The astute observer might notice that I don't really use this blog (or any other form of public contact) all that often! This isn't exactly a post about how I plan on changing that, but I realize people might still look at this from time to time and wonder what in the world I am up to. Or not!

For my game making shenanigans, just click the fancy image.

 It's a personal project between Jalen and I. I'm also working as an artist for Project Snowbound which you really should check out if you are into visual novels (note that visual novel is not code for H-game or dating sim, especially in this case!) that have awesome writing and interesting characters. Sure, the last bit of that sentence is grossly subjective, but I am quite stoked about working on it! But it won't have a fancy picture for me to link with until I make one. OTL

As for past projects... You know I have a lot of private stuff I do/contemplate doing. This blog has mentions of a certain "1kDreams", which you shouldn't expect to hear a peep about for at least another year! Possibly longer! This blog also has mention of a certain ALICE project that will go unmentioned forever more. Thinking about it makes me make terribly distorted faces and cry rivers of foul sludge.

Penta, why don’t you ever update your blog?

Because I’m working and dislike needlessly generating hype, that’s why! I might not be shouting it to the world, but I’ve been getting a lot done. Project recap, for anyone interested…

ALICE: Not working on! I don’t want to kick this project to the curb completely, but it needs some major overhauls. I also don’t want to spend my entire life remaking the same project over and over, so for now it’s sitting on the backburner. I really like a lot of the ideas I had for ALICE, as well as the battle system, so… Don’t think I’m through with the project yet! Even if it shows up under a different name, it’ll still have the same… hrmmm, it’s hard to find a word for it! It might end up with a spiritual successor.

Legend of Masada: Also not working on! However, this is because my partner in crime, Jalen, has been swamped with school/work and I’ve been having scripting difficulties. As this is a little side-project for fun, I won’t be losing any sleep over the lack of progress! We’ve still done quite a lot for the first level, though, and are contemplating a battle system switch since I keep failing at the one we’ve been using. OTL Who knows? There are a lot of kinks we need to iron out before we go and make the rest of the game!

Now I can spend the rest of this post talking about what I have been doing for One Thousand Years of Dreams.

Yo, updates!

I WON NANOWRIMO.

I know, that's just what you're all dying to hear. ...It was a lot more disappointing than I thought, but uh, yeah, I wrote 50,000 words (I refuse to call it a novel. e__e)  in one month, at the cost of my academic, personal, and social lives. And my soul.

Now that the stuff y'all have no reason to care about is out of the way...My lack of updates has been because I'm working and working hard! I've gotten a lot done, including mapping actual areas to be used in-game, and not just testing out tiles.

Yes, I'll be taking out the blocky autoshadows. <__<;

And today's screenshot mistake is an obvious one. OTL

I've fiddled with shadows, too, but...L-look, I promise to stop uploading things with mistakes.! ;A;

So there's some screenshots showcasing a few maps. Indeed, all of them are from dungeon-type levels. A lot of the game is exploring, so I want my dungeons to look good and play just as good! So I've been devoting a lot of my time to studying dungeon design + designing dungeons. I've also been spriting more characters...

Including some I've yet to write about! That's okay, though. I wouldn't want to spill ALL the beans. Mattea is the only one out of Eliana/Narcisco/Tancredi/Mattea that I need to sprite, but she's pretty hard. Mostly because she has four arms. @A@ And speaking of dungeon design...

In certain areas, Eliana can now use her crossbow outside of battle! It will also be useful in stunning enemies on the map or gaining an advantage before a fight, though you can't shoot everything and expect it to end well. With tougher monsters, it takes a bit more than a crossbow bolt to stun them. Such a little thing is more likely to anger them and increase attack.

I've done a lot more, but if I cram it all into one update, you'll be here forever. So that's all for now, folks~!

Art post!

This has been me for the past few days, furiously writing for NaNoWriMo. And it shall continue to be me until the end of the month! But as you can see, I'm slacking off a bit and writing blog posts instead of working towards that mythical 50k.

OTL My graphics that I'm using for game features are currently quite ugly, so art post ahoy! I need to see about finding someone who is a actually good at graphical design and willing to make a few things for me. As good as it is for me to get some practice...Ehhh, art is my strong suite.

1kDreams is slowly gathering up an art pile. Most of it finished, even! There are some WIPs here and there, but nothing too bad.

Characters! And a little bit of art.

Y'know what I realized? I probably oughta have a character post before I go around slapping art of random people into your face. (But expect a bit of face slapping anyways. With art!)

1K Dreams Info

So I mentioned that 1kDreams is my current focus of development, but there's not much information out there about it aside from "hey, look at this! LOOK AT IT!" in regards to a couple of random pictures.

 This post aims to fix a little bit of that.

Hey world, guess what?

There's no way to make a first post anything other than awkward. I can try to break the ice, maybe give a bit of a "hello, world!" or I can jump right in to the meat and bones of what in the world I'm using this blog for.

...I've never been one for beating around the bush.

You'll find out very soon that I like to make games as a hobby. Well, attempt to, anyways. I also attempt art and the latter of these two things is much more successful. My current project workload, in order of appearance:

•  Incunabula: Made with RPG Maker VX, like pretty much everything else. My first project and unlikely to ever see the light of day unless I pull it screaming from the crib and send it to boot camp so it becomes a disciplined game. It took a bunch of revamping before I realized I was sitting on an awesome pile of ideas and some quirky characters, but had nothing remotely resembling overall plot or direction. So, moving on.

• ALICE: This poor, tortured soul began as a Vocaloid fangame based on Hitobashira Alice, but has spent its lifetime morphing into a blob of horror and poor organization choices. And despite the ill-chosen title, has very little to do with Alice in Wonderland or Hitobashira Alice at this point, aside from some thematic similarities. It will haunt my dreams if I don't finish it, (literally! It's already happening!) so I've pretty much signed a blood contract that means I will work on this until the end of time, even if it gets worked on as a side project.

•  1000 Years of Dreams: Currently comes with the subtitle of "Forbidden Words, Forgotten Words" but I always feel pretentious when I write the entire thing out. This is the flagship title of the moment! It's got organization up the wazoo! (Trust me, this is about the biggest draw one can advertise for a game sometimes.) Coherent storyline! Refined gameplay features! I'm sticking to my guns! In summary: I finally know what I'm doing. And it's not moving ZIG. 1kDreams will most likely be the overall focus of this blog, mainly because I want to talk about the project without the added baggage of a dedicated thread to maintain and promises of progress and awesome. Yes, I would enjoy being able to have my cake and eat it. 

         Otherwise what's the point of having it?!