It’s been more than a year since my last post, I must apologize but Covid-19 has impacted my lifestyle. Fortunately lockdown in the UK is starting to ease and I have time to pick up where I left off once again.

Life Stuff

Getting personal business out of the way first, I’ve been working a lot through the pandemic. I am considered a “key worker” in the UK (though I’m not paid like one) and I have been working very hard and all the hours I can while most people have been housebound. Speaking of Housebound my Wife has been stuck at home for the best part of the year which has impacted me quite a bit. I don’t think I was prepared for a lot of the changes marriage has on your life, especially coming home and shes had nothing to do all day so wants all my attention. Things in my marriage have been up and down the last year and its been hard getting across the fact that I need to have time to myself. She has gone back to work as of the 12th April 2021 and I have taken the week of work to relax and pick my life backup while I have some free time.

The only thing that has kept me sane and something I really got into during the lockdown was Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. This has taken up what little freetime I’ve had but I’ve enjoyed the social interactions outside of work. I DM and am currently managing two campaigns. It’s been a lot of fun and I adore my group.

The Thing 2 RPG (v3.0 Update)

Well what a bit of a fuck up this update has been. It’s dragged on and had a lot of setbacks but I’ve started sifting through my notes to pick things up again. The state of the game is currently a bit of a mess, I had a big setback when I implemented a script that I had to later remove. I’m debating rebuilding the game but I think it’d just take too long at this point though there are a lot of things I need to change so both methods are just as long.

Currently the patch notes are all over the place and I’ve been trying features out here and there. I’ve definitely learned a lot since I started back in 2011 and there’s a lot I’d like to do differently I think. After gutting former systems from the last test build I added a bunch of weapons, skills and fixes to the game but I’ve still got a lot to do as well as potential planned content that I’m not sure if I’ll achieve yet.

I currently have plans for additional side quests, another game mode and additional voice acting though I’m unsure if this will come to pass yet as I have stuff to tackle in the game as is and Jose can only do so much as he’s also quite busy with things in his personal life.

I’ll try and keep the blog more updated (it might not be monthly) and let you all know what direction I go in. I’ve also been asked about monetization a bunch of times and I’ll say that Kick starter, Patron and Steam/Retail probably are not the best ways to go for me. I do accept donations but I think for the games final release I’ll use the “pay what you want” method so it will be free essentially.

Thing Team: Richard2410, Arteaga

–

Don’t forget you can join our Discord server and message us directly and play earlier test builds of the game here:
https://discord.gg/JxFb6Td

Want to help us out? Consider donating:
For more information on Donations go here.

That’s about all I have to say for now. I hope that I can fill these blog posts with enough decent information each month or so to keep them readable. Thanks for reading this and playing my game(s) over the years :)

-Richard

“I actually love these shoes, the best shoe I have ever ran in and my favorite shoe for everyday wear overall.” It’s amazing what sort of spam comments I get here, this one made me chuckle.

Life Stuff

Apologies for skipping out on the February blog post I didn’t really have much new to report. I’d mostly been at work and hadn’t had much time to do anything noteworthy.

March hasn’t exactly kicked off to well either, I spent the first half of the month at work and then the other half really sick off work. I’ve been in bed unable to do a lot these days. I am starting to get better though and hope to return to work and normal life this month. I still dread my backlog of emails and art assets to work through though, yikes.

In some good news Arteaga quit his job at the airport shortly before the covid-19 outbreak hit Spain pretty hard and thankfully him and his family have kept healthy and safe. He’s still producing artwork at a steady pace for me.

The Thing 2 RPG (v3.0 Update)

Due to either being at work or being sick we’ve had a few setbacks so I hope you will all understand. As the situation around the world remains unclear I can only hope that everyone remains safe and we can all return to normal as soon as possible.

A private test build of the game is available for members of my discord server, if you are interested in helping with this you can join my discord server (here) for more information. Just say hi in the public chat and I’ll grant you access to the channel that has the test build in it.

Thing Team: Richard2410, Arteaga

–

Don’t forget you can join our Discord server and message us directly here:
https://discord.gg/JxFb6Td

Want to help us out? Consider donating:
For more information on Donations go here.

That’s about all I have to say for now. I hope that I can fill these blog posts with enough decent information each month to keep them readable. Thanks for reading this and playing my game(s) over the years :)

-Richard

Hello! Happy New Year, have you all ditched your resolutions to loose weight yet? I know I have!

