Hahah yes, I am around and working hard on my projects. I'm just not good at updating on progress, not even on Twitter.

Finished first year of university around around 3 weeks ago and I've been ripe for summer. We've built arcade machines to exhibit with during a game conference located near campus. I've not been talkative about my arcade project even though I'm really proud of it. RIM! RAM! RUM! it's called, a 1v1 space pirate ship arena jousting game. It became very popular during the conference but the concept of it wasn't apparently convincing and coherent to the jury, which led us to only receive two nominations at the ceremony award. It's still better than none and I don't feel like I'm completely done working on the game either. Maybe there'll be a web release for instance!

Now when I'm not working with school projects, I've finally been tending to my own ones. I've done a huuge amount of progress on Doomsday Deluge. I've reworked the game in Unity and I was right about it being easy to implement new things in the game (... though, I'm really frustrated about the clunkiness of changing x and y values of game objects).

I've added alot to the gameplay itself (modifiable stats, enemies, weapons, power-ups, score, loot, level transition, parallax scrolling,etc) and also attempted to try gamepad support, which I hope really becomes a thing!
Recently, I'm working further on UI design and made some sketches of menus and gameplay HUD, as well as writing down design decisions I've made (though some are left undecided until they've been playtested).

I'm also with a group of others across Internet to create an JRPG together, where I've taken the role as Lead Designer. We've elaborated on several features of the game, trying to spin around on traditional elements to produce a new experience. Prototyping on the battle system is now currently in the progress, though we are really short on people in the programming part, let alone on artists! We're aiming to get that sorted out, of course.

Just gon' end the post like this, I ran out of words. Have a great summer! I know I will.

Doomsday Deluge, how I wish to see you realised! Last year, great progress has been made on you. Coding, music, writing and art! I wish I had just as much time now. That's not to say I've abandoned you, you've just been put aside until... I have time again!

I'll tell you, even though I don't have as much time working on this, I'm still living the time of my life. I'm studying game design and development and learning to work on game projects as if being in the industry. All good experiences and new things learned, and all of those has made me consider to step it up with my own games as well. Because I really want to get back to do my own games than those I do in school!

Previously, I've been programming in Flash AS3, a language I feel the most comfortable and skilled working in. Now I've learned how to program in C++ and utilise external libraries and Unity C#. I've got a lot more tools to work with.

Meanwhile I've been figuring out the best options to proceed with Doomsday Deluge, as well as other Flash game projects I have in mind. I'm thinking of redo Doomsday Deluge in Unity! While I had a bad first impression on Unity and how you work with it's interface, it is still easy and quick to set up and get started with. A lot faster than in C++, much more faster.
So fast that the project would require less of my time.
Because I'm only one insufficient person with big ideas. Flash (Animate as it's called nowadays) is a wonderful software for multimedia projects, it really is, but Unity is faster to use, performs better as well as being more accessible for more people. That's what I've been thinking as well, making the game more accessible. Sure, I'll finish my Flash project, who'll be there to play it? The ones who still has flash player installed? My point being that Unity is the 'hottest' thing that most really seems to prefer. That's the impression i've been receiving.

In short, my project is still entirely doable in Flash AS3, but the performance and accessibility to players are much greater in Unity, alongside it being easy to use. That's why I'm considering to start over my work on Doomsday Deluge in Unity!
I've also met so many great people, both irl and across the web, and I wouldn't feel as helpless as before if I did ask for help and directions.

This is the main theme for the game, which I can share: http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/731961
In another post, I'd be happy to show some of the works and a couple of prototypes that has been made!

See that Mood icon I chose for this post? That's me as I try to figure out how to design and program my new Christmas game for this Christmas, on my own. But I have come to a decision!

A healthy developer is an efficient developer. For this Christmas I wish for more time to work on this project. This is no E.T I'm trying to make. It requires more care and time.

I'll finish this game for the next christmas.

As for this Christmas, I'll do something else. I'll do something Christmas-y... brings out drawing tablet

Suddenly, I got the scenario of Santa and his elves unfortunately being castaway on a tropical island during their present delivering on Christmas Eve.

One could make it a survival game, and that is what I have decided to do!

I have set the work on my current project, Doomsday Deluge aside (a little) to work further on this concept. Hopefully, I have something done by around the end of Christmas. I just wish I had come up with this idea sooner.

There is actually more in this idea than I have presented, but I can tell about them later when I have got something to show.

Also I drew art for the first in a very long time. This was for a game jam I participated in last weekend: http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/fireshadows/misbegotten

I say, I've... improved a lot since last art, heh.

Hiya!

I thought I should share a picture of some weapon testings for my current flash game project Doomsday Deluge. Sadly, no doomsday weapons like nukes or satellite lasers here.

The game will be a shoot 'em up like it's predecessor but this time, there'll be weapons to be used.

Obviously, none of these graphics are the final graphics. This is not even the main flash file i'm working in. It's easier to work in different files for different things. Less messy.

