Alora Fane

Hello! Work on the MARDEK Re-release didn't go so well this week, but I have something to work with now. Also, it seems a lot of people are reaching out to people they might not have spoken to in a while during this quarantine, though I'm aware of how much my communication skills have degraded due to isolation.

I hoped to have the MARDEK Re-release working by the end of last week, but sadly that didn't happen. I certainly tried, but just kept hitting walls. It was frustrating, especially after somewhat rushing to get the video done for Divine Dreams and experiencing burnout from that.

I mentioned this in the previous posts, but since people had mentioned that Matt Roszak - the Epic Battle Fantasy creator - had managed to overcome this obscure obstacle, it might be worth reaching out to him to ask him how he did it. While writing the email, though, I thought I'd come up with a solution which I wanted to try first. I did try it, and it didn't work, but I had a different idea for something I could try which was different to the solution I knew he'd come to (I wanted to get a C sharp wrapper working; he'd used AIR). I ended up writing a question on StackOverflow asking about it, not really expecting a response from anyone (largely I did it so then I could at least feel I was doing something other than just quitting for the weekend).

Funnily enough though, it was Matt Roszak who replied to that! I feel a bit awkward now since he probably found out from someone mentioning the whole thing to him (I notice it says he's a new contributor to that site), so I probably should have emailed first/instead, but oh well, at least I have a detailed answer to work with. He mentioned several things I just wouldn't have otherwise known, too. I'll likely email him once I've played around with some things and need more help. Though I feel this is a very obscure problem, his answer being public like that - rather than just in an email to me - might benefit some other people in the future too. So that's good, though I suspect it'll take the whole of next week (at least) for me to figure out how to actually get something working.

Honestly, I'm not looking forward to it. I put off getting MARDEK on Steam for years because of the challenge of porting it, and last week was far less enjoyable than it has been working more smoothly on Divine Dreams. It's nothing about the game itself as a player would see it, just these behind-the-scenes technical hurdles. Hopefully it won't be too long of a process, though, and I can get back to the game I'm actually enjoying making.

I also want to mention again that I've been terrible at replying to messages lately, and want to get around to replying to a few today or over the coming days. So if I reply to something you said two weeks ago, this is why! Sorry about the delay!

I mentioned in the previous post that I had a couple of hours-long video chats with a friend from university, which I've had more of now. They take up a big chunk of time, but it's interesting noticing the change in how the world feels after just getting any kind of human contact, even if it's at a distance. Weirdly, I'm probably getting more of it during this lock-down than I have in all the months that came before it.

I have been noticing how degraded my social skills have become though. My spoken sentences are often stilted or even incoherent, my mind freezes often without any time to pause and think. We get worse at anything if we don't practice it, and social abilities aren't any different. It's why I'm concerned about reaching out to others.

Still, I've been meaning to contact some people I've known in The Real World, but who I haven't talked to in ages, since it seems to be something a lot of people are doing during quarantine. I don't know if anyone will actually reply to me, but I'll see how it goes. Have any of you done this, or had people from your past reaching out to you?

Hopefully you're coping well with the state of the world, anyway! Seems it's driving us all a bit crazy. Makes me wonder if people will develop more sympathy for people isolated in the long term, now they've had a taste of what it does to their own mind.

Oh, I also want to clean up and 'restart' my Patreon this next week, so let's see if I write next week about how I've done that, or if I write excuses about why I didn't!!!

7 COMMENTS

vladandrei199647~5Y

What a coincidence for Matt Roszak to reply to that question, the universe sometimes conspires to help you.

I can't do anything more but to wish you good luck, I know how it is to work for a project that you no longer feel happy around while you could still make something that represents you better, but I'm sure the fans will be happy to see your re-release. I, for one, am waiting for this so I can replay it again, it's like a childhood dream to the past.

One question that I still have, and I hope I'm not too pushy with it : Do you think overcoming these technical obstacles will permit you to enable and add new achievements? I'd hunt that 100% completion on MARDEK if it had some achievements for diverse accomplishments.

Tobias 1115~5Y

I'd be surprised if it was actually a coincidence!

It's not so much that I feel stuck with something I've moved beyond; I definitely have felt that way about MARDEK, but now I'm almost excited to actually release it in a more stable format than Flash. It's just such a pain because of how it was built, and I've not been enjoying trying to figure out how to port it effectively in a purely technical sense. I don't envy the people behind porting PS1 games to the Switch, etc.

What I'm trying to do should hopefully allow for new achievements to be added without issue!

vladandrei199647~5Y

Firstly, thanks for replying.

If/when you're fixing this, I could help you with some achievements ideas that would seem fitting for MARDEK, if you want some ideas. The tiny amount of achievements that kongregate had was pretty underwhelming.

Thinking of it, you had somewhat of an in-game achievement system in MARDEK with Jacques that gave out medals for various accomplishments. You should add all those medals into Steam as achievements, if possible.

Tobias 1115~5Y

Using the medals was my first thought, though I'm aware they're only for chapter 3. Suggestions will be valuable for me, though since a few people have hinted at suggestions already, I'll write a post to ask specifically about them once I'm sure I can actually implement achievements at all (I'd like to, but can't guarantee it).

Maniafig222~5Y

Good to hear Matt has answered your question, hopefully it'll be useful! I imagine someone in his Discord server must be a reader of your blog and linked the question to you, makes sense considering the overlaps between the MARDEK and EBF fandoms, both being heavily FF-inspired JRPGs.

How're the plans for porting CBC to Steam, actually? I've been curious to see your thoughts on that game, it's quite unlike the other stuff you put out. I really like that game's visual style and OST in particular.

The whole Corona thing has gotten more serious than expected, but it's not changed much about my social life beyond the internet, considering I didn't really have one in the first place.

