When I went to write this blog I had completely forgotten I had written the previous blog entry. It's crazy to think that here we are 2.5 years later and I'm actually doing something with the rpg concept, even if it is slightly different than originally conceived. It just goes to show how my ideas keep rattling around in my brain forever even if I'm not actively doing anything with them.
Not that those plans are necessarily canceled, this could just be prelude to a bigger rpg project I make in the future. The world and mechanics are somewhat what I had originally planned but the gameplay of Skills Go Up (working title) is much faster paced than the rpg I was thinking about in 2024. Skills Go Up is the lite version, essentially. The RuneScape League to the original ideas RuneScape. This blog comes at a bit of an awkward time, because I've already uploaded 10 devlogs to my dev youtube channel and will continue to upload more.
So going over the basics feels a bit redundant and we're far enough along in the project that I already don't remember every decision I made a month ago. Here is the playlist if you'd like a watch. But that said, not everything makes sense in a devlog video and I've always wanted to maintain this blog more regularly. So here we are.
Skills Go Up is a massive project for me. And I haven't been this motivated to work on a project in years, if ever. Sure back in college I spent a ton of time programming but I was still spending a lot of time gaming and watching stuff too. I haven't played a game for non-dev related reasons in over a month now and I've only watched a couple movies and episodes of shows. Mostly I just play YouTube videos when doing dev stuff that doesn't require as much concentration. Or I'll work on other projects, I've revived Craftamari, updated websites and even learned how to make an android app (more on that soon).
The best thing though is that the engine I'm building for Skills Go Up is being designed to be useful beyond just Skills Go Up, if I do make the original 2024 game it will be built on this engine. If I ever finish Pyco Mundi, I anticipate it to use the overworld map engine from Skills Go Up. I designed a generic, external level editor for specifically that purpose. So my motivation to finally finish a game is being combined with the motivation to have an engine that can be used for so many other things in the future if all goes well.
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It's no secret that I am really good at starting new projects and really bad at ever finishing them. With that said, the idea of me making a 2d single player Elder Scrolls/RuneScape style RPG world is not a new idea. The exact details of that world have gone through many iterations over the year but the basic goal and gameplay behind the idea is always the same.
At one point in time it was called Korbis, at another point in time it was Pyco Mundi: Paragon set in the past of the Pyco Mundi universe. But now I have a new plan: Instead of being completely original or completely Pyco Mundi it will be what you might expect an RPG created by people living in Pyco Mundi to make. So it will have standard fantasy and animal races/monsters but instead of just fighting a wolf or a bear maybe you also run into various Pycotrophs. The key difference is I won't be locked into following Pyco Mundi universe lore or the consequences of a lore-accurate game where humans and Pycotrophs fight with each other for survival. I would also like to treat it as a live game, so new updates would come out on a regular basis to continue the world building and questlines.
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To celebrate halloween this year I have decided to spend some time brainstorming "spooky" ideas for Pyco Mundi to help flesh out parts of the games that have had very little thought put into them thus far. I figure this might be an interesting look into how I design content because this blog is basically how I write down all my ideas in various text files.
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Last Wednesday I officially started my new hobby of closed terrariums! Although it's not truly a closed terrarium yet because I keep opening it to let out humidity.
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Recently I found myself ordering food online instead of exclusively shopping at local supermarkets. For the most part it has been a disappointment with hard to navigate websites and bad pricing/selection. However, when I saw Starburst branded yoplait yogurt I knew I had to buy it. I'm not a big yogurt person, outside of gogurt and a few very specific types of yogurt I've not really had any since I was a little kid. But I've always held the opinion that candies like Skittles, Starburst and Jolly Rancher would be great flavors for things like soda and etc.
So the flavors I got were Cherry, Strawberry and Orange which also happen to be my favorite flavors of Starburst (the lemon ones are meh!) Due to unforeseen circumstances (I foolishly assumed they would all expire around the same time) the strawberry one expired 20 days ago and I'm not going to try it. Let's get into it.
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The overly long backstory: So recently I've been watching a lot of random animal videos on YouTube. The algorithm over the past couple years is determined to slowly push me further and further from my cat video roots. I watched a video on domesticated silver foxes, which is an experiment that always interested me. This got me thinking about what animals I might try to domesticate if I was rich enough to hire people to help. There's a lot of obvious choices in mammals but then I got thinking about what non-mammals might be viable. Then I got to thinking about the pill bugs (isopods) I used to catch and occasionally keep as pets when I was a kid. What if you could breed them to be bigger and easier to care for? The isopods that live in my area are nowhere near the maximum size for wild isopods but they are easier to care for than a lot of the largest terrestrial species.
It was at this point a couple weeks ago that I noticed terrarium videos being recommended to me, specifically closed terrariums that can be sealed air tight for years and still survive. Hmm... time to start planning...
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The lead up and release of this movie sure was a roller coaster. When it was first announced. I fully expected it would be a slightly subpar kids movie in the same vein as Angry Birds or Alvin and the Chipmunks. Then the design was revealed and my expectations dropped further. I wasn't going to see the movie at that point just on principle. Luckily, they were willing to accept the overwhelming feedback and actually fix the movies poor design decisions which put me back to square one. Then the trailer came out and honestly I didn't like it very much, it pretty much confirmed in my mind that the movie would likely not be worth watching in theatres. I kept some small sliver of hope though and that hope came through as the first opinions started rolling in on release night. At first I was skeptical but quite a few "influencers" I like all voiced the opinion that it was either good or great.
So I decided to watch the movie with my family today and I was actully looking forward to it. Let's quit beating around the bush and enter extreme spoiler/nitpick territory now.
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