Author: kara

It’s been a while!
It’s been a bit, hasn’t it? My last post went up around my birthday – though age is just a number until your back starts hurting, and life has been a total whirlwind ever since. Between the constant “life things” and navigating a few hurdles, I haven’t had much time to breathe, let alone write.

The biggest update, however, is that I’ve finally made some massive breakthroughs with the game systems for DAPAUE, my detective project. It’s starting to feel like a real mystery now.

Spent a lot of time smoothing out systems and happy how everything is coming along!
byu/DAPAUE ingodot

As you can probably tell, the game looks completely different now—most notably, it’s officially moved into 3D. I started feeling like the “Investigative Desktop Sim” genre was getting a bit stale; there are so many variations popping up lately that the space really needs a fundamental shift. This is my attempt to shake things up.

Inspired by the atmospheric storytelling of Gone Home and Virginia, DAPAUE casts you as a moderately respected agent sent to investigate a string of mysterious murders in a coastal Irish town. You’ll be:
- Interacting with a cast of suspicious characters.
- Collecting physical clues from the environment.
- Connecting the threads on your own evidence board to uncover the truth.
I’m aiming for a grounded, practical approach to detective work. That means zero hand-holding. There’s no “ding” when you find the right answer; in fact, you won’t even know if you’ve actually solved the case. I’m leaving that for the player community to debate and figure out together.

Obsidian Plugin!

In other news, I officially released my very first Obsidian plugin on GitHub today! It’s called Tab Colors, and it does exactly what you’d expect: it lets you assign custom colors to your tabs.

It does exactly as the name suggests. Let’s you assign a custom color to tabs!

This started as a classic “I wish this existed” passion project. I’ve wanted this feature in Obsidian for ages. Inspired by the Adaptive Tab Bar Color, but wanting something more like OneNote where I can choose my own colors for tabs, I decided to try my hand at making one for Obsidian which happens to be my favorite notes app.

Also it works in darkmode!

Feel free to check it out and make some suggestions. I’ve already started working on some more features like tag assigned color, and some note background options.

Hopefully will get into a better habit of updating this site, it’s suppose to be my personal version of social media, but I guess no social media is better than any social media.

K
2026-04-11
Dev Entry 02: // Big Swap to Godot

So, if you’ve been following the madness that is my attempt at building a game, you’ll know I started out determined to do the whole thing in raw HTML5 and JavaScript. I was convinced I could build a working game just using the Canvas API.

I was wrong. I was very, very wrong. But learned so much!

HTML is great for a lot of things. If you want to make a website or a simple little puzzle game, you’re sorted. But I was trying to build something with a bit of depth, specifically with state management, but as soon as I tried doing anything outside of direct interaction, it got difficult and to reliant on the user which isn’t efficient.

I spent weeks just trying to get an asset to not jitter when the game would load, or not bork the entire log on experience because a core feature had a slight error. I was looking at thousands of lines of spaghetti code thinking trying to segment the then 13,000 line HTML file into modular JS scripts.

I felt like I was trying to build a house with nothing but a spoon. You could do it, technically, but you’d lose the will to live halfway through the foundation.

Take it to the past few days.

I wanted to add features HTML “can” but not adequately support. Game saves, dynamic animations, and possible 3D inclusion were things I wanted to add but HTML always felt that although it’s possible, it was incredibly janky!

So I looked at the obvious, and decided to use a Game Engine. I had used many throughout the year to mess around with and learn, the first being the NetImmerse engine all the way back in 2003 when I was a die-hard Morrowind player. But more recently I had been looking at the GODOT engine,

Godot is a Game Engine. A piece of software that handles all the heavy-lifting like maths, physics, rendering graphics – so you can focus on making or designing the level and systems. It’s also free (like free beer) and is open source with a passionate community behind it. You own what you make.

The first thing that I found incredibly more efficient is the Node system. Instead of having one massive script file, everything is broken down into these tidy little scenes. You have a scene for your email system, a scene for the notifications, even a scene for the basic window system you see for image and 3D attachments. You just slot them together like Lego.

And the scripting language is called GDScript. If you’ve ever used Python, you’ll be comfortable. It’s readable, with little if ever any need to have curly brackets everywhere or semicolons waiting to trip you up. You just write what you want the thing to do, and it does it.

I rewrote an email mechanic that took me over a week with HTML and JavaScript but only about a single day in Godot. A day! I nearly cried.

So anyway I’ve currently the email and files system completed alongside some creative decisions. Now I’m focusing on the evidence board concept.

2026-02-12
Dev Entry: 01// DAPAUE_OS

I’ve been making steady progress on my latest project – a game played entirely through a simulated desktop interface. The core loop involves digging through the digital remains of a clandestine government organization to uncover their darkest secrets.

While I’m really happy with the “look and feel” of the operating system, I’ve hit a bit of a creative crossroads with the granular details. Designing the world within the interface such as character portraits for employee IDs, environmental shots in leaked files, and the visual branding of top-secret departments has been more challenging than expected. The goal is to make these elements feel authentic to the world without breaking the immersion of the desktop aesthetic.

