Dev-Diary: 77

July 1, 2020
2 min read

Hey y’all, hope everyone is staying safe!

This month has been transitional slowly back into my regular work-load, however while still juggling different projects. I’ve made some head-way on M.I.S., getting some more UI art done and continuing work on the updated menus and new mechanics, while also continuing with some video commissions for Lab Muffin Beauty Science! Hopefully over the next month will continue to see increasing productivity in both endeavours.

I’ll be returning to posting my monthly O.P.O.S. this month as well. ‘Isolation’, a social conversation and deception game, will be moving from Ko-Fi to itch.io [Available Here], and a new game, ‘The Gang Does A Ritual’ will be uploaded into Ko-Fi [Available Here]! Ritual is an interesting game where I tried to merge ‘Werewolf’ with a personal favourite of mine, ‘Betrayal At House On The Hill’ resulting in a social deception, role-play, exploration game. While adhering the the exercise’s guidelines, the rules page is a single page, but it also comes with a few pages of printable tokens/cards. The game is fast-paced with constant twists and turns; if I wasn’t already working on other projects I would probably put the effort into actually publishing it haha! But alas, it will sit behind a paywall for one month before being freely released.

Another small update, with the Internet in Australia *slowly* improving, I’ve started working on plans to do Twitch streaming, focusing on doing challenge runs/speedruns of old favourites. I’ll be continuing to post about it as that develops, but it isn’t at the top of my list right now~

That’s it from me for this month. All the best to everyone fighting hard, and I hope everybody is staying safe~ <3
Till next time, all the best!
^,,^

Dev-Diary: 76

June 2, 2020
2 min read

Hello all. This one will be different.

Firstly, I haven’t been posting as frequently; once a month as opposed to fortnightly. This is two-fold, partly due to adjusting to new work-loads (working on the video editing mentioned in the last post) as well as managing myself and my work capacity, particularly during these difficult times. This is also why my work output has slowed down and I have not updated the CYO Adventure in about a month; I am trying to ensure I do not start engaging in burn-out again as I had previously. Hopefully over the next few months, my work output will return to normal along with a more careful accompanying workflow.

This isn’t to say I have not done any work of course! I have fully implemented a new “emailing” system into M.I.S.. I noticed the in-game chat-log was not the most ideal method for story-telling as it rolled out at quite a fast pace. The new emailing system allows me to deliver story updates, as well as background quirks, in a more detailed manner that the player can approach in their own time. I have also been doing my regular dabbling in various small, non-committal projects to keep my mind creative and sharp.

Additionally, this month I will be taking a break from releasing my monthly One Page One Shot, with the current OPOS remaining at ko-fi for another month, as opposed to uploading it to itch.io. While I do have the next OPOS ready for upload, I do not believe now is the time to be releasing entertainment content. Even with the Covid predicament still very much an issue, the recent uprising to give voice and equality to those in America is incredibly important and one that I believe deserves dominance in online spaces right now.

For everyone fighting everywhere, whether outside or at home, please stay safe and care for one-another. Hopefully, after the dust has settled, we will have won a new system that supports all people, both overseas and here in Australia as well.

Till next time, all the best.
#blacklivesmatter
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Dev-Diary: 75

May 5, 2020
3 min read

Hey everyone! Hope you are all safe and caring during this time!

Sorry about the delay, as well as the missed mid-month post. The combination of commissions, projects, and the global situation have all been rather intense lately. As such, I’ve been actively trying to reduce my work-load and take things slower. During this time, I’ve heard a lot of talk of people “needing to achieve new goals” or “learn new skills” or “take care of old business” while we are all locked-down. For some this is a fantastic way to self-develop while also distracting from the world outside, and I wholly support those who use their time productively! However, it should be stressed that, even if you are safe or even comfortable, the tension of the world is still real. Now, more than ever, is when we should be taking care of both ourselves, and one-another.