Life Stuff

January has been such a cold month, people don’t really have much money so work has been quite dead for the most part though lack of staff has made up for that I suppose. I haven’t really done much this month it feels like, I made a new map in warcraft 3 (classic) and worked on some of my ideas a little but that feels like it really.

I find that I lack time for most things these days, so many films, series and games to enjoy but no time to do so. It kinda bums me out a lot and I try not to think about it too much but life kinda sucks that way. So much for kicking off the new year with “New Year New Me” right? I wanna be more positive in February, let’s hope the world doesn’t end or something in the meantime…

The Thing 2 RPG (v3.0 Update)

I’m quite behind on work I have to catch up with currently. Arteaga has been producing tiles faster than I can work them into the game and I haven’t really had much time off work lately so it’s somewhat frustrating. I do want to get the update out at some-point in 2020 though so please stand by for more details.

I’d also like to note that while I do intend this to be the last update some rather interesting news keeps circulating about a new Thing Movie in production. From what I understand its going to be a remake, using both carpenters work and the extended version of Who Goes There (see Frozen Hell) as groundwork to tell the full tale. Personally its going to take a lot of effort to top the 1982 movie but we shall see. Characters or story elements from this movie may feature in the game in a future update if the new material is any good.

A private test build of the game is available for members of my discord server, if you are interested in helping with this you can join my discord server (here) for more information. Just say hi in the public chat and I’ll grant you access to the channel that has the test build in it.

Thing Team: Richard2410, Arteaga

–

Don’t forget you can join our Discord server and message us directly here:
https://discord.gg/JxFb6Td

Want to help us out? Consider donating:
For more information on Donations go here.

That’s about all I have to say for now. I hope that I can fill these blog posts with enough decent information each month to keep them readable. Thanks for reading this and playing my game(s) over the years :)

-Richard

Here we are already the end of 2019 already! I was unable to post a blog in November so I thought I’d wrap the November and December into one to cut down on the filler. I will continue monthly posts for 2020 now that things have calmed down for me considerably.

Life Stuff

It’s not been a great last few months for me or my wife in particular. I brought her over to the UK this year on a 6 month visa and when it was time to apply for the extension the Home Office rejected our application based on my income. I ended up taking them to court and won in the end because yes, I did in fact meet the minimum income requirements as I worked my ass off the last year and a half. Fortunately she can live in the UK for longer now and actually work but we had to deal with unnecessary stress and additional court fees which I shouldn’t of had to pay in the first place.

Overall its not been an easy year for me financially which has of course impacted a lot of the stuff I want to do. The Christmas period has not been great either as I’ve had to work a lot and I’m still not much closer to getting a better job. It’s a good thing I live at home otherwise I’d be pretty screwed.

I’ve been working on my ideas lately and I’d like to make something based on the concept of The Thing but of course moving away from the IP and having something more original. It’s still early days but I always like the ideas and planning part of any project, it’s usually the most fun.

The Thing 2 RPG (v3.0 Update)

Good news everyone! The v2.6 update is now going to be considered as the v3.0 update also known as the Farewell Update. Alongside all the work done so far we do expect to expand on additional elements of the game to make it the best it can be. This of course will take longer than already planned but I hope its worth the wait.

After we have reworked more of the objects in game and finished off new ones we are going to add some additional enemy sprites and maybe a bit more optional content to story mode. Outside of this work is being done to rewrite and improve some of the story so I hope it gives it a fresh perspective.

A private test build of the game is available for members of my discord server, if you are interested in helping with this you can join my discord server (here) for more information. Just say hi in the public chat and I’ll grant you access to the channel that has the test build in it.

Thing Team: Richard2410, Arteaga

–

Don’t forget you can join our Discord server and message us directly here:
https://discord.gg/JxFb6Td

Want to help us out? Consider donating:
For more information on Donations go here.

That’s about all I have to say for now. I hope that I can fill these blog posts with enough decent information each month to keep them readable. Thanks for reading this and playing my game(s) over the years :)

-Richard

Hello There.

Life Stuff

As usual I’ve mostly been at work and in my free time I’ve been looking at other jobs trying to find something to get just a little bit more income in my life. I still haven’t seen anything yet, well anything that I’m qualified or have “experience” for.

