Hey, I figured I’d do something different 2023 onwards. There are a lot of good reasons to get your own website and domain these days. Ignoring, well, recent events let’s just say, the biggest reason for me is to just have total control on how the site is built. I don’t want ads or to be on some scrolling feed. I just want a simple page with text and images to spout from. I’m not a web wizard though, so I opted for a solution that still gives me a template to start from yet is so simple to edit that I can probably brush up on HTML/CSS and take it from there. Courtesy of Zonelets created by Marina Kittaka.

I will be focusing this blog on game development, particularly my own honest thoughts on how my game is progressing. There are a lot of reflections I have about the machine that BREATHES that would make for a lengthy post mortem. But it’s been almost 3 and a half years since its formal announcement yet when it comes to when the project really started, below is a sprite image I did of the initial idea that is dated December 16, 2018 when I first came up with the colors. Which is…in 4 days ! Exactly 4 years.

Initial concept image of the game, a mechanical girl under a giant spider thing with wires dangling from it.

Development has been slow and I feel like it’s best to start documenting the process while my inner thoughts are still warm. I’m going to be a little more frank than usual about the outlook of this game. It’s less of a “how I solved these problems and how I try to make the game good” and more of like “how I feel about creating the things I create and the direction things went” so I’m not exactly going to be posting updates on the features of the game, more just documenting inner monologue thoughts that reverberate in my head about the creative process.

2022 I was very hopeful to get the game done, half way through the year I managed to get a job at a local mobile game development studio and… where did the time go? I did settle into a groove where I was able to get some progress done on my own game after work, but 4ish hours is very little to squeeze out of. Some of that spare time gets used up and before you know it bam, there’s still gargantuan stuff to do on the project.

So I’m changing things. I’m potentially bringing a good friend of mine to help out with some coding tasks into the new year. Yet hopefully by explaining the madness to someone else I can better box in what should actually be done. I'm also trying to find a better way of dishing out ‘content’ better, instead of making art for the enemy, coding the enemy etc. I figured it’d just be better to make every item/enemy in the game all in one go and then just move on to the other things. I don’t want to count my eggs before they hatch though.

Next blog post (that I'll be doing on a bi-weekly basis) I’ll talk about the origins of the project. If you want to know when that gets posted you can subscribe to my newsletter or visit the many social media sites I have available.

Have a good one!