A project I've hinted at for a while has finally manifested in some form! Though this is far from the first time I've made something like this... READ MORE
I’ve actually done a lot of work on Dreamons this week, gasp! Though instead of going into detail about that, here's some rambling about popular creations being most obsessively consumed by the young and impressionable. Also, did you know there's a mobile JRPG made by some of the creators of Chrono Trigger? Plus a brief bit about the loneliness epidemic. READ MORE
I got back to this side project last week! Now I'm planning to focus it around an 'evil' council not unlike MARDEK's Governance de Magi. Also, Unity bug and counselling-related awkwardness. READ MORE
Some thoughts regarding designing this project, Dreamons, around six areas that follow the same formula, with some ideas for each one that still need a lot more refining! READ MORE
Am I onto something with this idea that combines several different ones from the past few months?? Dreamons: A game in which you explore dreamscapes as a customisable avatar to tame humanoid - but with psychedelic aesthetics - dreamons to save people from their mental distress. READ MORE
Some thoughts about how battles should probably begin with silly narrative scenes, and how maybe area rooms could look like isolated dioramas... READ MORE
This... still unnamed side project thing is a game about converting and collecting people, but to what degree should they be unique people rather than collectible types? Should it be about collecting a silly gang of archetypes, or about finding your ~soulmate~?? READ MORE
In an attempt to quell the overwhelming torrent of suggestions coming from the previous post - or at the very least to cement some Monday morning brainstorming - here are some thoughts/decisions about what to do with this still-yet-unnamed game... READ MORE
I'm on a roll with this still-yet-unnamed project thing - or at least as much as I have been with anything lately - so again I've shirked other work to at least make some progress on it. Less than ideal, but better than wasting all my hours lost numbly scrolling through Reddit and half-watching YouTube videos I'll forget as soon as they're done. READ MORE
I did some stuff on this Belief Battles/Frayth thing this week: buildings and the interior areas they link to, and some concept designs for types of people you'd encounter. READ MORE
While waiting on mental health treatment to prepare myself for putting myself out into online communities to promote Atonal Dreams, I've been wondering whether to work on Dreamons as a single-player Pokemon clone you can start a game of and just play within minutes without investing into some grand story... READ MORE
I've been wondering whether to turn my recent side project into my main project for a while, to use it as practise for facing the promotion-related things I've been avoiding... READ MORE
My mind's been all over the place this week! Old games! Pokemon! Me-made new Pokemon clone?? CBC platformer sequel?? Random computer issues??? Nothing on Atonal Dreams though. READ MORE
I spent this week revising Atonal Dreams to use the new elements, and I had the most productivity with and confidence about the project I've had in a long time! READ MORE
Last week, I wrote about an idea I'd had for combining the elements and runes in Atonal Dreams, and how I'd been experimenting with a side project - essentially a remake of my old 'Belief' project from late 2019 - to get a feel for whether or not the change would work. I've spent this week working away at that project, so I want to talk about it a bit! READ MORE
Inspiration is a double-edged sword! Should a seemingly good, new idea be pursued if it'd require some steps back to do so? Or should the current path be doggedly stuck to because that's the only way to reach the end?? READ MORE
I'm at the point with Atonal Dreams now where I can almost start the next round of alpha testing. I know I've been saying that for probably months, but while then it was on the horizon, now I'm standing on the doorstep. I've got badly burned out getting here, though, so I've also been recovering a bit by working on a side project, Mentales! READ MORE
I've been very bad mentally these past few days! I want to distract myself by writing out another possible side project idea: a remake of sorts of Alora Fane: Creation, in which you can build your own little quests for others to play... READ MORE
A long one this week! For Atonal Dreams, I made Savitr's flying figmon steed, and the beginnings of a world map you'd use for fast travel. I also want to talk about an idea I have for a potential smaller side project: a simple roguelike virtual pet thing... READ MORE
I've got a few things I want talk about in this post: the hospital appointment wasn't as anxiety-inducing as usual; I'm wondering (not for the first time) whether to make a virtual pet mobile app; I'm wondering how to restructure my days to get more done; and a note about computer stuff! READ MORE
I mostly finished the intro I was working on, but it's not what I want it to be! I've come up with some revisions though which should make for a better world and story... READ MORE
I spent this week working on the dark dream intro, though it's not finished yet! I also spent about a day fiddling around with a side project based on Belief - a game I worked on briefly a while back - for the fun of it. READ MORE
I refreshed my memory about the story, wrote out some themes I'm intending for the narrative to explore, and wrote a potential script for the intro that I'm still not sure about! I also experimented with a suggested way of integrating music into battles, though I'm not sure about that either since it doesn't work with the existing battle track (included here)! READ MORE
Lots of indecisiveness this week about whether characters should wield musical instruments, and how Collie is portrayed in the new dream intro! READ MORE
A long one this week! I've been thinking I should trim out some vestigial features to focus more on the monster-skills mechanic, plus some replies to things people said in comments on last week's post (since I can't reply to them all individually!). READ MORE
I'm going to spend the end of the year focusing on things other than Atonal Dreams, to refresh my energy for it and my mind in general. There are three things I could work on: putting old games up somewhere (probably itch.io), releasing soundtracks of all the music I've ever composed, and maybe even starting work on a secondary game which combines Alora Fane: Creation and Belief, sort of! READ MORE
