Hi everyone, we are coming close to finishing up work on The Thing 2 RPGs v2.6 update. While work is nearing completion the game could still use some more time to be tested and balanced before a public release. Unfortunately this means I will be delaying the Public release of the v2.6 build of the game until further notice.
However I am interested in feedback and help testing/balancing the game so despite it not being 100% complete yet I will be rolling out a Private Test Build of the game which will be available to members of my discord server later this evening. If you are interested in helping with this you can join my discord server (here) for more information.
For those of you interested, you can read a full list of the current patch notes here.
This delay will help to polish the game up as much as possible before full release so I hope everyone will understand the reasons for running the test build and I look forward to working with the community through Discord to improve the game and make it the best that it can be.
I’ve been working as much as possible this month. My fiancee came over from Vietnam so I’ve been having to support her as well as find time for all my other crazy shenanigans. It’s times like this that I’m grateful for owning a switch as I’ve only really been able to get in quick gaming sessions on Smash Bros here and there. I do hate having to juggle so many things and I find myself in a situation where I mostly work and have hardly any time to play games (let alone make stuff) which 7 years ago I swore would never happen to me.
I was really sick for 4 days earlier in the month which knocked me about a bit but I managed to sit down and watch The Thing again. It’s still such a great movie and I can’t believe they haven’t done more with it or the premise. The 2002 game (and it’s cancelled sequel) had so much promise it’s a shame the Prequel didn’t exactly manage to light the world on fire.
I’ve been reading a lot of Reddit lately, I only really got into it last year and I came accross this awesome poster on https://www.reddit.com/r/MoviePosterPorn and I thought it was awesome.
The Thing 2 RPG (v2.6 Update)
Production of additional artwork for the game has had to be extended into May as Arteaga is a little behind schedule. Hopefully he can get all the work completed and we won’t have to delay the game at all. As of now I’m still aiming for a May 2019 release but we have to push into June, I’ll post an update if this happens as there’s still a few things I need done for the game despite cutting most of the planned workload.
I’m still play-testing the game on the Hardest settings and trying to balance drops without making it a cakewalk. I had a major issue where the new multi-squad mechanic wasn’t working correctly but I managed to find a dirty fix for it that goes around the issue. Changing this meant I had to start a new save but I managed to get back to where I was before and beat Prequel Mode on top of that.
I’m currently play-testing Original Mode which is probably the hardest of the 3 main stories. The first few areas are pretty rough on hard so I’ve been dropping more meds around the maps which will hopefully offset some difficulty here and there. Finishing Original Mode itself isn’t too bad, I am behind schedule though as I’d hoped to at least be on the Story Mode by now which is by far the longest to complete/test to 100%.
We finally finished Natalie’s additional costumes for Prequel Mode. We expanded the original 4 outfits into 20. Scattered around Prequel mode are costume lockers where you can change Natalie’s appearance. 8 can be found at first but 4 will be unlocked at each difficulty completed and yes #20 is Tofu.
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.
Want to help us out? Consider donating: For more information on Donations go here.
Donation
Consider helping us out with costs for less than the price of Lunch. Any amount is appreciated.
£1.00
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 :)
Hi! Did anyone notice I was posting Blog Updates as 2018? I did that for 2 months without realizing, I’m such an idiot sometimes… anyway, hopefully this one has the correct month and year.
Life Stuff
Since I’ve come back from Vietnam I’ve been hard at work on The Thing 2 RPG’s v2.6 update. I’m well into my testing phase and I’m fixing, patching and bug fighting everything as I go. Sometimes new features effect old mechanics or I forget to use my brain or overthink something a lot. I did learn a lot from making the Thing RPG though and I’ve gotten into the habit of leaving myself notes throughout the game events that only I can see to explain to myself why something does something, but most importantly I learned that you should always leave room for new content. When I first started making the game I was in a mindset of only having x amount of items or weapons instead of leaving space by them for extra types thats why sometimes (especially with the skills) newer skills appear further down in menus.
Outside of this not much has changed for me, I’ve been working what shifts I can and I’m still fighting to get a visa for my fiancee. I did have a bit of bad luck the other day where I went to take my driving test and the car had a mechanical fault so I couldn’t take it and now have to wait 7 weeks for a new test. I also want a new Gaming PC but can’t afford that right now so everything is amazing as always.