At the start of the year, I tried to push myself quite hard, taking on new mini-projects, opening up to commissions, and continuing my game work. When the added stress of the pandemic slid-in, it became very difficult to mentally keep up. Fortunately, I’ve managed to complete most of my commissions, and slow down my extra mini-projects a bit, specifically the CYO Adventure, from bi-daily to weekly. I’ve also been taking it slower with the progress on Management IN SPACE! and allowing the correct time to make both the recent adjustments to the core game, as well as continue the scheduled progress. M.I.S. was originally looking at a mid-year release, however I will be pushing it back to later in the year for now to better accommodate the situation, and so that I can do it proper justice. 🙂

Additionally, I have also been fortunate enough to pick up some casual video editing work (Fun-Tip: I studied film at university and I’m actually not too bad haha~) doing the editing for Lab Muffin Beauty Science! It’s infrequent enough to be able to slot it in among my other work, and different enough from my other work to be a good, yet still productive, distraction.

As with every month, I’ve cycled the One-Page-One-Shot games around! This month the new game on my [Ko-Fi] page is ‘Isolation’; a very fast social-deception game about figuring out who is sick, and distancing yourselves! The previous OPOS, “Secret Space” is now freely available over at itch.io, link [Here]!

Thank-you everyone for your continuing support! I hope you are all staying safe, looking after yourselves and others. Till next time, all the best~!
^,,^

Dev-Diary: 74

April 1, 2020
2 min read

Hello all! I hope everyone is staying safe~!

Wow March was tense! Lot’s of stress. But I got stuff done! I spent a bundle of time working on commissions; plenty of modelling, texturing, and Unity work! It’s pretty much never-ending, so I’m gonna have to manage my time better so I don’t get distracted from my project.

I did manage to finish up the general Xeno art however! From here I’m going to do a big art import into the game, and start working on the new story updates I have planned! Hopefully I’ll be able to pull this off in-between commissions over the next couple of weeks.

As with the beginning of every month, the One-Page-One-Shots have cycled around! The new OPOS has been posted to my Ko-Fi pages, and ‘One Night With Senpai’ is now publicly available over at itch.io! It’s a fun and fast social deception game about dating your friends! Super cute!

Something new! With everyone indoors I’ve been working on (another) little extra project. A while back I saw a choose-your-own-adventure style story playing out over Facebook, and I decided to try my hand at it! I figure since a lot of people, including myself, now must spend copious amounts of time indoors, why not give everyone something to look forward to every couple of days! Plus I really enjoy writing, and this is a fun improv-exercise~ If you’d like to check-out the story for yourself, just follow this link over to my Facebook page! [Link] There are currently four ‘chapters’ out so-far! At the end, I will publish the archive here on my website.

That’s all from me! Just going to go back to work now! I hope everyone is staying indoors, practicing good hygiene, and being kind to one-another! Until next time, all the best~!
^,,^

Dev-Diary: 73

March 18, 2020
1 min read

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay!

March has been a real cluster of different work for me! I’ve managed to continue my art production for Management IN SPACE!! with a batch of Xeno art, which is nearly complete now! One or two more and I’ll have the majority of standard ship assets completed, which are among the common sights in the game! Here is one of the assets that I’m quite happy with, one of the Xeno creatures!

Alien Screenshot

Additionally I’ve been continuing my work with commissions! It’s nice to be able to make a little bit of extra money for my work, and I’m getting in some fantastic practice with 3D modelling, texturing and materially, and scene building as a whole! Here’s a screenshot of something I’ve been working on for a client!

Commission Screenshot

As always, thank you very much and, especially with the situation in the world right now, till next time all the best~!
^,,^

Dev-Diary: 72

March 2, 2020
2 min read

Hey everyone!

