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We have the best soundtrack in the world!

You can check out some game info and the entire Rorasuketo soundtrack by Michael Chadwick here . It's absolutely divine. When I said I wanted to pay homage to the Super Nintendo games of my youth, he went to town and grabbed some soundfonts from games like Final Fantasy IV, Earthbound, and Battletoads . I am so happy with the results. The battle tracks are head-bangers, and the emotional lows are perfectly bittersweet. I wouldn't change a thing. I've known Mike since the boom days of of LiveJournal  — which is a long time, for the kids following along at home. He's an immensely skilled guitarist and songwriter, and has a really impressive catalog of work . Originally, I was going to write the music myself, but Mike has far more experience. And in creative projects like this, doing everything yourself has the potential to turn out an inbred, constipated piece of art. Collaboration adds depth to the work that you might not have realized before. It lightens the workload....
Recent posts

Getting organized.

It's been brought to my attention that I am incredibly disorganized! So I've been getting intentional about making lists and flow charts to make sure, as the game starts to come together into one long strand, that everything is accounted for. So I started a new document where I laid down the entire story, highlighted by themes and subplots, to make sure the colors were well-spaced, well-represented, and resolved. I say the game is "story-based," and I would like to think I am correct. After doing this particular activity, part of me worries that I'm trying to cram too many subplots into a 4-hour package. Then again, some of them are optional or possibly subtle enough for some of the first beats to fly under the radar. I don't see a ton of replayability in Rorasuketo for the casual player; the explorer type might want to have another go or two to try other friend or story options. So I think it will be good to intertwine a variety of threads! I'm happy to s...

Beach bums.

I'm really happy to show this one off. In general, my visual art tends to be bereft of contrast - I'm afraid of commitment. When I do try to bring in dynamic lighting, it's amateurish from lack of practice. But I think our girls turned out pretty well here.  The most fun part was probably - in fact - the drink.

Sail on in my memory...

Sometimes it's nice to have a friend looking out for you! (Even if they're not perfect in their execution.) There will be a series of images over the end credits. I'm hoping they'll be really special. My work is in an as-needed service, so there is usually some degree of downtime waiting for something to happen. It's hard to say what a day will bring. Busy? Slow? There are guesses, but no guarantees. So I theoretically have time to make progress on  Rora  at work - but I prefer to do art instead of hashing out the actual gameplay. I feel like if I'm interrupted in the middle of programming and spend an hour or two away on another task, I'll forget what I was doing. As it stands, there's a few pieces of art left to do. So this is a fine use of my time. I'm trying to make something really magical happen, and it's a 99.99% chance it won't come to fruition. But if that 0.01% chance comes around, I will literally cry with happiness. That's all...

Arrow minigame!

I spent way too long banging my head against the wall yesterday, trying to figure out why the game wasn't receiving button inputs, only to find out that I had a switch turning on and off while an NPC was moving in the background. I can't remember what it was I was trying to do when I originally placed that NPC on the map. Did that switch do something originally, and why did I change it to do something else later? Do I have a switch doing double duty somewhere else? And that's why you need to keep your switches organized, kids. Anyway, I'm channeling a little Dance Dance Revolution with my arrows here, which I have no qualms about. You're not an ordinary fella!     I'm contemplating doing another webcast soon to keep me accountable. Summer is rocketing along and I need to tap these days to the maximum.

Little surfer girl.

    I once had a teammate who was a jorts enthusiast, so I figured I needed at least one enemy sprite sporting a pair. ("There are dozens of us!") This particular skater is from our west coast team as well, so I thought I'd have her doing a bit of a surfing pose. I enjoyed working the colors and lighting on this one!

The skate queen.

 Just a little enemy sprite to keep things rolling. I could never "open up" and skate with my feet at 180 degrees. This is one spry derby girl!

A slow crawl.

It's been a minute. First it was D&D, then it was finals, then it was an art project that sprung from a divinely fertile fount that could not be ignored, then it was moving house, and now it's a  very  intense botany course where I need to know 175 specimens in the span of 3 weeks. Someday, things will calm down. But for now... Rosaceae! Apiaceae! Brassicaceae! Rorasuketo is on the back burner, but it's still alive, and I still plan on finishing it this year. More TBA.