Wow, is the quarter already coming to a close? This year is definitely a busier one than the last, but I’ve still managed to get some work on projects in here and there.
What’s here: A Dream of Valhalla
A Dream of Valhalla (or just Valhalla for short) is my entry to Magical Girl Game Jam 3. It was originally intended as a mechanics demo for Shattered 2, but scope crept a bit into a complete if short and confusing game. It combines intense sword-and-magic combat with a science fantasy setting… and a lot of janky development shortcuts. The plot is kind of confusing and it’s loaded with references few seemed to get, but that was mostly besides the point.
I hadn’t really planned on doing MGGJ3 because of time constraints, but in the end I couldn’t resist. All the mechanics I built for Valhalla will end up in Shattered 2, and some of the assets will probably make the jump, too. It’s a little cheap to double-dip like this, but it was the only way I was able to justify spending what limited time I had one the jam.
Valhalla isn’t my strongest jam entry but it turned out surprisingly well given how much I rushed parts of it.
What’s coming: Shattered 2
Shattered 2 – The Promise is the (long-awaited?) sequel to my first Magical Girl Game Jam entry, Shattered – Why Not Me. Like Shattered, it’s definitely more medieval fantasy than mahou shoujo (if you’re curious about why, read my Shattered devlogs for a lark). The story will be a bit darker this time as well, and has already been teased a bit in Valhalla.
The gameplay, too, has been teased in Valhalla. Combat will be intense first person swords and magic. Shattered 2 will add some progression which Valhalla didn’t have, and that will probably result in quite a bit of balance tweaking. The big shift from either Shattered or Valhalla will be in openness- Shattered 2 will be build around a freely roamable world like an RPG and will decently sized dungeons with exploration.
Shattered 2 was originally planned to be the game of 2021, but is now slated for a spring/summer release.
What’s not coming: newip
A while back, I posted a tweet announcing the death of newip with absolutely zero context given. I don’t want to call it permanently abandoned, but at this point I don’t think 2021 will be the year of newip despite my earlier promises.
I don’t like leaving things stuck in development hell but newip is almost becoming a minor meme at this point.
What’s coming later: Project Takagi
Project Takagi is something I’ve mentioned here and there as my next project after Shattered 2. At this point I am ready to reveal a few things:
- It is a game
- It’s a Christmas-themed project
- It has Magical Girl Gina in it
- Its plot will be very familiar to some
Feel free to speculate, more details will start to trickle out after Shattered 2.
Odds and ends
The archive site is finally up… sort of. This is a consolidated archive of all the games, mods, assets, and other stuff. Right now it’s just a MediaFire folder, which is a stopgap solution that will remain in place for a year or two until I can figure out something more robust. At this point I have most of my stuff uploaded, but there are a few versions missing here and there and I still haven’t made a decision on whether videos will also be in the archive.
Speaking of assets, I’m planning on release a few more packs alongside Shattered 2 and Project Takagi. I’ve also been poking through my backlog and there might be some other stuff to go up as well.
CommonCore 3.x Citadel is coming along and is now on its third preview release. It’s mostly gameplay features and QoL, a lot of it specifically added for Shattered 2 and Takagi.
I’m planning to do Inktober again this year, and it will be as janky as ever.
SBIG Jam 2021 has been announced and I’ve already joined. My entry this year will not be as crazy as RiftBreak; I’m going to go for something shorter, smaller, and less complex for mostly pragmatic reasons.
There are rumblings of Magical Girl Game Jam 4 as well. I don’t think I’ll join that one, but I said that about MGGJ3 and ended up making Valhalla, so we’ll see.
Still planning to make the same minor enhancements to this site that I didn’t do last year or the year before.
Last, and maybe least, I do have an April 1 project in the pipeline, so stay tuned for that!