Takoizu / ターコイズ
Map: Smooth Dirt
April-August 2023
“Takoizu” - because this game already took “Midori” for a map name. That’s right; Takoizu is just the loan word for Turqoise. Lol. Lmao.
My first completed condo in over a year. Can you believe it’s been that long? I can thank this August '23 condo contest for finally finishing one, because easily over half of the work took place after they announced that there was no rules about how old the condo could be. If you’re browsing these forums at the time of this post, you’ve probably already seen this, as it was my entry. I think I did pretty good, given the scope of competition.
This is probably the first condo that sprouted from zero initial inspiration. I had absolutely no plan when I started this. One day I was like “Fuck it, lets make a tiny something, ANYTHING” and made with a single, square room the size of Smooth Dirt’s platform.
(Pictured: earliest snapshot, only at z1,000 above Smooth Dirt’s ground.
After using a lot of “neon” (Star material), I wanted to capture the feeling a cool night drive with the cabin lit only by the minty glow of an aftermarket stereo — at least, in the form of a building. Just something that makes you FEEL cool for being there. I quickly fell into the theme of “sorta 1980’s Hi-Fi Shinjuku penthouse”.
In that regard, this canvas stereo was one of the first things I bothered making:
Once I had the idea to use the Canvas Decal item to set artwork into the paper walls, I knew I was getting somewhere.
Speaking of canvas decals, this was also my first condo using I/O too. I made this panel that switches the image on a decal to change the pattern of the billiard table’s felt.
Before I got too far along, I had considered switching to yellow/gold, but that didn’t last. I’ve had a few people suggest that I use I/O to switch to the color of everything, but we’re talking thousands of items at this point. That ain’t happening lol.
When this initial room finally started taking form, I knew it wasn’t going to remain just one. The stairs leading down to what is now the disco were added. I struggled with this area for awhile because I couldn’t decide between ‘dancefloor’ or ‘pool’ for the ultimate cheesy luxury, which is why there’s a lever to make both happen. Thanks, Condo I/O!
With that settled, I started leaning way harder into this being a music area. I’m EXTREMELY happy with this canvas jukebox I threw together. I normally just use the workshop one uploaded by @ThurDoDinok, but I had a color scheme to upkeep, so I used it as a reference to build my own.
Obviously, the illusion of the skybox was meant to make it look like you’re at the top of the skyscraper, but I found the initial dimensions to be too small to keep that up, so I eventually made the skyscraper housing around it, which was a huge general aesthetic boost as well.
After this new housing was made, I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist expanding further into moving around within this new layer, thus began two more floors; the sub-roof lobby & bottom meeting floor.
The top of the first room accidentally lined up with the last row of the outside layer that it was perfectly ruining the view of Fuji, so an entire layer of stairs were added stand over it, with a grate floor to be able to look down at the other floors.
BIG changes.
I knew in my heart that people would get annoyed about being in a skyscraper and not be able to get to the true roof, so another floor & set of stairs were born…
I probably spend a whole day tinkering with the stairs that lead to the actual roof cause I couldn’t settle on how the catwalk should be. There was a point where I was considering it wrapping around the entire building:
This bottom place was the very last thing I completed. I initially though about it being some sort of executive luxury suite before it ultimately became a big-boss Yakuza meeting room.
I took it as an opportunity to pump up the Japanese decor as hard as possible, in case the modern scenery had you forget where you were. Took a lot from the actual Yakuza games here.
Lastly, a post-contest update, I found that players tend to completely miss/ignore I/O switches if they look naturally placed, so I’ve gone through and put emphasis on every single lever and button in the game place. AAAAAAAaa
Another Fun fact, the ‘glow’ property to canvas objects was implemented in the middle of making this place and I had to adjust every one that was using the ‘Star’ material. 
It’s also currently suffering from some mild texture issues in wake of the SDNL update, but some of them got repaired in the last hotfix. 
Anyway, that’s pretty much it. Big thanks to:
-This random photograph by a guy named “Hikaru Inoue,” that I found on deviantArt, which I’ve been using off and on as a wallpaper for probably half my life now.
-The first Vocaloid song I ever heard, which has been infecting my mind with images of snowy Japanese skylines for a similar amount of time.
-and @Vuultz for sharing arcade artwork for Outrun.
Other stuff?
I got pretty far with remaking PSO’s Pioneer 2 that was mentioned in the previous post. Remaking a map 1:1 instead of just building something original creatively is fucking grueling, so I got tired of working on it. Will probably revisit some day because there was a lot of progress.
You know what else is grueling? Trying to come up with a pleasing open floorplan for the inside of a pyramid-shaped structure. So the Egyptian nightclub from 2 years ago is still in limbo.
I do have something I actually wanna make soon, but it’s not worth showing off yet. See you when it’s done!