I’ve been thinking about what to do with myself once The Thing is over but I still can’t figure it out. I have lots of ideas but committing to them isn’t always easy. If I had infinite time and money (or I didn’t have to work much) that would remove a lot of the obstacles in my way for sure. I’ve been considering making a fantasy RPG as there’s a lot of free resources that can be used for it so it could be made at minimum cost but it may be a bit vanilla.

The Thing 2 RPG (v2.6 Update)

I’ve been struggling to find time to playtest the game the last month and with the run up to Christmas I’m concerned work will consume me. I have been trying to put in a spare hour here and there where I can but I think it needs more love than that to get anything substantial done. That spring 2019 release sure is going well for me…

The Public release of the game is still delayed until further notice but a private test build of the game is available for members of my discord server, if you are interested in helping with this you can join my discord server (here) for more information.

Thing Team: Richard2410, Arteaga

–

Don’t forget you can join our Discord server and message us directly here:
https://discord.gg/JxFb6Td

Want to help us out? Consider donating:
For more information on Donations go here.

That’s about all I have to say for now. I hope that I can fill these blog posts with enough decent information each month to keep them readable. Thanks for reading this and playing my game(s) over the years :)

-Richard

A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.

Life Stuff

Time is going really quickly and I don’t know why but its a little scary considering, yet why does it feel so long when I’m at work?

I was off for 2 weeks during this month but it went really quickly and I didn’t actually do much, I just enjoyed the time off mostly. I beat Fire Emblem 2 more times (completing all 4 routes, now on my 5th playthrough, send help), completed the Spyro trilogy (damn those skill points!) and beat Links Awakening.

Sadly I’m back at work now and doing extra work to help pay for some of my wife’s visa fees so I expect to be busy in the coming months but we will try to complete the thing 2 v2.6 update this year. It’s what comes after that which scares me, I’m not too sure what I want to do and I don’t have a budget to start anything big so I’m still thinking about it.

The Thing 2 RPG (v2.6 Update)

By some miracle I did work on the game a bit this month, I’ve been moving things around in game, making slight tweaks here and there, mostly visual stuff. As I have extra time while waiting for Arteaga I’ve started going through the game modes and correcting spelling mistakes/grammar and changing dialogue up to be better. Prequel Mode is the only game mode where I used scripts and thus the writing, grammar and spelling is fairly accurate. All the other modes were done ‘on the fly’ so a lot of it is really choppy. There is a lot of text in game though but I’ve got it down to just Story and Original Mode left to check now.

I still need to playtest Story mode but I haven’t had time. I need to do 2 runs of it (one on hard, one on normal) and complete various sub-missions to find a nice balance for difficulty vs frustration. It can just take a while to do, I find it’s about a 15 to 20 hour run (which is better than most Triple A games these days).

Arteaga has been hard at work this month despite working at his job a lot. He’s completed the level select images, lots of environmental pieces (there are new outpost objects, the oil outpost has been reworked and we are also working on the crash-site to make it a lot better looking and true to the film) and he completed new original/story mode intro photos for me to use.

He still has some extra work left to do, making some new objects such as the UFO crater (we are also changing the tents and other misc stuff) and we are going to change one of the ending scenes. Alongside this he has also been providing some new music tracks for the game which are very reminiscent of the film score.

While my expected release dates are always famously wrong, I do anticipate we will finish the work this year. It’d be nice to open 2020 with something fresh and new as I’ve been with The Thing 2 for like 7/8 years at this point.

Did you know I made the first Thing RPG back in 2010 with a total development time of 8 weeks? I’ve worked on other odd projects and made a bunch of demos for stuff I never finished over the years but never really gone through with releasing any of it. I have ideas for games it’s just seeing them through that is the challenge.

The Public release of the game is still delayed until further notice but a private test build of the game is available for members of my discord server, if you are interested in helping with this you can join my discord server (here) for more information.

Thing Team: Richard2410, Arteaga

–

Don’t forget you can join our Discord server and message us directly here:
https://discord.gg/JxFb6Td

Want to help us out? Consider donating:
For more information on Donations go here.

That’s about all I have to say for now. I hope that I can fill these blog posts with enough decent information each month to keep them readable. Thanks for reading this and playing my game(s) over the years :)

-Richard

I’m really feeling it!

Life Stuff

This month went by really fast but it had its fair share of ups and downs.

