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Weekly Update - Site Renovation, Minstrel's Quest

4 years ago787 words

I updated the website this week; I'll need to put Atonal Dreams on Steam next week, though I also have my next brain scan on Wednesday. This week's album contains some tracks I don't think I've ever released anywhere before!

∞ I already wrote a post a few days ago about the new layout ∞, so you might have seen that already. It's mainly the main alorafane.com page that's changed; importantly, I've moved the info about Atonal Dreams from the info page for it to here instead.

Nobody commented on the other post about the info, but I'm still interested in hearing opinions about whether it seems like an interesting game or whether I've missed something crucial.

I do wonder though who ever reads these kinds of games descriptions, and how much they matter at all. Devs - myself included - pour a lot of time and effort into them, but it might just be completely wasted! I don't know of any way of gauging it.

I suppose the main value of it was as a 'practice run' of what to put on Steam, which probably matters more since it'd directly influence whether or not people would be willing to give the game a try. It's why it's useful to hear feedback on it before I do that though; it's difficult working in the dark.

(I suppose I should use the Discord for that... but I've been avoiding it again because my mental health's been terrible yet again lately; it's why I only did that all week and why I'm writing this on Sunday night rather than much earlier like I'd prefer.)





I'm still working through these albums, and I'm getting to some that I'm personally most curious to put up, but which I'm assuming other people will be least interested in (because there was so much interest in all the other ones, of course), since they're pieces composed for the sake of it rather than for games they fondly remember.

This is a combination of two attempts at standalone albums I composed in late 2010/early 2011. I only composed a few pieces for each of them before just giving up and thinking "oh, nobody would care anyway, what's the point". I think I put some up somewhere - though I can't remember where - and just kept the others to myself? Honestly I have similar feelings about them now - and about adding a lot of these albums really - but I'm just trying to feel okay about the personal satisfaction of giving this music a home even if I'm the only one who really cares. I've wanted to do it for years, after all.

It's interesting how a lot of my non-game music is still game-ish, in an aesthetic immersion-focused way; they're usually 'about' seeing fantastical scenery while on an adventure, or at least that's what I have in mind when coming up with the titles.

The cover art was made today for this, though I have mixed feelings about it. I suppose it'll do, but I wish I'd had the energy to draw more over the course of the week; I made this quickly to get it out of the way, but wish I could enjoy it more.

Here's the album, if you're curious: [LINK]



My mental health's been poor again these past few days. ISN'T THAT A SURPRISE?? I was hoping to at least start on putting Atonal Dreams on Steam, but I didn't because that got in the way. Chances are it won't really clear up until I've had my next brain scan, which will hopefully show that I don't need more brain surgery... That's on Wednesday, so I'm wondering what to do with next week. I should try to do the Steam chores, and I'd like to start alpha testing too, though that scan being right in the middle of the week means I'll probably be unable to focus before and after it... Ugh, we'll see.

I saw - ∞ and wrote briefly about ∞ - the Pixar film Soul last night, so that was a nice and inspiring distraction, at least.

I'm tired of everything being as delayed as it is. I just hope I get good news and finally push through the damn Steam stuff, then I can get some feedback and continue on with the rest of the game.

I am at least being inspired by Bravely Default II, and I replayed Atonal Dreams again while making images for the new game info part of the main page and really enjoyed it, so that's something! Those are some things. Yes.