After hitting that wall, I’ve started to realize that maybe the “difficulty” of traditional character and environment design is actually a sign to lean harder into the game’s overall themes. In a world of redacted files and classified data, seeing too much could actually break the tension.

So an approach I’ve been leaning into is a “Redacted Aesthetic.” Instead of worrying about high-fidelity character portraits, I’m experimenting with grainy CCTV stills and more abstract pixelated ID badges. If a file contains a “photo” of a top-secret facility, it doesn’t need to be a photo realistic depiction, it can be a stark, geometric floor plan or a thermal scan. I’ve been taking inspiration from more visually impressive games like Disco Elysium and the amazing Dishonored games.

I love how they present the human face as a mise-mash of skewed shapes, often with disproportionate facial features to create a unique grounded fiction.

PureRef reference board

I’m focusing on embedding a “Corporate Brutalism” is starting to bridge the gap between the OS interface and the world-building. I feel that by focusing on the UI of bureaucracy through sterile fonts, intimidating logos, and endless spreadsheets – the environment designs themselves are becoming the storytelling devices. The goal now is to make the player feel less like they are playing a game and more like they are trespassing in a place where every file they open is a risk.

So anyway… back to coding and designing at any free time I have, and can’t wait to share some of the systems I’ve designed along the way!

Kara

2026-02-02
Log Entry: 03 // Too Tired To Think

Period: 9 Jan 2025 – 15 Jan 2026

Contact Sheet: 2026_03

It’s been a bit of a strange week, to be honest. I’m currently in that mid-thirties limbo of waiting to hear back on different things, and too tired to seek them out. I took a bit of a leap on a possible new opportunity, nothing of particular interest, just something to keep afloat for the later part of this year… Now I’m just in that restless period of keeping on top of tasks, checking the phone and trying to stay productive while I wait for the date to approach.

To keep myself from falling into a blight of stress, I’ve gotten back into writing code for the fun of it. I’m messing around with the idea of investigation game, a bit like Her Story but purely text-driven. It’s set around the early 2010s and follows a crowd called the Department of Abstract Paraphysics & Applied Unmanifested Effects (DAPAUE). I’m keeping the details quiet for now, but it’s been good to just build something without the usual pressure.

Work in progress of the DAPAUE GUI working in a browser

I also went to the cinema with my sister to see 28 Years Later: Bone Temple the other night. It was intense and I loved it as a sequel, touching on everything I love about the 28 franchise, and takes it to the next level!

It also gave me a few ideas for the game, mostly about how countries could just be abandoned or forgotten. I’ve been thinking about this concept where entire places just drop out of the collective memory, where so much time passes that only a few niche historians even find the events interesting, while everyone else has just moved on and couldn’t care less.

That ties in a bit with the research I’ve been doing on technologies for social output. I’ve actually got some academic collaborations coming up on that front, so it’s busy enough. It’s a bit of a gear-shift moving between the academic side of things and just messing with code for the crack, but it keeps things interesting.

Finally, I’m turning 38 next month as well. It’s a bit of a milestone, I suppose, especially with the precarious employment situation and the research projects all coming to a head at the same time, and I’ll just ignore the community work right now too!. It’s just one of those months where everything feels like it’s in transition but needs rectification immediately.

We’ll see how the leap pays off.

2026-01-15
Log Entry: 02 // A Heavy Night
2026-01-08

Period: 2 Jan 2025 – 8 Jan 2026

Contact Sheet: 2026_01

I was back to work on Friday, though I’m using the word “work” fairly liberally there. To be honest, the way I’m looking at things at the minute is more of a calculated risk, just hoping it leads to a bit of security down the road. That sense of security is really the main thing I’m after. I’ve never been the type of person with a massive desire for a high income or a fancy lifestyle. I’m not even necessarily looking for “happiness” in the way you see people talking about. Really, I’m just looking to reach a place where I can live in peace.

To me, peace is just a place of comfort and kindness. It is a spot where I can just be myself without all the constant noise or that nagging pressure to be doing something “productive” or having to “contribute” to something every second of the day just for the sake of it.

On a more optimistic note, I’ve been trying to get a bit of a handle on my health lately. I had a blood test a few weeks ago and, as I expected myself, the cholesterol wasn’t the best. To be honest, I haven’t been feeling 100% for a while now, and my weight hasn’t been great over the last twelve months. Without sharing too much, I managed to put on about an eighth of my body weight two years in a row. Speaking to a friend they mentioned it could be a Cortisol issue.
Red Thai Curry with Tofu
- 100g dehydrated tofu chunks
- 1 x can of Chickpeas
- 1 x 150ml jar of red Thai curry
- 100g frozen mixed veg
- Chopped bell pepper
To help get things back on track, I’ve been working hard on cutting out as much salt as possible and just being a bit more mindful of what I’m actually doing and eating. I’ve also been trying to fix my sleep schedule, which has been a bit of a disaster. I started taking magnesium to help me settle, and I’ll just say the first night was an experience and leave it at that. It’s a work in progress, like everything else.

