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
Atonal Dreams was meant as a short standalone prequel to a longer reimagining of the MARDEK story - itself a reworking of another project I'd started on earlier - which I intended to finish within six months to a year. It's been either about a year and a half, two years, or two years and four months since I started - depending on where the start is considered to be - and the finish line still seems distant. In this obnoxiously long, image-heavy post, I want to look back over the entire development journey, to see how the game has evolved each month. READ MORE
Some more work on the music system this week! Also some plans for stuff I want to write before the end of the year, looking back on progress and decisions and such. 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
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
Another productive week! I'm almost at the point where I can update the game for a new test run; I just need to tidy up a few bugs and things now. I have some questions related to MARDEK and games dev in general that I'd like to hear your thoughts about this time! READ MORE
A bunch of stuff got in the way this week, but I'm probably ready to start the alpha test phase of Atonal Dreams. Here's what I need to do next week to get to that point. READ MORE
I was hoping to have Atonal Dreams ready for some kind of alpha test by the end of this week, but frustratingly that's not happened yet because there's so much to do! Also, this week's Music Album contains music from Deliverance (and Fig Hunter and some old stuff)!!!1 READ MORE
I've mostly been doing cleanup/tweaks this week, polishing, trying to get the game to a point where I can show the early section to some alpha testers, but everything takes a long time! While tidying up some gameplay mechanics, I made a change to how the 'arousal' stat works, which I want to talk about here. Also, another music album! READ MORE
Well, we survived 2020 somehow! Or at least some of us did, myself surprisingly included. I've also been quite productive this year, so - as is my tradition - I shall look back on all the stuff I've made here! 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
This week, I've rethought how magic works, and have added an additional form of progression. I think I'll stop fiddling around with the battle mechanics now and devote the next couple of weeks to figuring out how best to start getting some players involved! READ MORE
I've made models for these Atonal Dreams party members, and a short video scene thing of them interacting! I've also got a plan for when I might be able to finish Atonal Dreams by. READ MORE
I've spent this week doing more story planning for this now-actually-named thing, Atonal Dreams, which has included drawing final designs of all the major characters. This eccentric bunch are the four playable ones! 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'm trying to get to a point with... whatever this Divine Dreams prelude thing is going to be called where I can show off snazzy gifs of gameplay etc to generate interest in the project as I work towards completion. So this week, I've built an island tileset for Savitr and Collie to run around on, and animated their physical attacks so they can fight monsters. READ MORE
I've made 3D models for the two main characters of this still-unnamed shorter Divine Dreams RPG this week: Savitr, the Seraph paragon, and Collie, his (ridiculous) caninely-quirky Cherub apprentice. Quite a contrast! 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
I'm doing research into how to make money from indie games! Here's a loooong look (a big chunk of which is quotes) at a couple of postmortems which help shed light on where money can come from, and how similar indie devs' stories often are. READ MORE
This is likely only interesting to maybe a couple of people, but it's valuable for me since I'm making a game of this genre myself: here are some of the things I noticed and felt playing Octopath Traveler for about 50 minutes. 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
I've been refining and implementing some of Divine Dreams' battle mechanics revisions that I presented in the previous post. Here's what I've got so far. READ MORE
I've reached a major milestone this week! The game's complete enough in terms of general features to show off in a gameplay video, so I've upload one to YouTube! 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
I've been enjoying development, but I do need to focus on some other related stuff - like promotion - for a while! Despite the usual annoying depression. 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
I'm at the point in development now where the initial burst of enthusiasm has likely run its course, so productivity should be more gradual from now on. Most of the major features exist in some basic form, and my main goal now is assembling them into a working demo. 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
This week, I want to talk about what I'm doing with the music in Divine Dreams (the MARDEK Reimagining)! Here's the music for the fantasy intro, with the same piece from MARDEK for comparison. 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
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 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
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
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
I've added two more episodes/conversations/whatever to the Divine Dreams thing I mentioned in the previous post, and would again like to hear what you think! READ MORE
I've been working some more on the project I mentioned in my previous post. I've written the first two scenes, and composed music for them too! I'd be interested to hear what you make of it. READ MORE
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