Oh, hey guys, I did a new thing.

Rhythma – The Conductor by *Zaron on deviantART

Wow, that’s somehow tacky and sorta neat at the same time.

Bit of a style experiment. No outlines.  Going over about how everything I do does, with a resounding “meh.”  Hope you like it?  Link should take you to a magical land full of explanations of wtf I was thinking while I drew it. If you’ve ever wondered what sort of crap I’m thinking of when talking about Rhythma, or have no clue what Rhythma is, or just wanna see that bigger, do feel free to follow that link, yes?  I think yes.

Oh yes.

This coming weekend is Kumoricon. Me and LM will be there, doing whatever it is we do, which is largely staring at cosplayers, wasting money, and bothering Catboy.  Thanks to the gallery system, I’m hoping to actually do something with the photos this year.  It’s kind of a vague year, as we’d planned on having a table and stuff just kept going wrong, so that got shot.  Maybe for Sakuracon?  I think we’re aiming for Sakuracon.  I don’t know.  I’m trying to write books and make games and junk.  But, yeah, if you’re in the northwest and want to bother me in person, I’ll be in Portland this weekend.  With my new haircut, which LM filmed with his new camera, which we’ll probably also have.  Fear us and our general… usness. -dork-

In name-changey news, still leaning Trelldain. Or is it now leaning Trelldain?  I’ve lost track. Either _______ Trelldain or Trelldain _________.  Probably something to do with wars or stories or something.  Ideas welcome, as always, you ever-talkative lot.  I think most of you are spambots, and even those have shut up.

Oh, and new game, Revival. Go play it.

Name: Revival
Release: August 2010
Programming & Design: Samuel “Zaron X” Boyd
Audio & Music Design: Erik “Blackhole” McClure
Download Link: Right here.
Download Mirrors: Yoyo Games, 64Digits

You find yourself on an empty world, surrounded by darkness.
Why are you here, and what is your goal?

Revival is a semi-experimental explorational platformer designed for Yoyo Games’ Summer 2010 Game Contest, “Discovery.”  The game encourages player exploration over seven areas on a desolate, unnamed world.  There is no textual feedback or conventional item/progress counters or other HUD elements, advancement instead being represented via in-world elements and cues.

This marks my first time completing a game that uses actual level design instead of an endless, randomized difficulty progression of some sort.  It is also the first finished game to bear the Studio Gato moniker.

Oh, yes, ongoing indeed.

Brief update this week, folks, for I’ve been busy with rather focused things for a change.  August 31st is just over a week off now, and is the deadline for Yoyo’s 6th Game Maker competition, which I still foolishly aim to enter with my project it spawned, Revival. You can hopefully expect next week’s update to thus be “HEY CHECK OUT MY BIG NEW SHINY THING”, but meanwhile not a lot is happening.  I have a couple potential GDRs and Press X entries bouncing around my head, but haven’t acted on them yet.

Simply put, I like games, make games, and rant about games, and this week that seems to be trying to make itself rather blindingly apparent.

For anyone interested in the ongoing HP rename saga, Crimson Skies is taken by Microsoft, who place second on my list of people most likely to sue you unprovoked, so I guess that one’s out.  Demon Surge is still in the running, and Trelldain, the continent the story takes place on, is also vying for the title seeing as people whine about how little plot there is for 300 pages without noticing that it’s not just Hiaté’s quest to stop an evil thing with a big phallic stick.  I like the idea, but just “Trelldain” seems a bit plain, while tacking “Legend of” and its ilk onto the front of it seems tacky and overdone.

I do wish more than one person was still bothering with giving me feedback on the matter, but the blog is a pretty neglected thing so I guess that’s just how it’s gonna go.

I’ll catch you all next week, hopefully with a nice timekiller.

Gato, out.

It being half an hour until the day is up, I now finally look into doing the wonderful Monday update. I have failed on that front, I suppose, but to be fair it has been a very, very unexciting week.

I’ve continued poking at Matt Matter, barely a page past where I last stated in sketches, and the game hasn’t moved much. Looking back, I’m not 100% sure what all I’ve been doing, but it involved getting the platinum trophy on Darksiders and poking at the Scott Pilgrim game one brutal stage at a time.  I’ve been very lethargic, which was fine for the first week but now is a bit of a problem, and has me questioning things. I’ve lost all sense of structure. I don’t like this.

I’ve had some thoughts about exploring the origin of the band as some sort of interim update arc or something.  It would basically be the way HP was originally going to start, except now told to the kids by Mark, in both normal and utter BS editions.  The idea of Tracy’s mother being a three-headed hydra destroyed by the power of Gwen’s rock via gross exaggeration sounds glorious and poster-worthy to me.  Who says album art is dead? Just let Mark come up with it.  I may go with that, but want to do the Axe Cop guest strip Is tarted a while back first, and honestly can’t think of why I’m doing Matt instead. I should prioritize. I’ve got two weeks to get this game made.

Regarding the game, I’ve made some stuff shinier. That’s most of the progress, actually, that and smaller bits of this and that. It’ll all add up in the end, but right now my test room is getting progressively more and more crowded and insane.  Soon I shall open things up, as I’m getting the last bits in order to start laying this out as a proper game, which will be nice. Not sure about the size, but happy with how it’s headed. Once I get a couple more pieces in, it’ll all be about the stage design, and that’ll be the hard part outside of some audio refinements and additions.

And now the name change. Nobody has said jack for a week, so I’m assuming ideas are out, and I’m left leaning on the same things as before.  I’m presently pretty sold on Project Unity as the present over-arching title, as nobody has come up with much else and it helps keep the stories separate while connected as opposed to sounding like you need to read them in some numerical order, which given the assorted formats I have in mind would be ideal.  Demon Surge and Crimson Skies are the two left fighting for HP’s spot in that equation, so any feedback on that front would be appreciated.  I may pop the question up in the forums, but sans the comic that place is pretty dead. We’ll see.

That about sums up the week. If you’ve a PS3 and a desire to yell at me if i’m on there too much, or just to hit up LBP with me or something, go ahead and add ZaronX to your PSN list.  Just, you know, say more in your friend request than “Hi.”  Some indication that you’re a human being is generally appreciated.  Just sayin’.

That’s all, peeps.  Here’s to hoping next week has me back in gear.