The Thing 2 RPG (v2.6 Update)
I might be aiming high here but I’m still gunning for that May 2019 release. Arteaga has fallen behind with his work a little and I’m unable to pay him after April so I may have to cut some more planned art content which is not great news but after having to cancel PW and everything else going on in my life it’s far from the end of the world.
In good news my testing is going well, I’ve beaten the Tutorial, Avery’s Story, Pierce’s Story, Thing Mode and Survival Mode to 100% on the hardest difficulties (where possible) to try and balance the game and bugfix. I’m about 8 hours in which I don’t think is too bad. I’ve got Prequel, Original and Story Mode(s) left to do on Swedish Realistic difficulty and I’m considering recording footage from them to make a new trailer (the old trailer is really outdated). I’m considering a features overview or something like that but I’m not sure yet. As always the character based on me (Smith) died during survival mode so I’m going to try and keep him alive in Original/Story mode this time but the game seems to single my character out a lot…
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.
Want to help us out? Consider donating: For more information on Donations go here.
Donation
Consider helping us out with costs for less than the price of Lunch. Any amount is appreciated.
£1.00
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 :)
Hello everyone, how’s it going? I’m back from Vietnam now and I’ve been working on the game a lot more since I’ve come back and made some good progress.
I finally finished the “Away Team” mechanic for Story Mode. It took me a lot longer than I originally hoped and I had to divert from some of my planned features a little but in the end I got there. What this mechanic lets you do is send out a squad who go on a mini raid of sorts to one of ten generic locations (that will be reused, I added 10 for variety). Once they arrive at their destination you can switch to control of them and carry out their mission. This mechanic will allow you to spread training out among more party members and allow you to snag some extra loot but it’s not without it’s risks of course and you can actually loose the squad if all it’s members perish (along with any gear/items you gave them). I’m currently testing this alongside other new content to make sure it works.
Once I have tested the new content to make sure it’s stable I’ll be doing a run of the entire game on the hardest settings to balance difficulty and to make sure I stamp out any bugs. If anyone notices any issues with the game please let me know, even if I’ve already addressed them I’d like to double check them. I’ll also be posting the Change Notes soon so you can see a full list of all the features and changes I’ve made since v2.5.3 so look forward to that (there’s a lot of small stuff).
Outside of my own efforts Arteaga is hard at work on little tasks here and there for me. I’ve cut a lot of the planned art overhauls due to budget and time but I’m trying to get him to do as much as possible before release. He is currently providing new CHIBI Sprites for the game and has just completed new sprites for the Gen Inc Agents and along with new sprites for the custom character creation. Sometime back I decided to overhaul the Custom Character skins and removed a lot of the old ones and will be replacing/changing most of the unlock-able skins.
Here are the new “Male” and “Female” options for the Character Creator.
Finally, Release Date. I have Arteaga until the end of April so hopefully the bits he has left to do will be finished by then. During that time I will continue to test and balance the game as mentioned above. If everything goes to plan (which it usually doesn’t) I hope to release the game in May 2019.
Hopefully this is good news for all as there isn’t long left to go. I’ll write a blog post at the end of the month so see you then.
This month I watched “The Hollow” on Netflix. It was actually really good especially going into it without any spoilers. A group of teenagers wake up in a weird world and weird stuff happens, it’s great and you should totally watch it.
Life Stuff
This month I’ve mostly been preparing for my trip to Vietnam (I leave in 9 hours actually!) and sorting things out in my life. I haven’t really done anything notable other than watch a bunch of Netflix between shifts and cram some Fire Emblem Warriors in here and there.
I don’t really have much else to write about myself this month but I’m sure I’ll be able to write something mildly interesting next month when I come back from Vietnam.
I also watched “Final Space” on Netflix this month which is a sci-fi comedy/drama. Again this also surprised me and was really good especially not knowing anything about it beforehand. It starts out about a prisoner aboard a ship but wackiness and all around plot convenience turn things into a fight to save the human race.
The Thing 2 RPG (v2.6 Update)
Progress has been slow this month but we’ve managed to finish some of the CHIBI sprites we are missing for the Gen Inc Agents. I’m still looking at getting the update released in Spring 2019 and am hoping for an April release window.
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.
Want to help us out? Consider donating: For more information on Donations go here.
Donation
Consider helping us out with costs for less than the price of Lunch. Any amount is appreciated.
£1.00
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 :)
Hello, Happy new year! Well happy might be a bit of a stretch but eh…
I’ve been re watching “That Mitchell and Webb look” on Netflix. It’s still as deadpan as ever but I can’t help but enjoy it. There’s a sketch about a post apocalyptic game-show called “Remain Indoors” which is pretty awesome and ever so British.
