Though I've been focusing on Stardew Valley themed dioramas, I decided to create one of one of my favorite games: Psychonauts! I remember my brothers renting from Blockbuster and playing it pretty much in two days (had to get it returned quickly!) and we all loved it immensely. I'm pretty sure that was one of the few games we ever rented that we finished, and it was likely one of the last ones we rented. The witty side commentary, the quirky story and unique levels were huge hits, especially the Milkman level and Lungfishopolis.
This diorama is inspired by that Lungfishopolis level, where the main character, Raz, is pretty much godzilla in a city of lungfish. It's quite a fantastic game, so if you haven't played it I highly recommend playing it or watching a playthrough.
This diorama is made with paper, hotglue, PLA, cold cast acrylic, and XPS foam. Lighting is done with a 6 foot RGB LED strip and is USB powered. I can connect to an app and change the colors or make it shift/react to music! The laser tank is made with a medical dropper from an expired COVID test (never used, promise!), airdry clay and scrap laser offcut. The laserbeam is wire with cotton. I had wanted to use fiberoptics to light the laserbeam, but couldn't get it to work unfortunately.
I decided to use the 3D printer to make Raz' model instead of trying to sculpt one myself. I found a STL file of him standing that was his iconic pose from the cover of the game. Not being competent in Blender to adjust the meshes, I decided to print it out as standard then hack off bits and move them around manually. This meant I cut his arms and legs off, his right hand, as well as cutting and moving his goggles down over his eyes to mimic how he moves/walks in the level.
I love the little details of this build-- I used the actual figments found in the game level and laser cut them on my Glowforge to scatter around the diorama to make it more colorful. While I wasn't as true to the actual building shapes/textures, I think adding the figments around helps tie it to the game. I'm also pretty proud of how tiny the merit badges were but you can still tell what the badges are despite it being around the size of a US dime coin (~18mm diameter).
I also love the arrowheads poking around the destroyed building. Also the bottom of the piece has a frosted acrylic base that picks up on the LED lights that are carried along under the piece so in the right light, it's got a pretty cool underbody light feeling.
The buildings themselves are made with copy paper that were lasercut for the windows, coffee sticks for support, and a TON of hotglue for the window panes that were randomly blacked out . Because these are made with paper, it's probably one of my most fragile builds, but I love the glowy ambiance.
This was an incredibly fun build, thanks for stopping by!
Until next time, Stay Crafty!
-Kate