Living Worlds: July!

I recently went on a trip to the American Southwest, so it was fun to return home and get to work on the July Living Worlds scene. I saw a lot of wide-open desert and craggy rocks on the trip, but nothing quite like the “castle” in this scene. I was reminded that the “empty” nature of deserts is deceptive; there’s actually a lot going on if you pay attention! The same is true here. I particularly love how the light moves throughout the day… It’s a smooth progression across the rocks and over the dunes, with stark, dramatic light at sunrise and sunset.

On a subtler note, I’m experimenting with making some of the overlay transitions longer. Cirrus clouds come and go, and they take several minutes to pixelate on and off (instead of the usual 10 seconds). I like the effect; hopefully you do as well!

Even more subtle: back in April, I updated the app so that everyone got the same sequence as each other (prior to that two people looking at their devices at the same time would often see different weather). This month, someone pointed out that it would still sometimes fall out of sync after it had been running for a few days (which of course is common with the live wallpaper), with minor variations creeping in over time. I believe I’ve got that sorted out now. These details matter!

Oh, and did I mention there are fireworks?

P.S. While Living Worlds is a paid app, it’s also a labor of love, and we’re putting a lot more into it than we’re making on it. If you’d like to help further support our work, please consider pledging to Mark’s Patreon and/or my Patreon. Thank you!