The past couple of weeks I have been powering through commissions; focusing on a lot of 3D modelling, texture editing, and world-building in Unity. While I was still able to get some M.I.S. work done, commissions took up most of my working hours, so as a slight change of pace I’m going to show off my modelling work! When I first started out 3D modelling I showed off some of my pieces; they were simple, but I was quite proud of my work. While I am far from a professional level, I have come quite a long way and am very happy with my progress! Below you will see shots from two commissions that are currently in-progress.

  • 3D Manor.
  • Gazebo in a Forest.

I have been able to continue working on M.I.S. of course, continuing with the art assets. I’ve also been planning a change to the main story, making it both more obvious and more appealing, in response to some of the tester feedback.

As part of my year-long challenge, I will continue to upload One-Page-One-Shots every month! The first O.P.O.S. has just left my Ko-Fi page and has been publicly uploaded over at itch.io, so go check it out with the following link:

https://silverstitch.itch.io/zombocraft

The new O.P.O.S. has been uploaded and is available to subscribers/donors via my Ko-Fi page. The game is called ‘One Night With Senpai’; a social deception game/dating simulator game to play with your friends!

That’s it from me for now, I’m going to jump back into work so, till next time, all the best~!
^,,^

Dev-Diary: 71

February 17, 2020
1 min read

Hey all!

So the past two weeks have been just a standard jumble of work and productivity. As far as M.I.S. is concerned, I’ve mostly just been working on art; I now have over 100 different ship assets for the all the different entities you encounter in your sector, and I’ve started importing and connecting them to their respective ships. Hopefully sometime this month I will have most of the base entities (so non-mission entities) connected to artwork, and maybe also some more of the station modules as well!

I’ve also been working on my other work and commissions, particularly 3D modelling. Down the line I may show-off some of the assets I’ve been working on, and possibly even upload some asset packs somewhere!

I’m gonna jump back into my work now, so I’ll share with you one of the ships that gave me a lot of trouble and had to go through several revisions and many hours; the Pirate leader and the first boss in the game, the Galactic Dragoon!

Space Ship

Till next time, all the best~!
^,,^

Dev-Diary: 70

February 1, 2020
3 min read

Happy 2020 everyone! ^,,^

I’ve started the new year with a different twist, trying to re-organise myself and my endeavors. I’ve been doing some work on some commissions, both in audio and 3D modelling (which I have had a lot of practice with lately~)! I’ve also been working on a new direction for SilStiPro; as anyone who has been following me may know, I usually work on large-scale projects. Even when I intend to work on smaller projects, I still end up putting in the extra effort to make them a worthwhile experience, and they get quite big! I definitely don’t regret this, I love making big things that people love! But unfortunately it also means my income is quite low, as it takes so long to release anything or I just release smaller projects for free.

In an attempt to fix this issue, I have dedicated myself to a little side-project. For the next 12 months (Feb2020 – Feb2021) I will be releasing ‘One-Page-One-Shots’ that I have designed! An OPOS is a pen-and-paper role-play game, usually with dice-rolling and conversation, but all the rules are written up on a single piece of paper! They are designed to be fast (few minutes to a couple of hours) and simple to pick-up, and to be played with a handful of people, occasionally with a host guiding the game. I’ve already been working on a few in my spare time, writing and testing them, and they have been well received!

Each OPOS will be released on the 1st of every month (which means there is one available RIGHT NOW!), however they will be released behind a donation/subscription paywall, which I am running through Ko-Fi. This is intended to be perk for people that have spare money who wish to contribute to and support me; if you like my work you get a little bonus while you wait for me to release my bigger projects! But don’t worry, because after a month I will release the OPOS to the world for free via Itchio, so that everyone can enjoy them! There may also be additional benefits to donors/subscribers, such as credits in future games, but we shall see~

Aside from that, I’ve had the latest version of ‘Management IN SPACE!!’ out for testing for a little while now, and I am very happy with all the feedback! I’m going to continue to dedicate myself to working on MIS, focusing on getting the artwork done, filling in more early and mid content, and patching out bugs and what-not! At the moment I guesstimate a mid-2020 release. 🙂

If you would like to donate to my Ko-Fi, follow the link below, or press the Donate button on the side panel! Only donate if you have spare money, always ensure you have enough money to support yourself first!! <3

That’s it for me now! Going back to regular twice-a-month posts, so until next time, all the best~! ^,,^

Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/silsti

Dev-Diary: 69

December 16, 2019
2 min read

Hello!