For the first half of the month I was obsessed with Fire Emblem Three Houses, I put over 120 hours into it and have completed 2 of the 4 play-throughs (I’m on my third) but I’m a little burnt out from it so I’m taking a break from it. The game is generally quite easy as you get an OP main character but supporting characters become redundant if training/grinding is not maintained between chapters.

I did really enjoy the character personalities and interactions for the most part but I refused to play on classic mode (permadeath) as I didn’t want anyone to die. I have a love/hate relationship with Permadeath, I love it in the XCOM games but with Fire Emblem being so RPG heavy its kinda awkward. It also seems a shame to write such good characters and then just to have them be expendable.

I find permadeath balance interesting and it’s definitely something I will reflect on going forward with future projects. I feel that in The Thing 2 RPG it’s acceptable due to the characters having limited personality although I did cave recently and add a mode that disables permadeath (although they can still be lost through infection). I wonder where a perfect balance for this lies.

I didn’t get to work on the Thing much this month but I have some time off work coming up in September so I’ll try and bang out my work in those 2 weeks if I can keep focused…

The Thing 2 RPG (v2.6 Update)

It’s been slow going this month, that spring 2019 release sure is taking its time huh?

This month I didn’t have much time to work on the project but a few extra assets have been created for it by Arteaga. There isn’t much work left to do on his part but he has also been busy. Next month I will put the assets into the game and will post some screenshots. For now you can see the Level Select images he has been working on (although they are incomplete).

The Public release of the game is still delayed until further notice but a private test build of the game is available for members of my discord server, if you are interested in helping with this you can join my discord server (here) for more information.

Thing Team: Richard2410, Arteaga

–

Don’t forget you can join our Discord server and message us directly here:
https://discord.gg/JxFb6Td

Want to help us out? Consider donating:
For more information on Donations go here.

That’s about all I have to say for now. I hope that I can fill these blog posts with enough decent information each month to keep them readable. Thanks for reading this and playing my game(s) over the years :)

-Richard

Stranger, Stranger… Now thats a weapon.

Life Stuff

This months been a little off for me, I’ve been looking for another job and I’ve had some issues adjusting to all the family I inherited through marriage. The cultural difference is a lot for me too sometimes.

For most of this month I didn’t get to play much, I played a bit of Crash Team Racing each day and I actually managed to finish the Nitro Tour Grand Prix by playing a little each day. It was really fun and theres another Grand Prix coming up soon. I’ve heard they’re putting micro-transactions in the game now (so far after launch) which is a real shame because it’s a quality product otherwise.

Since Friday 26th July I’ve been playing Fire Emblem Three Houses pretty much non-stop, it’s consumed my life to be honest. I love Fire Emblem but haven’t played since Radiant Dawn on the Wii and I’ve easily put in 30/40 hours. When XCOM 2 came out on PC I had a real bad addiction to that putting over 1400 hours into the game and over 300 hours into the mod tools. I’m trying not to get too overboard with Fire Emblem but it’s just so good.

I miss watching stuff these days, I used to watch stuff on the night but now my wifes here I don’t get the time.

The Thing 2 RPG (v2.6 Update)

We’re still working on remaining assets and fixes for the game, it’s taking a lot longer than expected and we’ve hit more hurdles than I care to admit. I’m not sure when the game will be out but this extra time is really helping to iron out a lot of issues.

Last month I managed to address a lot of issues in the game, here’s a brief summary;
-Story Mode, Hard + Realistic balancing for the early game
-SP Balance/Nerf, Medic Healing Rebalance/Nerf
-Changed the level at which skills are aquired
-Added Casual Mode (Party Members don’t disappear after falling in battle and can be revived)
-Added Phoenix Mode (No more gameover when Main character falls in battle, instead they revive automatically after battle)
-Did some major fixes to sections in story mode that were broken

I still have to finish playing through the story mode but I had to restart after fixes/changes and Fire Emblem Three Houses just came out on the Nintendo switch and every minute of every day I just want to play it. (Send Help).

The Public release of the game is still delayed until further notice but a private test build of the game is available for members of my discord server, if you are interested in helping with this you can join my discord server (here) for more information.

Thing Team: Richard2410, Arteaga

–

Don’t forget you can join our Discord server and message us directly here:
https://discord.gg/JxFb6Td

Want to help us out? Consider donating:
For more information on Donations go here.