Life Stuff
I’ve been under a lot of financial pressure the last few months which is why I had to shelve our PW project and also reduce planned workload for The Thing 2 RPG (more info below). There’s also been a lot of changes in my personal life that’s made it a lot harder to fund game development and having made The Thing 2 RPG as a free game hasn’t really helped in hindsight. Regardless the most important thing for me is that it’s something I enjoy doing and will continue to do but just on a much smaller scale going forward.
I will be going back to Vietnam to see my fiancee next month. Sadly I couldn’t get Valentines day off work which also means I’ll miss Tet Holiday (Lunar New Year) but at least I’ll be there for her Birthday. Being in a long distance relationship isn’t easy and most people probably wouldn’t bother but I think it’s worth it in the long run.
I haven’t really done much at the start of 2019 really. There’s been very little overtime at work so I’ve mostly been playing on my Nintendo Switch. I have a backlog of over 50 games so I’m trying to complete the ones I’ve already played. I’m currently about 230 hours into Fire Emblem Warriors xD
I have also started development on a smaller Fantasy RPG Project to tide me over after The Thing 2 RPG’s update comes out. You can read more about this further below in the post.
I’d also like to let you know that I’ve setup a Discord server for people who are interested in messaging me directly as I know the comments system isn’t always great on here. If you have any feedback on my games or just want to chat you can hit me up at: https://discord.gg/JxFb6Td
This is a screenshot from our cancelled PW Project.
The Thing 2 RPG (v2.6 Update)
Sadly we’ve had to scrap the big art overhaul to the game and are just going to focus on some minor sprite improvements and fixes to other assets. I just have really can’t afford a lot of the costs right now. Going forward the taller sprites will be unused and there will be no new faces, we will just stick with the CHIBI sprites due to constraints.
The only good news is that meeting the Spring 2019 release is much more likely now as most of the remaining work now will be on my part.
After scrapping PW due to financial constraints we’ve started work on a fantasy RPG in the RPG Maker MV Engine. Back in 2016 I made a test demo (before we started PW) called “Legend”. It was a world that was semi-open where you could explore as you like and there wasn’t any particular hard story just lots of quests and stuff to do within the world. We are going to be taking the concept of this and reworking it into something more fleshed out but with the same premise.
The project won’t cost much to make as it will mostly be using free and stock assets within the editor but it’s something to keep us busy while we work things out. Hopefully you will support us in this as our next step.
Want to help us out? Consider donating: For more information on Donations go here.
Donation
Consider helping us out with costs for less than the price of Lunch. Any amount is appreciated.
£1.00
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 :)
Hello, I hope everyone had a good Christmas? I didn’t have much time off but I at least took a brief moment to rest.
Did anyone see this awesome print by Matthew Peak?
Life Stuff
It was a really busy festive season this month for me as I spent most of it at work helping other people to get the things they need for their holiday season. I’m really glad that it’s nearly over but it means there will be less work available for me which is both a good and a bad thing. With some upcoming time off I will return to work on The Thing 2 RPG and hopefully we can push the update out in 2019.
The last year or so has brought us many challenges, between us as a group we’ve had a few issues trying to sort things out in our personal lives and more so my financial situation is about to change as I will be supporting my fiancee when she comes to the UK. Unfortunately this means while I will have time to work on games I will no longer have the funds required to support production so it’s looking like we will have to cease production on PW until things settle down for me (we will still finish work on the thing first). This is a bit of a blow for me as PW was meant to be a our first commercial project but in the period of 2 years all I really have to show for it is some artwork. With the extra time available to me I’ll see if we can work on something else but it’s a struggle without a budget. We could use stock assets and make “Just another RPG Maker Game”…
In more sad news Donald Moffat died this month (he played Garry, the station manager in The Thing 1982 Movie). Of the 12 actors who played the US Outpost #31 crew 3 of them have passed away since the movie came out which just bums me out. Moffat now joins Charles Hallahan (Norris) and Richard Dysart (Dr. Copper) wherever they may be.
No one could have delivered such a great line as Moffat, it’s such a great scene.
The Thing 2 RPG (v2.6 Update)
Art: Arteaga has finished the second set of sprites for some of the Prequel Mode characters. He is updating the CHIBI sprites too as he goes along so it’s taking some time to get it right. It’s going to take a lot of work on my part to get both of them working in harmony.
