Melon: MelonLand forum only took two days to create, but that’s glossing over the fact that I had a lot of experience hosting forums and coding PHP sites before doing it. On top of that many months of extra work went into adding new features and improvements after it was first created! Moderating has also been a huge learning curve and something I’m always trying to improve on, its very difficult to manage the wishes and expectations of so many members while still having fun and knowing how to draw your own lines - but when its fun it’s very fun!

Melon: The Melon Project started in 2007! But its modern incarnation began in 2016 with Melonking.net and GifyPet - the forum started in 2021 as an offshoot chat of the Yesterweb Discord server! The late pandemic was an exciting time for web crafting because so many new people were discovering personal sites. Managing a community is a huge shift from managing a personal site though. You’ve got to get good at explaining your thoughts and actions, and you’ve got to know when to stand your ground, but also when you get things wrong. I get things wrong a lot! but the web revival has never been about perfection.

Melon: I grew up in an art family so I can’t really remember a time when I didn’t have creative projects. Web projects were a natural progression of the things me and my friends did in school; we used to invent games and worlds all the time, so my web projects have always felt like a continuation of that. I do have one important art memory though; when I was little I met an artist who built a road in in the middle of a lawn, and I asked him “Why did you build a road that starts nowhere and goes nowhere” and his reply was “Why does a mountain climber climb a mountain? Because its there. Why does an artist make art? Because its not there”. Often the spark to make something is just the fact that it does not exist and it wants to exist!

Melon: When I started my site one of the big reasons was to have an excuse to post all of the random stuff I had on my computer (old drawings, photos, writing etc). Art projects don’t end or begin, they morph and grow with you. I don’t feel like I have any project that never saw the light of day, they are all having their day, always, over and over in little ways!

Melon: We didn’t have regular internet access until I was 12. So I spent a lot of time exploring software offline. A lot my core-aesthetic-memories come from pre-internet software or from messing around with software intended to make web graphics, rather than seeing those graphics on the web. Its a weird one but The Iconfactory is a design company that looks nothing like my site but has been a consistent influence on my life since I first went online.

Melon: Software that was formative or interesting to me.. iWeb, Al’s GameMaker, Think’n Things 3, Kid Pix Deluxe, Sammy’s Science House - all of these were really about exploring, playing or making stuff easy and fun to do :^]

Melon: Its always helpful to start with the basics! When I first learned to code I got an ancient book on C from the school library and learned by trying to code on paper when the teacher wasn’t looking. When I’m working on a site I still tend to start with pen’n paper. I try to focus on the central idea of the site - then I code from that central point in a spiral. For example PixelSea began as white page with text box that could search gifs, after that the basic layout was formed, then the print-effect, then the printer design, and eventually all the extra features and glitter. PixelSea changed a lot from my original paper sketch as it evolved; a good web crafter needs to be able to feel what their webpage wants, and adapt to its wishes!

Melon: Its a mixture of having a lot of really solid supporting knowledge (I’ve a degree in Computer Science); being a mild workaholic (if Im watching a movie I have a web editor open at the same time); and being really strategic about what projects to take on. Almost everything I make is designed to be as easy to maintain and as automated as possible. I have about 5 computers I use weekly and each is setup and dedicated to particular tasks; most run older OSs so they never get updates; that means I always know exactly what to expect from their quirks and limits. More than all that though, its important to make sure projects are exciting and enjoyable to work on!

Melon: There’s the idea of the Pollen Path; and thats essentially a place (mentally and physically) where all around you is fun and cool stuff and creativity. From that place there are many other paths you can folCHEAP TALKIEShen something feels cool!

Melon: I don’t do anything very exciting! I like to cook and I go to the market for ingredients every other day. A friend and I go on adventures to thrift stores quite often, and recently we decided to walk across every bridge in the city (it turned out to be 30 bridges - I filmed them on my DV cam for a future webpage!). I’m also usually part of public exhibitions and talks once or twice a year discussing and promoting web art and MelonLand projects - at the moment I’m in the process of starting a lil showcase event for local indie video game makers.

Melon: Ozwomp was floating around in my head for a few months, although it was just a vague idea. I knew I wanted to make a game world with poly primitives and primary colours, and set in a digital computer reality. Separately MelonEngine (the Ozwomp engine) was something I’d worked on as a pet project a few months earlier, as a method for making 3D websites. In 2020 I was sitting at home and I saw the Ludum Dare jam was taking place (its a game jam where you make a game in 2 days) - I had the idea, I had the game engine - I just sort of put them together really fast in a kind of rage against Unity and perfectionist high-detail game design. Usually my best work happens in a creative rage!