It's a good idea to reach out to people! People are always more receptive to those messages than our minds make us fear they are not.

I have gotten around to playing the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, which you've talked about on this blog before. It really is a very faithful remake! I'm currently in the middle of the second game, though I think I enjoyed the first one more, perhaps since it felt faster-paced and less deliberate in its level design. Weird.

For some reason they also dubbed the game in Dutch, which surprised me! The moment I booted the game everything was in Dutch, voice acting included, and I haven't bothered to change it back to English out of sheer curiosity. Some of the voice-work has given me quite a laugh! [LINK] [LINK] [LINK]

I've also been playing another game called Griftlands, which has both regular card-based combat but also features card-based negotiations, which I found very interesting! You can intimidate, diplomatize and manipulate your way through negotiations and the implantation actually feels pretty natural which is a tough balance to strike for games that want to feature non-violent gameplay encounters.

You have to damage the opponents 'resolve', defend your own resolve with 'composure' and status effects take the form of 'arguments' which have their own resolve and can be attacked and dismissed.

I find it interesting how many new angles of gameplay it can add, from talking your way out of trouble with law enforcement to haggling for better rewards from quest givers to goading people to attack you so you can claim self-defense to engaging in an auction of all things. That last one in particular gets really crazy and complicated! [LINK]&

How're the plans for porting CBC to Steam, actually? I've been curious to see your thoughts on that game, it's quite unlike the other stuff you put out. I really like that game's visual style and OST in particular.

The whole Corona thing has gotten more serious than expected, but it's not changed much about my social life beyond the internet, considering I didn't really have one in the first place.

It's a good idea to reach out to people! People are always more receptive to those messages than our minds make us fear they are not.

I have gotten around to playing the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, which you've talked about on this blog before. It really is a very faithful remake! I'm currently in the middle of the second game, though I think I enjoyed the first one more, perhaps since it felt faster-paced and less deliberate in its level design. Weird.

For some reason they also dubbed the game in Dutch, which surprised me! The moment I booted the game everything was in Dutch, voice acting included, and I haven't bothered to change it back to English out of sheer curiosity. Some of the voice-work has given me quite a laugh! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC1Mn78_aPw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SowP6Og8YD4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVJyLKpdvLs

I've also been playing another game called Griftlands, which has both regular card-based combat but also features card-based negotiations, which I found very interesting! You can intimidate, diplomatize and manipulate your way through negotiations and the implantation actually feels pretty natural which is a tough balance to strike for games that want to feature non-violent gameplay encounters.

You have to damage the opponents 'resolve', defend your own resolve with 'composure' and status effects take the form of 'arguments' which have their own resolve and can be attacked and dismissed.

I find it interesting how many new angles of gameplay it can add, from talking your way out of trouble with law enforcement to haggling for better rewards from quest givers to goading people to attack you so you can claim self-defense to engaging in an auction of all things. That last one in particular gets really crazy and complicated! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGacfMsGoFA&

Astreon152~5Y

Yey, the site is back, and it didn't even take a week !

Verdusk21~5Y

I saw how Matt suddenly popped up on your Twitter and the Stack Overflow question, I didn't tell him anything though because I wanted to save your contacting practice opportunity. It was an interesting plot twist.

As for the isolation thing, the whole quarantine thing happened right at the end of spring break here in Japan, during which I was normally isolated (as in don't go out, since I don't have to go to university) anyway, meaning I end up mostly not going out for many, many months; the original spring break, the one month of the new semester being postponed because of virus outbreak, and then the entirety of the new semester because it's going to be done online, and then the break after that... probably over half a year!

And while online classes sounds like a bummer (mostly the only meaningful conversations on university has been discussing the subjects with professors after class or sometimes during office hours... I'll probably not have that anymore), at least I'm already very accustomed to spending time productively at home, so my productivity may not be hurt much.

I do think people become more likely to reach out to old friends during this time since they need someone to talk to or spend time with online, and I guess when you stop going out you start to remember who you've spent time with in the past, and maybe start reminiscing and stuff.

Speaking of which, I actually had an old friend reach me out and invite me to play chatroom games like Werewolf (variant of the Mafia game like Town of Salem).

Anyway, very nice job on getting this website back online - these sorts of problems that happen outside your control and sometimes doesn't have a clear solution can be very distressing, but you managed to solved it pretty quickly. (I bet it felt like a long time, but it's really pretty short in the grand scheme of things)

Hope your computer issues can be solved too! Probably a good time to keep a recent backup.

As for the isolation thing, the whole quarantine thing happened right at the end of spring break here in Japan, during which I was normally isolated (as in don't go out, since I don't have to go to university) anyway, meaning I end up mostly not going out for many, many months; the original spring break, the one month of the new semester being postponed because of virus outbreak, and then the entirety of the new semester because it's going to be done online, and then the break after that... probably over half a year!

And while online classes sounds like a bummer (mostly the only meaningful conversations on university has been discussing the subjects with professors after class or sometimes during office hours... I'll probably not have that anymore), at least I'm already very accustomed to spending time productively at home, so my productivity may not be hurt much.

I do think people become more likely to reach out to old friends during this time since they need someone to talk to or spend time with online, and I guess when you stop going out you start to remember who you've spent time with in the past, and maybe start reminiscing and stuff.

Speaking of which, I actually had an old friend reach me out and invite me to play chatroom games like Werewolf (variant of the Mafia game like Town of Salem).

Anyway, very nice job on getting this website back online - these sorts of problems that happen outside your control and sometimes doesn't have a clear solution can be very distressing, but you managed to solved it pretty quickly. (I bet it felt like a long time, but it's really pretty short in the grand scheme of things)

Hope your computer issues can be solved too! Probably a good time to keep a recent backup.