Almost exactly a year ago (wow, feels like way longer), I wrote ∞ a post ∞ about re-releasing a bunch of my old games. I managed to get ∞ MARDEK on Steam ∞ a few months ago, though I've been so focused on making my newest game that I forgot all about re-releasing the old ones. It's on my mind again, though... READ MORE
I've been trying to sort out the whole Divine Dreams + Belief + Atonal Dreams story in a way that makes sense to me! I've also come up with some symbols for important concepts during the planning process. READ MORE
I've made some good progress towards finalising a story for... this Divine Dreams prologue thing, which I've got some title ideas for but still haven't decided on one yet. I've attempted to write a hopefully-interesting summary here, though it's tough because I don't want to spoil too much! How would you explain a story in a blurb without spoiling anything? What would you include to make it actually compelling? To what extent do stories even matter in games? READ MORE
I'd like to build the Discord I set up a while back into an actual community, but if you're interested in joining that, what would you want from it? READ MORE
I've been thinking about it all week, and I've got an idea for a shorter, more concise version of Divine Dreams that I could conceivably finish by the end of the year... READ MORE
Yesterday's panic and despair transformed to creative excitement overnight, though I'm still not sure what to do next, if Divine Dreams as planned might not be financially viable. Here are some thoughts about some potential 'short' projects I could maybe release by the end of the year. READ MORE
I love my ideas for Divine Dreams, but making enough money from them is such a daunting prospect that maybe I should rethink what I'm trying to do. READ MORE
Here are four character designs for Divine Dreams, and a bit about the design process! Also, some clarification (again) about how I'm aiming to release Divine Dreams. READ MORE
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of changing Divine Dreams' protagonist from the old Mardek to a new character, a golden-hearted 'devil' called Dayvha... READ MORE
I made a new monster model; here's a bit about the process! I've also continued implementing and refining the revised battle mechanics; here are four short battle videos showcasing my progress!! Also, should Mardek be a pink elf??? This is a long post!!!! READ MORE
This week, I added the beginnings of long-planned mechanical feature: something called 'concords', which represent the connections between pairs of characters, and which grant various benefits when developed. Also, I redesigned Deugan's weapon. READ MORE
We're nine weeks in now, gasp! This week, I've been working on battle mechanics stuff like buffs and status effects and skills, which I shall talk about here!! READ MORE
It's my birthday today, so I felt like I should at least acknowledge that with a post. Today's mostly just business as usual - spending my time alone working on this game - but there's a background of miserableness because of some discouraging comments on the previous post, because they're right. I've been thinking about how I need to change as a person, but looking back on how I was just a couple of years ago, I'd say I've already come a long way! READ MORE
This week, I've made the cave tileset more organic, added following allies and some changes to the combat mechanics, and I've been designing miasmon (which is what the monsters are called in this)! Also, a bit about my favourite Pokemon designs from all eight generations. READ MORE
Here's a brief review of what I achieved in January, a bit more about field mechanics, a model for Deugan, the conversation system, and some stuff about character progression (and menus). READ MORE
I've done quite a bit on the MARDEK Reimagining this past week! This time, I'll be talking about the title I've decided on, and a basic battle system I've planned and got working! READ MORE
I played MARDEK recently, and it was much better than I expected! I'm now a fan of the series again! Here's how my new feelings about it have influenced what I want to do with a remake. READ MORE
I've been thinking about a few different ideas for how I might actually make something of this whole games development thing. Here are four things: "crapps", "talky thing", Kickstarter, and making versions of my old games available using a pay-what-you-want system. READ MORE
Here's some revised concept stuff for my planned next game, Belief, in which a protagonist vaguely based on Mardek's mother is inseminated by an alien based on Rohoph. Fun for the whole family! READ MORE
I'm working on getting to the point with Belief where I can show a video of the gameplay. I'm not at that point yet, but here's what I've done so far. I'm wondering whether it might be best to make it a standalone game (rather than three chapters) at first, without connections to MARDEK, to see whether people are receptive to that before locking myself into something I might not finish, but there are still a lot of decisions to be made. READ MORE
Since I won't be able to make a completely faithful remaster of MARDEK, I'm wondering whether to try to make Belief instead, which is a completely different game, which was inspired by it but which isn't a remake as such. Here are some ideas for how concepts from MARDEK could be integrated into it; I'm curious how you feel about them. READ MORE
I spent a couple of days building a battle system mockup for a potential MARDEK reimagining... though there are many issues and uncertainties with it from a mechanical and conceptual perspective. Should I be returning to MARDEK at all? To what degree? There's a lot to work through. READ MORE
This talk of MARDEK is definitely sparking an active discussion! I want to address a few of the comments on the previous post, clarifying what I had in mind with some of the changes I described. Also some rambling about whether seeing this as a reimagining rather than a remaster might be the wisest way to go about it. READ MORE
Well! I'm surprised by the amount of interest the previous post got, and so quickly too. There seem to be a lot of good reasons to remaster MARDEK, and now really does seem to be the best time to do that. I'm very reluctant to change nothing though. Here are some thoughts about how I intend to try to tackle this. READ MORE
