Written 2/1/2024
Whoops! I missed the deadline for this one, my bad! I know I usually try to do these on the 30th of each month but. Work has been alot, to say the least. Lets get into that, actually
Work! I mentioned it in my last post, but I got a job! And things have been going decently, to say the least. I've been getting a decent amount of money for the amount of hours I work, and I dont usually work longer than 4 hr shifts. That being said, i've noticed that (likely beacause im the new guy) I keep getting "dry spells" where I dont work for a week. It sucks, but since I have no bills to pay, its a decent way to save up for me to have some spending money! I'll likely complain to my manager if it keeps happening, even if I am part-time. It dosent help that i'll have to take some time off in March.. oh well!
Anyways, onto the fun stuff. Project wise, I dropped alot of my minecraft server projects, and unforutnately made the desicion to cancel the Death Save Campaign, The Last Spark. Its being replaced by a similar party, but that was sad. I liked that campaign, and while it was decent.. I also realized some major problems with my DMing style within it.... Sucks that it happened, but hey. Onto new horizons!
I also joined another game jam! This time being the Road Trip Game Jam! I have a silly idea for a platformer, one that I think I can get some decent stuff done with. I cant share much now, (as the Game Jam is 3 months long, im in a very beta stage rn) but I think this ones gonna be one of my better works!
After this Jam, I plan to start working on my first game that I plan to release. Its an idea ive had for awhile called Scrappers. Its a double edged sword, this idea. I want to explore some very interesting and (from what I know) rarely used writing concepts for the game, to really try to stand out and do something different in the gaming sphere. But as well, I want to make gameplay ive never really tried before, in a 3D space. I know the math will be very different and it will be a learning curve, but its not something I lack any experience in. I say I plan to start working on this beacause, I dont know if i'll get far enough in to actually make it! I may decide to make another project entirely. But im hoping, by the end of this year, I can make significant progress on making a game that I can plan to release (probably for money). Whether it gets popular or not? We'll have to see!
Mental health wise... Well, lets be honest, every month is hard on me. But this month hasnt been that bad! I havent had many quarrels with my parents, (whom I still live with. I'm working on it.) and I have a job that isnt too taxing on me mentally (just physically, lol. Standing for 5 hours straight is NOT fun. Especially when I had to do it for 8 hours straight when I was first training. Good god, that was awful.). I'd say things were looking up, but if you know anything about me... I live in America right now. Planes are falling out of the sky, 12 eggs is 15$, and ICE has become our nations Gestapo. Elon wet little dick did a nazi salute on stage, and we are basically the laughing stock of the world. I mean, fuck, the guy has done like 20 things to get impeached and no one has done anything. Its geniuenely so infurating. One place I could turn to was Tiktok, but now they're affiliated with the orange fuck to! And when we had a revolutionary, we treated him like a trend and sent him to 24hr news cycle hell! I cant stand it man.
Right, but thats a rant for someone more educated and more politically focused than me. All in all, other than the whole Nazi Inaguration. Things were pretty aight. Lets hope that continues, yea? Yea.
- Zombiethederg
Written 12/23/2024
Well. I havent been around to check out this old place in awhile. I see its caught up some cobwebs... the hit counter on the front page aint working. And god, I missed 2 Monthly recaps no less! Well. Technically only one, seeing as we havent hit December 30th yet. But whatever, I'll just do this now.
So hey! How have you all been? Im so sorry I havent been around. I want to explain myself, as I feel I owe it to any reader who comes across my quaint little website after ive been gone for about a month now. Im going to warn you, this monthly recap will be Hard 2 Read, so be wary of that going in.
So. On October 30th, I made a very dumb desicion to attempt to move out by. Well, the best way to put it is running away. Needless to say, my parents werent the happiest about it. They got angry, and definetely have some perceptions of me which are from me being fueled by anger. Its alot of personal stuff to work out. But we'll get there. I guess.
Anyway. As a sort of term for their punishment for me, they wanted me to get a job. So I did! I work at a gas station now, and had my first day today. It wasnt too bad, but I cant imagine every day will be like the one I just had, as I did spend half of it looking at training videos, haha. Anyway, thats besides the point. What really matters is they suprised me with giving me back my PC... well, about a month early from my estimate for Christmas.
So, im back then! Sorry I dont have much more to say, I envisioned this post being alot longer than it likely is. Oh well.
