Hertzan Chimera's Blog

2025 CONCEPT CAR: inspired by Bertone's tiny 1969 Lancia Stratos HF0. This iteration is an electric three-seater with a novel entry methodology, hatchback luggage access and a mid-engine positioned detachable battery pack.Dimensions: width 1.9m, length 4.6m, height 1.2m and wheelbase 2.8m#cars #cardesign #carprototype #design #prototype #designprocess

 CODENAME PERPETUA: my own raked back re-imagining of Bertone's legendary but tiny 1969 Lancia Stratos HF-0 as a modern three-seater with more sensible doors, rear-view cameras, hatchback-style storage space and a mid-engine-positioned battery pack for that sporty weight distribution.

Dimensions: width 1.9m, length 4.6m, height 1.2m and wheelbase 2.9m

Four years ago, I designed the first Electro Bullet, based on Bertone's 1969 Lancia Stratos HF-0... recently, I've been rethinking Bertone's original two seat design and strange windscreen door and this is my latest version reimagined at a more modern scale/proportion.

Three-seat layout, regular doors, a mid-engine positioned detachable battery-pack and hatchback boot space are among the design features.Dimensions: length 4.8m, width 1.9m, height 1.2m, wheelbase 2.8m

So, I might be writing a new SERIAL KILLER novel... we're getting closer to the way it might sound i.e. when the conflicting parts are allowed to resolve.

Perfect cadence, also known as an authentic cadence, typically moves from the dominant chord (V) to the tonic chord (I). Deceptive cadence creates an unexpected musical turn, "deceiving" the listener who is expecting a more traditional resolution to the tonic. 

Let's put it this way, I'm 8,000 words into this two-part mind-ride in just three days. I can't wait to see how this gory dual-tonality plays out... and I hope it disturbs the shit out of you, too.

 

This stuff is fascinating... in the Madeline Soto case, a 13 y.o. girl goes missing.

The mom's testimony is all over the place, shows little in the way of emotion.

The 'dad' (or the mom's boyfriend, she isn't dating any more) lives at the house, on and off.

Then they find ABSOLUTELY TONNES OF c.s.a.m. footage/pictures on his phone of him and little Maddy going back years... and he still might not have been the one to have killed her, by strangulation.

Goes to trial this year, properly fascinating.

 So, long time no see, or read... I've been busy, but here is a new book.

Well, it will be a new book once it's finished. Prospective publication date of January 14th 2025... but what's it all about?

Flint (the eponymous non-hero of this story) lives at the Martyrs Memorial in central Oxford. His is a life of coping with crisis, and many crises confront our non-hero during the recitation of his on-street narrative. We don't even know if he'll survive, how he got there, or what is the whole raison d'etre of the work.

And that's for you to find out.

...truth be told, "He has form." 

Chris Roberts, that is. He's made a few well-respected games in his time. But he has time-management issues. Sure, he's a stickler for detail, like the badges on uniforms or the embossed detail on his ship skins but... can he do it? Can he get this hulking behemoth he's created out the door without a Controlling Interest Rebellion?

The answer is NO... nobody can, because (even after ten years and half a billion dollars spent) the dev-team or Chris himself haven't homed in on what the game actually is.

Is it a mainstream game or a niche game?

Is it a kids game or an adult game?

Is it a first-person game or a third-person game

Is it even a serious space sim or more of a pew-pew arcade experience?

 

Good Design might offer the player (the illusion of) choice but good design is never about 'letting the player decide what game he wants to play'. There's literally no way you can 'make a universe' that caters to all the rubs of the genre and its offshoots, and the various playstyles of the backers. You have to decide, for the player/backer, what his/her universe looks like, plays like. 

You'll notice I've opted for a centre-screen UI-free hand-driven player experience... all currently missing from the most recent release, after ten years of development.

SHIP: it's 2953 soon... your ship should be able to ID you, from your mobiGlas? As you approach, the ship should a) greet you and b) prep itself for take-off. When ship takes off, it should be thrust-based so that it has to overcome its own mass and laden before even lifting off from the ground, only aerodynamic design should limit speed in air. In Newtonian Space, a ship should never be limited in speed, only fuel dictates lack of thrust. Centre-screen targeting also applies to the driver of a vehicle, he/she looks at the garage door with his vehicle sensors and he doesn't have to leave his seat. 

PLAYER: centre-screen targeting... which the game used to have, is the real player-driving experience. Basically, whether you look at a thing with your eyes or targting a thing with your ship sensors, and it's in reach, then your hand comes out or your target is magnified using solid hologram tech. You look at it, it resolves. Solid holograms: they're in-game but only as set-dressing, when they could be used to drive the mobiGlas interface and integrate that interface into the pilot's cockpit - ya know, mobiDocking.

HAND: this is the big one... imagine a first-person experience WITHOUT YOUR HAND COMING OUT to o the stuff and fiddle with the gadgets. This, for me, is the ultimate oversight/design gaff. You should be able to walk up to something and (when you're in arms' reach) your hand should come out and be ready to 'do something' to the item in centre-screen. Mouse click is all you should be asked to do to 'get something in your hand' or 'press a button or flick a switch'. Simple view-accurate gaming, even for a pilot sat in his cockpit.

 

not in-game yet, but essential

PS: your planets are too small at 10% scale... they need to revert to a more 1:1 representation of scale, "Or it's not a sim," any more.

Yeah, it's been a while... I've been away doing all kinds of different stuff since my last post of October 2020, destroyed SEVENTY abstract canvases and I've started a new novel, speculative title IN HEAT.

This update tho... I've always been a big fan of the Giugiaro-designed 1970's Lancia Zero. I even based the central character in my new novel LAST OF THE CATHEDRA on this iconic concept car. 

Here, then... after several versions built on the chassis's of first the Honda Civic and then the Tesla Model X and then the erc SLK and finally back on the original Civic inspiration chassis, the Type R variant.Added some funky indicator lights to front and back, too.

CHIMERICANA BOOKS PUBLISHING NEWS: my latest novel under the writing name Hertzan Chimera is available today via Amazon in your area. 250 pages. 6" by 9" trade paperback format. Cover art by yours truly.

 

 

 

Yes, it's sci-fi. 

Yes, it's apocalyptic. 

Yes, it's A LOVE TRIANGLE.

 

 

Dear reader,

been working in secret on how I'd improve the visual interface of my most favourite game-in-development Star Citizen, and it involves Unification of Design and removing extraneous interim features like Inner Thought drop-down menus and 2D overlays etc.

Ready?

When you're looking directly at a thing 'that you can physically reach' your arm rises into the shot and hovers close to that thing. The hand shows you what it's about to do; press a button with an index finger or twist a control knob or grab a rail or....  double hand actions like 'about to climb a rock-face' are all reach-and-look dependent i.e. not painted onto the terrain.

Cleaner, more 2949, and feels 3D again...