Support for Alternative Layouts
This is a summary of how alternative layouts have been supported by kits such as Colevrak and Homing. It is not a discussion of alt layout performance and development, but if that interests you I highly recommend starting with Pascal Getreuer’s A guide to alt keyboard layouts (why, how, which one?). It’s a concise and comprehensive overview with links to some great sites that go deeper. He also has a separate Links about keyboards page. The Keyboard layouts doc he recommends explains layout goals and metrics in detail, summarizing the alt layouts discussed here as well as more than one hundred others. Sculpted-profile The majority of custom keycap sets are sculpted-profile (Cherry, SA, MT3, KAT, etc. - more on profiles generally here) so let’s start there. Because each row has a unique keycap shape, alt layouts require a unique keycap for each legend that moves off its QWERTY row. At first there were two The Dvorak layout was patented in 1936 by August Dvorak & William L....
Apr 23, 2024
Anyway theres a lot going on here, and I love it, but I would push for some more visual consistency and a clearer idea of the aesthetic. To me, calling it "Laserpunk" kinda muddles the identity of this set.
But your 3rd point read a bit confusing, feel free to elaborate more on this if you can -
First you said that in your perception this project was conceived based on an 80's electronic aesthetic, which is exactly what we are doing. Then, you proceeded to mention Back to the Future, Space Invaders, Pacman, '88, Tron, cyber things and Kung Fury. All of these references are 80's related in my opinion, so what's the confusion? I understand that we should not exaggerate by over-working the concept, but do you think I'm going too far with these legit 80's references? What you wrote was a bit confusing (bear in mind I'm not a native speaker) so if you could rephrase what you're thinking I'd definitely appreciate it! Thanks a lot for the input and criticism, keep it coming mate.
EDIT: Disregard. There are more bands with that name..
What is the most inconsistent to me is that you are referencing 1. stuff from the 80s, and 2. contemporary stuff that is referencing the 80s. Referencing something that references the 80s doesn't seem quite cyberpunk. That isn't being cyberpunk, that is referencing *other things that are cyberpunk*.
But also that argument is misusing "cyberpunk". AFAIK "cyberpunk" started with books and its aesthetic is more of a "futuristic dystopia", often with a noir vibe like Blade Runner. Kung Fury, Vaporwave and other recent 80s revival is not quite cyberpunk.
Cyberpunk came from the 80s, Space Invaders came from the 80s ('78 technically), but space invaders is NOT present in cyberpunk style.
So I guess my 1st complaint with Laserpunk was a misuse of Cyberpunk as a label for an 80's revival style.
My 2nd point was, it is not consistent to both reference 80's and 80's revival. So the Vanilla Origin novelty doesn't make much sense. Also I don't understand the DEX and 011 novelties so I can't speak on those.
My 3rd point is that SpaceInvaders/PacMan are from the time period and reference arcade and 80's aesthetic, but the aesthetics/color-scheme of the games themselves don't quite match the blue/purple color scheme aesthetic of the keyset. I think by referencing too many things you are trying to be too broad with the aesthetic. By contrast Jukebox, another time-period keyset, has novelties that are more consistent in style
The novelties you see here are outdated, in the current version (and keycap kit mockup distribution) you'll be able to understand what I'm talking about more clearly.
Give me a couple more hours, you'll see what I'm talking about.