Dev: I still haven’t finished the Away Team mechanic, I’ve been busy at work but will get on it soon. I want to do a bunch of QA and iron out the bugs afterwards. We’re focused on more on visuals this time as I’ve already made a long list of mechanical changes to the game (I’ll share it soon).
Planned: There’s so much to do but we are just focusing on the NEW Character Sprites and Faces for now. This will take some time but it should look a lot flashier.
Release: It’s hard to tell if I’m on track for it or not but I am aiming for a Q2 Spring 2019 release for the update. Of course any number of things could go wrong so please continue to be patient.
PW
We will be taking a Hiatus from this for a while until funding can be secured or we put some sort of plan in release. I wan’t to come back to it someday but for now we will be taking a break from it. Until there is news on it, PW will no longer appear in the monthly blog post.
I am now open to taking Donations and have added a page on my site with more information about what the money (if any) will be used for. If your able to help us out I’d really appreciate it.
Sorry if this blog post was more depressing than usual, there is a lot going on right now. Hopefully I’ll feel better next month, I’m on and off most days.
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 :)
Hello, How is everyone? I’m a little late again, sorry about that.
MY BODY IS REGGIE FOR SMASH ULTIMATE
Life Stuff
This month it feels like all I’ve done is gone to work. I’m working 5, sometimes 6 days a week so I haven’t really had time to do much of anything. Between shifts I’ve been managing to play Pokemon let’s go Pikachu (It’s alright as far as a remake goes). It makes me really value having the Switch, especially coming off of PC Gaming recently.
I’ve also been playing Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate on and off with Sadonrii and after about 12 hours we’ve only reached rank 2 xD. I appreciate the game for how hardcore it is and tries to make you live within it’s world and play by it’s rules. It’s pretty fun and grounded for a fantasy game where having to prepare for hunts and be meticulous about things strikes a good balance between being fun and being busy work. I feel like this is something I can learn from going forward as we want to include light survival elements in our PW project but don’t want to overburden the player to the point where it’s not fun. If anyone has ever modded Skyrim on PC I liked the idea of survival mods like Frostfall but found stuff to be too punishing or tedious at times. I’m starting to be leaning towards a system being something that might provide minor debuffs but nothing too restrictive that it punishes the player for not maintaining a characters well being.
Last but not least SUPER SMASH BROTHERS ULTIMATE comes out on December 7th and I am ready for it. I’ll be playing with Sadonrii along with some of my work colleagues. I’m looking forward to it!
I <3 Fire Emblem Memes
The Thing 2 RPG (v2.6 Update)
Art: Arteaga has finished the first set of sprites for some of the Prequel Mode characters. Hopefully the process will become easier for him as it goes now that the animation frames are done.
Dev: I still haven’t finished the Away Team mechanic, I’ve been busy at work and a little sick recently but I’ll try and sort it out ASAP. I need to move toward testing and bug fixing alongside making that damn CHIBI Mode work. In Hindsight there are TOO many characters.
Planned: There’s so much to do but we are just focusing on the NEW Character Sprites and Faces for now. This will take some time but it should look a lot flashier.
Preview: Below is a sample of some of the New Prequel Mode sprites. We’ve decided to change some of the characters appearances here and there.
Fun Fact: Did you know Irvin was originally going to be modeled after Boy George?
Release: Unfortunately a 2018 release is not possible. If I’m realistic I’d say a Q2 2019 (Spring) release is more likely.
PW
Nothing new to report. We are pulling resources towards The Thing 2 RPG currently. Press F to pay respects.
I am now open to taking Donations and have added a page on my site with more information about what the money (if any) will be used for. If your able to help us out I’d really appreciate it.
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 :)
I had some time off from work this month and got a few things done but the workload of everything is starting to pile up a bit. Aside from that it’s just really cold in the UK (especially after coming back from 32c Vietnam) so I’m really freezing here!
This month a new XCOM 2 DLC dropped which was free for War of the Chosen Owners. It was alright I managed to beat all the mini-stories they added, it didn’t really add much overall though and I just hope to see them work on XCOM 3 next. Dark Souls Remastered also dropped for the Switch and I’ve been loving it, I’ve just reached Anor Londo and have been praising the sun everywhere I go.