Obviously, there will be limits of how many weapons you can use, unlike in this picture ( lots of candles and such, looks like I've been setting up a ritual).

There will also be alot of other new things for this sequel, because I can.

I'm thinking of later sharing some real graphics for the game, such as the new enemies, items and the protagonist, and maybe publish some soundtracks that I have done for the game.

It's the first picture of some progress I've made so I'll post sometime some more when I'm in top form again.

Been writing this whole weekend. Really getting in the groove of it.

But I've been writing on my story for so long it that it feels that I'm writing some kind of epic like The Lord of The Rings. I have even done a map and a flowchart to keep track of events. It's just my first serial of the series. It is also difficult to write first episodes, I have people's word for that.

I'm considering about how I should proceed with Doomsday Deluge, which is my current Flash game project. It can still become a lagfest as it is now, which is why I need to plan on how to improve the code of it. Even considering reading and learning about stage3D. Might be tough, but I do want the result being a game that people can have a good experience of.

All in good time! Back to writing!

I've recently found a good balance between doing assignments from the Game Design course I'm taking ( one included playing super mario bros. ) and working on Doomsday Deluge.

Yesterday, I came to an understanding that I've been straight jumping into programming as soon as I figured out an algorithm for the code.
I knew earlier that it is a no-no when coding a game. One should always think of all the possible algorithms and evaluate them.

But this weekend, I completely understood that I couldn't go on like I did.
Failing to blit the necessary graphics made me realize how important it is to plan the next step.
I needed to plan a lot more in order to implement a blitting process into my current mess that is the code (, but at least I managed blitting the scrolling backgrounds).

So that realization put me back on the right track and I've since made careful progress on the game, and also made more graphics for it, that will later be blitted (when I feel more cunning in doing that).

So now I've been trying to improve my code and remake the bad algorithms. With careful steps and plans of course! My programming lectures taught me some cool tricks!

I don't think I have lost any motivation because of that step back in the weekend. Instead I'm still getting ideas for Doomsday Deluge, such as new types of enemies. I thought I already were done making them half a year ago, but new ones keeps coming up.
I have to consider what each types purpose would be in the game so that I don't add anything completely unnecessary and redundant. I'm trying to be so creative I can for this~

tl;dr: Realized how careless I am when programming algorithms for games, and since then made every decision with a careful plan.
Didn't lost any motivation to go on because of it.

Also, Happy Madness Day in arrear!

Moved far away from home to study in college.
Now I'm a complete stranger in a new area that is unfamiliar to me with no one around that I know.

I'll channel my thoughts into the visual novel that I'm experimenting on. Not sure about what I could exactly call it. Interactive comic is appropriate too. The important thing is to write the story, then I can figure out the format of it.

Also, since I'm going to study game design, I'll surely find myself more time to effectively work on Doomsday Deluge, which is my current flash project I've been talking about.
Lots of new stuff that I'm trying and I am so excited!

Been working alot on this game i'm currently making. I'd call it a sequel my previous game, but it feels like... a rewamp. A lot of new features will be added and I have to read on so many things before i know how to add them.

 Lately I've had a hard time figuring out save methods. My immediate thought would be to use the save feature which the Newgrounds API provides with. I spent a real lot of my time trying to figure out how the save feature works... and personally, it was a bunch of bs. Compared to other save mehods, the NGs save feature needs a LOT of code in order to implement it and even then the save feature could be unstable if the game was hosted on another website. What a shame.

 Instead of the NG save feature, decided to simply use the SharedObject method. The game will save locally on the computer, like any other game. However, I still hated the idea of restarting a game when playing from a new computer. I found out that I could learn to have the game being able to export and import files. Today I just learned that and even implemented it.

 That was so much quicker than using the NG API save feature, and I now feel so relieved that I just had to write a post about it. I just summarized a half weeks process (80% of it reading and trying to understand and implement the NG saving feature...).

All is well, no more to tell. Rescued my game from development hell.

Oh, no. I must have been hibernating for 4 months since my last post.
 Actually, I have been managing my busy life.

Also, I've been writing alot. Like... a lot. New ideas and zany scenarios keeps coming to me and I want to start a visual novel series somehow based of them. I've been really dedicated on working on it too. I've come very far.
 I should be ashamed, having struggled to write an structured informative essay while I easliy write 3,000 words about the series origin story. However, it's justifiable.

School has recently become an unpleasant place where everyone struggles to survive the last incoming tests of high school. I'm going the last year of high school and then I'll study further into game development. Progression feels very good ( especially if you feel that you've been lingering too long at one place).

In the meantime, I'll work on my visual novel series during my freetime as much as I can.
I also want to make another arcade shooter game like my last... but better. I've been looking around all internet for tutorials and stuff and I think I can make something fun and worth the effort. It's only natural for an aspiring game developer wanting to create games.

So, I hope I'll be able to share those contents with newgrounds. I think people would like it.

And then... I don't know. Here, have a 4 year old poorly drawn comic strip. It feaures Garfield & ketchup.