General posts on Ivan Hawkes

Test Page

ivan.hawkes@gmail.com (Ivan Hawkes) — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Use this page for testing features.

Project Development Quick Guide

ivan.hawkes@gmail.com (Ivan Hawkes) — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Project Development Quick Guide

A quick start guide designed to remind you of the steps needed to bring a project to completion. Some are optional, depending on the scope of the project.

Ideation

Come up with an idea. Write it down.

Conception

Work the idea over in your head. Think about what problem it solves and if it’s worth the time and cost to produce.

Design

Methodically write down all of the things you wish the project could do. You can ruthlessly cut this list down as the project progresses.

Windows 10 - Moving In

ivan.hawkes@gmail.com (Ivan Hawkes) — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Moving into a fresh Windows 10 installation. A short list of useful software I usually install.

First Steps with FPGA

ivan.hawkes@gmail.com (Ivan Hawkes) — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The title of this post suggests that this is the first step into programming an FPGA, but that’s not quite true. We need to take a few steps back into the past to see the real truth.

Jump back 31 years and you will find a very young version of me taking his first steps into the world of computing. My options at this point are limited in ways I wouldn’t be able to see for decades.

Building A Joystick

ivan.hawkes@gmail.com (Ivan Hawkes) — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The long and boring story of how I went from a 12 year old boy in the 80’s to a 50 year old man in the 2020’s making a joystick to play retro-arcade games from the 80’s.

Building A Cheap Motion Capture Studio

ivan.hawkes@gmail.com (Ivan Hawkes) — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A while back I became interested in motion capture as a means to easily get basic animations into the game I am working on. Using reasonably priced software from Brekel and a cheap Microsoft Xbox Kinect camera you have the beginnings of a motion capture setup.

Overcoming Inertia

ivan.hawkes@gmail.com (Ivan Hawkes) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A few weeks have passed with very little development occurring. I have hit that most dangerous of problems, the lack of inertia.