So since the last update, I’ve been focused on a couple of things. The first, and biggest, is a tutorial! It took some time and effort, but I managed to get a fully-fledged tutorial all set-up! While skippable, the game directs new players into the tutorial first and walks them through the basics on navigation and game mechanics. M.I.S. has a LOT of freedom in what you can do, and there is quite a bit of information to take in constantly, so having a tutorial to help ease new players in was something requested by a lot of testers. Fingers crossed it not only helps new players, but also works consistently!

I’ve also been working on new information panels and other small aesthetic updates. The Station screen now also shows you information about your shield and repair recharge times, as well as which modules your repair functions are operating on. Another, less useful, visual update is intentional visual artifacts! As your station gets ripped apart by Xenos, your screens will slowly fill up with pixel-line cracks. The obstruction is minimal, unless you’re about to completely collapse, but it’s enough to be very slightly annoying, and to show you that you better hurry up and fix things!

I’ve also made a solid handful of balancing tweaks and other bug fixes. The base difficulty has been reduced slightly, and random events are tighter and more accurate to your difficulty level; no more having entire armies spawn on you within the first 15 minutes of gameplay! I’ve still got a number of issues I need to address that have been brought up by testers, but I’m working through them. 🙂

As almost every year, December is a very hectic time for both myself and my family, so I’ve been jumping between project work and personal work a lot more over the past few weeks. As always, I may or may not have an update at the start of the new year, but I will be back at some point in January!

As for my testers, I should have the next stable build up sometime over the next few days! I just want to check a few more bugs out.

And as for everyone, thank you for listening to me ramble for another year! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, and as always, all the best~!
^,,^

Dev-Diary: 68

December 2, 2019
3 min read

Hey everyone!

So these past two weeks have been interesting. I started closed testing recently, which immediately opened up a world of new bugs, but more importantly a lot of balancing issues. I’ve been a lot less focused on coding, and more focused on guiding the testing, as well as starting back up on art assets. I’ve continued work on doing the ship and module visuals (of which there are many of) as well as the overlay visuals. Below here, you can see what I mean by ‘overlay’; small icons and other visuals to assist in the presentation of information. I’m trying to diversify and simplify the information you receive on your screens, while also maintaining the core aesthetic.

Testing has revealed a few things to me, one of which is balancing; some events are randomly scaled too high and some boss-entities are too tough for when you fight them. This is fantastic feedback and is something that will be balanced out to hopefully have a smoother experience without sacrificing too much challenge. Another dominant request has been to include a tutorial; the nature of the game unfortunately means there is a lot the player is in control of and a simple ‘game-manual’ does not seem to be enough for some people, understandably so. Unfortunately, from the perspective of the developer, I have a rather detailed knowledge of how everything should go, but processes and mechanics will almost certainly not come as naturally to most players. I try to account for this as much as possible, but without actual player’s opinions I can’t know for sure where I am lacking. I had originally considered the idea of a tutorial a few months ago though had shelved it because I wasn’t sure how to implement it. However, a recent update I did which allowed the player to select different starting stations, and the update I did to the event system, may now allow a simple way to approach this. Oh yeah! Also I did an update where you can now unlock and play as different stations, each with pros, cons, and differing strategies!

Currently, my two main up-coming goals are to get a tutorial established and to set-up all the new overlay icons, as well as a handful of smaller patches and updates. There are numerous bugs which need to be tackled!

That’s it from me for now. Till next time, all the best~!
^,,^