SundayShowOut
(REMINDER: Download keys will be sent out Monday, May 4th. If you want to playtest the Beatdown in the Holler prototype, either subscribe or email me at pete@petemakesgames.com.) The prototype is finished, five weeks ahead of schedule. That doesn’t just mean the game is in a playable
SundayShowOut
I reckoned that Monday’s to-do list was going to be a challenge, but not unmanageably so. By Thursday, I’d sketched the map for Beatdown in the Holler’s prototype and had a simple, clean tileset. I was beginning to feel the pressure of not having more done, but
SundayShowOut
Let’s just forget about the unannounced, unplanned week off posting I just took. Oh, you’re not going to forget about it. Fine. Life, as always, is a pot of simmering water, ever threatening to bubble over force us to react. The myriad of bubbles in this case took
SundayShowOut
This is likely going to be shorter than most weekend devlogs. My Saturday was spent traveling and most of my time went with it. I don’t regret the trip, it was necessary and mostly relaxing, but it was a momentum-breaker. I need my free time today to get back
SundayShowOut
First, some clarification. Just Beneath the Holler (JBtH) is the full top-down, 2D Zelda-like game I’m creating. It’ll be a few years before that sees the light of day. In the meantime, I’m making Beatdown in the Holler (BDitH), which is a combat-only, Link to the Past
SundayShowOut
Do you want to talk about what I was able to accomplish this week? Do you want to that? Do you really want to do that? Fine. Let’s do that. I managed to hydrate and rest, so that’s cool. And I felt pretty good most of the week.
SundayShowOut
I’m fortunate that I got so much accomplished at the beginning of the week, because I absolutely did not do anything from Wednesday on. What I initially thought was a general “blah” feeling (hello, depression!) was actually the onset of a cold. I’ve spent the past three days
SundayShowOut
Being iced into the house for most of the week is certainly a boon to productivity, and I made the most of that time to make solid progress on Just Beneath the Holler’s prototype. My objectives for this week were simple, though not easy: make a new tileset, use
SundayShowOut
Last week, I talked about returning to the routine of teaching, implying that routine would carry through the entire semester. Of course, I hadn’t considered the week’s weather outlook, particularly the impending ice storm predicted for the week’s end. It’s currently 30°F (–1.1°C
SundayShowOut
This past week was my first “normal” week back, with a regular class and duty schedule. We had our normal beginning-of-year meetings, and I volunteered as a server for our first community dinner of the semester, so it would have been easy for me to write off this week and
SundayShowOut
My special projects course was a success, although we changed its focus halfway through the first day. We covered a brief history of webcomics and their early themes on Monday morning and spent that afternoon writing a script. The students were far more into creating than studying, so we spent
SundayShowOut
School starts back tomorrow: before we get into our normal classes (for me, that’s general chemistry), we have a week-long special projects course where we can teach any subject we wish, as long as it has an academic component. I chose the early history of webcomics and how that