I had a community event this week too, which was a great change of pace. There was a good turn out and we had a lot of fun just chatting away to one another, talking about the year ahead and enjoying the social side of things. It’s easy to forget how much a bit of genuine connection helps when you’ve been stuck in your own head.

So yeah, the next week is looking like a busy one. I have plenty of projects on the go, both with research and the community side of things. It’ll be a bit of a balancing act trying to keep the head down and get the work done while still making sure I don’t lose that bit of peace I’m looking for. I suppose we’ll see how it goes.
2026-01-08
Note Entry: 02 // Folding Paper

I headed out for the first community peer walk of the year this morning. It was absolutely freezing, the kind of biting cold that really wakes you up, but a grand bright day all the same. We were all chatting away as we walked, talking about the Christmas break, what we got up to, and the usual bits about New Year’s resolutions.

When it came to my turn, I actually found it a bit hard to explain what my plans were. I know well enough that there are things I need to be doing more of and plenty I need to pack in, but I couldn’t quite put a finger on it. It’s very easy to come out with “productive” goals, like volunteering for this or helping out with that project. They’re good things to do, of course, but I think they can be a handy way of avoiding what I actually need for myself.

Between trying to stay productive and the habit of just consuming things-the mindless YouTube shorts, scrolling through Instagram, or over-researching stuff I never actually start-I feel like I’ve lost the creative side of myself a bit.

I was thinking back to when I was younger, before we were all glued to the internet. We didn’t just sit there watching things; we made our own entertainment. For me, that was my own attempt at a newspaper (I was maybe 9…). It was just a single sheet of A4 paper folded in half to make four pages. It wasn’t for anyone else to read, it was just for me. I’d fill it with stories and “news” that only mattered to me in my own room.

Back then, I didn’t care if it was a “useful” way to spend an afternoon. I just enjoyed the making of it. Somewhere along the way, that feeling got buried under the pressure to be helpful to everyone else or the constant need to stay “informed” online.

Coming back from the walk, I’ve realised that making time for myself isn’t about being more efficient. It’s about getting back to that folded A4 page. It’s about choosing the quiet joy of making something, even if it’s just for me, instead of just watching what everyone else is up to.

I’m still not 100% sure what my resolutions are yet. But I know I want to spend less time being “productive” and a lot more time folding the paper.

2026-01-03
Note Entry: 01 // It’s a Strange Thing

2026-01-01

So I just finished binging the final season of Stranger Things. In fact, I’m watching the final scene while writing this and, honestly, while it looks amazing, it didn’t really hook me like the earlier seasons did (I kinda dropped off after season 2).

One exception though was the positive scenes during the season. Was almost as if I had been numbed to all the terrible things these characters experience; I actually found more joy seeing them succeed and share moments of kinship, or just be positive vibes alongside a nostalgic soundtrack released before I was even born. I wonder what this says about me as an observer, to find the negatives as the norm but the positives as almost alien and, therefore, dare I say, more interesting.

Anyways, don’t take this as a review, more just a quick reflection and perhaps a call to action for a possible “Friends” style spin-off set in Philadelphia. I’d love to see this universe through a lens where the now older actors are finally allowed to just exist.

2026-01-01
Log Entry: 01 // A Sense of Record

2026-01-01

Period: 25 Dec 2025 – 1 Jan 2026

Contact Sheet: 2026_01

Like most people in the 21st century I have spent far too much time lost in the digital vortex. My own memories have started to feel like clutter because they are buried in a digital bucket filled with thousands of meaningless images and notes. I realized that I was capturing my life without actually witnessing it. This site is my attempt to change that by creating a personal record of key moments and highlights throughout 2026.

I want this to be more than just a blog. I’m treating it as a digital journal and an anthology where I can catalogue my interests and explore the creative avenues I have ignored for too long. To keep myself honest I’ve set a weekly rhythm that involves a maximum of seven photo uploads every Thursday. I chose this number to truly focus on building a visual memory of the week.

Limiting myself to seven frames is a deliberate act of restraint. It pushes me to stop and think before I click and to actually look at my surroundings with a sense of purpose. I want to move away from the mindless habit of snapping ten versions of the same thing and instead commit to the one that actually matters.

However I don’t want this log to be restricted to photos alone. I have always felt the pull to try other mediums like sketching, sculpting and audio clips or short stories but I never had a dedicated place to put them. I want this log to be my personal laboratory for experimentation. A sketch might capture the mood of a quiet afternoon better than a photo ever could while an audio clip can preserve the specific atmosphere of a place in a way that words cannot reach.

This first entry marks the start of a year where I choose to be more intentional. It is the beginning of a creative habit that is for me first and foremost. I am looking forward to 2026 and seeing what this anthology becomes as the weeks unfold.

2026-01-01

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