I'll be updating the website semi-regularly as I did before, maybe changing up some pages. I may add something ive been meaning too once I get my first paycheck (gotta have the Neocities supporter status, haha!) but im excited to be back! Ive got alot cooking. :)
Written 10/30/2024
God... what a month. Theres not too much to talk about, but i'll talk about some of it.
I didnt get much done in way of projects. I had 2 Math Tests during this entire semester, so I really only had a week before I wasnt studying for either a test... However, I dont have to start studying for another test for another THREE WEEKS! Im hoping that'll give me time to work on the stuff I managed to get started... such as..
I bought back CenturySMP! CenturySMP was an old project of mine, with the main concept being that it would revolve around themed "Centuries", that would last 100 days before the server was reset. I started it up again, and I cant wait to get the ball rolling on it! As well, ive been working on making The Liches Descent (a game I made for a Game Jam) into a full game! Nothings been done on that front yet, but im excited to get it rolling!
Mental health wise October was... well, it was a net positive. Having 2 math tests certainly didnt help my anxiety. Still feeling some of the after effects of the anxiety from my test from yesterday, that made me feel like I was actually going to die. But, that anxiety also lead for me to make a backup plan of if I inevitably dont graduate college due to this math class. At the very least, ive gone from "my life is over if I fail this math class" to "well. I guess my life will be on a different path im ok with if I fail this math class. but i'd really like not to."
To be honest, this month wasnt super eventful. I didnt have alot I could do, other than some NocturinSMP streams and getting projects started with both of my math tests, and we didnt have a SINGLE Death Save session in all of October due to everyone getting sick or being out of town... But overall, the month was decent. Just not much to write about. More of the same's not the right word, but you know. Just not much could happen. :/
Oh well! Heres to a more eventful Nove- oh fuck wait no thats (American) Election Month wait god oh fuck wait no no-
- Zombiethederg
Written 9/30/2024
Wow. That was. Fast. Really, It felt like theres been no time since the 30th of August compared to the 30th of September. Jeez, thats a bit worrying! But I do have some stuff to talk about I guess.
Math and college have still been awful. I feel like im learning nothing for so much trifle and work, not progressing anywhere close to the career I want. To be honest, im completely preparing for the possibility I fail my math class and lose a chance to do my math class again, which would essentially mean the end of my college career. Funding my classes? In this (American) economy? Yea right. Thats been a bit of a source of mental strife I suppose, but im ready to go through the slog of building up my portfolio of smaller games in order to work with bigger companies while working at a minimum wage job.
Anyways, onto the fun stuff actually. Ive fully started development on the card game I mentioned last month. I finished writing all 240 of the base set cards! Now were onto beta-art making. We need to actually be able to distinguish the cards, so currentlly me and a few friends are making little beta doodles of the cards bit by bit. Its a long process, but once its done, we can actually begin playtesting, which is super cool to me!
Oh! I also joined a game jam. It started really late into the month (On the 26th) but ive been making decent progress onto my entry "The Liches Descent", which is about a dastardly lich who forgets the security code to turn off his tower traps, and has to descend his tower and get past his own traps in order to escape. He does so by using minions that offer various different uses across levels, such as letting him jump across spikes, fly across gaps, and more. Ive been making quite a bit of progress, adding a cutscene system, as well as all the minions. Ill likely make a blog post here (and put it into my Storage Space when its done).
Ive done alot this month to help manage my projects. I mean, I plan on making a public minecraft server soon, as well as another RPG Maker game, but this month has really been helpful for my mental health, and I cant thank my friends more for that. I really apperciate them being there for me. Really has helped me deal with some of those issues ive been having for awhile. BUT BACK TO THE FUN STUFF!
Death Save has been going pretty well, we had the second major bossfight of the campaign recently with the Mirror Demon, who coincided with another players backstory. The players understood his gimmick immediatlly, that being they needed to attack where he'd be in the reflection instead of in the real world (seeing as their bullets were reflected across the mirror, as the Mirror Demon had the ability to move between the reflection and reflective realm. (As I like to call them). He'll be a pretty major character going forward, and im excited to see what happens with the rest of the campaign.
This month was. Something I suppose. Fun for projects. Someone in my family died, but these are meant to be fun, you know? and overall just very mentally taxing. But hey, whats a month on this earth without a little mental taxation, right? I dunno. I feel like theres not much to write about that I didnt cover in last months recap, you know? Oh well, they cant all be bangers! Heres to the next one!
- Zombiethederg
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