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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....
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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!
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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!
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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.
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Buds and blooms.

Finals week is right around the corner, and while this humble scholar has an optimistic lookout for April (go on! ask me about glycolysis!), the first few weeks of May could be complicated. A common pitfall for new college students is not recognizing that most summer classes run at an accelerated rate. Having been around the block a few times, I signed up for a 3-credit summer course expecting the accelerated six weeks, only to discover it is  double- accelerated. That's one college credit per  week . It's a plant identification course, so I assume it's timed this way for maximum efficiency in the field. I predict I will exit May either loving plants or despising them. Winter vacation is when I historically do most of my work for  Rora , with spring break in second, and summer is a bit of a wild card. My official goal is to finish the game by the end of this year, but my unofficial goal is to finish it by the end of the summer. With beta testing and all that, we'll s...
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New area: Cemetery.

It has been a strange week. There was a death in my family, and it's a complicated one, so loss is on my mind. There is a sort of "empty chair" exercise at the front end of the game where you have the opportunity to talk to someone who has hurt you. Now that the person I envisioned in that exercise is gone, I decided to tag a graveyard on the back end so the player can speak to someone they've lost - whether it's someone with whom they had a good or not-so-good relationship. I'm all about the catharsis. I've considered both a setting from my childhood and a graveyard for other projects - but added them to  Rorasuketo . Maybe I will get around to those other projects someday, but the areas are nice to have in here, too, just in case they don't manifest otherwise. I've been canvassing my city, and one of the themes I'm advertising is that it's a game about mental health recovery. There are times I've wondered if that's a good idea. I ...
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New display at Bardertown Video!

 We have been busy doing this weird thing they call "promotion," and our friends at Bardertown Video are helping us out. We've got a display right at the checkout counter! We love Bardertown. Where else in Grand Rapids can you rent VHS tapes? They are also passionate about supporting local artists like yours truly. Totally give them a visit at the corner of Byron Center and Porter in Wyoming, MI. Look for Suite K. Grab yourself a Rorasuketo 3 by 5 and treasure it forever! Then rent or buy some videos.
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Check me out on Hacking the Grepson!

Cam here! I was interviewed by Matt and Mike of the Hacking the Grepson podcast. They're two hoopy froods who know where their towels are, and do a lot of programming - and a lot of talking about it! They have well over 100 episodes you can listen to. So go check them out! I even got a special version of the intro song in Super Nintendo soundfonts! It was so fun and cool to do a podcast, especially with these fine gents. Some of the things we talked about were: The process of starting and finishing projects, and the "juicy" in-between How roller derby is played My experience with coding The importance of limitations in the creative process What I use to make the game portion of  Rorasuketo,  as well as the art I give a lot of unsolicited advice Thanks so much for having me on the show! And tonight is the night for the big webcast ! Join the chat at 8 pm E/5 pm P/midnight GMT to ask questions of Cam, Mike, and Tiffany, and see how  Rorasuketo  is made. We'll be takin...
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