I've spent the past few days working on a game idea inspired by my old projects, which feels like it could work! Essentially, it's a sort-of JRPG with a 'battle' system based around using social skills to control moods and convince people to believe in the god in your head. READ MORE
I've been working on the ∞ alorafane.com ∞ site, with a blog there specifically for games development stuff. There's a post there with a release date for Memody: Sindrel Song! Also, a little bit about where I'm planning to go from here. READ MORE
I'm very curious about why we hold the beliefs and attitudes that we do; how they develop, how much they're influenced by our social affiliations and life experiences. Though now's hardly the best time for it with Sindrel Song's release coming so soon, at some point it might be interesting to write a bunch of shorter posts with specific hypothetical situations or questions, as that seems a good way to spark some interesting discussion. READ MORE
ANOTHER POST. I've made the new version of Memody I talked about in the previous post, and I feel like I've come up with a way that I could effectively explore the neurotic themes in a way that's entertaining rather than uncomfortable... but I'm wondering whether this is a bad time to be releasing this, if people are particularly busy! READ MORE
As I mentioned in ∞ the previous post ∞ (which is more worthwhile than this one, so I don't want this to replace it so soon!), I'm wondering whether to rename Sindrel Song. If I do, there are other changes I'd like to make too based on that - like renaming the protagonist - and I'm writing about it now because whether or not I change the title will affect the writing that I still need to do (which is pretty much all I need to do before I can start testing), so I'd like to have a clearer idea before moving forward. READ MORE
After posting ∞ the previous entry ∞ mere hours ago, I had a spark of inspiration, and I feel like I'm finally onto something with Sindrel Song's story! READ MORE
Here's a post in which I describe my current project - Sindrel Song - including screenshots, a gameplay video, some music I composed for it, and some rambling about the story, how the main character is tied to MARDEK, in a roundabout way, and how this game will be set in the world of Alora Fane. READ MORE
So, now that the 2018th year since our Lord Jesus Christ hatched from his egg is gasping out its final breaths, I feel the compulsion to have a look at exactly how I've wasted this period of my life that I'll never get back. I graduated from university (and made it through alive, to my surprise), I had brain surgery for a cancerous tumour (and made it through alive, to my surprise), and I did a bunch of creative stuff but never actually finished or released anything (and made it through alive, to the absolute shock of everyone). That's... something? READ MORE
I've been wondering whether to set several short games in a shared world, with these 'sindrel' creatures as characters. I've set a new short game idea in this world, which I conceived of then started building a couple of days ago, and it's almost done already. I like playing it again and again, too, so that's good! Maybe I'm getting somewhere... READ MORE
Radiotherapy's getting easier, though it's still leaving me tired. And I've been trying to work on this associative memory game idea, but I'm unsure how to go about it; there are some fairly severe barriers in the way! READ MORE
I feel terrible still, but here's some disjointed rambling about my upcoming radiotherapy, the previous post's comments, Toby Fox, and ideas for a game I might make about a consciousness researcher exploring the afterlife. READ MORE
After doing a whole lot of reflecting about the creative journey that I've been on over the years (which I briefly summarise here), I'm planning to return to Taming Dreams, but as a regularly-updating story told through 3D conversations rather than as a game. READ MORE
Are women oppressed by a patriarchal society, as feminism would have us believe? Or is it women who are privileged and men who are oppressed, as those who've taken the 'red pill' claim? Here's some ramblings about all that which have brought me a kind of peace, as well as a game concept that gender relations have inspired, based around the idea that the two sexes are playing different but overlapping games with dissimilar challenges, rather than one being absolutely more or less fortunate than the other in everything. READ MORE
I saw the neurosurgeon again on Wednesday, and I decided to have surgery at the start of September, in about six weeks. Here's what I want to try to achieve in that limited time... READ MORE
Based on comments on the previous post and my internal reactions to them, I've decided that I'm going to spend my time working on a sort of interactive story rather than a game! READ MORE
Since the previous post, I've completely revised most of the primary gameplay of Embracing Eternity! The new mechanics focus on exploring the subjective nature of the world, and what it's like to see from someone else's eyes. READ MORE
Over the past week or so, I've been working on the prototype for a game - my first in 3D - which will eventually be about suicide (sort of)!! Here's a version of it you can already play!!!! READ MORE
I find myself making creative things quite often as a distraction from unappealing university work and my broken mind. What I've been making recently is all over the place, but here are a few recent examples for the curious. READ MORE
If science managed to prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that there was an afterlife of unconditional bliss awaiting us all when we died, could human civilisation continue? READ MORE
On a whim, I made a small social website specifically for students at my university with mental health issues to connect with one another, but I really can't decide if it's a good idea to actually announce its existence or not. READ MORE
My recent creative work has been driven by an unfulfilled desire for connection... in various forms. I'll use this post to talk about something I've been playing around with recently. And also the thing in this screenshot. READ MORE
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