iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 25/12/2025

My basque cheesecake turned out perfect 👌 The giant crack doesn’t matter. Look at the color!!

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 16/12/2025

This is my semi-annual Bluesky check in. 👋

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 25/01/2025

I do a lot of my art through video game dev now, but I also post my pottery and portraits 👋

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 25/01/2025

Small update on the #UE5 project. Haven’t had much time this week to put towards it, but I’m almost finished with this black hole material! #indiegamedev #gamedev #unrealengine #art #space

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 13/01/2025

Quick asteroid placeholders made in blender and thrown into #UE5. They look pretty good with some random rotation and sizes but they'll look even better with more mesh variations. #gamedev #unrealengine #space

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 12/01/2025

Making small steps towards building out the background. We scrapped the original skysphere implementation for nebulas. They were far too big and an unnecessary waste because the camera only looks down the -Z axis. #gamedev #unrealengine #UE5 #space

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 07/01/2025

My dev partner (@dasmfta) is fighting illness at the moment so I haven’t had a solid opportunity to work in-engine with him just yet. So nothing here is guaranteed to make it into the game. (The grid warps under the ship’s mass like the fabric of spacetime btw 🙃) #UE5 #unrealengine #gamedev #space

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 05/01/2025

Here’s another nebula created in #Blender3D for our #UE5 project. Hoping to see how well they work in engine today. These could work really well as phone wallpapers too 🙂 #gamedev #unrealengine #space

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 05/01/2025

Spent all day building a shader in #Blender to create nebula textures for the #UE5 project. First render 😍 8K size #space #ADHDactivities

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 30/12/2024

Excuse the sloppy cropping & compression Got the new modular ship modeled, UV’s mapped, and imported into #UE5. Started on a legitimate master material for instancing. I’d like to be able to quickly adjust paint patterns, distressing, and colors. Maybe in-game for the player too? #gamedev #lowpoly

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 29/12/2024

A friend from high school reached out after seeing my little project in Unreal Engine. Long story short, my art + his programming background = OUR #UE5 project being taken a little more seriously? Anyway, I’m completely overhauling the ship modeling for modularity. 😅 #gamedev #blender #lowpoly

A low poly model of a fighter space ship in Blender, shown in 4 different perspectives and in a temporary but vibrant purple color

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 05/12/2024

🫥 Even at their cleanest, blueprint event graphs are... a lot. #gamedev #ue5 #unrealengine

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 04/12/2024

When I say, “I miss the Marine Corps” this is what I mean 😂 #usmc

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 04/12/2024

I wish every post-game NHL interview was like this 😂 Loving this version of the Minnesota Wild #toptitty #hockey #nhl #wild #minnesota

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 30/11/2024

Coffee orders will be a little delayed going out today. We got some snow and nobody remembers how to drive in it.

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 29/11/2024

We’re running our holiday sale on coffee now! Gift yourself and loved ones some specialty coffee. It’s a great stocking stuffer. Just saying :)

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 26/11/2024

I LIED! Next thing was to add a gun element to the HUD. and a bunch of dots that don't do anything on the damage element.

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 26/11/2024

A little more work on the HUD before moving on to something else. Unreal Engine’s UI designer is unintuitive & frustrating af to work in. I think enemies and enemy AI are the next thing to tackle. Need something to shoot at (and have shoot back!) #gamedev #indiegamedev #ue5 #space #gaming

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 24/11/2024

Working on the HUD now. - Subtle movement parallax on HUD - Compass bar, but no degrees indicated on it yet. - Running game timer. Not sure about it mechanics-wise just yet. - Score text is a placeholder. No functionality yet. - Pew pew audio! #gamedev #indieganedev #UE5 #UnrealEngine #gaming

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 21/11/2024

Put some time towards my little UE5 project yesterday: - Made a new ship - Added projectile firing - Created a health system with health bar, damage application, healing, death, and respawn management. - Tweaked ship speed, acceleration, and handling #gamedev #UE5 #UnrealEngine

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 19/11/2024

Concerning that it’s almost December and I’m still harvesting peppers and herbs from the garden.

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 08/11/2024

Been toying around in Unreal Engine 5 again! Started something, but not sure what it’ll be yet. I’ve got a few systems working: - Dynamic camera, speed driven zoom in/out and lag behind - Thrusters, speed & orientation driven - Ship roll on strafing - Health system (not shown) #gamedev

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 08/11/2024

Might end up crossposting here as well. I’m usually on Threads, but it’s looking a lot like 2016 Twitter did at the moment. Anyway, I ran a 10K recently and smashed my last PR. Also got some very flattering finish line photos #running #fitness #strava

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 22/09/2023

Got to see them in a basement venue that felt like the size of a large bedroom back in 2006. It was amazing!

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 03/08/2023

My favorite reads this year: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

The book cover of Sea of Tranquility by Emily Saint John Mandel. The art depicts a forested landscape with a moon peaking over the horizon. The entire image is fuzzy and subdued in color from an overlay of static noise.

The books cover of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. The art depicted is the famous Great Wave off Kanagawa, overlayed with the title of the book and stacked, rainbow lettering.

The book cover of Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey. The title lettering is in bright pink, laid over art of a massive space ship trailing an asteroid.

The book cover of Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. The art depicts an alien looking plant of flower, growing between the lettering of the title. A dragonfly hover over the plant.

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 03/08/2023

I’ve read more books this year than my last 5 years combined. Go me!

A screenshot of Aaron’s past Goodreads reading challenges. In 2022 he read 8 out of 8 books. 2021, 8/10 books. 2019, 3/10 books. 2018, 2/10 books.

A screenshot of Aaron’s 2023 Goodreads reading challenge. He’s read 32 of 20 books and is 21 books ahead of schedule.

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 24/07/2023

So Twitter didn’t like my joke about Elon?

Screenshot of Aaron’s twitter homepage that says “your account is suspended”

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 23/07/2023

Twitter has essentially broken my account

A screenshot of Aaron’s tweet saying, “My account is stuck in some sort of limbo between active and suspended. @TwitterSupport @Twitter any help and/or idea of what’s going on?

People can’t see my replies to tweets and they’re not seeing notifications of my likes or retweets.

Verified by multiple followers now.”

Supplemented with screenshots of other tweets and every response by Aaron is missing, with “This tweet is unavailable” in its place instead.

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 22/07/2023

Twitter is hiding my comments within threads again. As if I’ve been suspended. (Who knows? Maybe I have been lol)

A comment by aaronarted in response to his wife that has been removed on Twitter and says “This Tweet is unavailable. Learn more”

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 07/07/2023

Now is Disney’s chance to launch their own social media where your feed is presented as an ever-scrolling Star Wars opening crawl.

The Star Wars: Episode 5 The Empire Strikes Back opening Text crawl. Yellow texts scrolls from the bottom of the screen, to the top, in a fashion that makes it appear to fade off into the distance of space.

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 03/07/2023

I'm in a perpetual cycle of creative inaction and I have no idea how to get the fuck out of it. I will dream up ideas all day & night, for weeks or months on end but never execute on those ideas. I simply don't have the energy or motivation to follow through and it's killing me.

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 03/07/2023

Is their name Bean?? My dog’s name is Bean!

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 27/06/2023

Between Two Fires: One of my favs. A dark fantasy horror novel set in 1300’s France at the height of the Black Plague. It follows the journey of a disgraced knight, abandoned priest, & orphan girl to Avignon. Some of the creepiest scenes I’ve read by any author. Stuck with me well after reading.

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aaronarted @aaronarted.foundfamiliar.com · 24/06/2023

Show me your pets as babies vs. now (please) Little Volo 👉 Big Volo

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