Overlord season 3 (English Dub) came to an end this month. It was alright though I’m pretty disappointed by the ending and heavy use of CGI, it felt rushed and there wasn’t enough Albedo in it. I’ve also started watching the English Dubs of “Goblin Slayer” (aka WTF did I just watch?) and “Ulysees: Jeanne d’Arc and the Alchemist Knight” (aka Waifu Wars) on Funimation every Thursday. Goblin Slayer is about adventurers doing quests in a pretty messed up fantasy setting (rape and child murder) and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes. The first episode definitely has way too much shock value (I actually thought it was a Hentai at parts) but it doesn’t seem to be afraid to tackle and depict more graphic themes. Jeanne d’Arc is about the French and English 100 year war in premise but really is a Harem anime with loads of Waifus and is really light hearted and a good watch after Goblin Slayer for sure. So far it seems really cutesy but the main character looks like he’s about to get cucked hard after the first episode so we’ll see how it goes.
Speaking of the Switch there is a Smash Brothers Direct on November 1st. Here’s a little Bingo Card I made with some character predictions! (I’m really excited for it!)
These are the characters I felt were most likely, if at all. Though if I had to pick just one of these to make it it’d probably be the Black Knight. I love me some Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn.
The Thing 2 RPG (v2.6 Update)
Art: Arteaga is working on the new character sprites and character face models for the game. This will likely take a while due to the larger amount of animation frames we are using for the models not to mention the size increase.
Dev: I still haven’t finished the Away Team mechanic, I have to keep pushing it back due to having to go through the game and get new size templates for all the characters and objects. Bigger Characters means bigger environments but I’m trying to make it as less work as possible but obviously some of the larger stuff like Planes and the UFO need not only resizing but having the environments they are situated in partially remade. With the inclusion of CHIBI Mode and some changes to other sprites in the game there is a ton of objects that need swapping out, manually. It’s a nightmare for me! So expect me to be somewhat moody these next few months, I’ve already gone a little crazy.
Planned: There’s so much to do but we are just focusing on the NEW Character Sprites and Faces for now. This will take some time but it should look a lot flashier.
Preview: Below is some of the art in the game for Natalie. You can see we have the New Character Sprite and the Chibi Version. The new sprites will use 9 frames of animation instead of 3 but the Chibi versions will always be available to switch back to on a NewGame. In addition we are updating the character face portraits. Before to save time and money I just used the characters sprite as a display for menus and text boxes. This time around we are going to make dedicated portraits for the characters but we still haven’t decided on a style. Below are 2 samples one is of Natalie from an art scene and the other is a mock up of an 80’s retro style version by Arteaga. Are there any games you’ve played with good portraits? I’d love to know of any good examples we can take inspiration from, I like the portraits in Final Fantasy IX myself.
Natalie is best Waifu
Release: Unfortunately a 2018 release is not possible. If I’m realistic I’d say a Q2 2019 (Spring) release is more likely.
PW
Nothing new to report. We are pulling resources towards The Thing 2 RPG currently. Press F to pay respects.
Wow I can’t believe the site has now served 1,943 ads to users. Thanks to everyone’s support I’ve now earned $0.01! I know it seems like such a small amount but I’m really excited by it :) It’ll probably never even cover the costs of maintaining the Website but it’s a great start, Thank you!
Donations
I am now open to taking Donations and have added a page on my site with more information about what the money (if any) will be used for. If your able to help us out I’d really appreciate it.
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 :)
This probably isn’t good news for most of you but we won’t be able to get the v2.6 update out in 2018. The main reason for this is we are doing a big overhaul with a lot of the art assets in game with the most time consuming ones being the character sprites and the “tiles” (the graphics used to make up the areas in-game). I will say that I never promised a 2018 release but I was aiming for that window but it’s looking like Spring 2019 at this point based on the amount of work Arteaga has left to do for me.
On the plus side the game will look a lot better and I’m aiming for more cohesion between everything in the game. Below is a sample of what you can expect from the new character sprites, you have Natalie (from The Thing 2 RPG) compared to Logan (Our Test Dummy from PW who has been scaled down to match the older engine). The characters proportions will look more realistic and will also be getting face portraits to match. In addition we are increasing the frames of animation, before everyone had 3 frames but now they will have 9 frames making the movement look more fluid than before.
RIP Chibi Style
I hope everyone will understand and I apologize in advance, since we started developing PW I’ve looked back a lot on The Thing 2 RPG and thought it could be so much better. Spending the time to improve the assets now also makes it easier later on if we get the chance to port The Thing 2 RPG to the RPG Maker MV engine as a sort of remaster (although don’t hold your breath on this).
Mac Wants The What? 