That’s about all I have to say for now. I hope that I can fill these blog posts with enough decent information each month to keep them readable. Thanks for reading this and playing my game(s) over the years :)

-Richard

Woah!

Life Stuff

It’s been a busy month for me this June and I actually got a some time off work but sadly it went too quickly. I got married earlier in the month and went to London for my Honeymoon. Everything’s been going so fast for me these last few months it’s kinda hard to fit everything else into my schedule.

This month I didn’t play many games at the start but Crash Team Racing release and my oh my what a nostalgia trip that was and must say the switch port is pretty excellent bar the load times. I managed to 101% the Adventure Mode which I could never finish as a kid so that’s something that put a smile on my face at least. I’ve also started playing Bloodstained Ritual of the Night and while it’s a bit janky on the switch here and there it’s also a solid game so far and really addictive.

I’ll be working a lot of 9 and 12 hour shifts this month so I hope to fit a few play sessions in here and there if I get time.

The Thing 2 RPG (v2.6 Update)

Production of additional artwork for the game has had to be extended into July due to busy schedules but stuff is getting done and we’ve nearly finished all the last bits and pieces. In addition to this the Private Test Build of the game has been getting me some good results and I’ve managed to fix issues and address balance changes from feedback on my Discord server (Shout out to MVK for their play testing, many thanks).

I’m currently playing through Story Mode myself to make sure my changes hold up and to keep an eye out for issues here and there. The full release of the game shouldn’t be much longer, just try to hang in there a bit more. I know it’s frustrating when delays happen (*Cough* Fire Emblem) but the extra polish will save some frustration for end users.

The Public release of the game has been delayed until further notice but a private test build of the game is available for members of my discord server, if you are interested in helping with this you can join my discord server (here) for more information.

Thing Team: Richard2410, Arteaga

Legend

We aren’t making any progress on this while The Thing 2 RPG is being completed so I’ll remove it from posts for the time being. In addition I want to restructure some of my previous ideas and it’s a little up in the air what to go for at this point. I just hope we can make something decent with the assets we have.

Legend Team: Richard2410, Sadonrii

–

Don’t forget you can join our Discord server and message us directly here:
https://discord.gg/JxFb6Td

Want to help us out? Consider donating:
For more information on Donations go here.

That’s about all I have to say for now. I hope that I can fill these blog posts with enough decent information each month to keep them readable. Thanks for reading this and playing my game(s) over the years :)

-Richard

I’m old Gregg.

Life Stuff

I’ve been at work a lot, I’m often working 12 hour shifts and haven’t had much time to do anything really. I’ve been spending time with my fiancee too so finding some time for my own things has been difficult.

I got Saints Row 3 for the switch this month, I’ve played it before but I was hoping to beat it before the end of the month but I’ll have to finish it off next month. Its still a solid game and good fun but has a few issues here and there. Other than this I watched all 20 episodes of “The Mighty Boosh” and I loved it, especially S2E05 that features old Gregg the Merman. I really like weird and wacky humor and I wish Noel Fielding had done more stuff than just lurk on tv panels for the past few years.

The Thing 2 RPG (v2.6 Update)

Production of additional artwork for the game has had to be extended into June as Arteaga is a little behind schedule. We’ve decided to just complete what work we can and hope the end result will be worth it. It’s our last major update for the game and we hope to just give it a good sendoff.

I still need to play test Story Mode on the hardest settings and check for issues in that mode. I’ve considered recording it for YouTube but haven’t found the time to fit it into my schedule. Outside of this I’m addressing issues as they arise and working closer with the community to get things fixed.

The Public release of the game has been delayed until further notice but a private test build of the game is available for members of my discord server, if you are interested in helping with this you can join my discord server (here) for more information.

Thing Team: Richard2410, Arteaga

Legend

Some work has been done on the base engine but it’s still pretty much a skeleton at this point and needs more framework before I can show any gameplay. We’re still sorting out ideas but have a lot of stuff set out as guidelines for ourselves so we are getting there, slowly. The Thing 2 RPG comes first though so until that is complete work on this is a lower priority.

Legend Team: Richard2410, Sadonrii

–

Don’t forget you can join our Discord server and message us directly here:
https://discord.gg/JxFb6Td

Want to help us out? Consider donating:
For more information on Donations go here.

That’s about all I have to say for now. I hope that I can fill these blog posts with enough decent information each month to keep them readable. Thanks for reading this and playing my game(s) over the years :)

-Richard