Written 8/30/2024
So, I know that its only the 30th. Technically theres a day left to the month of August, but what more could happen in a day, right? I wouldnt be very consistent if I did these on the 31st anyway, as I figure every month has a 30th day. Except for the weird month. We dont talk about him. Point being, im gonna do each of these on the 30th of the month, regardless if thats when the month ends.
I suppose then I should get on with what I did this month... well, the first few weeks were a little boring. My brothers started going back to school, so I finally got some peace and quiet in the house. That was nice, and really helped alot with what I was working on project wise. Speaking of, I started alot of new ones, and ended alot more, but we'll get to that.
This month for me mentally has been... rough. I dont think ive felt more hopeless and drab than I have in this month. Over the course of this month I mean, I managed to form a hatred for the human race even stronger than before. Ive become bitter, and I dont think that bad people can ever change. I want to believe it, but I just. I havent seen any evidence of that, you know? Its hard to be hopeful in a world where half of the people who exist want me dead, and the other half do fuck all against said other people other than ignore them. No action taken... just sitting there, letting them get away with such hatred. But enough of that. Contrary to what it sounds, I did actually have fun this month! Somewhat.
I started it back in June, but Death Save, my DnD campaign show, has been going strong into August! We havent been able to break what we've dubbed "The Death Save Curse" where a player has something come up the week after we have a session, making our sessions bi-weekly. Were trying to break that curse tonight, by having a session with a single player who isnt able to make it, so heres hoping we break this awful curse! This seasons campaign has been really fun to DM for, however, and its been great to jump back into GMing after not doing it for a really long time.
Speaking of "Shows" I joined some new SMPs this month! I joined 2 of them run in similar groups, Nocturin and Circus. Nocturin is really lore based, with lore i'd shant cover here, lest I fill this monthly recap with it, but Circus is more slice of life, and it lets me be a little silly for lore in those moments! In Nocturin, I was a part of a group who came from the Nether into the Overworld, finally opening it up to allow exploration of it. I play Boarrie, a Overworld obssessed Piglin who is very interested in everything happening, and has more allegience to Overworlders than he does Nether folks, which will be interesting. In Circus, I play one of my new favorite characters ever, Salmmon S. Skales, a fish-man detective who invariably came to the town of New Acheron (the town the SMP takes place in) to start a detective buisness, seeing as the place is somewhat lawless and lacking any kind of police force. He's hot on the tail of several criminals so far, and really finds all this funny buisness... fishy....
I havent talked about it much, but SMPs have been something I quit awhile back, at least content creation wise. I had a whole poorly written google doc about it, about how I hated how most of them were ran for clout or poorly managed in general, and im already seeing some of those problems (poorly managed) crop back up. But its not as bad as before, if that makes sense. But I got really hurt by a group of shitty people in a SMP a few years back, and its never really left me. Those people broke a friendgroup, they took up space in my brain that they shouldnt be allowed to. Im angry about it, but I deal with it a little everyday. Im hoping getting into these new servers will help me move on, and finally have fun again.
If were already on the Minecraft train, I got back into Hypixel Skyblock recently! I was very wary of it, as it is a MMORPG, but getting more into the community and seeing what people have been doing has been alot of fun to see. Especially with teasings of a foraging update, and watching the developers fucking finally upgrade to 1.21 in order to further Skyblocks development has been really cool to see.
What else... oh! I've been working on my first real game. Its currentlly under the project name of "Solar Scramble", and I dont want to spoil much here, but its going to be something ive dubbed a.. mario-like? Okay. You know how Platformers nowadays are usually Metriodvanias with platformer elements or Celeste-likes, where the platforming is uber duper hard? Well, I wanted to take a page out of Marios book, and make a game whos levels have some alternate paths, but are mostly linear and easy to navigate. Something I had a problem with in Celeste was a lack of guideance in some areas, (not a major problem but one I faced) so I wanted to change that up with what I made. The prototype for Solar Scramble is making some progress, and I plan to release some dev footage when I create the tutorial level. Although, that does require some tweaking of the dialouge system...
For other game Development things, ive started development on something. A card game. This is something more tangible that I think can help stretch my game designer muscles, and also something ive had alot of interest in trying to make for a really long time. Again, I dont want to give too much away, but its taking inspirations from games such as Hearthstone + Magic the Gathering, and along with another kind of Table Top game as well. I feel like im saying too much already, as I havent even begun the rewrite of it (it was originally written to be a virtual game, now im making it physical), but just know im cooking.
All in all, this month was decent. I started college again alongside my brothers going to school, and i've got some projects cooking that I really think will go places. Alongside finally being able to DnD and SMPs again... I think next month will shape up to be pretty fun. While my mental state did take a toll, who knows. Maybe time will heal it.
- Zombiethederg