Captain James T. Kirk in the American sci-fi series, 'Star Trek'. Be sure to follow and subscribe so as never to miss a #SHATFACT. Cheers!

Canadian actor William Shatner, on set as Captain James T. Kirk in cult sci-fi failure, Star Trek.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· May 14

And with this bizarre setup I do dub thee, #Balatro, beaten with every deck on Gold Stake. Arise, Sir Completionist+.

A Balatro game showing various cards and jokers against a red swirling background. A flush is selected.

A Balatro game showing a very unbalanced deck of cards, there are 51 hearts and only 22 other suits.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· May 12

I've been going hands-on with upcoming features in Insiders today, so that I can write about the details with confidence. But hey, the NDA's gone, so let's all enjoy this ethereal emerald escort from an angle you might not have seen it before!

The Ferry of the Damned from Sea of THieves. A battered galleon bathed in glowing green light rests upon a ghoulish sea of mist. The Sea of Thieves Insider watermark is visible in the top-centre of the image.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· May 10

A man trying to complete the final Gold Stake deck in #Balatro will do some very silly things. (Oh, look, the Boss Blind is "all Spade Cards debuffed"...)

A deck of cards in Balatro, in which over 40 are the Spades suit.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· May 9

I can have some Dizzy, as a treat.

A small box with a number of games pictured on it, and Dizzy the egg sitting on an Evercade.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· May 7

Five years ago in #Minecraft, I made a quick lava farm using dripstone (as well as a basalt generator) in a cave deep beneath my megabase. Tonight, I've finally gotten around to giving it a quick glow-u! (Fitting for the glow squid farm I want in the next room...)

A Minecraft cave of gray stone bricks. A brown pointed dripstock stalactite is dripping red lava into a cauldron. It's a mess.

A Minecraft cave of gray stone and tuff bricks. A grey central pillar is surrounded by workstations and a large foundry, complete with multiple lava cauldrons.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· May 5

Another clean-up #Minecraft project from the Bank Holiday, this makes an amethyst geode a lot easier to AFK at and mine. Also it's purdy.

A Minecraft screenshot. Pink and magenta glass blocks surround pinkish amethyst clusters growing out of purple amethyst buds in all directions. Beyond the glass is darkness.

Chris Allcock@taskbaarchitect· May 2

Using the power of audiobooks to finish the most stupidly detailed connecting corridor of my life. #Minecraft